The Doctor's Little Girl Read online

  “Go on,” Andrew encouraged.

  “So, I did get fired from my job at the airport the day that I met you. I don’t know if you called or not, but I got called down to the Human Resources office and they fired me that same day.”

  Andrew frowned. “I did call, but I was worried that my call wasn’t actually all that helpful,” he told her. “The person I spoke too wasn’t particularly receptive to my comments.”

  “Well, after I got fired I was out of work for a while, but I did get a job as a waitress at a restaurant in my town, which was pretty good, except…”

  Andrew could see where this was going. “Except you got fired from that, too?”

  “Yeah,” Molly said, her voice sounding embarrassed.

  “What did you get fired for this time?” Andrew asked. He had promised her help finding a job in a doctor’s office, so he wanted to make sure that she was actually a responsible girl. He had made a lot of assumptions about her character, and had to keep in mind that although he felt like he knew her already due to the similarities between her and Lisa, he didn’t really. It would make him look bad if he recommended her and she created a problem for one of his friends.

  “That time I got fired because I gave away too much free stuff,” she told him. “People would complain that something wasn’t right and I felt bad so I gave them discounts or free desserts or even free meals, and I wasn’t really supposed to do that. After that, I got another job working as a pizza delivery driver but I was pretty bad at that. That only lasted for a few days.”

  Andrew put his head in his hand. “A few days?” he asked with disbelief.

  “Yeah, I was always getting lost and never got to the place I was going on time.” Molly sounded like she wasn’t proud of this.

  Andrew couldn’t help but shake his head, even though Molly wouldn’t be able to see.

  Molly continued the story. “So, not too long after that I got a job in a tax office as a secretary, but…”

  Andrew finished her sentence. “You just got fired from that?” he asked.

  “It was not my fault!” she defended herself. “I did everything right with answering the phones and doing the files and the other stuff I was supposed to do, but I kept being late to work so they fired me just for that!”

  “So, now you’re unemployed?” Andrew asked. His tone was caring and concerned, but also stern, carrying a level of seriousness to it. It seemed silly for him to be disappointed in a girl with whom he had spent less than fifteen minutes total, but he couldn’t help his feelings.

  “Yes, sir,” Molly whispered. Andrew couldn’t help but smile at that. Everything about this girl screamed that she needed to be taken care of. “And I have been for almost the whole month. My rent is due soon and I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t have any savings or anything like that. So, I was wondering if you were serious when you said you would give me a job with one of your friends. It would really save me.”

  Andrew had a few questions for her. “How old are you, Molly?” he asked.

  “I’m twenty,” she told him. That was about what Andrew had guessed.

  “What’s your educational background?”

  “I, uh, I finished high school,” she muttered. Again, it was right on target with what he had in his mind.

  “Did you do well in school? Any trouble?”

  Andrew could tell by Molly’s voice that she was blushing. “I did okay. I got into trouble from time to time. Okay, I got into kind of a lot of trouble. But not for anything bad.”

  “You didn’t listen to what you were supposed to do?” he figured.

  “Yeah. And a few other things that everyone does, just stuff like drinking.”

  Andrew couldn’t really blame her for that. He had been feisty in his youth, too.

  “What about your parents? Are they able to help you out?”

  “No,” was Molly’s first answer. It came out immediately, as if it was something that she didn’t even have to consider. Andrew wondered if she was an orphan. He decided that he wasn’t going to pry any further into that at the moment.

  There was silence on the line for a moment as Andrew thought seriously about what he was going to say. He knew that he couldn’t really recommend her to one of his friends. It didn’t sound like she would be able to just adapt to a new job environment, and if she was disrespectful to her new boss, that would make things really uncomfortable for Andrew. Besides, Molly didn’t just need a job. She needed to be looked after. She needed rules and structure in her life. She needed to learn how to behave in a professional environment and how to keep a position. He knew what he had to do.

  “Well,” he told her finally. “My secretary just had a baby and she’s only working part time these days, and realistically, with the way that the practice has grown in the past couple of years, I think she could use a little help when she is here anyway. I’d be willing to offer you the job with the understanding that you’re going to have to put your very best effort into this, and that I’m not going to let you fail this time. Do you understand me?”

  “Really?” Molly’s voice sounded bright and excited.

  “Really. If you’re serious about doing your best,” Andrew said, making sure he sounded like he really meant it.

  “I am! I promise I am!”

  “Alright,” Andrew said. “The only issue is logistics, now. Are you located in New York? That’s where you were the last time I saw you. I’m in the suburbs of Chicago.”

  “I live in New Jersey,” Molly explained.

  “Are you comfortable moving out here?” Andrew inquired. “I know that it’s a big leap, but I’d be willing to let you stay in my guest room until you get on your feet. Besides, I could use the company,” he admitted.

  “I promise I won’t be any trouble,” Molly said, although Andrew wasn’t entirely sure about that. He was betting that Molly would be at least a little trouble, but it was trouble he wouldn’t mind dealing with. “I have a car, and I’m sure that all my stuff would fit into it. I could drive out to you,” she suggested.

  “That’s probably a twelve-hour drive,” Andrew guessed. “Are you okay with that?”

  Molly told him that she was, suggesting that she could spend a night in a motel on the way.

  So, Andrew agreed. “Alright, I’ll call you again tomorrow to make sure you’ve thought about this and you’re still comfortable with it. Remember, I’m taking this very seriously, and any issues that come up will be dealt with firmly.”

  “I understand,” Molly affirmed.

  Andrew said goodbye to her and they hung up. He felt like he should be questioning his own judgment, but he wasn’t.

  Andrew could tell that she had lived a fairly hard life, but she maintained a childlike nature and a sort of innocence that he couldn’t describe. He knew what would probably fix the problems that Molly had with her jobs and other responsibilities: she needed a lot of love and regular discipline. Andrew had always felt a pull to be a caretaker, but he had to admit that he felt a rush of arousal when he thought about what kind of discipline he thought would be best for Molly.

  Chapter Two

  Molly shut the trunk to her car with great satisfaction. Everything was packed, with the exception of her few pieces of furniture, which Andrew had told her she wouldn’t need. Honestly, they weren’t even worth moving. She had told him that she had picked most of them up off the side of the road, and he had expressed a kind of annoyed lack of surprise at this. It was weird: this man was going farther out of his way to help her than anyone ever had in her life before, but at the same time, Molly worried if he would like her or not.

  She had left certain information out when talking to him about herself in their phone conversations leading up to this day. She hadn’t told him anything about her background, and he hadn’t pushed the subject. She had tried to portray herself in the best light possible, so that he wouldn’t realize just how much of a mess she actually was. Maybe, if he didn’t come into the situation thinking that she was beyond help, he could actually help her.

  Molly was worried, though. She didn’t know what would happen next if things didn’t work out with Dr. Harrington. She would be in a strange city without anyone else to turn to. She crossed her fingers that it would work out. The idea of getting her life together and being the kind of girl that all her employers had wanted her to be made Molly feel hopeful.

  Her biggest dream was to wake up in the morning without the feeling of anxiety crushing her and forcing her back down into bed. She wanted to fall asleep at night without doing hopeful arithmetic in her mind, trying to come up with ways to make it to the next month without being evicted. She wanted to turn the stove on in the morning and not have to hold her breath that it would start, that her utilities hadn’t been cut off.

  With the thought of her potential for things to get better fresh in her mind, Molly got into her car and entered Dr. Harrington’s address into her phone’s GPS. And then, she was off. Goodbye, New Jersey! she thought.

  * * *

  Andrew was sitting on the couch the next morning drinking a cup of coffee before he left for work when his cell phone rang. Looking at it, he was surprised to see that it was Molly. It wasn’t even six in the morning yet. He didn’t take Molly for an early riser, given all of her problems with tardiness at her previous jobs. Maybe she’s ready to turn over a new leaf, he thought as he answered the phone.

  “Good morning!” he said, sounding bright and awake. “How are you doing on your drive?”

  “Well,” she said. “I’m actually already here now. I hope that’s alright.” Andrew was confused.

  “How can you already be here? You’re not supposed to get in until this evening. Are you sure?” He peeked out his front window to see a beat-up white Toyota parked on the street in front of his house. It was definitely Molly.

  “I ended up only taking a nap at a rest area instead of spending the night in a hotel,” she told him. “It wasn’t that long of a drive, really!”

  Andrew felt a surge of that protective, disappointed feeling come over him again. He didn’t think it was safe to drive all night without someone else in the car to keep her awake.

  “If you’re here, you might as well come on in and we can continue this conversation face to face,” Andrew suggested. He hung up the phone. He heard the car door slam and then, a moment later, a knock at his front door.

  He opened it to see Molly standing there. She was wearing a battered pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a picture of a cartoon panda on it. He couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t wearing a bra, and that her breasts were about the maximum size that they could be while letting her get away with that. He imagined what they looked like outside of the shirt before literally shaking his head to clear the thought away. Molly’s face looked exhausted. Her dark hair was in a messy bun on top of her head, and she had dark, puffy circles under her eyes, which were red and bloodshot.

  “Hi!” She sounded surprisingly perky. “Nice to see you again!”

  “Very much so,” Andrew responded. He extended his hand for a handshake, and Molly gave him a noticeably weak one. Something to work on in the future, he thought. “Come on in, let’s worry about your stuff later,” he suggested.

  Molly followed Andrew into his house, looking at everything with great curiosity. “Is it okay that I’m here early?” she asked. “You look like you’re about to leave.”

  Andrew sighed. “I would have preferred it if you had done what we had originally agreed on, Molly. Yes, I am about to leave for work in a minute now, and I would have rather had you arrive after I finished work for the day like we had planned since that’s what I prepared for, but what I’m more concerned about is the fact that you didn’t get any rest last night. I thought we had decided that you would stop somewhere in Ohio for the night.”

  Molly stared at her shoes (this time, she was wearing a pair of tennis shoes that were once white but had long ago taken on the color of ‘old sneaker gray’) and didn’t say anything. Andrew realized his tone probably sounded very stern, and that Molly was used to people who were scolding her ending the conversation by telling her that she was fired.

  He used his pointer finger to gently lift her chin and force her to make eye contact with him, softening his tone a little.

  “Look, Molly, I’m not mad at you. I just want you to take care of yourself. If I tell you that something is the best plan and you don’t agree, I’d hope that you’d let me know your opinion. Don’t just agree to whatever I’ve told you and then do your own thing in the future, understood?”

  Molly looked seriously contrite, her big eyes looking like they might be about to fill with tears. “Okay. I’m sorry. I just wanted to save money, and I had too much coffee to be able to sleep anyway,” she told him.

  Andrew had figured that it would come down to money. “In the future,” he said, keeping his voice serious but with an undercurrent of affection, “if you have the choice between what’s cheapest and what’s safest, you should always choose the safer option. I’ll cover you if I need to. I don’t want you putting yourself at risk, okay?”

  Molly nodded.

  Andrew felt the desire to give her a kiss on the forehead, but decided against it. “Good girl,” he said.

  Molly’s face bloomed with a shy grin.

  “Let me show you to your room now,” he suggested.

  Molly followed Andrew up the stairs and into his guest bedroom. Wanting everything to be nice for Molly, he had asked Rebecca to come over and help him freshen it up and make it inviting for the young girl, since the room had been pretty sterile before. Rebecca had done an amazing job at it, adding some cozy pillows, a painting here and there, and even bringing some fresh-cut flowers from her garden. Among the pillows she had placed a teddy bear. Andrew had disagreed with this choice.

  He certainly, in a way, saw Molly like a child, but he didn’t want her to feel like he didn’t appreciate her as a grown woman. Rebecca had explained that almost every girl loved stuffed animals, and it sounded, from what she’d heard, like it wouldn’t be too hard to appeal to Molly’s ‘little girl side.’

  Molly bounced on her toes when she saw the room. “Thanks so much. I love it,” she told him. Andrew was happy to see her smiling so much.

  “Good. I’m so glad to hear that,” he said. “I have to go to work now, though. I’m still planning on bringing you to the office and training you for your new job tomorrow, when the office is closed. You got here earlier than we had planned by sacrificing sleep, so that’s what I want you to do now. I want you to get whatever essential things you’ll need in order to get ready for bed out of the car and then get some rest. I’ll wake you up when I get home from the office this evening. Do you understand me?”

  “Okay,” Molly agreed.

  “Good,” Andrew said. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  Molly smiled and waved. “Have a good day!” she said as he walked down the stairs.

  Andrew felt a rush of happiness at her words. It took a toll on him to always come home to an empty house. He’d been living alone ever since he had graduated from medical school. He remembered how full of life the apartment that he had shared with Dave and Lisa had been, and how reassuring it was to know that one of them was going to be there when he got home. The memory was immediately followed by the image of Lisa standing in their kitchen, packing boxes as tears streamed down her face. It was only his good mood at the moment that made the memory bearable, but it still bit into him.

  Sure, he had dated girls since then, but nothing had been the real thing. He felt like he worked too much to make having a serious relationship possible. Most of the ones that had been the closest to successful had failed because he couldn’t dedicate the time and energy that his lovers had needed. He knew that Molly was really just a roommate, but the idea that he’d come home and find her there made his life feel less empty.

  * * *

  After Andrew left for work, Molly was surging with excitement. The drive had been long and incredibly boring. There wasn’t much of anything interesting to see, but a steady stream of energy shots and coffee had left her overly energetic. So she had just kept driving on, singing along to the songs on the radio until she started to feel like she was losing her voice. Once it got dark, she did start to get sleepy but the idea of stopping to spend the night stressed her out.

  The thought of staying in a hotel all alone felt creepy to her. Besides, she wasn’t sure if her debit card would be accepted at the desk; she only had forty dollars on it after her last tank of gas, and if it came down to it, she’d rather be able to buy the gas she needed to arrive than spend the night somewhere. So, when her eyelids started to get too heavy for her to focus on the freeway in front of her, she had pulled off at a rest area, pushed her seat back as far as her boxes and bags in the back allowed her to, and dozed.

  She had only slept for a few hours before giving up on it and driving the rest of the way to Illinois. The driving had gotten more interesting as she got closer to the city of Chicago, and she was growing both excited and anxious as she approached her destination.

  Molly had been happy to see the neighborhood where Andrew lived. Of course she had known that since he was a doctor, he had to live in a nice place, but Molly had grown up living in small, cramped places without much to look at. The sun was rising as she drove down his street, and she thought of it as a place where other people lived, the kind of place where her mother would have gone to clean houses before she got too unwell to work anymore. When the GPS told her that she had arrived at her destination, she pulled off in front of the house and verified the number. Andrew’s house wasn’t huge by any means, but it was cute, and certainly looked nice and comfortable.

  Now that she was inside, she decided that it was time to take a better look around. Andrew had just showed her to her room instead of giving her a proper tour, probably because he had to leave for work. So Molly gave herself one, peeking into each of the rooms with voyeuristic curiosity.

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