“Wait a second.” I try not to laugh at him. “Gram rented away the house of torture?” My laughter finally escapes me.
“Fuck you,” he says right before he hangs up, and I laugh louder. Shaking my head, I take off my lab coat and go to the computer, opening it up to the employee records. I type in Crystal’s name, but nothing comes up. They probably haven’t entered the info yet. I get up, going to the front desk. “Hey, Debra, by any chance do you have the file for Crystal, the new nurse starting Monday?”
She picks up some files and then finds the one she is looking for. “Here it is, but there isn’t anything in it yet.”
I nod. “No worries,” I say, going back to my office. I try going by the rental house and see no one there. The next day, I drive to my grandmother’s and find the house empty. I try later that night, and they are still out. What the fuck?
I’m on my way home when the phone rings, and I see it’s Brody. “What’s up?”
“I need your help tomorrow, please,” he says. “We just finished the remodel at Walkers, and well …”
“Nope, not happening.” I don’t even listen to what he has to say.
“Gram said if you said no, she is going to get you here one way or another, so I’m not sure how you feel about that.”
“Fuck you. I don’t have a choice now, and you know that.”
“See you tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at eight. Besides, you get to meet your new nurse. I haven’t met her, but Doug said she’s hot as fuck.”
“You need to tell Doug to go fly a kite and not fucking touch my staff members.” He doesn’t even answer; instead, he just laughs out loud, and I disconnect him. The next day, Doug arrives right on time. I throw on my oldest jeans, t-shirt, and baseball cap.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Brody says when I climb into the truck. I just grunt at him while he drives us to the house. We arrive, and I hear Brody yell.
“Ladies.” All the women there turn around—my grandmother; Walker’s mother; Darla, Brody’s wife; Crystal; and who must be her cousin. “This is my best friend, Doug.” Doug just nods at us as Brody continues the introductions. “This is Kingston,” he says of the middle one. “Now, this one is Gabe.” He looks at Crystal. “And her boss.” He points at me, and my hands go to my hips. “Can we finish this today, please? I have a shit load of stuff to do this afternoon.” My voice comes out harsher than I wanted it to as I jump into the back of the truck and begin unloading the boxes. It takes us three hours to unload most of it, and the last pieces are the second bedroom set. “That one is for the upstairs bedroom.” Doug smiles, grabbing one side of the headboard while I grab the other side. I walk up the steps to her bedroom and find her standing in the middle of the room looking out the window.
“Where do you want us to put it?” Doug asks.
“Right in the corner diagonally,” she says, gesturing in the direction with her hands.
“You can’t have it that way. You are going to lose all kinds of space,” I tell her as I place it down against the wall. Doug walks out of the room to head back downstairs.
“You can’t tell me where to put my bed in my own room.” She puts her hands on her hips, hips that I grabbed when I pounded into her. I shake my head to clear the memory.
“I can’t tell you anything apparently.” I slap my hands together. “Don’t leave the bed like this; you will get more use out of the space.”
“Last I checked, this was my bedroom. Therefore, I can put my bed where I want.”
“You know what? This isn’t going to work.” I put my hands on my hips. If she is this hardheaded about a bed, I can’t imagine how we would work together. “You’re fired.” As soon as I say the words, I know I’ve made a mistake.
“I’m what?” She glares at me. “Oh, fuck no. I’m not fired because guess what?” Pulling out her phone, she dials someone on speakerphone as I look at her and she glares at me. My father answers right away.
“Hello?” he says, and Crystal starts.
“Dr. Walker, I’m sorry to do this to you, and it may be unprofessional of me, but I can’t work with your son.”
He laughs and then asks, “What did he do this time?”
“Well, he came into my home and demanded that I follow his rules. I simply can’t work in that type of environment.”
I open my mouth in shock that she just blatantly lied. “LIAR,” I mouth.