In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

this guy's part in all this? The boyfriend with the diamonds. That rock
on her finger. But who was the boss? Who the hell was Deek?
Tapping his fingers on his knee to the rhythm of her steps, he
scanned the windowless room in the flat fluorescent glare: the pipes
and rusty sprinklers embalmed in dripping layers of semigloss white,
the hodgepodge of street-find postwar office furniture, the new
speakers, and the long uneven ribbons of EEG and score printouts
taped over most of the concrete walls.
"Do you have coffee? Espresso? I must think. I must have
coffee to think." He settled back into her futon, massaging his brow
and stretching out his legs.
Penny stopped over him and blurted, "Okay. Your boss, or
whatever, creeps up on me in the middle of the night, in the dark,
giving me a serious case of the heebie-jeebies, then starts criticizing my
work! I get no, like, 'thank you for letting me stay here', no explanation
from her about what might have just happened. No nothing! I went
ahead and let her sleep on my bed for crying out loud and still she
creeps up on me like some kinda vampire while I'm busy working.
Sheesh!"
He chuckled softly.
"What's so damn funny?"
He sat up and said, "Mi dispiace, I mean no disrespect, so sorry.
Ula does not mean to cause you pain, but she is a complex person, she
has strange behaviors. She does not see when others suffer. Believe me,
this I know. She was perhaps curious. She thinks what you do is
fantastic! What is heebie-jeebies?"
"The willies. Heebie-jeebies is willies. She scared me, okay?"
"I am so sorry. Yes, the weelees, hahah, touché."
"And where the hell did she hear enough of my music to make
any judgment? Okay, some of it leaks out into the hall, but that's just a
mess. The fire door and the concrete walls make this place pretty
soundproof, and I just have little bits and pieces on the web. We got
definite IP issues here."
He'd wiped the grin from his face and looked uneasily at his
clasped manicured hands.
"Doctor Bell, I dunno, perhaps we can offer you
compensations before you throw us to the wolves. I can speak for Ula,
that she would be honored to work with you. It would be good
promotion, and you need support for this work of yours, no?"
"What? Are you out of your mind, too? Anyway, you have to
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