“You don’t have any kind of backup plan?” Brandon frowned. “What if your lawyer can’t get it back?”
“Well…” LA paused.
He’d been working under the assumption that he’d be able to return to his job once he spoke to the lawyer. His career meant everything to him and thinking about a future without it was discouraging, to say the least.
LA deflated a bit. “I guess I figure out somethin’ else to do with my life.” He sipped at the coffee. “Your coffee fuckin’ sucks.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.” Brandon laughed. “Asshole.”
LA tried to smile.
“You know, my mom might actually want to talk to you.” Brandon fished out his phone. “Is it okay if I send her your contact info?”
“Your mom?” LA strained to remember. “Isn’t she… a nurse?”
“Yeah. They’ve put her in charge of creating some new department at the hospital she works at.”
“Duraleigh General, right?”
“Right. They want to create a decedent care office.”
“Oh, like what they have up at the university hospital?”
“I guess?”
“They handle the death certificates, contacting the doctors, reaching out to the funeral home, and oh yeah, fielding the organ donation vultures.” LA gestured vaguely. “Streamlines the process, especially for funeral homes. See, depending on the hospital, it could be security calling in the death, might be a family member, or even a nurse on the floor who wants us tocome right fucking then to pick up the body before they ever go to the morgue.”
“And that’s… bad?”
“It can be, yeah. Take Rex Hospital, for example. Only security can release a body to us, but that nurse up on the floor would call us and say the body was ready to go just ’cause they didn’t want to go to the morgue. So, we’d show up to pick up the body only to get stopped by security, who wouldn’t let us leave. Or get a pissed off family member wanting to know why we hadn’t left with their loved one.”
“Because security should have been the one to call in the first place.”
“Right.” LA nodded. “Every hospital around here is a little different, except for the ones that have decedent care offices.”
“Like the university one?”
“Yeah, and the Johnston Medical network. They have one office for all their hospitals.”
“So, is it okay if I pass your info over?” Brandon grinned. “Because I am literally going to forget everything you just told me.”
LA chuckled. “Yeah, go for it. I’m not sure how much help I’ll be, but I’m happy to chat with her.”
“Hey, you already know more than me.” Brandon typed a bit on his phone. “Thank you, man. I appreciate it.” He kept typing, his eyes glued to the screen. “You know, I got an invite to your brother’s wedding.”
LA picked at the seam of his coffee cup. “Uh-huh.”
“I take it that means you’re not going.”
“No,” LA said firmly.
“Does your mother know that?”
“I’ve told her.”
“So.” Brandon put his phone back in his pocket. “She still thinks you’re coming?”
“Fuck yes.” LA groaned sharply and grumbled into his coffee. “She’s fuckingpsychotic. I’ve been avoiding her fuckin’ calls. Literally cannot deal with her shit right now.”
