The Perfect Life (The Perfect Stranger #4) - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,2

and I had nothing like that in my contract. I was an at-will employee and that meant that she could fire me anytime.

I really thought that maybe I was in the clear after taking that time off, but apparently not.

The day after she fired me, I got to the office and I had to physically force myself to get out of the car. I wanted more than anything to just go home and get under the covers, but I needed the money.

I have my mortgage, my student loans, and now $10,000 on my credit cards, with an insanely high interest rate, that I used to pay off my mom's debt. I can't say no to any income because this time next week I won't have any money coming in.

The thing is that it's not like there’re so many places where a speech therapist can work. I'm in kind of a niche specialization. Of course, there are lots of children on the autism spectrum and those struggling with other various speech delays, but the fact that so few people can actually afford to pay for our service upfront and the fact that not many insurance companies will cover this therapy makes it a particular challenge.

Tiptoeing past her office, I let out a sigh of relief when I see that her door is closed. I have half an hour before my first client and when I get back to my office, I need to open my laptop to search for work.

Yesterday, I was too depressed to look for anything. Now I realize that I should've just kept my laptop closed.

The closest thing that I can find is a part-time position for the speech therapy assistant that doesn't require a degree and pays just nine dollars an hour. It's for a daycare center that has a couple of students struggling with speech. I keep looking for anything within driving distance, but the closest full-time position that I find is almost two hours away.

What are we going to do? I say silently to myself. How am I going to find another job?

My session with Taylor goes well. He's an easy-going kid who is going to speak pretty soon. When he first came in, right at the age of two, I thought that maybe he could be on the autism spectrum, but after working with him for a few months, I am certain that is nothing to worry about.

His main problem seems to be in the oral motor delay where the muscles in his mouth and lips are weak and need to get stronger. His mom is very involved and we have been doing a number of exercises like blowing bubbles as well as licking popsicles, anything to get his tongue, lips, and mouth engaged.

After our session, I have an hour off and I turn my attention back to my search. I try different keywords and different titles, but unfortunately, I come up short. Most of the positions are too far away or aren't really full time.

I go back and write down the information about the one that pays nine dollars an hour. This is incredibly low and won't get me far in paying for my monthly expenses, but it’s something.

The rest of the day goes by pretty quickly because I have four appointments back-to-back. I enjoy working with my clients and I'm going to miss them. I'm tempted to tell the moms that I'm leaving, but it would be wrong to try to lure the clients away from Trisha's practice. She was the one who found them in the first place.

The rest of the days of the week go by pretty much the same way. I avoid Trisha as much as I can, seeing her only sporadically in the break room.

We don't talk much, but everything remains somewhat cordial and I hope that it proceeds this way until these two weeks are finally over.

“Isabelle, come into my office please,” Trisha says, popping her head into the office on Friday afternoon.

I don't have another client for an hour and a half and I don't have any good excuse to get out of this situation. With no other options, I take a deep breath and follow her to her office.

“I wanted to ask you about how things are going with that guy that you met online,” she says.

Her face is blank and impossible to read. She could just be curious or she could be suspicious of something.

I have no way of knowing.

“I am actually not with