Beth:Can I think about it?
She has so much on her plate; I’m not surprised she’s overwhelmed.
Me:Of course!
Beth:All right, thank you! I have to go now, Kim’s made lunch. Speak later?
Me:Sure, take care of yourself
I hesitate, then send a heart emoji. She responds with one, and I blow out a breath and slide my phone back in my pocket.
Am I crazy for offering her the job at PAWS before we’ve worked out where we stand personally? I frown, wondering if I should have waited. I just felt bad that she was hurt because we hadn’t asked her.
It was always going to be tough working with her every day. It’ll be even harder to do that after having slept together, especially if, in the end, she says she’s not interested in dating me. Or, even worse, if she goes back to Jude. I hadn’t thought of that. I wince, wishing I’d waited, but it’s too late now. Oh well. It’s possible she’ll tie the two things together. Either she’ll stay with Jude and remain at the Ark, or take a chance on both me and working at PAWS.
I sigh, get to my feet, and go back inside, locking the door behind me. There’s a lot to do, and it won’t get done while I’m sitting on my backside.
*
I spend another couple of hours clearing up the debris outside, then eventually head home. I’ve only eaten a cereal bar today and I’m ravenous, so I make myself some typical single-guy fodder—a huge chicken, cheese, and chip sandwich and take it into the living room to eat.
I’ve just started when my phone rings. I look at the screen, wondering if it’s Beth or Jude, but the name says Natalie.
Natalie Price is a therapist working at Sunrise Bay Community Wellbeing Center with me. When I decided to set up PAWS, I knew I had to be careful about poaching other therapists, and I’m planning to advertise and interview rather than approach people directly.
But Natalie is different. We’ve been good friends since she started working there a couple of years ago. She’s young and chirpy but extremely hardworking, and we have the same approach to therapy, which is rarer than you might think.
She’s also gotten herself into a predicament at SBCWC. She’s been having an affair with the guy who runs the center. He’s divorced, but he has two kids, and she told me that recently he seems to be spending a lot of time at the family home. Of course, he wants to see his kids,but last week she confessed that she suspects he still has feelings for his ex-wife. I told her then that if she’d like to come and work at PAWS, we’d love to have her. She said she’d think about it. Has she come to a conclusion?
I answer the phone. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Natalie,” she says in her low, husky voice. She’s fun, and attractive. I like her a lot, and I might have considered asking her out… if I wasn’t bonkers about Beth.
“Hey you. How’s it going?”
“Shit,” she says. “The answer’s yes.”
My eyebrows rise, and I say softly, “Oh… what’s happened?”
She takes a big breath, then lets it out slowly. “Come to think of it, that was a terrible way to tell you. I’m so sorry. I’m not saying I want to work for PAWS as an escape route, not at all. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought and was already ninety percent sold on the idea—I just didn’t want to let Rick down. But we had a big argument last night.”
“Hmm, there seems to have been something in the air.”
“Sorry?”
“Nothing. Did you argue about going to PAWS?”
“No, no, I hadn’t told him about your offer. It was about him and Bryn. Obviously it was Valentine’s Day, and I was hoping we’d go out for dinner or something, but he said he was busy and ended up going around the house. He swears there’s nothing going on, but I realized I can’t trust him. I’m not going to hang around and waste my life on someone who’s not committed to me.” She speaks with confidence, but I know her well enough to understand how much she’s suffering.
“I’m so sorry.”
She sighs. “It’s okay. But it sealed the deal for me. I wasn’t happy there, and I’m definitely not staying now. So if the offer still stands, I’d love to come and work for you.”
“For PAWS, not for me. There’s a standard contribution toward animal care and coordination, but you’d be an independent contractor. We’d provide the space, shared scheduling and marketing, and the therapy program infrastructure. But everyone should be here because they believe in the work first and foremost—not because they work for me.”
“Sounds great,” she says, and I can hear the smile in her voice. “And Archer… thank you for asking me, I really appreciate it, and I’m excited about the work.”
“We’ll be lucky to have you. Look, I’ll be down at the site tomorrow. We’ve got the builders coming in to plan it out. If you want to come up and take a look around, feel free.”
