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Allison looked at her and smiled. “You don’t get to control my thought process.”
“I can try.”
Allison’s smile faded. “I’m sorry I wasn’t up this morning. I wish someone had woken me up. Jackson isn’t your responsibility.”
“You need to catch up on your rest and it wasn’t me. My mom fed him. We all adore him and he’s so easy to deal with. Having said that, I promise if it gets to be too much, or if there’s a scheduling conflict, I’ll absolutely tell you.”
“Thank you.”
Erica glanced down at her list. “All right, logistics you need to know. Wednesday the cleaners are here. A team of three or four take care of the house. They scrub everything, so you’ll need to let them into your room. I would suggest you tell them to do your bedroom and bathroom first and take Jackson to the park or something for an hour.”
“I can clean my own bathroom.”
“Not with that belly. Besides, it’s what they’re paid to do. They’ll also change your sheets. Another team member will collect anything for the dry cleaner and bring back last week’s.”
Allison’s eyes widened a little. “They do that?”
“It’s part of what they’re paid for.”
“I don’t really have any clothes that need to be dry cleaned.”
“Fine, but if you do, they’ll take care of it. They also do grocery shopping. We keep a master list in the kitchen. Write down what you need and they’ll get it when they get everything else.”
Allison drew back a little. “I’m not having them shop for me. I’ll do that myself.”
“It’s up to you, but it can’t be easy, shopping with Jackson. You’re welcome to use the service. Again, it’s what they’re paid to do.”
Erica looked at her list. “We’ve discussed the house. I hope you’re using more than your room. The basement living room is actually quite large. Jackson could run around there when it’s rainy. And speaking of outside, I ordered a playset for him.”
She held up her hand. “Nothing fancy. Sturdy plastic construction with a swing, a slide and a little basketball hoop. It comes with a ball, but I got a couple of extras in case he loses one in the yard. And a little table and chairs. The gardener will put them together.”
Allison stared at her. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I know. I wanted to. It will be summer soon and he’ll want to get outside.”
“You’re being too generous.” Allison blinked several times. “Thank you.”
“Before you get emotional, I’m going to annoy you by asking a blunt question.”
“Hardly a surprise. What do you want to know?”
“How much money do you have? I don’t mean what’s in the frozen account. I mean real money, cash on hand.”
Allison stared at her hands. “Of course I want to pay rent,” she began.
Erica cut her off. “That’s not where I’m going. I want an assessment of your situation.”
Allison looked at her, then away. “I have the money the landlord returned because I left early. That’s fifteen hundred. I have an additional maybe two hundred and fifty dollars from before and, ah, that’s it.”
There was something in her tone that made Erica want to probe a little deeper, but she held back. Allison was dealing with enough crap right now. Let her have her secrets.
“What about your credit cards? I assume you’ve been using those to get by.”
“I don’t usually use the one I have. I use a debit card, which I can’t anymore. But yes, I’ve put grocery, gas and the medical insurance payment on it. Jackson and I are on a different policy than Peter. It was something about the business.”
Erica wrote that down. “So the balance is what? About two thousand?”
“With the second insurance payment? Yes.”
