Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Sure, the job required tact and understanding, but you also had to have balls of steel and a strong backbone.
And, well, my truck driver’s mouth didn’t hurt, either.
“You’re plenty lady, Sly,” Marshall insisted. He wasn’t flirting per se. I mean, he was old enough to be my grandfather. But he was… flirty. That was just how he was. And a lot of the other guys, for that matter. “But, if you want me to give it to you straight…”
“Always,” I said.
“Well, he passed out in a pile of his own sick and pissed himself,” Marshall said, shrugging in a very We’ve all been there sort of way.
And, I mean, no, I hadn’t been there.
But I’d been around many people who had.
People I loved included.
“It’s the second time,” Marshall reminded me when he saw my face and shoulders fall, wondering if I could let it slide just this once. We weren’t supposed to. The rules were strict and for good reason. We wanted everyone to stay sober. And if someone wasn’t toeing that line, it put everyone at risk.
“I know,” I said, exhaling hard. “I’ll tell Russ,” I told him. “Thank you.”
“I hate telling,” Marshall said. “But it ain’t good for anyone to be seeing that.”
“I know. It sucks, but he has to go.”
Marshall gave me a solemn nod.
“Hey, when the time is right, he will be back.”
With that, he was gone.
And his parting words did make me feel a little bit better about the whole thing. After all, Marshall had been kicked out several times, and he always came back when he was ready to try again. Hopefully, Doug got to that point as well.
I finished cleaning up the desk, then made my way toward the door, stopping to catch a look at myself in the non-breakable mirror that distorted my features slightly.
We used to have a regular mirror.
Until there had been an… incident.
Now we were careful to have nothing around in the main office that might be used against any of the staff on the occasions when residents needed to be sat down and informed they were being kicked out, or, worse yet, sent back to jail for violating their parole.
I’d been at work since seven in the morning, and it was closing in on seven at night.
We had a small staff, so when one person called in sick like they had this morning, someone else always had to pick up the slack.
So, yeah, I wasn’t looking my best, despite taking a long lunch break at the coffee shop to add a little fresh eyeliner and lipstick.
The liner around my hazel eyes had been smudged hours before. And the lipstick was clinging to several coffee cups in the dishwasher, just waiting to be washed away.
Reaching up, I tightened the messy bun on the top of my head, then teased my bangs until they sat in that choppy way I liked.
Then I made my way out, seeking out Russ, the guy who ran this place.
He’d gotten clean thanks to a halfway house back in his thirties. And since he moved back to Navesink Bank, it had been his mission to keep this one going for the locals.
Russ was tall and on the thin side with a full head of brown hair, and kind brown eyes.
“I don’t like that face,” he said, flinging a rag over his shoulder as he leaned back against the kitchen sink.
“It’s Doug,” I told him, watching as his gaze moved out the window as he sighed.
“Okay,” he said, nodding. “I’ll handle it. Is he conscious?”
“Doesn’t sound like it,” I told him, frowning.
“Don’t worry about it, kid. Take your tired ass home. I got this.”
“How about I pack him up before I head up? It will be less painful in the morning then.”
“You’re gonna burn yourself out, and then where will I be?”
“Right. Like you weren’t single-handedly running this place before me,” I said, shaking my head.
“You can do it, but only if you promise to go home afterward. No getting sucked into anything else.”
With that promise, I made my way upstairs, trying to keep my gaze downward so no one tried to grab my attention.
I loved the residents.
Well, most of them anyway.
But they tended to be long-winded and desperate for some conversation.
And I needed a shower, some decent food, and my bed, since it looked like more double shifts the next day or two at least.
“He’s out, huh?” the neighbor across from Doug called, leaning in his doorway.
Perish was the kind of guy who had ‘bad news’ tattooed all over him. And, yes, that was his actual name. It was no wonder his record was as long as my arm. Some parents really set their kids up to fail, I swear.
“Unfortunately,” I confirmed, since there was really no risk of it getting back to Doug if he was as messed up as Marshall claimed.