Page 99 of By Rude Strength

“Brandon mentioned you lost your job at the funeral home.”

“Yeah, uh. I did.” LA’s smile became strained. “Hurt my back and all that. You know. Uh.” He really didn’t want to talk about that, and he scrambled to think of something else to talk about.

“I want to set up an interview with you, if you’d be interested.” Penny grinned.

“What? Oh, I mean, we don’t have to do that. We can just chat on the phone or…” LA blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Trying to get the decedent care office going has been a nightmare,” Penny replied with a little groan. “No one knowswhat they’re doing, we can’t get any of the funeral homes to help us out with what we need to do, and it’s been total chaos. One of the positions we have open is a senior coordinator. Basically, that’s a fancy title for someone to come in and tell us what the heck to do.”

“Are you…” LA stared. “Are you offering me a job?”

“If you’re interested,” Penny said. “We could sit down for a formal interview next week, let you meet the rest of the staff. You’d be reporting directly to me, but you’d meet my boss too. Who would be your boss’s boss. If you decide you want it. Or if you even want to come!”

“Yeah!” LA laughed, reaching out to squeeze Cass’s arm excitedly. “Yes! Definitely. Please. That would be great. Thank you. Thank you so much!”

Brandon grinned smugly.

He probably had a little something to do with this.

“Thank you!” Penny gushed. “You’d really be saving my butt. We need someone with funeral home experience terribly. We just hired a new girl, Anna, who’s great with computers, but she… Oh! There she is!”

LA followed where Penny was looking and he froze.

It was Anna from that towing place.

Oh God.

Anna saw Penny waving and came over to greet everyone, but she gasped when she saw LA. “Konnichiwa!”

“What?” LA blinked.

“Konnichiwa! It meanshelloin Japanese!” Anna laughed. “Because, you know, I thought you spoke Japanese? And, uh…” Her laughter trailed off and she grimaced. “Sorry.”

“No, right. Uh.” LA fidgeted. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Oh, you two know each other?” Penny asked curiously.

“Yeah!” Anna beamed. “It was my last day at my other job. I met this giant dickhead customer who got me thinking thatmaybe it wasn’t worth sticking around when I wasn’t happy ’cause of a shitty boss and last-minute bullshit. So! I quit that day!”

“Yay!” Cass cheered. “Congratulations!”

“Wow.” LA laughed, though perhaps a bit awkwardly. “That’s, uh, great! And now you work with Mrs. Penny?”

“Yeah! Just started yesterday!”

“She’s been a lifesaver organizing all of our paperwork and our filing system,” Penny said. “You two will be working a lot together.”

Anna blinked. “Oh really?”

“He’s the funeral director I told you about,” Penny explained. “Brandon’s old friend.”

“Oh!” Anna laughed. “The giant dickhead!” Her eyes widened. “I mean, uh—”

“No, it’s okay.” LA cringed a bit but nodded. “I was having a bad day and I was indeed a giant dickhead. But, uh, definitely looking forward to working with you! You know, provided the interview goes well and all that.”

Penny chuckled, teasing, “I have a feeling it will.”

Kevin hurried up behind Brandon, whispering something in his ear.