The Aftermath
Amanda opened one red, puffy eye. She blinked hard into the darkness of the room, wondering where on earth the sunshine was that normally streamed through her bedroom window.
Within a second it all came crashing back. The horrible, unexpected, shocking fight with Phil. He’d kicked her out and she was here, in a dumpy motel room because it was cheap, the thick curtains drawn over the window, still in her clothes from the day before.
She hadn’t brushed her teeth the night before and they felt fuzzy, her mouth thick. Her flaxen hair was matted and tangled around her shoulders. She groaned as she pushed back the covers. The bed was lumpy and hard in turns. Her back ached and her neck had a horrible cramp in it. When she turned to the right, the pain hit and she nearly saw stars.
Her backpack sat on the wood chair in front of the beat up desk. She forced herself to go to it and retrieve her laptop. It powered up in a few seconds. She stared at the too bright screen, which cast shadows over the darkened room. She should just open up the curtains and let the sunlight in, but she didn’t want to. Sunlight symbolized hope and right now she had none.
There was a job site that she had found her waitressing job on back in college, before Phil had forced her to quit and started giving her an allowance. She’d moved in with him shortly after. He hadn’t even wanted her to finish college, but she’d been adamant.
Not that an arts degree was worth anything. She knew the kind of jobs she would like to have were few and far between.
Regardless, Amanda searched for the job site. It was still there. It looked completely different, but there were numerous postings. She flicked through the first page dispassionately, passing title after title. Nothing seemed right. She knew she would just have to suck it up and take something eventually, but she wanted it to be something she was at least half decently happy at. If that was still possible.
Finally, on the forth page, something caught her eye. A live in housekeeper for a rustic location. It was an odd title. She clicked on the ad and read through the description. The job was located an hour or so outside Boulder. Set off grid, whatever that meant. What really gave her some hope was the fact the job included room and board. The salary wasn’t much, but it was all profit since she didn’t have to find a place and pay rent.
At the moment it seemed like a very, very good option.
Amanda spent the better part of the next couple hours making a resume. It was lean. Far too lean, since she hadn’t actually worked in forever. She finally decided to list all her jobs before college, her college experience and her volunteer experience. That fleshed it out a little. In her cover letter she stated that she’d grown up on a farm. It was a stretch considering they hadn’t had animals or farmed the few acres that were theirs. She’d basically just lived on the perimeter of a small town. Because she bused to school, she thought it counted.
She took a minute to look everything over before she sent it to the email address listed on the ad. It was corny, she admitted. She probably didn’t have a chance in hell of getting the job. She still couldn’t even truly believe she was considering this. How had it all boiled down to this so very quickly?
Since she couldn’t just sit in bed and mope all day, Amanda decided to get up and get in the shower. A nice warm bath or standing under the hot spray normally made her feel better, but when she emerged from the shower ten minutes later, nothing had changed. She was still basically homeless, jobless and friendless.
Her hand itched to dial her mother’s number, but she didn’t dare. How could she go running back to her mother at the first sign of trouble? Her mom hadn’t exactly minced words when she’d told Amanda she had no home to come back to if she moved in with Phil.
No, if she was going to work at repairing the relationship with her mother, after a four year gap of not speaking, it would have to be done slowly, with tact.
The shrill ring of her phone cut into her thoughts, startling her. Amanda rushed across the room, still wearing the white, thin bath towel around her torso, hair dripping all over the place. She retrieved her phone from the bed, hoping like hell it was Phil calling to apologize. To tell her that this was all some big mistake.
Her heart sunk as she stared at the strange number she didn’t recognize. She finally answered.
“Hello?”
“I’m looking for Amanda Rath, please.”
For some reason, Amanda shivered. The masculine voice, deep with just the hint of a raw edge, appealed to something primal and raw deep inside of her that she didn’t even know existed.
“Yes,” she whispered, far too quietly. She forced her voice to be firm. “This is.”
“You applied for a housekeeper position. I’d like to give you an interview if you’re still interested.”
“Oh.” Crazy! She’d just fired off her resume twenty minutes before. She hadn’t really expected a call back, let alone one so soon. “Yes. Sorry, I’m still interested.”
“Can you make it here tomorrow morning? For an interview?”
Only because I have nothing else to do. “Yes. Sure. What time?”
“Does ten work?”
“Ten sounds fine.”
The deep voice paused but she could still hear him breathing. It was oddly unnerving, that deep, gentle cadence. It created a strange pressure in the bottom of her stomach as she imagined what he’d look like. Older. Maybe forty. He lived alone in some rustic setting so he must either hate humanity or have a story that he didn’t want the world to know. Since he could afford to hire someone it must mean that he wasn’t broke and therefore not living away from the city for financial reasons. She imagined he’d be tall. Broad shouldered. Wounded dark eyes, chestnut hair cropped short. Clean shaven, because even though he was in the bush he liked to be well groomed.
She shook herself. So not an appropriate train of thought.
“If I give you the land location, you’ll be able to find it?”
“Yes.” She had no idea what that even meant, but the internet was a marvelous thing. Satellite images and mapping were pretty advanced now. She figured if she plugged in whatever he gave her, she’d be fine. At least she hoped so. She didn’t want to be lost on some back road.
“Good.” He listed off a series of numbers she wrote down on the hotel notepad. After that he said a quick, stunted goodbye and hung up.
She was left standing by a beat up desk, her hair dripping beads of water over the surface when she leaned over to inspect the coordinates again.
It was strange, what life threw at you. In less than twenty-four hours her whole world had changed and changed again. Maybe this was the new beginning she needed. A fresh start, away from the city, away from the life she’d known for so long.
Now that she had a spark of hope to count on, it was a little easier to look back on her life with Phil and be honest. She hadn’t been completely happy. There had been something missing for her and it wasn’t just the baby they’d tried to conceive for so many years.