White Walker Read Online Free Page B

lonely
in my apartment,” Andrea said as she nodded.
    He was surprised to learn Andrea once had a cat.
Most cat people had a certain odor about them. A faint ammonia
scent that heralded their arrival everywhere they went. He couldn’t
recall ever smelling that odor when Andrea was around.
    “I didn’t know you had a cat.”
    “I called him Smokey, had him ever since he was a
kitten. I miss him, but he had a good thirteen years with me.”
    “That’s longer than some marriages I’ve heard
about.”
    “What about you?” Andrea said. “What do you have
waiting at home for you?”
    “A frozen dinner, a good book, maybe some wine.”
    “There’s no Mrs. Norman?”
    Norman shrugged. “My mom has Alzheimer’s. I’ve spent
most of my adult life taking care of her, never had much time for
anything beyond that.”
    “Is she still with you?”
    Norman shook his head. “She became too much for even
me to handle so I was forced to put her in a home last week. She no
longer even knows where she is. In her mind it’s 1969 and she’s
hitchhiking across the country to follow some band.”
    “We better get going,” Andrea said.
    “When are you off again?” Norman said as a familiar
panic rose to the back of his throat, threatening to strangle
him.
    “Saturday, what about you?”
    “Same here, would you like to go to lunch with me?”
Norman bulled his way through the panic, the last of his question
coming out at a near whisper.
    Andrea nodded. “I’d like that.” And she reached out
with one hand to take his hand into her own. The contact was
electrifying for Norman, who until this moment had never gotten
beyond the initial meeting with a woman. His shirt collar, which
had become three sizes too small for him when he was asking Andrea
out, was now resting comfortably against his throat, and he was
filled with a sense of confidence he’d seldom known before.
    Before they entered the main floor, he glanced back
at the door leading to the smoking area at the opposite end of the
short hallway. Through the small window he saw the swirling snow
beyond, driven this way and that by the relentless wind. As it
parted, he spotted that lone figure standing immobile on the bank
opposite the dock.
    He looked away, suddenly very frightened, wanting
nothing more than to get away from this place. For the first time
in three years, he wanted to go home. He didn’t want to lose
himself in the anonymity of being a faceless voice on the
telephone. He sensed that tonight was not going to end well for any
of them.

Chapter
6
     
    By the time Norman and Andrea reached the main
floor, a maze of cubicles with gray dividers sectioning off
individual cubby holes, each containing a small desk upon which sat
a computer and a telephone, the rest of those who had made it to
work were standing around Teddy in a loose group. With the addition
of Norman and Andrea, there were a total of ten people present, the
group evenly divided between male and female.
    “It’s about time you two decided to join us,” Cody
said and Norman’s face immediately flushed with embarrassment as
the entire group turned to watch their approach. Self-consciously,
he released his hold on Andrea’s hand, not wanting to draw any more
undue attention to himself. He felt Andrea’s disappointment and
realized that he had already jeopardized their budding
relationship.
    But he’d make it up to her, he promised himself.
    “So were you two in the back making out?” Cody said.
Several of the members of the small group laughed nervously in
response. It was a knee-jerk reaction stemming more out of fear of
Cody and a desire to not make waves. They might have known Norman
better than Cody, but Cody had a reputation for being aggressive.
At a little over six foot tall he looked like he was all arms and
legs, skinny as a rail, but with a disposition that left many of
his co-workers a little afraid of him.
    He was your typical twenty-two-year-old who had
discovered that it was