Chapter 41
Charity
“This is Charity Dobbins, returning Watch Commander Figaro’s call,” I said into the phone. The lady proclaiming to be a dispatcher on the other end of the line, told me she’d put me right through. The line crackled for a second and started ringing.
“Figaro,” the gruff voice on the other end of the line said by way of greeting.
“Yes Sir, this is Charity Dobbins returning your call, you left a message for me on my voicemail yesterday afternoon.”
“Oh, yes! Hi, I was wondering if you could come in for an interview,” he said.
“Absolutely,” I told him, “When would be good?”
“Can you be here in an hour?” he asked and I was taken a bit aback. I cued up Google maps on my laptop.
“I’m still new to the area, can you tell me where ‘here’ is?” I asked.
He rattled off an address and I punched it in, “Says you’re forty-five minutes from me, and that’s with no traffic, so an hour is pushing it.”
“Great, see you in two then,” he said and hung up. I sat up straighter and looked at my phone, a little stunned.
“Holy shit,” I uttered and busted my ass to get upstairs, presentable and into the Jeep in record time. I was betting this was my first test and when I arrived in an hour and a half flat, to see a man standing in the parking lot, lit cigarette in his mouth checking his watch as I pulled into the parking space in front of him, I felt like I’d hit the nail on the head.
“You Dobbins?” he asked.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Great,” he stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray at his hip, “Come this way, step into my office.”
I dutifully followed him into a small office in what looked like an industrial warehouse. He had windows looking out onto the garage floor where there were several ambulances in various states of being washed, stocked or repaired.
“Now when I saw your application and résumé, I thought to myself, ‘why is a girl with an education like hers, going for a job like this?’ Care to shed some light on that for me?”
I pursed my lips and gave the Watch Commander a good once-over, “I’m going to do us both a favor and cut the bullshit,” I said and he crossed his arms, mouth drawing down at the corners, his head bobbing up and down, impressed by all outward appearances.
“That’d be nice,” he said.
“My first choice, when it comes to medicine, was to be an ER nurse,” I said.
“And you figured Paramedic would be a good place to start until you could score that position?” he asked.
“No, not exactly,” I said, and he cocked his head to the side like I’d done something interesting.
“We both know I’m over qualified for this job, and I happen to know, you’re understaffed, but what if I told you, if you hired me, that I could bring Dominic Shepard back?” He sat up as if I’d finally really said something interesting.
“What makes you think you can get Shep back in here?” he asked.
“He’s my boyfriend for one,” I said laying it all out on the line, “For two, he’s not meant to be painting houses for a living. He’s meant to be out here saving lives. It’s in his DNA.”
“Won’t argue that, girly. Shep was one of the best guys I ever got and it was a damn shame losing him.” He looked me over, mulling it over, judgment all over his craggy face, like the older white guy in Men in Black, Tommy Lee Jones or whatever.
“It might take me a few days, but I’m fairly convinced that I could convince him,” I said.
“Tell you what, I’ll give you a week. If you come walking through those doors with Shep this time next week, I’ll not only give him his job back; I’ll give you a job and start you both out at the top of the pay scale.”
“Doesn’t sound like you think I can do it,” I said with a feral grin.
“I don’t,” he conceded.
Game on. I thought to myself, out loud I said: “Well Sir, you don’t know me very well, so I’ll give you the benefit of that doubt.” I stood up and held out my hand for him to shake, which he did, and I said, “We’ll see you next week.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” he shot back and sounded as dubious as they came.
He followed me out and the paramedic who’d spoken to me the day Dom and I had saved the boy on the beach asked the Watch Commander, “What is she doing here?”
“Says she can bring Shep back.”
The paramedic scoffed, “Yeah, good luck with that,” he said, disbelieving.
“I don’t need luck,” I called back to them, getting up into the Jeep; I winked at them and with a false bravado said over the top of my windshield, “I got this.”
They both shook their heads and I put it in reverse and pulled out of the lot, heading back to Ft. Royal.
***
“How was your day?” Dom asked me back as I set a plate of food in front of him.
“Had an interview, actually,” I said and he looked interested.
“Oh, yeah? How’d it go?”
“I’m not sure, we’ll see,” I answered and hoped it sounded non-committal while at the same time, I tried not to feel awful for lying. I quickly changed the subject, “What about you? Have anything else lined up?” I asked, and he nodded, chewing through a bite of his food and swallowing before answering.
“Yeah, a few things,” he said.
“Aw, yeah? Maybe I can come help out, I’ve kind of exhausted the current application pool,” he shifted in his seat and hedged.
“Ah, yeah, sorry about it, Baby, but you can’t. I would have to buy additional insurance and sign you on as an employee and all that garbage. I’m really only covered to have one assistant and right now that’s Gator. He needs the money, and I’m always one to help a brother out.”
I smiled, understanding completely, “Hey, it’s no worries, but maybe come the weekend I can stay with you at your place. I’m getting tired of the scenery around here.”
He smiled and shifted in his seat again, and said, “Sounds good to me.”
We ended up spending a fabulous, low key evening, laying in each other’s arms in the hammock out back, watching the sun set, and the stars come out, talking in low and even tones, finding out multitudes of little small things about one another.
I found myself wondering what it would be like to live with this man for real, and let myself daydream about the possibility of working with one another, too. He held me close as if I were his anchor to the Earth and he were afraid to let go, and I liked that about him. I also liked that he held true to his promise, and was open with me, talking about what was, and what is, freely; without any fear of reprisal. I mean, he wasn’t going to get any from me.
Evening wore into night, and we retired up to my room, tucked into each other’s embrace. We skipped sex in favor of domesticity tonight, and I was okay with that. So, apparently was he. I fell asleep in his arms, his hand lightly tracing random patterns on my back. It was bliss.