Taking the pen in my hand, I wrote down,Go get a new bank account.
I could put the money I did have in it and leave the other alone.I would find a way to send the ten thousand back to Bane Cash.But that was something I would figure out later.I had more pressing matters.
Walking over to get my cup of coffee, I went about fixing it up with cream and sugar, took the bagel I had toasted with cream cheese, and went to sit at the small two-person table.I was back to being alone.Looking around at the bare walls and lack of holiday decorations, I sighed heavily.This was my life.I wasn’t on the streets.Arthur wasn’t a threat.No one was going to control me here.I wouldn’t get a broken wrist if I didn’t behave the way I had been instructed.
Yet my heart was still heavy with something beyond pain.There was a deep sorrow that took the ability to feel any joy about anything.I had learned to survive without Kash, and I knew I could do it again.
Bane wanted me to stay away from Mississippi and Kash.He didn’t have to worry about that.I never wanted to see either again.Both always left me broken.
This wasn’t what I had expected.When I’d read what my salary was going to be, I’d imagined a large doctor’s office with several doctors.But here I stood, behind the front desk, with my only coworker being a six-month-old golden Lab named Rocket.He bumped my leg, and I smiled down at him.I’d given him two of the doggy treats that we had out for patients who brought their dogs in with them.The little cutie was working his charm for more.
I bent don’t to scratch behind his ear as he wagged his tail furiously.“I was told you only get two in the morning and one in the afternoon,” I told him.“I don’t need to make Dr.Carmichael mad at me on my very first day.”
That was another thing that had surprised me.It was the doctor, Neil Carmichael, who met me at the door this morning and showed me around.He also gave me a list of things to do that were simple instructions on answering the phone, booking appointments, and finding files.His first patient had walked in, carrying a homemade apple pie in one hand and a small toy-sized fluff ball of a dog in her other.
Since then, I had booked several appointments, changed a few, emailed the elementary school a student’s vaccine records, pulled six different patient files, and been given a box of fruitcake cookies by a patient who had stopped in just to deliver goodies.
How had Bane found me a job like this?I doubted he knew Dr.Carmichael personally.I mean, why would he?A doctor with his own practice in another state.
Rocket nudged my leg again when I straightened back up to take the last patient’s file and put it back in the cabinet.He was going to be good for me.I’d managed to smile and even laugh once at his antics.There was something to this therapy-dog thing.
The phone rang, and I went to answer it.
“Dr.Carmichael’s office,” I said.“How may I help you?”
“Yes, I need to speak to a Cressida Beck,” a woman replied.
“That’s me,” I answered hesitantly because no one knew I had this job except Bane and the rest of the Southern Mafia, I assumed.
“Oh, okay.Well, your phone is ready to be picked up.We are open until five today.”
My phone?I hadn’t gone to get a phone yet.Opening the bank account had taken all my time this morning.
“I, uh, don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The iPhone 17 … you wanted the lavender one, and all we had in stock was black.I had to have one sent to us from another store …” She trailed off, then added, “You already paid for it.”As if that would jog my memory.
I knew I hadn’t paid for anything.Bane or Kash must have.The fact that it was lavender, my favorite color?Only Kash would know that.The pang I’d tried to push away while focusing on work and Rocket was back.This was his doing.All of it.I didn’t want that damn phone either.
“I, uh … I don’t want it,” I blurted a little too harshly I realized.
Silence.She clearly didn’t know what to do about that.
“Can you just refund whatever card it was charged to?”I asked her.
“No, I can’t.It was paid in cash.You gave me the cash … I mean, I thought it was you who had come in and opened the new account.”
A female had done this?Who had Kash sent to do it?
“It wasn’t me.It was a friend,” I told her.
“Oh, well, I’m not sure what you want me to do.But the phone is in your name, and the contract is signed … by you.Or who I thought was you.”She was as confused as I was.
Dammit, Kash.You could have just told me goodbye.Spoken to me.Allowed me some form of closure.This is more painful than if you’d done it to my face.
“Fine.I can’t pick it up today though.I work until five.”
“We can have it dropped off at your office if you would like,” she said.“Dr.Carmichael’s, correct?On Broad Street?”
