Never Naughty Enough

Annabelle whipped her head toward Jeff. “What?”

“I can’t back away from that kind of challenge,” Mike said.

Annabelle reached for a lock of hair and twisted it around her finger. Twisting—a return of a bad habit. Normally, she wore her hair up in a tidy and simple bun, but Katie had insisted Annabelle’s brown locks had to “cascade” down her back. She hated how unruly her curls must appear.

“You ready?” Mike asked, draping an arm around her shoulders.

Her hair issues appeared not to daunt Mike; he had a point to make. After spouting off, she couldn’t very well say no now. It would be fun to prove them wrong. Besides, what could letting him try to put her under hurt? It wouldn’t work and Katie would owe her. Big time. Crossing her arms over her chest, she sighed. “Lead the way.”

She’d learned all the cons, scams and sleights of hand at the knee of a pro—her dad. Mike’s brand of backroom hypnosis didn’t stand a chance.

Mike laughed, then cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hey, Heather, can we use your old roommate’s room?”

Annabelle winced as all eyes in the room turned her way.

“No one’s in the back bedroom. We can have a little privacy there,” Mike told her.

Heather raised one arched eyebrow. “What are you going to do back there?”

“Nothing wicked,” he assured. “A challenge. Annabelle here doesn’t think I can put her under hypnosis.”

“Sounds like fun, and seeing Annabelle put under…this I’ve got to see. Come on, Kelli. I can show you the bedroom while we’re in there and you can see if you think it will be big enough for your drafting board.”

Good to know Heather could multitask—throw a coasterless party with ease, aid and abet a delusional male in the name of fun, all while brokering her next potential roommate.

Jeff led the growing group down the narrow hallway. He opened the door and they all filed into the nearly empty bedroom. Only a desk, lamp, chair and bare mattress, angled against the wall, remained.

“Shelley’s going to pick up her desk and lamp tomorrow, but the mattress you can use since she and her fiancé are getting a queen-size bed,” Heather announced.

“Ladies, please. We need to create an ambience.”

Heather laughed. “Whatever. I used to date you, Mike—I know all about your, uh, ambiences.”

Mike closed the door behind the last person, positioned the desk chair in the middle of the room and gestured to Annabelle that she should sit down, which she did. He flipped on the beat-up banker’s lamp. “Hey, someone switch off the overhead lights.”

One of the women giggled when darkness flooded the room. “Why do I feel like we’re in for a session of light as a feather, stiff as a board?” Katie whispered.

“Oh, hey, I remember that game.”

Memories of late nights, bowls of M&M’s and bras in the freezer filled Annabelle’s memory. “That game we used to play at slumber parties? We could never get it to work on me. Just don’t let anyone put my hand in a bowl of warm water.”

Katie laughed.

Mike cleared his throat. “It’ll need to be quiet to pull this off. Okay, Annabelle, you’re getting very sleepy.”

She chuckled. “Oh, please. Can you come up with a line a little more original than that?”

Mike rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. “Just work with me. Close your eyes and clear your mind. Forget about everyone in the room.”

She exhaled sharply, but closed her eyes. The sooner he tried to hypnotize her and failed, the sooner she could go home and sink into a warm mountain of bubbles in her bathtub.

“Go back in your memory. Search it for a time when you were at your most relaxed.”

She opened one eye. “I’m never relaxed.”

“It’s true. I’ve never seen her relaxed,” Katie said.

“Okay, then a favorite memory.” Mike made a hand motion to indicate she needed to close both her eyes.

Favorite memory? Now, that was easy. That would have to be the time when she’d worked late with Wagner and fallen asleep on the soft leather couch in his office. He’d woken her up with the smell of fresh coffee under her nose. She’d opened her eyes and nearly fell into his deep blue ones, so much more alluring without his glasses. His eyes had darted to her mouth.

For one heart-stopping moment, she’d thought he might kiss her.

“Have you got one?” Mike asked, his voice slowly swimming toward her.

It took her a moment to answer. “Yes.” Her voice sounded heavy and slurred. Why was she having so much trouble saying only one word?

“Good. Now keep thinking of that time. Concentrate on the good feelings that memory brings to you. Let everything else fall into the background but those feelings and my voice.”

“Yes. Background. Coffee,” Annabelle repeated. She swayed a bit in her chair. Through the fog of memory, she felt a hand on her shoulder, steadying her.

“Maybe you should stop, Mike.”

Was that Katie’s voice? Weird. She sounded upset. What was she doing in Wagner’s office? The voice faded. Annabelle must have made a mistake. The scent of Wagner’s cologne filled her senses and she felt the delicious sensation of anticipation as his lips almost touched hers. She arched forward, closer to—

“What should we do?” Heather whispered.

“We should give her a suggestion. What does she need? Does she have any bad habits?” Mike asked.

Annabelle fought through a haze of vaporous words and ever-dimming darkness. Who was talking? No one was in the office with them. It must be a client outside the door. Back to Wagner…

“What she needs is to forget about work once in a while. Take a day off.”

“Great. You’ll be spontaneous.” The words, spoken next to her ear, made no sense. She squeezed her shut eyes tighter. Annabelle didn’t want talking, she wanted to return to her beautiful memory. Couch. The smell of coffee.

“You’ll crave marshmallows.” Marshmallows for coffee? Annabelle thought Kelli, Heather’s possible roommate, sure had some weird ideas.

“You’ll be a sex fiend,” someone blurted.

Katie gasped. “Oh, Jeff. Take that one back.”

“What’s the difference? This isn’t working anyway.”

“Yes, it is. Look at her.” Was that Mike?

“Just change it,” Katie told him, her voice growing more and more concerned.

What a weird dream.