Page 3 of Mated to the Pride

I didn’t want to spend a single minute more away from home. Today had really taken it out of me.

You would think that sitting behind a desk all day would leave you pretty well-rested, but it was actually the exact opposite. The more time I spent cooped up and staring at expense reports on a computer screen, the more I wanted to run out of that place and never look back — not that I had the energy to run.

The pay was okay. The benefits were reasonable. The commute was long, but it could be a heck of a lot worse.

But didn’t I deserve something a little bit more thanokay?

It felt like I spent most of my life working. A few years ago, I’d left college believing that my life was just about to kick into high gear. Now, I barely saw the friends I’d made there, who I’d felt so close to back then. None of us ever seemed to have time off that coincided. My life had turned into the kind of treadmill I’d only seen in movies and ‘before’ pictures.

I needed an injection of something good and different. Fast.

Once I finally got a seat on the train and could settle down with my coffee and my evening paper, I fell into the usual routine. I scanned the Missed Connections section first, always hoping in vain that some Prince Charming or other would have seen me across the counter at Subarro and fallen head over heels in love with me. It could happen, right? But for some reason, there were no notices that fit my description today — just like every other day.

Never mind. On to the classified ads.

A couple of people were selling pure-breed puppies. If my apartment allowed pets, I might have considered it, but… not for the thousands of dollars these breeders wanted to charge. Somebody wanted five hundred bucks for an old couch. Judging by the attached picture, it might be worth that if it had four hundred hidden under the seat cushions.

There really wasn’t much of interest today. I was about to close the paper and go back to daydreaming with my coffee when my eyes caught on a job advertisement.

Live-in home manager wanted, it read.Competitive pay. Join our tight-knit team in a remote location for full three-month term, with a near-immediate start. Duties will include cooking, cleaning and general home maintenance. All applicants welcome to interview — good personality fit required. Call for details.

There was nothing special about it. It certainly wasn’t my area of work. I studied finance at college, and now I stared at facts and figures all day, preparing detailed cost breakdowns and profit/loss reports. I could cook and clean, of course, but I’d never considered doing it for a living. Not even slightly.

So why was I itching to call that number?

My fingertips hovered over the ad. Could it be that I was just lonely? They mentioned a tight-knit team, which would be a far cry away from the cut-and-dry environment of my office, where nobody exchanged more than a couple of sentences with one another. Either that, or it could be the thought of getting out of the city for a couple of months.

Now that the idea had wormed into my head, I couldn’t shake it. The feeling was surreal. I had never even thought about leaving my job before, at least not in a serious way. Now here I was feeling drawn to a random ad in the paper that didn’t even cover my expertise. However competitive the pay was, could it really compete with my current salary for my highly-trained job?

I dropped the paper to my lap, frowning down at my coffee. I was probably just tired. I needed to get home, make a quick dinner and binge something on Netflix. If I needed to call that number and set up an interview just to scratch the itch, then so be it. It didn’t mean I had to actuallyattendit.

Man, scratch ‘make a quick dinner’. I needed takeout tonight. That much was for sure.

* * *

When I found myself in an Uber pulling up to a big house outside the city at 5:30pm the following day, I could barely believe I had come this far. Surely I wasn’treallygoing to leave my safe, secure office job for this opportunity, no matter how well the interview went? I was probably just setting myself up for an hour of awkwardness and a pointless rejection.

All risk, no reward.

“Alright,” said my Uber driver Shanice, giving me a big cheery grin as she pulled to a stop. “Here you go. Don’t look so nervous, okay? You’re going to do great.”

“Maybe.”

“Hey, none of that,” she said, wagging a finger at me. “You made a great impression on me. I’m sure they’re going to love you. And if you figure out you don’t want the job, then… at least you don’t have any regrets, you know? You took your shot. That’s what life’s all about.”

“You’re adorable,” I said, although privately I couldn’t help but feel like I needed to stop telling my life story to every friendly stranger I met. Shanice was cool, but she probably didn’t want to know about my unnecessary job interview woes. “Thanks for the pep talk. Have a good day!”

I watched the car pull away. I wasn’t a nervous person, but I couldn’t help chewing the inside of my lip as I walked up to the front door of this house. It looked like a nice place. The advert was asking for a ‘good personal fit’. If the people who lived here were really well-off, chances were that I wasn’t going to be on their level. I lived paycheck-to-paycheck, pretty much.

Still, I had no choice now. Shanice was already halfway down the street.

I plucked up my courage and rang the doorbell.

When the door opened, I was immediately glad I hadn’t run screaming. The guy who opened the door was… well,reallyhot. My first thoughts didn’t get any more eloquent than that. I forced my mouth into a smile so that my jaw didn’t drop open, and held out my hand,

“Hi,” I said, hoping my blush was light and rosy and not completely humiliating. “I’m Jess Dorsey. I’m supposed to be here for an interview, though I think I’m a little early.”

“Don’t worry about that,” he said. When he took my hand, I felt his grip strong and serious around mine. His hand was huge, and his jaw so firm and square that it looked like somebody had cut it that way on purpose. “It’s great that you’re here. Come on through. And, uh. Sorry about the mess. I swear it’s not usually this bad.”

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