On the Line

by Donna Hill

  Labor Day in Palm Springs was hot. And so was Harmony. Standing by the pool, fitted snugly into the red Playboy bunny costume that’d been tailored to ride her curves, she received a lot of attention. Too much for someone in particular—the host whose party she was unknowingly crashing. Against her better judgment, and because she was moving, she’d agreed to attend the masquerade party with Alicia at the vacation home. In two days, New York City would be her new home and Los Angeles would be behind her, and she wanted one last Cali outing with her family no matter how twisted Alicia was.

  Bikinis. Swimming trunks. Costumes. Braids and fades whizzed by her as the other party attendees celebrated the holiday. But not Harmony. She was at the function but wasn’t a part of it. She’d gone with hopes of enjoying herself but didn’t know anyone there except Alicia, and she’d disappeared. And Harmony wasn’t exactly harmonious about dealing with people she didn’t know. On tiptoe, she snaked her neck trying to make out Alicia through the crowd. She was ready to go back to their hotel but Alicia had the car keys.

  “What’s up, baby?” Riz stood, greeted her like they’d never separated.

  Harmony grinned. “You.”

  Riz gripped her in a hug, spun her around. Admired her openly. “Is that right? Like that? Damn you look good—” he whirled her again “—damn near naked, Harmony? I can’t let you get outta my sight. Not like this.” He sat, patted his leg and pulled her down onto his lap.

  Harmony sat sideways on him like he was her throne. She knew his pulling her onto his lap was as big a move for him as it was for her. And a loud warning to any man watching. Riz was private. He didn’t do public displays. Neither did she.

  She was just as happy to see him. Tracing her finger on his collar, she looked intently into his eyes, then shifted her weight until she was leaning on his shoulder. Harmony was getting comfortable with him again. “What’re you doing here?”

  Riz winked. Patted her thighs. “Come on, now. You’re at my party.”

  Harmony reared back her head. “Your party?”

  Riz nodded. “How you think I knew you were here? And what’re you doing going to parties anyway—without me? You don’t go out.”

  Harmony winked. Caught women in her peripheral staring at Riz. “Things change.”

  Riz ran his fingers up the back of her neck, tangled them in her hair. Gripped familiarly. “But the game remains the same.”

  A few mai tais later and Harmony latched on to Riz. Let go of her insecurities, her wanting him to want her first. All resistance flew. Her soft touch turned strong as she grabbed his collar, held on to him. Owned him. Became possessive and competitive when some other women didn’t take the hint or their eyes off him.

  He patted her leg again. “I’ll be right back, baby,” he said, gently removing her from his lap.

  Harmony watched him disappear into the vacation home, slipped out of her stilettos. Decided she’d be right back, too, while she followed him.

  He went into the bathroom.

  So did she. “You forgot to lock the door,” she said, locking it behind her.

  Riz looked at her.

  She gazed at him, eyes glazed but not because of the alcohol. From the heat. Her hotness. “Now,” was all she uttered, grabbing Riz again. Yanking him by his shirt until his body met hers. His lips. Hardness. Hands in her hair. On her face. Covering her breasts and massaging between her legs set her ablaze. Melted her sweet spot until he’d honeyed her.

  Her Playboy bunny costume was now a puddle on the floor. Naked, Harmony followed it, dropped to her knees. Took Riz’s swimming shorts down with her. She paused, stared at his package. Riz was very gifted, and she couldn’t wait to wrap his large present with her heat. She kissed what she’d been yearning for. Her tongue flickered, tasted his molasses. “Look at me,” she demanded, then savored his warm chocolate in her mouth until he was ready to melt, too.

  “Wait,” he warned, then got down on his knees. Laid her on the floor. Grabbed her ankles. Positioned one to the east shoulder, the other he pointed west, then moved his mouth toward her equator.

  “No.” Harmony stopped him. “I want you inside me. Please let me feel you.”

  “You sure?” he asked from between her legs.

  Harmony grabbed his shoulders, guided him up. “Yes.”

  “But I want to taste you.”

  “You can taste me later. After the party. I promise. Just please gift me.”

  Riz positioned himself on his knees and shouldered her legs. His finger parted her gently, and she closed her eyes, gave in to the succulent rush that pulsated.

  But nothing happened.

  Harmony opened her eyes. Saw him staring at her sweetness. “What’s wrong?”

  Riz shook his head. “Nothing. Everything is perfect. It’s so wonderful. So pretty. Let me taste it.”

  Harmony pulled him down over her. Bucked her hips. Grabbed his bigness. Slid it between her slit. “Fuck me! Now!”

  And then it happened. And she thought she was going to die. Right then. Right there. On a Palm Springs bathroom floor. Because never in her life had she imagined that something could feel so pleasurable and painful at once. Riz had spread her. Opened her. Touched her so deep she could feel him making love to her heart.

  And she cried.

  Harmony woke up in the master bedroom and looked next to her. She stared at Riz. Couldn’t believe that he was there, live and in the flesh. Couldn’t believe that their night had been real. It seemed so magical that she was afraid to take her eyes off him for fear that he’d disappear and she would realize it’d all been a dream. But it was true. The soreness and stickiness between her legs told her so. They had danced in the bathroom, tangled again minutes after the party was over. “I love you,” she whispered, knowing his sleeping ears couldn’t hear her. Gently, she traced her finger on the side of his face. She hated to wake him, but had to. She’d told him she was moving out of town, but now she didn’t want to go. Not after what they’d shared. She rubbed his back, not wanting to startle him. He had to get up. She had to know what he wanted before she boarded the plane in two days. There would be no games this time. No hidden feelings. Riz would be her deciding factor as to whether she’d leave or not.

  Riz opened his eyes and sat up. “I don’t want you to go. I want you here at home with me in L.A.”

  “In the same house?”

  Riz smiled. Gave her a knowing look. “You know I’ve never lived with a woman. Don’t know if I could. But we can work on it,” he said, steepling his hands and shaking his head as if he were already apologizing for taking her stolen dream. “But I do want you here with me, I just don’t wanna put you in harm’s way.”

  Harmony leaned forward, kissed him on the cheek. His answer had hurt like hell. “Riz, you know I’m not the type of woman you can just buy a house for. I’m not a deck of cards you play with and then stash away until you’re ready to play again. I’m the kind of woman you’d have to come home to. Every night. I’m the type of woman you’d have to marry.”

  Riz’s head bounced, and Harmony knew that he understood. He opened his mouth to speak, and she silenced him with a finger.

  “Shh. We both have our limits and principles. We know what we want and can’t handle. Let’s just keep it like it is.”

  “You still my Harmony?” he asked sincerely.

  Harmony masked her pain behind a laugh. “I’ll always be your Harmony. Your personal anthem who’ll be with you wherever you go. We’re a part of each other, so we can’t lose one another.”

  Harmony gathered her things after Riz went back to sleep. With tears in her eyes, she tiptoed out the door, knowing he’d never find her. She was good at disappearing.

  I’m waiting for the punch line, but all I get is silence. “Hello? Caller, are you still there?”

  “I’m still here.”

  Macy is waving at me frantically, signaling me to pick up line nine. “We’re going to take a ten-second break,” I say into the mic. “We have
some major drama unfolding right here On the Line. Hold on to your shorts.” I pick up the phone line and my mouth drops open. This is too good. I tell each of my callers to hang on and they will be live on the air in three, two, one…

  “Go ahead, caller. You want to tell us your name.”

  “My name’s not important, my reason for calling in is.”

  “Riz? Oh my God! Is that you? I didn’t know you were on the line.”

  I sit back and grin. Ms. Girl had been playing possum all along. She wasn’t anonymous, she was Harmony. It wasn’t a story about some friend, it was her. And damn if Mr. Riz wasn’t listening in the whole time.

  “Why don’t I let you two work it all out? And big ups to you, Riz. You sure rocked Harmony’s world. You go, boy! See, folks, this show is good for something.”

  A loud crash shakes me out of my seat. Security breaks in the door and comes storming in like I have weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Bledsoe comes in safely behind them then snatches off my headset and tosses it onto the console.

  “Get her out of here!”

  The two guards grab me by my arms as I struggle against them. I can’t go down without a fight, so I start kicking and screaming like a wild woman. They are so startled that they release me. Guess they think they might catch a case of the crazies. Plus I know these two—we’ve partied together.

  Everyone is out in the hallway watching my unceremonious dismissal. Once I get them off of me I tug on my clothes to get them right, snatch my purse from off the desk and march out like the martyr that I am. I swear I hear applause.

  The two guards are so close to me I can tell what they had for breakfast. I suppose they want to make sure I don’t pull a fast one and bitch slap Bledsoe before I leave. I get halfway down the hall and one of the overnight interns runs up to me.

  “This came in right after your last call,” she says, a bit breathless. She hands me a piece of paper. It was an e-mail that had come into the station. It was from Harmony.

  Joy,

  I can never thank you enough for connecting Riz and I. Because of you and your show, I’ll be walking down the aisle in two months, directly into the arms of my soul mate. I’ll officially be Riz’s sacred song for life. His only anthem because I’ve pulled his player’s card!

  Blessings,

  Harmony

  I smile triumphantly to myself and tuck the note in my jacket pocket. How ironic that my last act of treason actually brought two people together. Life. Go figure.

  The guards escort me all the way to the front door.

  “Sorry about all this, just doing my job,” says Lenny, one of the guards, before gallantly opening the front door. Me and Lenny have tossed back a few beers over the years.

  “I think they’re making a big mistake,” Burt adds.

  “’Preciate it, fellas.” I put on my best sheepish expression. “Sorry about kicking you in the shins. A little ice will help.” I tug in a breath and take my first steps toward unemployment, where Macy is waiting.

  “You go, I go,” she says.

  We link arms and walk out to the parking lot. What the hell we were going to do with our lives and livelihoods now was the million-dollar question. But in the meantime, I need a drink.

  CHAPTER 17

  After an hour of cussing, drinking and damning the board of directors of WHOT and all of their progeny to hell, I drag myself home with promises to call Macy later in the day.

  When I push through the door of my building I do a double take. Randy is chatting it up with Vinny the doorman as if they were best friends.

  Vinny jumps up. “Ms. Newhouse, Mr. Temple insisted on waiting,” he says.

  I shoot him a look then turn my attention on Randy and quickly realize that I’m really glad to see him. And for no reason that I can think of, tears start to burn my eyes. He walks toward me and, without a word, puts his arm around me and leads me to the elevator.

  “How did you know?” I finally ask him once we get upstairs.

  Randy closes and locks the apartment door. “I worked late tonight and was listening to the show in the car.” He started to chuckle. “I almost had an accident listening.”

  I grin. “Yeah it was a bit over the top.”

  “A bit!”

  He’s smiling and coming my way. My heart is beating like crazy. He looks into my eyes.

  “I’m sorry this happened to you. Your management are a bunch of assholes. But this is a blip on your radar. Take some time, think about what you want to do then, like Nike says, just do it.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  He cups my face in his hands. “I’ll be here for you if you let me.”

  I find myself wrapped in his arms with my head pressed against his chest. A part of me wants to maintain my tough-girl attitude but the other part of me needs just what he’s giving and I say something I’ve never said to a man in my entire life.

  “Stay with me tonight.”

  And he does.

  “He spent the night?” Macy asks me in disbelief. “On purpose?”

  “Yeah.”

  She’s silent for a minute. “You really like this guy?”

  “I think so.” I look at her, the one person in the world who knows me better than I know myself sometimes. “I don’t understand it.”

  “What’s to understand, Joy? You’re a woman who’s spent all of her life running from attachments—and we both know why. You hide behind other folks’ angst so that you don’t have to deal with your own. Maybe it’s time to finally stop running.”

  I know she’s right. Lately I’d found myself questioning what I was doing. The letters and calls I’d gotten recently had really begun to make me think.

  “Any ideas about what you are going to do to continue living in the style to which you’ve grown accustomed?”

  “Not really. I’ve been in the radio game my entire working life.”

  Macy paces back and forth in front of me, a sure sign that she has her thinking cap on. Suddenly she stops and I swear I can see a lightbulb hanging over her head.

  “Check this out. You’ve seen and heard just about every kind of personal drama known to man.”

  “Yeah, and…?” I’m getting suspicious.

  “And you still have tons of letters, tapes and e-mails that you haven’t touched.”

  “Yeah…”

  “What if you put them all together in a book!”

  “What?”

  “Write a book. Use some of the letters and stuff, some old shows. Call it The Best of On the Line.”

  I stare at her in confusion, but slowly the idea begins to take shape and make sense. I plop down on the love seat. A grin moves across my face. “Yeah, I like it. I love it!”

  Macy claps her hands in delight.

  My bubble bursts. “But I don’t know a damned thing about writing a book.”

  “You don’t, but your new boyfriend does.”

  Bingo!

  “I can see it now,” Macy says. “Bookstores, TV, radio interviews, Oprah!”

  The idea is really taking shape in my head. If I could do it on the air, why not on the page? I just up and dash into my office and call Randy at work.

  “Joy! Hi, is everything okay?”

  “Everything is better than okay. I have an idea I want to run past you…” I tell him about the idea to turn my radio show into a book.

  “I love the idea.”

  “You do!” I start doing the happy dance. Macy appears in my doorway and I give her the thumbs-up. “So what do I have to do?”

  “Well, first you need to decide what material you’re going to use and you need to put a proposal together.”

  “Proposal?”

  “I can help you with that. Once you have that done and a sampling of what the content will be, I can push it through and we can go to contract.”

  “Whoo-hoo! How much do you think I can get?”

  “A high six figures, I’m sure. Folks love books written by celebrities. And you are definitely a
celebrity.” He chuckles.

  “I better get busy going through these letters and tapes. I have boxes of the stuff.”

  “Great. When you get a few of them together, we can get started on the proposal.”

  “I’m going to get started right now. Macy is here and she can help.”

  “We’re still on for tonight, right?”

  My heart knocks. “Uh, sure. I’d like that.”

  “I get out of here around six. Is eight still good for you?”

  “I’ll be ready.”

  “See you then.”

  Slowly I hang up the phone. A date. Damn, can’t remember the last time I was on one of those.

  “Are you going to tell me what he said or keep staring into space?”

  I totally forgot Macy was standing there. “I’m going on a date,” I tell her, and I hear how goofy I sound.

  “About damned time,” she says, and I start grinning like a fool. “What did he say about the book idea?”

  “High six figures!”

  “That’s what I’m talking about! Let’s get busy.”

  “Grab the box on the top shelf of the closet. Those are some of the older shows.”

  We sit on the floor and begin going through the letters, e-mails and audio tapes of the show, separating our treasures into yes, no and maybe piles. I pull out a tape from a show I did about a year earlier. It had to be from the craziest broad I’d ever heard from.

  “Remember this, Hotline?” I hold up the tape.

  Macy’s eyes widen. “Yeah, the crazy woman with the werewolves?”

  I start cracking up. “Yeah, scared the hell outta me, after I stopped laughing.” I reach for my tape recorder and put in the tape. “This was a good one.” The tape begins to whir and, after a few moments, our voices fill the room. As I listen, getting both turned-on and scared witless, I let my imagination wander and fill in the visuals for all the things the caller didn’t say….

  CHAPTER 18