Page 144 of Family Bonds: Coy & Angel

Tim laughed. “Good luck.”

She frowned. “What does that mean?”

She hadn’t been here long enough to catch onto anyone’s jokes or serious banter. She’d never been that great at picking out the difference either.

“Nothing,” Tim said. “Could be five minutes, could be fifty minutes. Depends on Joyce’s agenda is all. That’s why I said good luck. The no smile on her face could mean anything. I picture you as a get-in-and-get-out type of person.”

Just great. Nothing like making her more nervous.

“That’s me,” she said, leaving the pharmacy and making her way through the hospital and down the hall to where her boss’s office was.

She knocked on the open door.

“Come in, Justine,” Joyce said, stone-faced yet again. “Close the door.”

Crap. She was just getting settled here and, though money wasn’t an issue and she knew she could find another job easily, she didn’t want to have to eventhinkof those things.

“You wanted to see me,” she said as pleasantly as she could.

“Have a seat,” Joyce said, her hand gesturing toward the chair that looked decades old.

She forced her tiny size six feet to move across the cheap carpet in her boss’s office to the black fake leather chair in front of the desk and placed her butt down to the crinkling noise of the material and held back the gulp over the news she was going to hear.

She’d never been much of a nervous person, but with everything that had happened in the past three months of her life, she felt as if every phone call, every conversation, and even every look was going to drop piles of stinky poop on her head.

“Lay it on me,” she said, trying to force some bravado. Her father would be proud to see it. If he were even around to do that.

Don’t cry,she internally told herself.Suck it up!

Joyce smiled and it caused the release button holding her stiff shoulders in place to let go. Phew.

“I like you,” Joyce said. “A lot. You’ve got a great work ethic. You come in, put your head down, do your work. You’re great with any of the patients if they have questions, you’re friendly and well liked, but you keep your nose clean.”

“I’m paid to do a job,” she said, nodding. “That is what it’s about.”

Joyce kept her grin in place. “If only everyone thought that way. And it pains me to do this when you’re one of my best and fastest in the department.”

Oh shit. Here it came. She was looking for tissues to wipe up the crap that was going to drop. She just hoped her tears didn’t go with it.

“How painful is this going to be?” she asked, trying not to cringe.

Hopefully the worst case was she was only changing shifts. That she could handle. Not a big deal. It came with the job.

“Not horrible. At least I hope not. You’re the lowest person on the ranking chart. I could ask if anyone wanted to volunteer for this, but I know no one will. The rest have families here and have turned their noses quickly in the past.”

She frowned. “Here? Am I being transferred to another site?” She was only a few months into her twelve-month lease. Good lord.

“Yes,” Joyce said. “Not far.”

“Oh,” she said. “Okay. It happens. Where?”

“Amore Island,” Joyce said.

“Huh?” She knew about the island off the coast of Boston. There wasn’t even a bridge for her to drive over. “I’d have to take a ferry to get there?”

“That’s the thing,” Joyce said. “It’s not feasible for you to do that daily. They need someone on the island and we are going to try this for six months. We have housing for you. It will be paid for. It’s not going to cost you anything to live for the six months and you’ll have your place here when you return. I know this might not be what you wanted to hear, but it happens. It’s hard for them to fill positions there and we are always sending staff over to cover for a week or more. It was decided to put someone there for six months and see how it goes. Maybe you’ll like it and want to stay.”

It was the laugh that came at the end of the sentence that made her think that was a joke.

---