22

T alia ended the call, happiness filling her. How had everything gotten so good for her? Luck finally seemed to be on her side. She needed to get rid of her apartment, so while Zip was gone and while Dave was still in jail, she would clean it out.

Being at work when Zip was home had started to wear on her. She needed to find something that would allow her to be gone during the day when he was at work. Coming home to him sleeping and him leaving while she was dead asleep was getting old. She would start looking for a different job today.

There were jobs she wouldn’t do. Anything customer facing was risky. She’d thought she’d changed enough she wouldn’t be recognized, but there were still people like Dave who must have religiously watched the videos she’d been in. Heck, he could have been one of the guys in the videos because the men hadn’t been forced to show their faces and had worn masks. Nothing quite like being abused by masked men.

She pushed away the depressing thoughts and concentrated on what she needed to do to get out of her apartment and start living a better life with Zip.

The list of jobs online was confusing. She’d thought about going with an agency, but she didn’t want part of her paycheck to go to someone else. But there were few options. She had to find something good, and it didn’t seem like there was anything out there.

She stayed up late researching options for a job, finally deciding to go with an employment agency. The articles she found about agencies promised they wouldn’t take her money, so she thought it was worth a shot. Hopefully they wouldn’t know about her past and she would be able to get a good job.

The next day she swung by her apartment and started packing things she wanted to keep. She didn’t have much, but they were her things and she didn’t want to lose them.

When she was almost done, she realized she would have to take a second trip because not everything would fit in her car. For a moment, she thought about calling Caroline and asking if she could help her, but she didn’t want to be a bother. She would come back the next day and get more stuff.

Work was boring and coming home to an empty house was depressing. Also arriving at Zip’s dark house at midnight was scary. She didn’t like coming home this late with no one waiting. Not that his neighborhood was bad, just dark. The houses were older, and some of the neighbors had trees that ate the light. The deep shadows made her wary.

Before going to bed, she pulled the lever on using an employment agency. Hopefully, there would be a job that would allow her to get off earlier in the day so she had more time with Zip.

The next morning she slept late and didn’t have time to head over to the apartment before work. Eventually she would make it there, but today was her first day back driving deliveries, and she needed the extra money. Driving deliveries meant she would be busy all day long, but she’d missed so much work, she felt the need to pick up a few hours.

Midway through the day, she checked her email and saw that she had three interviews at the end of the week. Maybe one of those jobs would pan out, and she could stop getting home at midnight. Being with Zip had given her hope, and that hope had convinced her she would find a better job. Once she wasn’t working until midnight, she and Zip could make a better future together. At least she hoped they could.