13th entry

Season: Summer

Weather: Partly cloudy with a chance of light showers

Day of the week: Thursday

Date: 26th January, 2024

There were actually meatballs for dinner yesterday, according to the nurse, but I had missed out on them because I had been too fast asleep.

I wasn't able to sneak out of the hospital to go to work this morning. I got caught by the nurses, brought back and scolded. A doctor called the boss of my early morning cleaning job to explain that I was in hospital and wouldn't be able to go in this week.

After the phone was hung up, the cleaning boss messaged me that he couldn't afford to keep a worker who was sick and couldn't get the work done. Since I had been a casual worker anyway, I'd been fired.

Bummer.

Today, the doctors looked happier with me and my test results, meaning they had finally realized that there truly was nothing much wrong with me so that I could go home. However, the moment I voiced that thought, I got another good scolding.

Really. I'm fine. I was just tired. Didn't they see how I slept pretty much the whole day yesterday? Work might be paying for my hospital stay, but it was a lot of money. I had to get out of here as soon as possible.

After being given a list of things to remember and do that went in one ear and out the other, I was eventually discharged in the evening. Stony Boss came to pick me up to my surprise, and the doctors pulled him aside to give him all the instructions that I couldn't seem to remember.

Stony Boss then gave me a lecture on how being an adult, I had to be responsible for myself and my own health, and so on. I was responsible. I did take care of myself. Who said I didn't? I had just been overly tired and stressed. That was all it had been. I was fine.

I didn't need medication. The nutrient supplements were fine though. I'd take those. They were tasty and would make up for the times I didn't have time to eat properly.

Stony Boss took me out to dinner on the way home, but seeing my head nodding like a pecking chicken partway through and seeing how little I had managed to eat, he had packed me and my food up, driving me back to my apartment.

The food I hadn't eaten was placed in my fridge. For some reason, Stony Boss had stared at my empty fridge for a long moment. What was there to see? I had cleaned it recently. It was spotless.

While I got myself ready for bed, Stony Boss was rudely looking through my cupboards and pantry. Thinking he was looking for the cups, I gave him some directions and apologized that there was nothing to drink but tea or plain tap water.

"Miss Brown," Stony Boss frowned at me, "are you having financial difficulties? Is there any reason you can't afford to stock up any food in the house or do you normally eat out?"

"I never eat out," I had waved at him. "Waste of money and too expensive. Thank you for tonight's dinner though. It'll last me a few meals."

"That is one meal," Anthony Duin pointed at the unfinished pasta in the fridge.

"No," I refuted. "That's three meals. I don't eat much and get full quickly."

"You need to eat more," Stony Boss told me. "The doctors said..."

"Yes, yes. I've heard it all from the doctor already," I told him with a placating wave of the arm. "I'm fine. I have enough to eat. I'll go grocery shopping tomorrow. I have the nutrient supplements that you bought me, both the tin of powder and the boxed drinks. I'll be sure to drink them. I won't skimp. They taste pretty good."

Stony Boss rubbed a hand through his hair.

"You have tomorrow off," he told me. "Don't go in to work. Take as long as you need to recover. You have plenty of sick leave, and so you don't need to worry. You'll still be paid as usual."

That was good. Getting paid was always good. It was a pity about my early morning cleaning job though. I'd need to go job hunting as soon as possible, otherwise there wouldn't be enough to pay the rent this month.

"Hey, hey, Miss Brown. Wake up. Are you alright?"

I blinked to somehow find myself in the Stony Boss's arms and blushed with embarrassment.

"You've gone pale and you almost fainted. What were you thinking about?" Stony Boss helped me and my weak legs over to my bed, tucking me in. "I'll pull the door to lock shut behind me when I leave. No need to see me out later," he told me. "You just go to bed and get a good rest."

I murmured something about paying bills and the rent and losing my job, which seemed to utterly confuse him. He couldn't get much clarification from me. I fell asleep and woke up briefly to check the front door was locked, and to write a little bit.

I shouldn't have said anything to the nosy guy. Let's hope he doesn't dig any deeper into things tomorrow. Since there's no work tomorrow, I planned to get another good day of sleep in.