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Moving quietly, she carried her purse, one suitcase, and one garbage bag out of the apartment. She was breathing hard by the time she got down to her car. Partly from nerves, partly from having to carry a heavy bag down a flight of stairs.
She shoved it all in the trunk of her car, including her purse, which she hadn’t wanted to leave upstairs in case they woke up and went into her room while she wasn’t there. After locking the car, she went back into the building, praying that she would catch a break and they’d still be asleep. She didn’t have a lot of hope, since it felt like she hadn’t caught a break in a very long time.
Thankfully, when she walked into the apartment again, they were still dead to the world.
The knot of anxiety began to loosen as she made her way out of the apartment with the last of her things. She didn’t care that she was leaving behind dishes and other furniture. All of that could be replaced. What couldn’t be replaced was her peace of mind.
Back at the car, Aria’s hands shook as she put the bags in the trunk, then slid behind the wheel and started the car. She didn’t have a ton of gas, but she had enough to get her away from this place.
That her anxiety was dropping even though she was currently homeless told her how much living with that pair had been stressing her out. Aria knew her anxiety would rise again once the realization of how bad off she was settled in. But for now, she appreciated being able to breathe without it feeling like she had a vice around her chest.
Two years ago, everything had been great. She’d been engaged to a man she’d loved, and she’d had a job she enjoyed. Her mom had been struggling a bit with her health, but they hadn’t thought it was anything too serious.
Unfortunately, they’d been terribly wrong. By the time the cancer had been confirmed, the disease had advanced to a point where there was no treatment that would help.
With her mom’s diagnosis, Aria’s perfect life began to slip away. She had wanted to spend every moment she could with her mom, to the detriment of her engagement. Two months before her mom’s death, her fiancé had ended the relationship, leaving her devastated and without a support system for the horrible blow her mom’s death had dealt her.
Her grief had swamped her and clouded her judgment. Mired in grief, she’d made some bad decisions. One of which had led to the loss of her job as a nurse.
Without a steady job, she’d lost the home she’d shared with her mom, and she’d had to take a job as a cashier at a big box store in order to afford the living space she’d just left. Because she couldn’t afford the apartment on her own, her desperation had led her to accept Tonya as a roommate without a lot of questions or references.
And now, just days into a new year, she was even more desperate.
Aria didn’t have a destination in mind as she put the apartment building behind her, but then she steered the car toward the cemetery where her mom was buried. It wasn’t that she thought her mom was present there, but it was a peaceful place, and right then, she needed that.
“What am I going to do, Momma?” she asked a short time later as she sat on the grass next to her mom’s burial plot. She pulled the edges of her sweater close to ward off the chill of the early January afternoon. “I just don’t know how to deal with all of this.”
Time slipped by as Aria sat beside the grave. It was peaceful, and right then, Aria desperately needed that. Unfortunately, she also needed a place to sleep.
A friend from nursing school who lived in northern Idaho had a possible job offer for her as a receptionist at her family’s clinic that would also provide her with a place to live, but she hadn’t heard back from her yet. So, in the meantime, she had to find a place to stay unless she wanted to sleep in her car.
Pulling out her phone, Aria checked her bank and credit card balances. She needed to make sure that if shedidget the job, she had enough money to pay for gas to get to Idaho. She would get a paycheck in two days, though it wouldn’t be a very big one since she hadn’t had many shifts recently.
After some searching, she found a motel that she could afford for a couple of nights. If she still hadn’t heard from her friend by then, she’d need to look at other options.
As she let herself into the run-down room a little while later, she prayed that her car wouldn’t get broken into. The guy at the desk assured her that they had cameras, and it looked like a well-lit parking lot. Aria could accept the less-than-stellar room as long as her car and its contents were safe.
She just had to get through one day at a time. For now, she had a place to sleep and food to eat, even if it was just some bread and peanut butter that she’d picked up on her way to the motel.
She’d deal with tomorrow… tomorrow.
***
Doctor Gareth Halverson clicked his pen, his gaze bouncing back and forth between the other two people at the table. He had an opinion on the subject they were arguing about, but he was going to wait to express it. If it was even needed at that point.
“I promise you,” Janessa said earnestly. “Aria will be an asset to the clinic.”
“But will she be alastingasset?” Jaylen asked from where he sat sprawled back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest. “We need a receptionist, not another nurse.”
“And she’s fine with that. Her mom passed away last year, and she’s been under a lot of stress. I think she would welcome a job with fewer responsibilities. At least at first.” Janessa sighed. “I’ve been praying a lot about this, and I really feel that Aria is an answer to my prayers. C’mon, Jay. Don’t dismiss the idea so easily.”
The stand-off between the siblings was nothing new. Gareth had been witnessing them for as long as the pair had been in his life, which was coming up on twenty years. The siblings had joined the Halverson family when Jaylen was nine and Janessa was seven.
Gareth wasn’t sure which one was going to win this particular argument, but he had a feeling it was going to be Janessa. Though she and Jay went head-to-head on a regular basis, they usually came to an agreement without any lasting damage to their relationship. That was true of most of the squabbles he and his nine siblings had.
Janessa’s brown gaze swung his way. “What do you think, Gareth?”
He met Jay’s gaze for a moment before looking back at Janessa. “I agree with Jay.”
