My dream job is working at a retirement home as the resident nurse, but right now I’m desperate and I’ll take any job. With any luck, maybe I can find a nursing job here in Texas, and I can get an apartment nearby and be close to Julie. I remember how hard it was for her to secure this lake house once she had chosen to move to this adorable small town, so my hopes aren’t very high. The real estate isn’t exactly booming around here because it’s such a small town, and there aren’t many homes that don’t already have a family living in them. Sterling is the exact opposite of Dallas, where builders are turning every empty piece of land into an apartment complex or neighborhood.
If Sterling is out of the picture, maybe I can find a job and place to live in a nearby city so I’m at least close enough to visit my best friend more often that I’ve been able to in the last few years. That’s really my only criteria—it’s not like I’m looking for love any time soon. Men just let me down. I guess I’m lucky that I haven’t been horribly cheated on like Julie was in the past, but the men in my life have all been duds. They either care too much about their guy friends, or their jobs, or their gaming addiction to care about me. I’m tired of bouncing around from one boring man who doesn’t care about me to the next, which is why I dedicated myself to my job ages ago. All I need in life is a good job and a great place to live that’s close to my best friend. I do not need a man.
Whatever I do, I need to do it quickly. I refuse to stay here imposing on Julie for too long. As the night goes on, I toss and turn on the futon and barely get any sleep. Once it’s six in the morning, I go ahead and get up, having resigned myself to the idea of getting any sleep tonight. I grab my laptop and quietly walk out Julie’s back door to the back patio table to start my job search.
Unfortunately, I lost my last resume years ago, so my first task is writing up a new one, then I apply to a dozen jobs that are within an hour away from Sterling. Then, because I’m worried that’s not enough, I apply to even more nursing jobs that are farther way.
A couple hours later, the back patio door opens and Julie, wearing flannel pajama pants and a black tank top, walks out with two cups of coffee.
“Good morning,” she says, handing me a cup of coffee. “You’re up early.”
“I need a job,” I say, gratefully taking a big sip of caffeine. “I’m worried I won’t find one fast enough and I can’t afford to wait much longer.”
She sits next to me, glancing at my computer screen. “Why are you searching for jobs around here?”
“Because I’m tired of Dallas.”
Her eyes light up. “Wait, are you going to move here? That would be so cool! When is your apartment lease up?”
I bite my lip, not wanting to tell her the truth, but it’s kind of too late now. “It’s already up. I kind of got kicked out.”
“What?” she says, her jaw dropping.
I tell her the story, almost breaking into tears as I recite the callous way my former landlords kicked me out. “And that’s why I’m here. It’s not a fun visit for me… it’s because I’m homeless.”
“Oh my gosh,” she says, throwing her arms around me. “Annie, I’m so sorry. You can stay here as long as you want.”
I shake my head. “I knew you would say that, but no. I’m not going to do that. I need to get out as soon as possible and take care of myself because I’m not going to become a burden on you. I refuse.”
“You would never be a burden,” she says. “You’re my best friend and I’m happy to have you here.”
Maybe if we were both single ladies it would be fun to live together as roomies for a while. But that’s not the case. Max is on the verge of proposing to Julie. I’m not going to be the bum living in her house, inhibiting all her romantic wedding planning time with Max. I don’t want to be the annoying third wheel. Plus, I’m an adult. I need to be on my own.
My laptop chimes.
“Oh yay!” I say as I do a little shimmy dance. “That’s the job alert I set up! It means a new nursing job has been posted. Maybe I’ll get lucky and it’ll be a retirement home job!”
I click the link and my shoulders fall. “Dang, it’s just regular nursing, but it’s here in Sterling, so that’s good.”
Julie claps her hands together excitedly. “How cool would it be if you worked here? We’d finally get to hang out every day.”
My smile falters as I read the short listing. “It’s a contract position that only lasts two months, but I’m going to apply anyway. I could work that job temporarily to have money while I look for a full-time job.”
I fill out the short application, attach my resume, and hit send. Julie and I head to Roger’s Diner for breakfast, and while the healthy-minded nurse in me cringes at the amount of unhealthy food I scarf down, the other part of me is in foodie heaven. The diner’s biscuits and gravy are to die for, and the bacon is extra crispy—my favorite.
Not even an hour after my job application for the contract position, I get a phone call from someone named Lucia. She asks if I can start work today.
I enthusiastically tell her yes, nearly choking on my biscuits in the process. After the call ends, I tell Julie the good news.
“Yay!” she says, giving me a high five. “When do you start?”
“In two hours.” I grab another piece of bacon. “Hopefully I can find a pair of scrubs out of one of the bags in my car.”
* * *
While the job description and phone call from Lucia were fairly vague, I soon realize that this isn’t some nursing job at a local doctor’s office, or school, or someplace where you’d expect to need a nurse. It’s a film set. I arrive at the address I was given, which is a large park on the outskirts of town, and I have to talk to a security guard, who checks my ID and calls for Lucia to come retrieve me. This is all so surreal and weird. I was expecting to work at a doctor’s office, not a film set.
I guess it makes sense that a film crew would need a nurse on site so I can treat minor wounds if they happen to come up. This is actually kind of cool, I realize while I stand here in my pink Hello Kitty scrubs, waiting for Lucia to come give me permission to enter the set.
