💋 The Velvet Listener.
A Contemporary Mills & Swoon Short by Sarnia de la Maré.
Mara Lane had been the late-night voice of Heartline FM for three years, dispensing warm advice to strangers while living a private life that was anything but romantic.
The truth was that Mara had become rather accomplished at helping other people fall in love precisely because she had stopped trying it herself. She had stopped dressing up and going out. She avoided dinner parties with friends who were forever trying to matchmake her with basically any man who happened to be single.
The studio lights were low enough to be flattering in the way dim lamps flatter tired women. Her producer, Jay, waved through the glass: Caller on line four.
“Heartline FM,” she purred. “You’re live with Mara.” She had perfected a sexy sultry voice that her fans loved. Little did they know, privately she had long given up any ideas of falling in love again.
A man’s velvet voice slid into her earphones.
“Good evening, Mara. I have a problem only you can solve.”
Mara straightened. Most late callers were drunk, lovelorn, or boring. This one sounded… dangerous in the way good chocolate is dangerous, smooth and tempting.
“What seems to be troubling you?”
A low chuckle. “You, Mara, it’s you.”
“Me?”
“Yes. I listen to you every night. I know when you’re smiling. I know when you’re tired. And tonight…” A pause. “You’re pretending to understand love.”
Her pulse hopped. No one ever read her that quickly, not even Jay, who had been her producer for years.
“Well,” she said carefully, “I’m flattered you’re so observant, but the show is all about you, caller. Not me.”
“Then here’s my question.” His voice dropped a register. “What does a woman like you do when the advice she gives everyone else stops working for her?”
Mara camouflaged a little gasp. It was ridiculous, he was a voice on a telephone, how could he be so disarming? But there was something in the way he spoke… intimate, focused, as if he was in the room making love to her.
“I suppose,” she murmured, “she keeps talking until she finds someone who listens properly.”
“I’m listening,” he said softly. “More than you know.”
Jay gave her the wind-up signal, they were due an advert. Besides, who was this weirdo? She reluctantly guided the call to break, but before she could cut him off, the man added:
“I’ll call again tomorrow. Same time.”
And just like that, he was gone, leaving Mara oddly flushed.
For a month, he called at exactly 12:07 a.m. The production unit had cleared a separate call line for him.
He never gave his name.
He never flirted outright.
He simply… learned more about her with his innocent and slightly abstract questions.
His insight was unnerving and intoxicating in equal measure. Was he a stalker? Should she be worried?
Jay began calling the mysterious man “The Velvet Listener” as though he were a character in a novel.
Other fans of the show adored the segment. Ratings soared. Heartline FM executives sent Mara congratulatory emails and mentioned a pay rise.
But Mara wanted only one thing: to see the man behind the velvet voice.
On the twenty-eighth night, The Velvet Listener asked quietly, “Would you want to meet me?”
She hesitated, not wanting to sound keen and aware of possible dangers. But she had been thinking about him, late at night as she showered. In bed when she couldn’t sleep, when she touched her wanton body.
“That depends,” she whispered. “Are you even real?”
The internet was awash with comments. Mara’s Instagram and X accounts were filled with speculations, warnings, guesses as to the Velvet Listener’s identity, suggestions of marriage and happy-ever-afters, conspiracy theories that were creating spinoffs on TikTok. Several fans had even offered themselves to Velvet Listener should Mara decline his advances.
Jay wrapped up the show and handed Mara a note.
“Come to the rooftop after your shift,” it said. “If I’m not real, you’ll know immediately.”
At 1:38 a.m., Mara stepped out onto the roof. The city lay below in wet neon streaks. Wind tugged her coat open, revealing her satin pencil skirt, stockings and high heels that she had been wearing in the hope that he would see her.
And he was there.
Tall, dark and divine, just as she had dreamed he would be. The same velvet voice:
“Hello, Mara.”
She moved toward him before she realised she was doing it.
He came closer and revealed his face in the light.
He commanded a formidable and yet unassuming presence.
“Let’s write your story now.”
He drew her body towards his and kissed her, gently then hard. Passionate and driven. Urgent and focused.
Mara’s loins were alive with lust and feelings she had not experienced in years, and this, all of this, from a stranger. Could it be true? There was no time to worry now.
When he finally broke away, his breath warm against her lips, he said:
“You know I hear you. I will always listen, Mara, that is my oath to you.”
And Mara, who had spent years being everybody else’s confidante, let herself fall into the loving arms of the man who had learned her voice before ever seeing her face.
©2025 Sarnia de la Mare Published by Tale Teller Club Press.
www.taletellerclub.com
