Robbers

forty - three

// forty – three //

Nerves danced beneath the surface of Ella's heated skin. Her hands were clamped tightly together in her lap as she waited, fingers twisting one another almost painfully. She was so anxious, the waiting room's air seemed to suffocate her.

It wasn't just the fact that Ella would be seeing Ryan in a few minutes. The very idea of being inside a prison was setting Ella's teeth on edge. The officer behind the glass window kept a close watch on her with beady eyes, and the other two visitors against the rightmost wall both looked like they should have been on the other side of the glass. On top of all this, the entire waiting room smelled faintly of vomit.

Ella had scarcely slept last night. She had laid in bed for hours, turning hundreds of words over and over in her mind, thinking of what she would say to Ryan. Then Ella had abandoned all hope of sleep and had torn through her closet, searching for something to wear – which she would never admit to anyone. So many terrible things had happened, and she was worried over what to wear. It was embarrassing.

At least the sling was gone. Dr. Haverford had examined Ella last week and decided her arm no longer needed it, though her shoulder still ached with pain whenever she lifted her right arm. The pinky and ring finger were still limp and devoid of feeling, but Ella was so used to this by now that she scarcely noticed.

So there she was, seated in the visiting center's waiting room, wearing a navy blue dress and thin black tights. Ella rarely wore dresses, but this visit was incredibly important to her – and besides, the long sleeves of the dress covered the healing wound on her shoulder. She didn't want any more stares than the sidelong glances she was already receiving.

When the officer behind the glass finally called her name, Ella was on the verge of breaking her own fingers from how anxiously she'd been twisting her hands. She stood quickly from the scratched, plastic chair, and followed the woman's gesture toward the door on the left. The officer pressed a button behind her glass window, and the door unlocked with a loud metallic buzz.

Beyond the door, Ella was asked to give her purse to a second officer and remove all metal from her person. Her fingers trembled slightly from nerves as she took out her silver earrings and ring, slipping them into the purse before handing it to the older man. Ella passed through the metal detector, but the officer kept her purse, putting it into a plastic bin and tucking it away onto a shelf beside others. Finally, Ella was allowed through a second metal door into the visiting room.

It was a stretch of table along the entire length of the room, separating each half by a thick glass wall built into the middle of the table. Along the table were five wooden dividers, a chair and telephone in each section on Ella's side. Four of the seats were occupied by other visitors, but there was no visitor in the fifth section to block Ella's view of what lay beyond the glass.

Ryan Hunter was seated on the other side of the divider.

He stood at the same moment Ella stepped into the room, his eyes fixated on hers as the metal door shut again with a resounding buzz. Ella felt frozen as he stared, arms ram-rod straight as his fists pressed down onto the table. Even from across the room and through the glass, Ella could see the vein that jumped in his left cheek from how tightly his jaw was clenched.

The officer beside the door gestured for Ella to sit in the open section, and this made Ella's legs finally jerk back into motion. She crossed the room in only a few steps, halting behind the wooden chair and freezing for the second time. Ryan stared right back at her, and didn't blink once.