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39
Liberty
Buyer for a local garden center—that was the description for the job I had applied for. Out of all the jobs, this was the one I did for fun. I didn’t expect to ever hear from them. Other than my love for plants and flowers, I had no experience. It had been a very emotional day for me, so when they’d called, I had taken it, no questions asked.
Now standing in the one-bedroom apartment that had come with the job, I realized I might have made a mistake.
The paperwork that had been left for me to sign and bring into the office tomorrow said the salary was seventy thousand dollars a year. I’d thought I was applying for an hourly job that was hopefully close to twenty dollars an hour. This was clearly meant for someone who had a degree or extensive experience that I did not have.
They must have gotten the applications mixed up.
It was dark outside, and I didn’t want to call the contact person listed on the paper this late.
I had planned to stay in a motel until I found somewhere to live, so the email they had sent with the directions to the apartment that was ready for me to move into was shocking. Out of curiosity, I came to check it out, expecting perhaps a tiny room with a toilet and shower in the back of a storage house where the plants were kept.
Not this.
Yep, there had been a major mix-up. When I told them they’d hired Liberty, the bartender with no college degree, I’d be sent packing. I had known this was too good to be true. A job buying plants for a garden center. When had life ever started handing me favors? Never—that was when.
Not wanting to get attached to anything, I didn’t walk through the rest of the apartment. I’d get a shower, sleep here, then go tell them tomorrow morning before I went on a job hunt for something I was qualified for.
Sitting down on the sofa, I laid my head back and touched my small bump. I’d been feeling weird butterfly-like flutters in my stomach this evening. It had happened yesterday, too, and I was going to ask the doctor about it, but that had all gone downhill fast. I had become an emotional wreck. It was a miracle they hadn’t tried to check me into the psych ward.
I had four weeks until the next appointment, and if Liam wanted to come to that one—I couldn’t be sure since he’d not cared about today’s checkup—then I had to get my head ready to face him. I sure hoped four weeks would be enough time. Right now, it didn’t feel as if a lifetime would be enough.
I missed him.
I laughed out loud. “How pathetic is that?” I asked aloud, then remembered I didn’t have Ozzy here to hear me.
There was no one to talk to. It was just me.
I looked down at my stomach. “Not true,” I said. “I have you.”
The lonely feeling eased some at that thought.
“I’m going to pull it together—I promise you that. By the time you arrive, I’ll have a job and an apartment.” I paused and looked around. “Probably not this nice, but you can’t see this place, so you won’t be disappointed.”
The weird butterfly feeling was back. I sat there with my hand on my stomach as it continued.
“Is that you?” I stared at my stomach.
Was that him kicking?
I grabbed my cell phone and googled it.
Quickening is when a pregnant woman starts to feel her baby’s movements. It might feel like flutters, bubbles, or tiny pulses.
I dropped my phone onto the sofa and placed two hands on my stomach. “That’s you!” I squealed as a sliver of joy broke through the agony.
One male had broken my heart, but it seemed another one was already working on mending it.
A knock on the door caused my head to snap up, and I stared in that direction, wide-eyed. Had they figured out their mistake already? Was that them coming to ask me to leave? Very likely.
I patted my stomach and stood up. I could take whatever happened.
When I reached the door, I unlocked it and opened it to see an older lady with short gray hair in a helmet style, wearing a blue pantsuit.
“You must be Liberty,” she said as she straightened the tortoiseshell glasses perched on her long, narrow nose. “Very good. Seems you found the place and got in with no problem.” She turned and picked up a massive gift basket and then held it out to me. “I am Martha Depough, HR manager for GG Center. This is for you.”
