Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97409 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97409 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
But the worst thing they ever did to me was when they’d visit me at work. Or that is what they called it. I should have known something was off. I only found out about it a month later when I overheard a couple of my coworkers complaining that their identities had been stolen, and there were credit cards opened in their names. I secretly knew in my bones that they did it. Well, it was my father who did it, and my mother went along with it. I confronted him, and he did what any good parent would do. He kicked me out of the house and told me to fend for myself.
I stayed in a shelter for a week before I got my next check and then rented a room in what could only be described as a step above poverty. I thought for sure my father would let me be, but when the check from my job didn’t arrive in his account, he showed up at my workplace and made a scene, which promptly got me fired. They didn’t want to fire me, but they also didn’t want the hassle. I got a job waitressing two counties over and didn’t tell anyone. I should have also moved at that point, but this was my home. I worked the night shift while I went to school during the day to get my paramedic training degree. It took two years and, by the end, I was running on fumes.
Now, five years later, I am the best paramedic they have, and I’m not saying it because I think that. I’ve gotten enough merits over the years to back it up. When new recruits come in, they usually train with me. Roman hates it, but he also hates training anyone, so he sits back for the month and pretty much lets me do the training, and he does all the paperwork. It works for both of us. Though if it were possible and I had the opportunity to do nursing school on the side, I would have jumped on that chance.
“It’s homemade mac and cheese day, with garlic knots,” he announces. “They better have made a fuckton.”
I laugh as he pulls up to the big brick building that houses both the fire station and the paramedics. The building has three garage doors, two are for the fire trucks, and the one all the way at the end is for the two ambulances we have. Roman drives into the garage, parking behind the other rig. “I can smell the garlic,” he says, getting out of the rig and slamming the door. I smell it also, but unlike him, the smell makes me a bit queasy.
I follow him to the side, where he pulls open the brown metal door that leads to a staircase, which takes you upstairs to the kitchen and sleep area. The downstairs hallway goes to the offices, where the fire chief, Scooter, has his office. I walk up the steps behind Roman. They are just taking the food out of the oven.
“If I get thirty minutes uninterrupted,” Hudson, one of the firefighters, says, “I’m going to play the lottery.”
“Chew fast,” Ricky, another firefighter, teases, making everyone laugh.
I walk over to the fridge and open it to see if there is something else I can have. Knowing the heaviness of the food, along with the way my body is reacting to the smell, it might not be a good night for me.
“You aren’t having pasta?” Roman asks me with a plate in his hand. I shake my head.
“I had pasta yesterday,” I lie, pulling out things to make a grilled cheese. As soon as I finish my last bite, we get a call that someone fainted at the football field.
The time flies by, and finally, at 3:00 a.m., I’m getting behind the wheel of my Civic and making my way home.
I open the window, feeling the cool night breeze on my face. The minute I go down the road where I met Theo, my mind automatically goes back to that night.
He stood at my sink washing his hands, and I walked over to the stove to grab one of the hand towels that hung there. He turned off the faucet and shook the excess water off his hands in the sink before I lifted my hand to give him the towel.
“Thank you,” he said, his hand reaching for the towel.
“It’s the least I could do.” I laugh nervously. “You did pull over at the side of the road in the middle of the night to help a damsel in distress.” I fold my arms over my chest. “If you think about it, it wasn’t the smartest thing you could have done.”
“How so?”
“I could have been a serial killer. I could have been luring you out to murder you. Keeping body parts in jars in my basement.” I grin. “So thanks for pulling over.”