Page 7 of Dark Endures

“Then you’re hired.”

He’s pretty to look at but doesn’t listen well. “I told you—”

“Only for the non-spicy noodles. I have several herpetologists who take care of the other ones.”

Oh. Of course, he does. Spicy noodles are dangerous when handled improperly, and this guy doesn’t look like he does anything improperly. “I need a flexible schedule.” A really flexible schedule.

“You can come and go as you please. I’ll provide you with a code to the elevator and the snake room.” Maddox walks towards the entrance of his office.

As I follow him, I try not to stare at the wide shoulders and tapered waist.

Maddox isn’t exceedingly tall. He’d be the perfect height for me to set my head on his shoulder while dancing.

What are you even thinking about? Maddox is your boss.

Then again, so is Adonis.

Work. You have to do work.

He stops by the empty desk. “The door on the left leads to the venomous room. And the door on the right leads to the non-venomous room.” The door just seems to open for him without having to put in a code. It leads to a locker room of sorts. “You can store your stuff here. And we will provide coveralls to protect your clothing.”

That’s great. Not smelling like snake poop on the cab ride home or having to wash clothes that stink all the time will be nice. Maddox smells nice.

Don’t think about the fact that your boss has a nice clean scent. It’s not overly harsh or cloying, like most men’s cologne.

You’ve gone loony.

He moves to the next door. “This is the snake room.”

It isn’t as fancy as Maddox’s office, but it’s well-organized and clean. Why are there so many extra cages?

A lavender snake slides up the glass on one of those empty cages.

“There are more.” Lots more than I expected.

“Yeah. We rotate them on occasion so that I can see all of them.”

Switching cages.

The scope of work that will need to be done boggles my mind. This isn’t a fifteen to twenty-hour-a-week job. “Um. How many hours were you expecting this to take?” I could spend two hours a night just spot-cleaning all these cages.

“It’s been a full-time job.”

No.

No.

How would I even have time for forty hours?

I’d have to give up most of my Saturdays, just leaving me a few hours for shopping and laundry. Maybe if I gave up my overtime on Sunday. No, I need that. It’s bound to pay way more than cleaning cages.

“But you’re welcome to set your own hours. Just leave notes on what you’ve done and what you haven’t done.”

He’s making this super easy for me.

Too easy. Nothing in my life has been this easy.

But I need this right now. This would get my bank account up so fast, even at fifteen dollars an hour. There’s no need to risk losing the job trying to go high with my prices. But I normally charge twenty dollars.

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