Page 2 of Scales and Seduction (Monster Match #1)
T he windows are covered with dark blinds, and the front door is wooden with tiny glass panes that are so dingy, I bet I can’t see inside. If this is the place, it better be cheap because it absolutely makes all the hair stand on my arms and neck. It’s straight out of a horror movie.
I push open the door, and a tiny tinkling bell sounds above my head. Its tone is hilariously off-key and sounds more like a cattle bell. The inside looks like no cellphone repair shop I’ve ever been in. On two of the walls, there are large mahogany bookcases with rows of old-looking books, and glass cases in the center with random trinkets inside.
The air smells like musty pages and something grossly metallic. The back wall has a velvet curtain in the center behind displays of ancient-looking phones that were likely around before I was born. Strangely, there are no modern models that I can see. Some are flip-phones from the early 2000s, and others look like bulky relics from the nineties that my mom used.
“So weird…” I whisper, running my hand along one of the display cases that houses an old tome with a thick leather wrapping. It has a gold-stitched eye directly in the center of it and is crusted with weird dark stain.
Better not be blood , I think, trying to hide the crinkling of my nose.
A whoosh sounds as the velvet curtain flaps open and a slender pink-haired woman exits the back room. “Think about what I said, Burney. I’d hate, quite frankly, for this to fail.”
She doesn’t give me even a once-over. Her movements are elegant as she glides from behind the cases past me. Her hairstyle is a side-shaved bob, and she wears a long chain attached from her nose to her left ear. She’s wearing a pinstriped suit and the tallest black stilettos I’ve ever seen with silver spikes along the heel. The woman gets close, and when she passes me, my eyes close as I inhale.
God, she smells like sex and liberation.
Her perfume has notes of honeysuckle, vanilla and something else I swear I’ve tasted before. I wish I had the guts to ask her what it is. If I smelled like that, I wouldn’t be so horrendously single.
Time stands still until I hear the cowbell sound of her exit, and someone clears their throat almost annoyingly loud. As my eyes hazily open, I force myself to blink away a cloud of confusion. How long was I standing here sniffing?
Standing behind the counter is a tall man with a salt-and-pepper handlebar mustache, his piercing gray eyes hidden behind half-moon glasses. His long, slender beak of a nose holds them in place, but there’s an odd birdlike quality to him.
“Can I help you, miss?” His head tilts left and right, as if he’s assessing me.
I’m completely caught off guard. My thoughts are still cloudy from whatever pheromones that woman put off. “Uh…” It comes back to me the moment I look at my cracked phone. My mind swirls, trying to focus again. “I was told you can fix my phone.”
His lips curl into a knowing smile, revealing a row of gleaming white teeth. “You’ve come to the right place. I can fix anything.”
“That’s my hope.” I find the courage to step closer even though his teeth and eyes make me uneasy.
Once I’m at the counter, I show him my damaged phone. Its screen is still flickering. “It got stepped on, and I’m afraid to even touch it. The phones you have here are ancient, though, so are you sure you can handle this?” I know it sounds accusatory, but the place has nothing but old shit in it. I can’t be too careful.
Burney chuckles. “Don’t be fooled by the old tech. I’m capable enough. What do you have to lose, anyway? It’ll cost half the phone’s price anywhere else.”
He has a point there.
I didn’t exactly think about putting insurance on it when I bought it. I figured I could go back and add it on later when I saved up some more. I’m such an idiot. I’m the clumsiest woman on the planet. I should always get insurance.
“Okay.” I have maybe three hundred dollars until payday. I’m going to be eating ramen for the unforeseeable future. “What’s your pricing like? Do you take credit?” As the question hangs in the air, I hold my breath, waiting for the answer.
His voice turns low and conspiratorial, “I can cut you a deal. Test out my app, and I’ll make it one hundred even.”
A hundred bucks? God, that’s a steal, and if it’s just a shitty app, it’s no different from the loads of bloatware I have on the phone stock from the store. “What kind of app is it?”
What could it hurt?
“It’s a dating app.” Burney’s eyebrow rises, and his lip quirks on the left side. I feel his eyes sweeping over me, silently appraising me.
My stomach twists when I remember I actually put effort into my outfit for brunch. My normally wild hair is wrangled behind sunglasses, and my fuchsia sundress shows just enough of my cleavage. It felt like a fun choice at the time. Now I wish I’d thrown on my baggiest sweatpants and called it a day.
“It has a twist to it, though, so maybe it’s not for you.”
I try to hide the disdain from my face. A dating app and from a weird, creepy shop? I’m not so sure I should chance that. “What kind of twist? Is it safe?”
Burney’s eyes sparkle with something unreadable as he leans over the glass case toward me, a smile tugging at his lips. “Let’s just say the users aren’t exactly ordinary .” His voice is almost too reassuring. “But don’t worry, it’s completely safe. I promise your data is in good hands”
My mind starts racing at all the possibilities of what could happen to me. Quinn told me to be careful with what I signed, and this is really not typical from a repair shop. “Oh… I don’t know.” I look at my phone and then back at the door. Is it really worth it?
“Well, if you don’t download it, then it’s four hundred fifty to fix.”
Sold!
I exhale a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding as I allow myself to think again. “If you steal my credit card information…” I pin him with a stare. “My brother is a cop, and he’ll put you away for life.”
It’s a lie. I don’t even have a sibling, much less a brother, but the lie feels safer than the truth. I have nobody but Quinn and Vince who’d even look for me. Burney doesn’t need to know that, though.
“No theft involved, dear. I swear it,” he says, crossing his heart. “Though I can’t promise that my clients’ tastes won’t be on the eclectic side.” He looks way too amused by what he’s alluding to.
It sounds more like a sex app than dating, but at a hundred dollars, I can’t really lose. It isn’t like I ever have luck with dating, so what’s the harm? Will anyone swipe right, anyway?
My stomach turns funny little flips as the sensation of unease bubbles up, but a dating app is the least of my worries. Besides, maybe I’ll finally have regular sex. It’s been at least three months since I did more than platonically hold someone’s hand.
I nod in agreement, and the butterflies in my stomach take flight again. It’s a tiny nod, but Burney’s grin stretches across his face almost comically. “Do I need to sign a contract?”
“No, just use it at your leisure for at least a month. It will tell me when you log in, and I’ll give you my email to contact me if you encounter any bugs or issues, as well as to give me updates. Once your phone is finished, you’ll have it in your contacts list.”
That’s easy enough. I start to pull my wallet from my bag, and as I do, the curtain flaps open, and a lithe hand with black-painted nails almost as long as the fingers itself darts out. Burney passes the phone off, then dusts off his hands. “So, credit it is?”
Once I pass him the card, the deal is done. An hour later, I have what appears like a brand-new phone in my hands. I hope I don’t regret this.