Burning for You (Blackwater)

by Lila Veen

  “Will you call me if something matches?” I ask. “Can you show me a list of open positions?”

  “Hold on,” Fiona replies, scanning my application with a long, magenta nail trailing over my handwritten words. “How many years of billing and coding do you have?”

  “Seven,” I answer. “All at the same company. We were a small third party administrator. I started off as a coder and when I left I was a manager.” As of last Friday I was a manager, actually. It feels weird to start from the beginning.

  “Hold on,” Fiona tells me. She picks up her phone and dials an extension. “Hi, it’s Fiona. Can you come back down here? I might have someone for you. Yes, already. I know. Okay, thanks.” She puts the receiver down and looks at me. “Talk about timing!” she exclaims. “Have a seat, you’re about to have an interview.”

  “Seriously?” I ask. I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, though, so I walk back to my chair between Mr. Pancakes and Ms. Pimples and have a seat. They both look at me, probably wondering how I got so lucky, while they’re stuck in vinyl chairs, doomed to fill out applications that will stay on file for ages. I tap my heel nervously, waiting for whomever Fiona called on the phone. When the same pencil-troll woman walks back into the room, my heart skips a beat. I watch as she goes up to Fiona’s desk and Fiona hands her my application and resume. The woman does a quick scan and then looks up.

  “Leah Holt?” she says, searching around the room with her eyes. I stand up and come up to her and extend my hand. She shakes it and smiles. “I’m Gwen Giles, the hospital administrator. It’s nice to meet you. Fiona, where can we go to talk?”

  “Room three,” Fiona replies, standing up and grabbing her keys. We follow her down a short hall past two doors and up to a third. Fiona fiddles with the key in the lock and opens the door. Inside the room is a small table and two chairs on either side. There is one window looking out the side of the hospital.

  “Thank you Fiona,” Gwen says. Fiona nods and steps out, shutting the door behind her. “Well this is a stroke of luck,” Gwen tells me, walking toward a chair and sitting down ungracefully. I do the same, sitting opposite her. “I was literally just down here telling Fiona that we’re having some billing issues and we need to either replace someone or create a new position, and you appear out of nowhere.”

  “I saw you when I was filling out my application,” I explain. “Believe me, I’m just as surprised as you are. I came in here not expecting much.”

  “So tell me about yourself,” Gwen asks me. “I see here you’ve been at the same company for seven years…in Chicago?”

  I nod. I tell Gwen about my background, not leaving anything out. Something about her makes me want to explain everything as directly as she appears to be with me. I mention how I dropped out of college when I was twenty and got a job as an adjuster at a small health insurance company in downtown Chicago, and then went on to get my medical billing and coding certification because the company had offered the training for free. I went on to accept a promotion as a medical billing and coding analyst, which my job as an adjuster had helped with, since I understood the claims side as well. After three years, I became manager. There are a few things I decide to leave out, like how I married my old boss when I worked in claims, or how I left him on Saturday morning.

  “So now let me tell you a bit about what we’re experiencing here,” Gwen starts after I’ve finished my piece. “We have two ladies who handle the billing right now, but we’re experiencing a lot of difficulty with some of the new requirements since we’re required to submit our claims in 5010 format. Are you familiar with the 5010 requirements?”

  I nod confidently. I tell Gwen that moving from 4010 to 5010 requirements was a project I led when I worked at Trustwell Care. Considering how new the requirements are, it’s all very fresh in my mind.

  “Great. So we just received a notice from one of the health plans we’ve been submitting claims to. They’ve indicated several issues with how we’ve been submitting, including missing operating physician NPI, and not supplying the NDC on injectable drugs. There are a few more, but these are tens of thousands of dollars in claims that we’re looking to get reimbursed for. We can’t let them age beyond ninety days. Timely filing and all that.”

  “They require the NDC for injections in order to submit and get drug rebates,” I explain. “And the operating physician probably has to do with claims for surgical revenue codes.”

  Gwen’s eyes widen. “Oh my god, you’re hired!” she exclaims. “I can’t even begin to get the ladies who do the billing to understand that. It’s like they won’t even open the 837 guide.”

  “I’m very familiar with the 837 format requirements,” I tell her. “And I know this stuff like the back of my hand. I would love this opportunity and really need this position.”

  “If it were up to me, I’d have you start today, right now,” Gwen says, not even trying to hide the excitement on her face. “I’m going to put the paperwork in motion to get you hired. I’ll need to go through the HR channels, though. If all goes smoothly, you can expect an offer letter in 48 hours.”

  “You have no idea how much you’ve just made my day,” I reply. “Seriously, thank you so much, Gwen.”

  “Thank you, Leah, for showing up here when you did,” Gwen smiles. We stand and shake hands. I’m in complete shock, not understanding how everything could have gone so smoothly. I’m almost positive that I just went through the shortest interview process in the history of job interviews. “I have your number, and here’s my card,” Gwen hands me a small white business card. “Call me with any questions or concerns, anytime.”

  *

  I feel like doing the can-can out of the hospital, I’m so elated. As I’m walking out of the sliding glass doors I’m barely paying attention and slam directly into someone, knocking me back so my ass meets the pavement. “Shit!” I say, scrambling to my feet. I’ve got to stop doing that. Then I see who it is that I’ve bumped into and my mouth goes dry and my heart begins to race.

  “Miss Holt,” Ash Lavanne says with a slight smile. His black eyes do that thing that makes me want to take off some article of clothing. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”

  “Perhaps you need to stop being everywhere I am,” I tell him. “It’s like you’re stalking me or something.”

  “Stalking you?” He laughs. “You’re the one running into me everywhere I seem to be. What are you doing at the hospital, anyway? Perhaps you have a neck injury from a recent car accident?”

  “Hangover from a potion?” is my retort. “Apparently you’re bad for my health.”

  “I think I can be very good for your health, Miss Holt,” he purrs, making something stir below my waist that simultaneously makes my face turn red. Keep your clothes on, Leah, I think.

  “I coincidentally landed myself a job,” I say. “Just like that.”

  “Oh, really?” he asks. “Coincidentally, I think not. Nothing is every coincidental for a fire elemental.” He looks around, seeming to recall that he’s in public, though there really isn’t anyone around. “We make things happen, Miss Holt.”

  “We?” I ask him. “Are you a fire elemental?”

  Ash laughs. “When I say ‘we’ make things happen, I mean we will make things happen, now that we’ve found each other.”

  I recall Isabel’s talk with me about my catalyst. I swallow a lump that’s formed in my throat, wishing I had a glass of water or vodka to quench my thirst. “I’m not sure what you mean,” I say innocently.

  Ash smirks. “You know exactly what I mean,” he says. He takes a step closer to me, making me catch my breath. The blood roars through my head, making my cheeks feel like they might explode. “Can I see you tonight?” he asks me in a low voice.

  “What?” I say, shaking my head and stepping back. “What about Erika?”

  “We’re friends,” he replies. “With benefits.”

  “Well I’m married,” I offer as a lame retort.

 
Ash blinks, his lashes brushing just below the dark rim of his black eyes. “I shouldn’t think you were very serious about that,” he tells me. “I saved you from a date with a reaper last night.”

  “Whatever that means,” I reply, eyes rolling at the memory of my embarrassing capture from Chez George. “So why are you here, anyway?” I decide to change the subject.

  “I was going to take Erika to lunch,” he says, looking sheepish.

  “So she is your girlfriend,” I point out, not really phrasing it as a question.

  Ash shakes his head. “Erika and I are just having fun. She knows it and I know it.”

  “Sometimes women don’t always know it,” I tell him. “Or they aren’t honest about it for fear of losing what they love.”

  Ash cocks his head slightly, looking down at me through those sleepy eyes. “You sound like you speak from experience,” he says. I shrug, wondering why I have to be so insightful with someone I barely know. “So you have a job. That’s fantastic.”

  “I still have to wait for the offer letter,” I explain. “But thank you.”

  He nods. “You made it happen, you know. You came here wanting a job and you made one happen.” He takes his hand and places it on my shoulder and runs it down my arm. I feel heat all the way down from his touch, practically setting my arm on fire. He picks up my hand, holding it delicately in his own and presses the back of my hand to his forehead. “Run into me again soon,” he says and drops my hand and walks away, toward the entrance, leaving me speechless and melting.

  Chapter 7

  My mother has to give me Heidi’s address when I call from the hospital visitor’s lot. Considering the last time I saw Heidi she was living at home. I have no idea where she lives now. I still haven’t spoken to my mother about last night and her reaction to Gabe picking me up and not dropping me off. Neither one of us seems very eager to discuss it, so it seems like the subject will just drop. I am curious about her unexpected reaction, or why she would care, but not curious enough to start a conversation.

  I’m not surprised when I see Heidi’s house is a large blue and white painted lady Victorian with a wraparound porch. Heidi has always presented herself as old fashioned; from her hair or her clothes or her ability to pass out upon hearing anything shocking or gross. If smelling salts still existed, she would call for them.

  She must have received warning from our mother that I was coming. The minute I pull into Heidi’s driveway, she opens her front door and stands on her porch to wait for me to approach. She is wearing a high buttoned collarless blue shirt that matches her eyes, tucked into a high waisted pair of slacks with a thin, silver belt. She looks physically cold and both of her small hands are wrapped around a steaming mug that I know is her laxative tea. Some things never change. “How did the interview go?” Heidi asks me as I walk toward her.

  “I have a job offer, but need to wait for the offer letter,” I tell her, as though she’ll even know what that means. Heidi is a kept woman. Her husband Jack Bellamy is a lawyer, and also highway commissioner or something of Blackwater Township, whatever that means. It’s Monday, and I remember that Monday is the day that everyone who got traffic violations for the previous week gets to come to court and attempt to fight their parking and traffic tickets. I reflect on my own car accident and how I’m lucky I’m not standing in front of Jack right now instead of Heidi.

  Jack and Heidi were not high school sweethearts or anything like that. It would be impossible considering they’re seven years apart. Jack is nearing forty and I’m wondering if they’re going to have children. Heidi is self-absorbed and likely prone to Munchausen Syndrome or something that would require the state to take her kids away. Perhaps it’s best I don’t become an aunt if it means Heidi and Jack end up breeding. Heidi married Jack out of the blue when she was nineteen. I think Heidi wanted to leave home just as badly as I did, but got out a different way. We’ve kept in better touch than my mother and I have after I left to go to school in Chicago, though we were never close as sisters.

  I step inside the house into a sky blue great room. Heidi is obsessed with the color blue and often surrounds herself in it. I think it calms her down, since she’s a bit high strung. She looks like my mother, only tinier and frailer. Not that my mother has ever been anything but slim, but Heidi’s weight dwindles around 94 pounds. I recall that being the magic number that she and her doctor agreed on. “Nice house,” I tell her. “Blue, of course.”

  “Of course,” she says, casting me a glance backward with a small smile as she leads me through. “Do you want some tea or coffee?”

  “Just water,” I reply. I step into a blue tiled kitchen that’s bright and spacious and see that Heidi already has company. “Eleanor!” Eleanor Dubois – no, actually, it’s Laurent now, I have to remember – is sitting at Heidi’s kitchen counter nibbling on a baby carrot and drinking tea. I hope it’s not Heidi’s special tea, I think. She hoists herself out of the stool she is perched on and I see she’s very pregnant, as my mother mentioned. We hug awkwardly, so many years and so much baby between us. “You look the same. Well, except for that,” I say, indicating her stomach.

  She laughs, her light grey eyes sparkling with humor. Eleanor has always been exotically beautiful, and now even more so that she’s radiant from pregnancy. Her strawberry blonde hair is shorter than I remember it, cut to her shoulders so that it plays around in a tumble of curls that were simply waves when it was longer. Even though she’s a natural redhead, she’s always had creamy skin without a trace of a freckle or even a blemish. She’s not as tall as I am, but definitely several inches taller than Heidi and willowy, even with a giant swollen belly. None of the extra weight that women tend to carry with pregnancy has made its way to her arms or face. “You look the same too,” she says. “Still a giant, though I’m pretty sure you’re dressing better these days.”

  “Only because I’ve been job hunting,” I say, sitting down on the stool next to her at the counter. “Otherwise I’d be in jeans as usual.”

  “Good to know nothing’s changed,” Eleanor laughs. “It’s so good to see you! So if you’re looking for a job, does that mean you’re back for good?” Her tone changes slightly. She seems guarded about me staying in Blackwater than a former best friend should be. I wonder if it has to do with Drew. I decide to clear the air.

  “I need money,” I tell her. “Nothing is definite. I’m about to embark on what I anticipate is a shitty divorce from a shitty guy and so I’m done with men for a while.”

  Eleanor nods. “I’m sorry to hear about your divorce.” The room is quiet. Heidi is standing on the other side of the counter, looking from Eleanor to me and back again, like she’s watching a tennis match.

  “Well,” Heidi says. “I was just giving Eleanor my adoption update, and so I suppose I should fill you in on that too now that you’re back in town.”

  “Adoption?” I echo, taking the glass of water Heidi has set out for me and gulping about half of it down quickly. “What adoption?”

  “Heidi is close to finalizing the adoption of a baby,” Eleanor explains with a smile. “If everything goes well, our kids will get to grow up together!” Heidi nods happily. I must look shocked.

  “I didn’t know that,” I say. “Well congratulations to you as well, Heidi. How long have you been going through the process?” Something in my stomach turns. I’m not sure why but I really feel like I’m faking my happiness over this news. Something about Heidi as a parent rubs me the wrong way.

  “Almost a year,” she replies.

  “That’s pretty quick,” I mention. “I’ve heard adoptions can take years. Are you going outside of the country?”

  She shakes her head. “No, we’re going through a private agency,” she tells me quickly. “Jack is really happy.”

  “I’m glad,” I say. I turn to Eleanor. “So you’re due any day?”

  She nods, smiling softly, her pretty face lighting up. “Drew is….” She trails off, her face falling.


  I shake my head and smile. “El, don’t worry about it. Drew and I are ancient history. I’m glad you two are happy and expecting a baby. Really. I’ve moved on. And, well, now I’m back, but I’m not about to pick up where I’ve left off or anything.”

  “I know,” Eleanor replies. “I just, well, it took me a long time not to feel like I was doing anything wrong by being with Drew. He was pretty shaken up when you left. You didn’t really give anyone much warning and were pretty secretive about it. Though I guess I should have expected as much. You had some miserable teenage years at home.”

  I wave my hand in the air, almost like a dismissal, noticing Heidi scowling for a second in the background. “Again, ancient history,” I reiterate. “Things weren’t ever exactly right between us. Probably due to me being so miserable.” I crack a smile and Eleanor smiles back. “And I’m pretty sure you always had a huge crush on him.” I laugh as Eleanor’s eyes widen expressively. “Oh my god, I’m so right, aren’t I?”

  “He’s my-“ Eleanor stops and looks at Heidi and shakes her head. “Soul mate, I guess.”

  Heidi smiles. “I feel the same way about Jack,” she says quickly. “Sorry it didn’t work out with you and Michael, Leah. I always wanted to meet him, but you never brought him here for any holidays or anything. You didn’t really give us much of a chance to get to know him.”