The next day Shane was up early getting ready for her interview when Shay saw her putting on a tie and getting all dressed up. He laughed at her.

“Don’t think that someone is going to hire you because you actually put on a clean shirt today—you’re still a weirdo who always smells really gross, you can’t hide that,” he said.

Shane gave him a playful tap and retorted, “That stench is you—I shower every night, you don’t.”

Shane put her shoes on, kissed her sleeping beauty that was still snuggled in bed, and headed out the door with Shay in tow.

Two hours later, she was in her boss’s office putting in her notice.

The interview obviously went well, and while Shane wasn’t looking forward to the monotony of it, it was a huge step up from her last job, and with Shay she couldn’t really justify not taking it. Pay was $60,000 a year with the option to earn more depending on how many customers she wanted to take on. Right now she decided to just work the bare minimum to get health insurance for herself and Shay (if he got adopted, right now he had it through the state) so she could see him and Carmen more.

Carmen had been texting her since she woke up wondering how the interview went, but Shane hadn’t returned any of them because she wanted to tell her in person. This of course made Carmen a nervous wreck. She was worried sick that something went wrong and that Shane had gone and run off again. That’s why she was so excited to look out the window at 4:30pm and see the thin, shaggy-haired woman running up the steps with a bouquet of flowers in her hand.

Carmen met her at the door.

“Did you get it?” She said in anticipation.

Shane bit her bottom lip, smiled, and nodded her head.

Carmen squealed and threw her arms around her neck.

Shay came running in and slid across the floors in his socks.

“What’s going on?”

“I got the job, bud!”