“I’m not telling you what happened because I blame you, sweetie. I’m telling you because you clearly have a nut job magnet that pulls these types of guys into your orbit, and I want you to be careful. Kim kind of knows more about that woo-woo stuff than me, but you may need to burn some sage and cleanse the bad energy out of your life. Can’t hurt, right?”
I’m not a big woo-woo type of girl either, but at this point I’ll try anything to turn things around.
“Yeah, Ruby, that sounds like a good idea.”
“Has Ray stopped harassing you, at least?”
I haven’t had a threatening text or call from Ray in the last few hours, but I’ve attributed his silence due to the fact that he’s been at Ruby’s house for half of the night and now it looks like he’ll be in the hospital for the rest of it.
“Yes, it seems so.”
“Well, at least there’s that.”
I’m just about to ask Ruby if she can bring my overnight bag to work tomorrow when she brings it up first.
“So about tomorrow–”
Usually, Ruby picks me up from the apartment and takes me to most of our cleaning jobs, but I don’t want to inconvenience her anymore than she already has been.
“Just text me the address. I can take the bus or possibly get a ride so that I won’t make you go out of your way by having to pick me up out here. Bronx lives in the King Of Prussia area, which is entirely too far for you to drive if the job is completely in the other direction. The next one is downtown, isn’t it?”
“Karma, listen–“
“Yeah?”
“I think that with everything you’ve got going on personally, that it would be best if Minute Maids teamed me up with Bertie this week. You know, just until things settle down.”
I take a moment to digest what she’s just said. Ruby is the senior cleaner on staff and gets offered the highest paying jobs first. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time when I was first partnered with her, and I now see that I may have made some assumptions about our partnership, like it would always be there.
“Oh.”
“It’s nothing personal, and it doesn’t mean that we won’t work together again. It’s just that, you know me. I keep my head down, do my work, and I don’t want any problems.”
“Of course, I understand.”
Tears well in my eyes.
“And you can call the office and ask Brenda to put you on a few smaller jobs,” she says, sounding uncomfortable with how despondent I am. “I already told her to give you the next available job.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“And I’ll drop your bag off at the office if you want. You probably need your clothes, huh?”
I stare at myself draped in a thick, oversized, terrycloth robe I found in the guest room closet. Then I glance over at the bag of new clothes Bronx bought me from the boutique.
“There’s no rush. Just drop it off whenever,” I tell her. “I have a few things I can wear. Also, please tell Kim I’m sorry about today.”
“Sure, I will, when she finally starts talking to me again.”
While they have not fired me from my job, Ruby asking for a different partner is a major demotion for me at the agency and a major pay cut. After Ruby and I hang up, I lay face first on the softest comforter in America and cry myself into a desperately needed but fitful twenty minute nap.
With no place to live.
And Lev nowhere to be found.
What am I going to do now?
18
