Loyalty Card

I lucked out when I found the job of helping Mr. Higgins. He’s not only given me a job but the apartment that sat empty over the laundromat that also offered dry cleaning. Well, it offered it but we outsourced it. There isn’t enough space here to do it on site. That is part of my job. I take in the orders and get them ready to be picked up each night. Every morning the orders return and are ready for pick up. It is easy, but I spend a lot of time on my feet. The harder work comes with keeping up Mr. Higgins’ bookkeeping. He thinks he can do it himself. At least he tries until he curses up a storm and I have to fix it for him. I wonder where he’s off to now.

I enter my place, setting the bags down on the small table before heading over to my day bed and falling back onto it. My stomach protests, wanting me to get up and make something to eat. My feet are telling me not to move but I need to take my shoes off. My toes are cold and my sneakers and socks are soaked from the rain. I blow a piece of hair out of my face.

God, I bet I look a mess. My mind flashes to the handsome man at the store. When I think back on it, I was the one acting crazy. My face heats with a little bit of mortification. I shouldn’t care; I’ll likely never see him again. What if he was only trying to do something nice and I acted as though he was trying to creep all over me? A ball forms in my chest at the thought of never seeing Mr. Handsome again. It’s for the best. It’s not as though I really have time to date anyway.

I pull myself from the bed, my eyes going to the mirror that hangs over my bed. It’s one of my favorite things in my little place, since it’s in the shape of a heart. My reflection shows me that the rain has turned my curly hair into a fuzzy ball. My cheeks are still flushed and I’m not really sure why, to be honest. It’s probably a mixture of everything. I groan, falling back down onto the bed. Yeah, so never seeing him again.

I sit up. Wait. Did he steal my tampons?

Chapter Three

Nick

“Here’s your meds, new contact pads for your pain machine, a four-pack of Red Bull, raspberries, grenadine, and a box of stationery. The good kind,” I add before she can ask.

“Caring for a person takes more than being able to run errands and gather things on a list,” the nurse interjects. “You have to be timely, anticipate her needs, watch for signs of–”

“It’s not like the boy is going to take your job away,” Gran cuts in. “All right. I made a promise that if you could do the things on my list, I’d let you be my primary caretaker. I don’t go back on my promises.”

“But-but, he’s too young!” the nurse nearly shouts.

“Don’t worry. You’ll still get a fat check,” I tell the cranky woman as I herd her toward the door. “But now you only have to work a few hours a day instead of eight of them. It’s a win for everyone.” At the entry, I stoop down and swipe her purse off the floor. I set the bag in her hands and gently nudge her out. “See you tomorrow at ten,” I say brightly before shutting the door in her face.

“I’m not sure why you dislike Nurse Pat so much,” Gran calls from the sofa.

“She’s nosy and we don’t need her.” I sit down on the edge of the coffee table and pull out the new contact pads. “We’re doing fine on our own.”

Gran huffs at this. “Even so, child, I’m going to need her when you go back and deal with that uncle of yours. You know you can’t hide out here forever.”

I tear the old pad off the lead and toss it to the side. “Define forever.”

“Nick.”

“Gran.”

She gives me a fierce look. I attach the new contacts and set the pain machine on the table. Reaching out, I take her hands in mine. The skin feels thin and brittle. She’s getting old and I hate that. She’s all I have left now. “I need to find out who in the company is loyal to Dad—was, I mean,” I correct myself. Dad’s gone now, and so is Mom, in the car accident that sent me on the run to this small town in southern Illinois. Scared that my uncle was going to do my gran in, too, I kidnapped her from her condo and brought her here.

“You need to go back. You should leave me here with Nurse Pat, hire a boatload of bodyguards, and just plant yourself in that executive boardroom until you’ve wrestled control of the company from that asshole’s hands.”