“You’ve been abused by employers too much as it is.”
“What’s my starting pay?”
“Before bonuses?”
“I don’t count bonuses as a part of my pay because they might not happen.”
“Wise woman. Your starting salary will be a hundred and ten thousand.”
My head went blank at the number. “I’m sorry, but could you repeat that?”
“A hundred and ten thousand, measured in dollars. This is a competitive starting salary for the amount of work you’ll need to do.” Wayne held his hand out for my papers. “I’ll show you.”
I handed over the pages, which he flipped through before handing one back. According to the sheet, I would be a secretary working directly for him, and everything was as he’d said, except he hadn’t mentioned the part about the complete health insurance he would pay for. “Health insurance?”
“I’m going to guess you have pretty crap health insurance right now if you have it at all.”
Damn, he didn’t pull his punches. “The CDC has helped somewhat because of the attack.”
“Well, you’ll have proper health insurance. Lycanthropes need it. The virus doesn’t make us immune to illness, although it does solve a lot of problems. We can still be hurt, too. Your policy will be my responsibility. The policies for hybrids can get pretty ridiculous. The CDC was helping you with your health bills?”
“I think I had to pay ten dollars once for prescriptions right after the attack. That was my share.”
“What did they have you on?”
“Pixie dust and some other stuff, I guess. It was my share from the hospitalization”
“You paid ten dollars for your hospitalization?”
“Yeah. They gave me a token bill. I agreed to let them study me since my virus is weird.” I hesitated. “Was that a bad decision?”
“No, not at all. Hospital bills aren’t cheap. I got a lot of my medical bills cleared by allowing the CDC to observe how the virus interacted with my cancer and my fast maturation rate. I paid the rest off myself, although the bill was a token one, too. They just claimed ten percent of my income over three years as my share. At the time, I was making a big, bad three thousand a year doing miscellaneous work. I was dying, so there wasn’t much else to do—and they didn’t count my investments, which I’d been planning to leave for family and friends.”
“Except you didn’t die.”
“Right. I happily paid that medical bill. They probably felt you expected a bill and gave you one that you could easily afford. I doubt the ten dollars was actually easy for you to afford.”
“It wasn’t, not precisely, but I paid it.”
“The CDC tries, but it has issues. Still, I’m glad they took care of you. However, I question everything about the bounty you took. Can you tell me more about it?”
“After the paperwork,” I promised, looking over the single sheet promising I’d be able to claw out of the hole I’d been in for far too long. “And you really mean for me to pay rent at my original income levels?”
He handed me another sheet, which confirmed the amount of my monthly rent. “I wouldn’t back out on you on something like that, not when I saw your expression as you thought about it in your apartment. It was the look of somebody who was clueing in there was a good chance at a better future on the horizon. I’m an asshole, but I’m not that much of an asshole. And don’t defend my assholish tendencies. I am a single hybrid lycanthrope male. As such, I am an asshole.”
As my virus could transform me into an epic asshole with the right provocation, I had no trouble believing Wayne could become one. “Make this easy on me. What are the catches?”
“Well, you’ll be stuck working with me often. You’ll literally see me daily.”
Crap. Daily? Monday through Friday would test me as it was, but daily? My virus stirred, considering the situation with interest. After a few moments, she determined all was right in her world and returned to her nap.
Huh. I wondered if all lycanthropes enjoyed quiet moments when their virus wasn’t pitching a fit over something. “Does the bonus at the end of the year account for how many days in a row I have to put up with you without having a break?”
“You’ll be seeing me daily.”
“Vacations exist, and I will get to actually take one. But for purposes of my bonuses, we can assume daily into eternity.”
Wayne chuckled. “Yes, your bonus will account for daily forced exposure to me. I’ll do my best to be generous with your yearly bonuses.”
