nothing more, and that’s how it had to stay if she wanted to continue working in this field. If she allowed herself to care she’d die a little inside every time she had to move on or lost a patient.
Other than her three major rules, she would do anything to get this job, including scaring off the competition. It wasn’t because she was desperate to work with this patient. To be honest, she didn’t know much about him other than he was a thirty-two-year-old man, who’d broken most of the bones in his body and wasn’t adapting well to his new life. The other thing that she knew about him, which really didn’t matter to her except that it meant that her paycheck probably wouldn’t bounce, was that he came from a very wealthy family.
No, her reasons for wanting this job were very simple. She was returning to her hometown after five years and she had nowhere else to live. Well, there was that offer from her parents and brother, but they would just end up driving her out of her Goddamn mind, so it was probably for the best if she didn’t take them up on their offers. She had more than enough money in the bank to find her own place, but she preferred to work as a live-in and save her money.
So, here she was at one in the afternoon, standing in the driveway of a large one-level home, sweating, hungry, and determined to do whatever it took to get this job while her potential employer repeated herself between shooting nervous glances back at the house and throwing them apologetic smiles. Interesting. It seemed that she wasn’t the only one to notice either.
Good, very good…
The faster that she got rid of her competition, the faster that she could move in. She really wasn’t looking forward to sharing a bubblegum-pink bedroom with her eleven-year-old niece and her unnatural love of boy band posters, but that’s what would happen if she didn’t get this job. If she had to hear Emily cry one more time because some pop star that she was destined to marry was seen kissing another girl, Sloane was going to kick her brother’s ass for not sending the kid to a convent.
“Are we going to interview with the patient one at a time?” a woman, who reminded Sloane of her old fourth-grade teacher, asked.
Mrs. Harris shuffled her feet, trying not to look nervous, but by this point, it was really a lost cause. She cleared her throat and then did it again, trying to find the right words and failed. “No, I think it would be best if the five of you were to meet my brother all at once instead of stretching this out,” she announced with a bright smile that looked a little brittle and failed to comfort them.
There was an awkward pause before she continued. “Once again, I’d like to apologize for my brother. Since the accident, he’s been...isolated. He’s a little rough around the edges, but once you get to know him, he’s a real sweetheart.”
Several of the women shifted nervously while Sloane had to bite back a smile. It sounded like the patient was going to be a terror. That didn’t bother Sloane. She welcomed a challenge. She’d rather have a spirited patient than someone who just laid in bed, waiting to die. Judging by the looks of the other women, they didn’t share the same opinion.
“If you’ll follow me,” Mrs. Harris said with a forced smile as she gestured towards the house, “I’ll introduce you to my brother.”
As they followed her inside the house, Sloane couldn’t help but notice the anxious looks the other women were shooting each other as they entered the small foyer. She also couldn’t help but notice the stench of body odor, old food, and the thick layer of dust covering everything. The dirty clothes thrown everywhere with old pizza boxes and Chinese takeout boxes lining the walls was a nice touch and probably just made getting rid of the competition a hell of a lot easier.
“As you ah, can see there will be some light cleaning involved with this position,” Mrs. Harris said with another one of those forced smiles that actually looked like it was actually starting to hurt.
Sloane barely stifled a chuckle. Light cleaning? She was going to need a dumpster and a biohazard suit to clean this house. Ah, but that was no problem for Sloane. That just meant job security,