“No, but I’m sleeping with half of them so there’s that.” She must see my eyes widen because she chuckles and wrinkles her nose. “You’ll get used to it. Most of us are hooking up in some ways, as long as it doesn’t impede our work.”
I belatedly realise that everyone on the staff here is exceptionally attractive and my stomach bottoms out. “Is that s-something everyone does?”
“It’s not part of your employment contract if that’s what you’re asking.” She winks at me. “Definitely just a perk.”
My cheeks, always tell-tales, flush bright crimson.
“Don’t worry. No one’s expecting you to do anything.” She chews the inside of her cheek. “Patrick’s already made it very clear you are a hands-off staff member. He’d happily kill anyone who went against his word.”
Her voice is light and airy, so at odds with the threat of murder that I take a while to decipher that’s what she actually said.
“Does he kill many people?”
“Not in the club, he doesn’t. You’re good from here?”
I nod and thank her, quickly changing and slipping out the back before my mind can be blown any further. The bus ride home is long enough that the entire evening takes on a dreamlike quality.
Did I really get fired? And hired? Do other workplaces have staff ready to jump each other’s bones the moment they get a five-minute break?
My phone beeps with an email when I’m walking home from my stop, and I pause at the side of the footpath to scan the text. An employment contract. Unless I’ve made some kind of rookie error, my hourly wages just tripled.
A smile blossoms on my face, a lightness lifting my mood as I continue on towards home.
Dad isn’t in and my smile falters a little. When my phone buzzes, set to vibrate, I think it’ll be him, feeding me one from his endless list of excuses.
Instead, it’s a text from Lachlan.“Your dad’s asked to extend credit at one of our clubs. Do you want me to say no?”
I gulp for air as I read and reread the text, making sure it says what I think it does. After Spencer’s easy dismissal of my pleafor help, I’d lost my momentum, unable to think of another way forward, but this…? This is an answer to my prayers.“Yes,”I immediately text back, then clarify,“I mean yes, say no to him.”
He sends me a thumbs-up emoji. A few minutes later, he’s back.“Should I ban him? No gambling and no loans?”
I stare at the words, hardly daring to believe it.
There’ll be other clubs, other sharks on the hunt for prey, but it’ll take time for Dad to find them. Time during which he might come back to his senses. Another chance for him to straighten up and fly right.
“Yes!”
I wait for a second, heart thumping so forcefully I see the pulse in my eyes, then he responds,“Done.”
The interaction is so simple I can’t fully comprehend it. That the course of my dad’s addiction could be so fundamentally altered so quickly steals the air from my lungs.
“Thank you.”I chase the message with a load of happy face and heart emojis, smiling through my tears of relief.
A saviour stepped in to help and the weight taken off my mind makes me feel unbelievably good. A sensation so alien, it’s like I’m not even the same person.
Lachlan waved his magic wand and made everything all right. Not forever, maybe not even for long, but a respite from my worst thoughts is welcome even if it doesn’t last.
Once again, I owe him for something I could never have handled alone.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
GEORGE
A fortnight later,my life has changed so drastically that I barely recognise myself.
Lachlan insists that Keanen and I join his group for lunch every day. A blessing that becomes even more helpful when Keanen wrangles a place on the rugby team and afterwards disappears each day for practice.
If not for Lachlan publicly extending the hand of friendship, I would have spent every break alone. As it stands, I miss my friend, but I’m spoiled for choice of whom to talk to.
