Page 6 of Bearing Secrets
“Okay, enough! What did you mean?”
Still laughing, Loren handed her an envelope. On it was the familiar logo of the local university hospital, and it was addressed from their mental health department. Two days earlier, Loren had gotten one exactly like it, offering her a position on their staff.
“Do you think?” she asked nervously, unable to even finish the question.
“Looks an awfully lot like the one I got.” Loren squeezed the envelope. “Maybe even a bit thicker. Open it!’ she said, waving the rest of the mail at her friend.
“Okay, okay. I will. Relax.”
Shaky fingers slid down the opening, nearly giving her a paper cut as she flicked the top open, revealing several folded papers inside. Taking a deep breath, she withdrew them, but that was as far as her willpower extended.
“I can’t.” She went back over to the couch in the other room, half sitting, half flopping onto it, fingers still clutching the papers.
“There are only two options. Your resume was better than mine anyway. If they took me, I can’t see why they’d deny you. So just open it!” Loren urged, sitting on the edge of the sofa next to her. “Otherwise, I will.”
“Like hell you will.” She flipped open the top letter and started reading.
“Well? What does it say?” Loren was bouncing up and down.
Natalia kept reading the letter in silence, until she got to the end. “They want to hire me,” she said quietly.
“But?” Loren was frowning at her. “You would be far happier if there wasn’t a but in there.” Tapping her chin thoughtfully, she looked at the ceiling. “It’s the visa thing, isn’t it?”
Nodding, Natalia sank back into the couch, a black cloud of despair coming over her. “They’re willing to hire me if I can get a work visa, but they won’t sponsor me or pay for it themselves. They don’t have the funds in their budget, apparently.” She tossed the letters onto the coffee table.
“That’s such bullshit!”
“Yeah.” Crying wouldn’t solve anything, but it certainly was how she felt just then.
Two weeks earlier, she’d gotten a letter from the government stating that her student visa would be expiring at the end of the next month, and to ensure that she had arrangements to return home.
The idea of going back overseas to her shithole of a home left Natalia shuddering in her friend’s arms as Loren wrapped her up in a comforting embrace.
“I’m not going back there,” she stated with conviction. “But how do I not? What can I do to stay here if the government won’t give me the visa?”
Loren stayed silent. “I don’t…”
The way her friend stopped speaking snagged Natalia’s attention immediately. “What is it? You have an idea, don’t you? Come on. Tell me. Please. I can’t go back there. I need to stay here. I want this job. It’s what I’ve worked for, just like you!”
Biting her lip, Loren looked away. “It’s crazy, Nat. Really crazy.”
“I don’t care. Whatever it takes for me to stay here. How do I do it? Spill. Unless you won’t miss me if I’m going?” she asked, fake pouting at her friend.
“Stop it.”
They shared a tension-relieving laugh, but Natalia wasn’t giving up that easily. “Give. Me. The. Details.”
“Remember, I told you it was crazy.”
“Yeah. I know. Now, what is it?”
Loren licked her lips, eyes flicking from the ground and the room around them. Anywhere but focusing on Natalia for several long seconds. “Get hitched.”
“Pardon?”
“Hitched. Married. Find a man. Marry his ass and get yourself a Green Card.”
Natalia stared at her friend. “You’re insane, you know that, right?”
