tension at home is thick enough that Gabby's been spending more time in her room or with friends. This can't go on much longer."
Slowly, a smile was starting to form on my best friend's lips. For a moment, I wanted to snap at her for not taking this seriously, although I figured she had a plan. Ashley always did. That was what I liked most about her. She was only a couple of years younger than me, but she'd found that perfect balance between being a free spirit and keeping her crap together.
"So how much would you need to make a month to cover everything?" she asked.
"Depends on rent at my new place."
"Ok, without that. How much would you need to pay the bills, afford groceries and clothes for Gabby, and still have enough to put some in savings? Three thousand a month? Five?"
I murmured as I thought it over. "I'm making twenty-two hundred a month right now. Three thousand would be a serious step up in life."
"Sold!" she announced, slapping the table to prove her point. "I think I have the perfect answer to all your problems. Yesterday, I was told I get to hire a leasing manager for the front office. It needs to be someone good with customers, who has human resources experience and is professional-looking. The job is Monday through Friday, eight am to five pm, and the dress is business casual." Then she grinned. "And not only is the position paying eighty thousand a year, with room for annual raises, but it also includes a house in the community."
"In Wolf's Run?" I gasped.
I'd been to Ashley's place before. I'd also seen the billboards along the highway for the development and had heard the talk about it on the news. Wolf's Run was an exclusive community. The kind of exclusive that wasn't just doctors and lawyers, but more like year-long waiting lists and the talk of the town. It was a community built to make neighbors neighborly again, and so far above anywhere else that I would be able to afford.
"There's a catch," she warned me. "The employees get the houses at the front, and we have to keep them presentable because they're the first impression. On the upside, that means the office is across the street. The downside is that we're expected to maintain our lawns and homes in such a way as to sell the place. That's why we get free rent. We're the examples. The model homes, if you will."
"Are you kidding me right now?"
"No," she promised. "I was honestly considering how to ask you. I mean, you'd be working under me, and I didn't want that to mess up our friendship, but I think you'd be perfect. And if this will help you and Gabby?"
"It'd be a miracle," I admitted, feeling my eyes do that tingling thing again, but this time for a whole different reason. "If I had a job and a home in there, Gerardo would be less likely to get custody - if he even wants it! I just don't want you to feel like you have to hire me."
"I don't," she promised. "Elena, the kind of people we approve aren't always what's expected. Some of the ones we deny can get really upset. They'll yell and scream, threaten to sue, and just about everything else. You say you want to get stronger? Well, this will be the perfect chance. I need someone with enough spine to stand her ground, but sweet enough to make everyone think they have a chance." Then she canted her head. "And it won't hurt at all that you can speak Spanish."
"Oh, so you mean it'll look good to hire a minority?" I teased.
She giggled. "Well, exclusive communities can get a little white-washed. Ours isn't too bad, but I think having you up front will chase off any of the neo-Nazi types before they apply. Or is that out of line?"
"I am totally ok with being used," I decided. "You just have to promise that when some rich idiot tells me to 'go back to my country,' you've got my back."
"Always," she swore. "Not just as your boss, but also as your best friend. So..." She lifted her glass and sucked back at least half of it in one gulp. "You wanna ride over with me and see the house? Check out the place and make sure it'll work? See what else we have to do to make this happen? Have some wine and