Page 7 of Coiled Tight
I winced. The microwave beeped and had the man moving to put the plate on the table next to me, fork included.
I should’ve sat down as soon as I got here, but in my defense, he hadn’t been sitting down. Now it was all just awkward.
“We had one at the zoo,” I spoke while pulling the chair out and then dragging it closer to the table. The logic was that if I kept talking, he might not notice how all my movements were jerky and stilted because I never mastered the art of keeping it together in polite company. “I didn’t love it. I mean, the people did? And they left hefty tips, so if you’re desperate for money, it’s a good idea. I think it stressed out the animals too much, though.”
Their heart rate was always through the roof when I had to check them out after one of their scheduled visits, but none of the managers listened to me when I said a word about it.
“We’re notdesperatefor nothing,” he grumbled while picking a chair next to mine. It was silly, but his breeches almost touched my knee. I could feel the electricity there. It was almost enough to have me stand in attention—but that would’ve only made me look more tense. “Da is just set on his ways to keep getting recognition and shit.”
I hummed. It was not my place to share my thoughts there. Even if I had a larger responsibility role than I was used to now, I was not part of the family, and this ran as a family business. There was also the fact that this was my first day, and I’d probably already said too much about how I felt.
There really was no way I’d get through the trial period, was there?
“Um. So what am I doing today? I mean, there weren’t any planes arriving earlier, it’s not that I didn’t want to work, and I don’t know what the schedules are because your dad said I should figure that out with my team, so maybe they’re still working? I could help around if I need to.”
“Did Da say you’re startingtoday?” Saúl frowned. He had a tiny scar next to his left eyebrow. I kind of wanted to touch it, which was a very weird thing, but it was close to a sun spot, and it was really distracting. “My plan was to show you around and introduce you to the people. Speaking of, how’s your Spanish?”
“Um.”Fuck. His father hadn’t said anything about languages. “Not good? I can order food. Kind of. If I’m not expected to answer back.”
Because priorities.
“You might want to check some classes during your free time.” Shockingly, Saúl sounded tired, but he didn’t sound as annoyed as I would’ve been if I’d been in his shoes. “Some ofthe hands and the volunteers have either just moved in or they still struggle with it, especially if there’s an emergency.”
Oh.
Oh. That was not good. The emergency part, I mean. I needed all the facts if someone ran to me with an injured animal—if that was how it would go. In the zoo, if something happened, we were called, and we were the ones to rush to the scene, which I thought was best, but maybe they worked differently here?
I really needed to talk with the other vet.
“Is the other vet bilingual? Or the techs?”
I wasn’t elitist. A tech had saved my ass more than once or twice. I actually hated the people who looked at them over their shoulders.
I only felt marginally better because the same discourse happened with doctors’ and nurses’ relations. Like, it obviously wasn’t great, but it made me feel better that it wasn’t an issue specific to my profession. Did that make sense? Maybe it only made me a worse person than I already was.
“Yep.” Saúl cracked his neck, and I pretended that it didn’t scare me, even though I’d never gotten rid of the irrational fear that came with the sound. “Most of the people working here are Latine. The ones who aren’t have grown up around us, so they picked up stuff quick.”
“Makes sense.” I had actually researched the area and read that almost a fourth of the population was of Latine descent—sure, it was said as a negative thing by fascists, but the percentages were there. “I’ll try to be a quick study.”
Apps had never worked for me when I tried using them, but maybe I could try some of those that connected you with a native speaker, and you paid by the hour. I hadn’t been joking when I said the pay wasn’t great, but keeping in mind that boarding and food were included, and that I had no plans to leave this place, it wouldn’t be so terrible?
I hoped.
Saúl offered a wry chuckle. That tiny scar was still too noticeable. His face was too sun-kissed, too.
For fuck’s sake, I was already failing at the basics here. I didn’t move to the middle of nowhere to go on with my life as if nothing was different.
It was stupidly hard, but I forced my gaze down to the pie in front of me. I wasn’t sure what all it had inside, but it was yummy. Flavorful. Spicy, but not so spicy that my face got all red and I ended up crying.
“Can I have a map of the place, too? Clearly, my phone isn’t to be trusted, and the map in the website is very… cartoon-y.”
It was cute, but not helpful if I was to move around.
“You’ll get the lay of the land soon enough.”
I’d rather havethe lay of the landbefore I had to rush to attend to some emergency of a lion cub dying, though. The website said they had just rescued a five-month-old lion. The post was dated for last month, so I imagined keeping the cub alive would fall on me.
Then again, they probably hadn’t introduced him yet to one of the habitats. So young? I’d keep him in the vet building for at least a couple more months before I started to slowly introduce him to the other African lions they had.
