Not too bad

Dan coasted through the workday. Ms. Carmen wasn't working that weekend. The leadership team got alternating weekends off, so they could spend time with their families. Todd, one of the other managers, always stayed in his office unless he was absolutely needed. He, more than any other leader in the store, was an example of how some employees failed upward. No one was quite sure how he landed the job, but everyone knew he wasn't suited for the stressful environment.

"Hey, do you need anything before I head to the apartment?" Dan asked his mother over the phone.

"No, I got a lot of what I needed to, done today," she reported. He thought he could hear a smile in her voice over the phone.

"Oh, did you find a job?"

"I'll share the news when you get back. Drive save, love you," Laura said before ending the call.

Dan drove back to their apartment. He spotted two ladies, both skinny and blonde talking to someone in an SUV at the end of the parking lot. The women looked like they might have enough clothes between the two of them to cover one of them modestly.

"Hey, I'm home," he called as he entered the apartment. A faint noise came from the left wall, high up near the ceiling. "What?" he muttered.

"Oh, we've got neighbors," Laura said with a grimace. "I hadn't given much thought to how we're getting air conditioning, but it seems our apartment and the one next to us are connected via those vents. With how industrial everything looks, I never considered those grates to be vents," she continued with a sigh.

"I... didn't even think about it. The temperature felt fine to me; if a little cold at night."

"To you," Laura muttered to herself. "It's cold," she argued, but had a smile.

It became clear why his mother might have snuggled up to him during the night. If she was cold, their thin sheet wouldn't have done much to provide any sort of warmth. He'd remember to look for a blanket at work the next day. It didn't explain why she took off the bottom shirt the night before.

"You said you had progress today?" he asked.

"We'll have internet by Wednesday," Laura reported with a grin. "As for a job, I had an interview with a clinic down the road. They cater to... women of the night," she said with a half-hearted shrug. "It's a possible job, even if it's minimum wage."

"Hey, that's still wonderful. Maybe you'll get it," Dan praised. "Worse come to worse, you can always keep looking after you get the job. What do they need? Someone to check people in? A preschooler could do that, just give them crayons."

Laura laughed and smiled. "Something like that, yeah," she said. "I want to get a shower before cooking. Could you get the last few groceries out of my car? Think I forgot the pasta sauce and noodles in the trunk."

"Sure, I'll be back in a few."