It was a typical day as Rouge sat glaring at the monitor in front of her, the phone rang and she tensed.

"Hello this is Yumiko. How are you today?" The short-blonde haired girl next to her purred into the headset, as she fidgeted with some strings in her hands.

Rouge sighed, if another call came in, she'd have to take it. Her only hope was that her co-worker finished up this call quickly.

Rubbing at her temples, the white-haired female looked up as 'Yumiko' tapped her on the arm and pointed to a slip of paper she'd slid over.

"Sorry but this is one of the longer ones – he just loves it when I play with his hair. Just hang in there if someone calls."

Nodding in reply, Rouge looked back to the clock – 3:32PM just about thirty minute's left before her shift was over.

Trying her best to ignore the sounds and giggles that were coming from the girl beside her, Rouge went back to throwing darts into her nearby dartboard.

It had become a pastime for her since she'd started at this place about a week before. Sure the pay was really good, they charged the damn perverts per minute to make most of the employees' think it was easy cash.

"Easy cash…that's about right," She pondered to herself, lining up another dart, "Easy cash for that scumbag boss of mine." Letting the dart fly, it imbedded itself right in the 'bull's-eye' or to be more precise, right into a photograph of a dark-crankily bald man.

"Between the eyes, just what he has coming to him…" Rouge mumbled.

Glancing back over to 'Yumiko' Rouge shook her head. Here the idiot on the other line was probably certain that he was giving some girl the thrill of her life, but on the other hand, she was just toying with the strings in her hands, forming cat's cradles and other string tricks.

"Psst, Topaz…" She whispered, trying not to disrupt the phone call.

The girl looked over towards her and tilted her head.

"We do get off at four on Thursday's right?"

Nodding in the positive, Topaz's voice whispered seductively into the receiver, "Oh my, oh my, we're being awfully naughty aren't we?"

Rouge's eyes looked up at the clock once again, 3:37PM. This day couldn't be over soon enough.

About to lean back and throw another dart towards her photographic target, Rouge flinched and dropped the dart as the phone line rang.

Eyes wide, She looked desperately to Topaz for help – but her co-worker only mouthed "Sorry, Rouge," In reply.

Taking a deep breath, and slipping into the most seductive voice she could muster, Rouge spoke into the headset, "Hello there, this is Kalika. How are you today?"

The line was quiet, and she was just about to hang-up – figuring it was just some prank or someone that chickened out – when a very grumpy, yet seemingly irritated male voice could be vaguely heard.

"Damn that Sonic! I'll kill him for this!"

Rouge blinked, not quite sure what to do in this situation.

"I assume this is a sexual-telecommunication line. Am I right?" The voice inquired.

"Yes, it is." She replied, cursing herself for sounding so nervous.

"Then I am to also think that you are to talk to me until I feel pleased. Right?"

Rouge glared at a spot on the wall. These inane questions were pissing her off, a lot.

"Sad to say, but yes. That's what I'm paid to do." She responded after a moment, her voice with a tone of annoyance in it.

The line went silent, and she was hoping that he would just hang up and it would all be over with - but she wasn't that lucky.

"You don't sound all that enthused." The voice said a light air of amusement to it.

"Well, like hell I would be!" She snapped back, then covered her mouth. "Shit! What am I saying?"

"It's sad to think that people have resorted to such lewd forms of employment." He said simply, the voice trailing off as if he was about to hang-up, but this time, Rouge wasn't going to let him get the last word in.

"Excuse me Mr. High and mighty hothead, but who ever said that I wanted this damn job in the first place, huh? And who are you to judge someone you've never met and that you don't know the circumstances of their life? You must be some pretentious asshole if you think you can judge me by just this horrible job I'm stuck in." Rouge ranted, pausing to take a breath and expecting to hear the line cut off.

Instead, it was just silence…silence followed by that guy's voice.

"Prove me wrong, then!" He challenged, voice just as impatient as before.

"What?"

"For such confidence – you should have words to back with."

"Why you damn bastard, I ought to…" She fumed, about to say more when she felt a tug at her glove.

It was Topaz.

"Rouge calm down. We don't want him to report you," She whispered, trying to keep the irate girl from saying anything too rash.

"I'm waiting." He spoke again.

"Waiting?" Rouge asked.

"For you to defend yourself."

That was all Rouge needed, before her fist cracked the arm of the wooden desk chair she sat in, "Fuck you bastard! Why the hell am I even talking to you if you're just going to insult me? It's not my damn fault my boss forced me into this job just so he can get some quick cash, and don't even tell me that I can get him in court because he's already bought off all the damn judges. I can't do a damned thing and so here I am stuck talking in this damned phone to a bunch of perverted bastards like you!"

Topaz blinked, "Oh my, Rouge…don't you think that…"

"Hush, the scumbag's talking." She quickly cut her off.

"One, I'm not some pervert! My idiot friend thought changing the speed-dial number was an amusing prank! Two, if you want to get away from your boss, then do so!"

"I can't damnit, and there's not a soul in the world that'll help me either. So I'm just screwed…" She sighed; this whole conversation was really stressing her out.

"Then why not ask one of your callers?" He stated matter of factly.

"Because they're all damned perverts!" Rouge yelled back.

The line fell quiet, then he calmly replied, "I told you otherwise myself."

Rouge laughed to herself, "Right, and you are going to help me?"

"Do you want me to?" He questioned.

She paused, "And why should I trust you?"

"Who said I expected you to trust me?"

On the verge of ripping out her fur at this guy's consistent riddles, she retorted, "Well for one thing, I don't even know your name."

"Knuckles."

"What?"

"That's the name I was given." He explained.

"And now I'm supposed to trust you, is that it?" She inquired, obviously not buying it.

"That's up to you."

Topaz had stood up and placed a hand on Rouge's shoulder, hoping it would keep her co-worker from destroying anymore nearby furniture.

The silence on the phone line ended as Knuckles spoke yet again, "I'll be having dinner at the café on 3rd street at about 5:15. If you want to speak to me in person – ask for me there."

She blinked, 'Is he trying to set up a date!' Frowning, she asked him, "What is this? Some tricky way to get a date?"

"I'm being charged for this call!"

Pausing, Rouge blinked, then replied, "Well yes…"

"I'll be at that place if you want to come speak with me in person. I'm not going to waste anymore of my money just to listen to you rant!"

"Well fine then!" Rouge relented.

The dead-air noise continued, and Rouge was beginning to feel almost certain he'd finally hung up, when his voice made one final remark, "But for one so scared of facing their own problems – I doubt facing an intellectual conversation would hold any more appeal."

And with that he hung up.

"That fucking bastard! He's gone and set me up to go on damned date with him!" Rouge fumed, slamming down her headset.

Topaz smiled at her, curious as to what was going to happen, "So are you going to go?"

She muttered a reply, "Why should I bother? My luck he's just some pervert that faked all that innocent shit just so he could jump me in public."

"You spent twenty-three minutes on the phone with him and he didn't even try for a grope. Any sane man would have snapped in that time, you know how bad they are about conversations. He sounds like he might be a catch, Rouge."

"Yeah right. I'm sure he really wants to talk to me 'intellectually'," She replied, sarcasm dripping.

"Come on now, you're just making excuses. It's a public place, just don't stray from there and he won't try much. Plus," She handed one of the strings over to Rouge, and held up the other herself, "If he does, just take that little string and – " She lifted the string up and mimicked strangling.

Rouge sighed, "Topaz, are you really sure about this? I mean, after getting call after call from these perverts how can you be so trusting of men?"

The blonde-haired girl giggled, "Oh dear, you've got it all wrong. I don't trust them, one bit. I just give them enough rope… that if they do try anything stupid, I can hang them with it."

Offering a weak smile in return, Rouge looked to the red-thread in her hands, "I guess it would be a good enough reason not to go home right away."

"That's the spirit! Now, you have my number at the beauty school if you need to call for anything right?"

"Yeah, thanks Topaz." The bat remarked, gathering her things up.

As Rouge walked out, she gave a slight wave back to her co-worker; waving in return, Topaz yelled down the hallway, "And if he's a total sleaze grab a chunk of his fur and run!"

The smile on Rouge's face widened a bit, knowing all to well how much Topaz loved experimenting on different fur types. Looking to her watch, she figured, "I'll just casually walk by the café. If I don't see anyone worth my time, I won't go. He's probably not worth the trouble anyway."

Preview for next chapter –

Not being the type to trust just anyone, let alone a guy, Rouge doesn't plan on doing any more than taking a quick glance at this "Knuckles" and walking away. But, things don't always go the way they are planned and sometimes, it's for the better.