AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sitting here isn’t working. There are tasks to be done. Patients are coming in. I can’t hole up in here. It’s a Monday that’s been a hell of a Monday.
I stand up, shaking my sleeves down, trying to pull myself together.
But the anger is right there, so close to the surface that it’s barely contained.
At least I won’t have to look at her again. She still has her old job. She doesn’t need this one. She’s out of here.
Maria pokes her head in the door. “New puppy exam in room two.” Her smile fades. “What’s wrong?”
“I need you to fire Ensley.”
She steps inside. “What? She’s been doing great!”
“I don’t care. Go out there and tell her to leave as soon as the last person is out the door. Collect her keys. Change the passwords. Delete her company email address. I don’t want her to have any access here at all.”
Maria closes the door and leans against it. “Drew, you’re not making any sense. Does this have to do with the two of you skulking around here like illicit lovers? The entire staff knows.”
Great. Just great.
“She never meant to stay, Maria. She still works in Alabama. She took her vacation, and I guess wanted to screw with my head for a week. She’s due back there soon, and it might as well be today.”
“Drew, that doesn’t make any sense. Listen to yourself.”
I’m absolutely fucking angry and I don’t want to explain one more thing.
“Maria, just do it, or I’ll toss you out right behind her.”
Maria glowers. “Don’t threaten me, Drew Daniels. I’ve worked inside these walls way before you got your inexperienced britches in a bind with your surly ways. If you had a lovers’ spat with Ensley, you deal with it yourself. And don’t think for a minute you can run this place without me. Because you can’t. So start acting like it.”
She flings open the door and heads out. “And don’t forget exam two. It’s your damn job.”
I want to throw things. Every movie scene where some pissed-off man has cleared everything off his desk runs through my head.
But it’s not logical. I’m not being logical. Yes, Ensley needs to go, and now. She was going to be gone, anyway.
And Maria’s right. I shouldn’t put it on her to do my dirty work.
I’ll get it done.
I quickly head to the puppy exam, talk to the new owners, and shake the hand of another patient with an elderly cat.
Then I sit back at my desk and listen to a voice mail from the surgeon who extracted the wire from Missy this morning. She’s recovering fine. That done, I perform a quick internet search for a different temp agency than the one I’ve used before. They never got back to me.
The new agency is great, and we have a pleasant phone call about the qualifications I’m looking for. The woman assures me they can have someone here tomorrow morning who can type and answer phones until they contact possible temp-to-hire receptionists who enjoy animals. They email the paperwork for me to fill out while we’re talking, and I turn it right back in.
That much is done. The position will be filled.
I’ll apologize to Maria and bring her flowers if I have to.
Now to fire Ensley James.
Chapter 33
ENSLEY
I don’t know what to do. I check in patients like normal, my head spinning.
I have to make Drew understand.
