Page 25 of Some Like It Hott

I don’t know why I was surprised. I’d hated school. I loved beingatschool because I loved the people. But I hated sitting still and reading and writing. Getting paid for it didn’t change that.

When you hate your job, your job has a tendency to hate you back.

I’ve been through a lot of jobs. And every time I leave one, I think about my parents.

She’s the one we’ll have in our basement till she’s fifty.

When I got my first activities director position, at the nursing home, I freaking loved it. I thought my parents would be happy for me that I’d finally shown some ambition and turned being a people person and a perpetual partier into a potential career—but they were distracted and had bigger things to deal with. Like my sister’s shiny career and my father’s retirement party. My mom only saidI didn’t know that was a job titlebefore losing interest.

And when the nursing home downsized and I got laid off, she said,Well. It’s an opportunity, really. For something better.

Now I pull my hand out from under hers. “I want to pay for school myself.”

“Admirable,” my father says, in his judge’s booming voice. There: decided and pronounced.

“You could go right away if you let us pay.” My mother is working herself up to dig in.

Just then, my sister rescues me—although I don’t think she does it on purpose. “Wait,” she says, crossing her arms. “I figured something out.You’rethe one working with Preston. Oh my God! Oh, youhaveto hear this story,” she tells my parents. “You know how Quinn had to do that thing where he worked as the receptionist at the spa? Because of his granddad’s will? Well, all the brothers have to do something similar, and in Preston’s case, he has to design a complete activities program for the resort, and he has to work with the resort’s activities coordinator, and that’s Natalie!”

“Wait, what’s this?” my mom asks. “I thoughtyouwere designing the activities program.”

“Right, I am, but, well—” God. “We have to work together for a few weeks till Preston fulfills the terms of the will. Then the job will be mine.”

Assuming we pass the test.

The thought gives me an icy shiver, but I push the possibility of failure away.

“What does Lloyd think of the new job?” my mother asks.

“He thinks it’sgreat,” I say. “He’s all for it.”

She nods at that. “Okay. Well. It sounds like a good…first step.”

Right. Now that it has Lloyd’s stamp of approval.

It’s going to suck when she finds out we broke up.

“And have you made a decision yet about which program you’re applying to? I’ve been talking to people at work about the options and hearing good things about nursing administration.”

I have to be honest, I haven’t actually had time yet to look at the programs or to think about which one would be best for me. They have all have names likehealth informationandmedical records administration, but when I look at them, they all look likedeskdeskdeskdesk.

But there are loads and loads of careers in the medical field, and I’m sure there’s something on the list that won’t be like that. Something I’ll like, that will offer me lots of earning and growth potential. That’s the plan.

“Nursing administration is way up there,” I tell her, and then I ask Marcus about the food in Belgium because it’s so much easier when we’re not talking about me.

12

Natalie

Afew days after dinner at my parents’, I stand outside Hott Spot Spa and Salon and watch Preston amble toward me from the parking lot, the picture of casual male ease.

As he approaches, I take a moment to admire him again. How many summer suits does this guyown? Probably a lot, given that he works in finance in New York City. This one’s camel-colored slub linen, and I want to touch it. You know, nothing inappropriate. A stroke over that right pec. Dusting away an invisible speck.

I sigh. Out loud.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, fine.”

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