I give the receptionist what I hope is a death stare.
It’s fine,I tell myself as I guide Eldra toward the exit. There are three other nurses besides this Wren person. Surely one of them will soften to my attempts at friendship? I might still win Emma over. Who knows?
One way or another, in a couple of days, I’ll have a new bestie.
I walk Eldra to my SUV. I help her into the passenger seat.
“Thank you for being so kind today, dear. I really need to make more of an effort to keep up with technology.” She shakes her head.
Eldra told me earlier that she doesn’t have a cellphone or a computer to receive the reminders.
“I have an old cellphone I can give you,” I tell her. “I’ll set it all up for you and bring it by later.”
“No…” She flaps a hand. “That’s too much to ask.”
“It’s fine, really. I’ll even show you how to work it.”
“Only if you let me fix you dinner.”
Maybe I can work on my friendship skills.
“Sounds like a good exchange,” I tell her.
I have a stash of cheap and secondhand cellphones I keep for situations like this. Elderly shifters who fall through the cracks of the system because they’re not connected to the digital world the rest of us live in.
“Oh, Grim.” Her eyes are actually getting misty. “You’re an absolute sweetheart.”
“You should tell that to the nurses at the clinic,” I mumble to myself.
“What’s that, dear?”
“No problem at all,” I tell her as I pull away.
6
Grim
I give the asshole male a gentle shove, and he stumbles forward. I’m already regretting this entire morning.
“In you go,” I growl.
These are my worst of them all. The lazy fuckers who couldn’t give a shit.
I had to pry the gaming control out of this greasy little prick’s hands.
Shenron hasn’t stopped bitching about the unfairness of it all since I dragged him out of his parents’ basement an hour ago. The drive over here was torture. Listening to him whine and complain about his guild, his raid, some boss fight computer game that I couldn’t give less of a fuck about.
“…and now they’re probably wiping without me,” he mutters, his voice dripping with resentment. “Do you have any idea how long it took to coordinate this raid? Three weeks. Three weeks of planning, and you just—”
“I don’t care,” I deadpan. “I’m doing my job. Your parents are going to get fined because you couldn’t leave your stupid game.”
“It’s not a game!” He looks like I just drove over his puppy. His skin is pale, his hair is greasy, and hanging in his eyes. His shirt is stained. He stinks. Kid looks like he hasn’t seen sunlight in months. Looks like he hasn’t taken a shower for longer still.
Disgusting.
Twenty-six years old. Lives in his parents’ basement. Professional gamer, whatever the fuck that means. And almost overdue for his vaccination because he couldn’t be bothered to leave his damned computer.
Sally looks up from her computer as we enter. Her eyes widen at the sight of my latest “client.” Her nose wrinkles for a moment before her professional smile slides into place.
