Chapter 10 Hayley
TEN
HAYLEY
“Hayley Woolf?”
I turned around at the sound of my name and smiled at the woman headed my way.
I sighed with relief as she approached me with a smile on her face.
I recognized her from my interview. She was the head of the zoo and a descendent of the family that had set up the zoo.
And I’d made it to my first day of work only by the skin of my teeth.
That accident with the biker and how he enjoyed toying around with people almost made me late for my first damn day at work.
Sure, it wasn’t the smartest decision to move into a new place on the same day as my first day of work.
But I was working in the afternoons for my training. So, what was the rush?
I wasn’t in any hurry to keep myself company in an empty apartment or anything.
“Sarah Lockley. It’s so nice to see you again,” I said.
I shook her hand with fervor before I drew in a deep breath.
“You have no idea how overjoyed I was that you ended up taking the position. I have to admit in your interview I wasn’t sure if you wanted the task.”
“No, no, no. Please don’t mistake my silent shock for disinterest. When I applied for the position, I already knew what came with the job.
Studying the animals within the zoo habitats.
Making sure they stayed mentally and physically fit.
Scheduling their meals. I just didn’t know I’d be interacting with them personally. ”
“Is that something you’re up for?” she asked.
I smiled brightly. “It’s the only part of my job here I’d never change.”
“Well, then let’s get you settled into your office, Miss Woolf.”
I paused. “Wait, I have an office?”
Sarah laughed with me as she escorted me onto the premises.
A golf cart pulled up and we got in and took some back roads away from all the exhibits.
I craned my neck to see the animals as best as I could.
Soon, the trees planted on the property blocked my view as we headed back toward the more technical side of zoo life.
“So, you are one of four zoologists employed on the premises. We do one for each section of the zoo. It’s a lot of work, but the animals you will be overseeing in the African exhibit are more active during the day.
Which means you might find it to be a better use of your time to utilize your office in the mornings so—”
“—I can get exposure with the animals,” I said, finishing her statement.
“Exactly. And since you stated your two favorite animals were giraffes and elephants, we figured the African exhibit would suit you perfectly.”
I practically squirmed around in my seat as the golf cart came to a stop.
Sarah quickly showed me to my office, which already had my name on a plaque on the door.
She threw it open and I took a look at the plain space.
There were some empty bookshelves and a dusty desk with a new computer sitting there along with a monitor.
A couple of sitting chairs sat in front of the desk, and a worn faux-leather work chair slid up to the desk itself.
“It’s not much, but zoologists usually don’t make it a habit of staying in their offices,” Sarah said.
I slowly walked into the space. I loved it.
I loved the windows that lined the back of the office.
They gazed out over the bird exhibit and could hear them calling out to one another, singing in their beautiful languages and calling out for mates.
I smiled as I stood there, basking in the sunlight on my face.
Nothing could get any better than this.
“For your first two weeks, you’ll be working at the zoo from one until nine.
The first three hours of your shift will be getting to know the animals and getting a flow for the foot traffic we have around here.
Then, the last hours of your shift, we will be shut down to the public so you can familiarize yourself with everything else.
After two weeks, you’ll go to a regular schedule.
Eight to four, like the other three zoologists,” Sarah said.
“Thank you so much for this opportunity,” I said, turning around.
“Thank you for taking the job. You were very much qualified for it. Welcome to the team, Hayley. I’ll let you get a feel for your desk and things like that. Then, I’ll be back in about an hour and I can take you to my favorite eating spot on the entire grounds.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“Um, just one question,” she said.
“Mhm?” I asked.
“What happened to your head?” she asked, pointing.
“Oh, this. I, uh, tripping over moving boxes. I swear, I can’t get them unpacked fast enough.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice. It took me two weeks to unpack when I moved into the place I’m in now. Broke both of my pinky toes twice against boxes before I got them all put away.”
“Holy sh—yikes,” I said, correcting myself.
Sarah laughed. “Just don’t let the guests at the zoo hear it.”
“Duly noted.”
Sarah closed the door, and I puffed my cheeks out. My eyes fell back to my desk as my mind roamed over my day. After my encounter with the man on the bike, I’d had to rush home and get ready. I had to clean myself up as quickly as I could so that I looked presentable for my first day of work.
“Talk about a whirlwind day,” I murmured to myself.
I reached into my large purse, thankful that I had packed up a few things to put in my office.
I pulled out a small package of wipes and began dusting the place down.
I wiped off the desk and the bookshelves, readying them for the textbooks I’d kept throughout college.
And the books I had purchased on my own to learn more about the animals I loved so much.
I pulled out a picture of myself and my father, setting it on my desk.
I wiped down the computer and pulled out a few more trinkets to decorate my workspace.
Specifically, a giraffe and an elephant.
I loved them. They were big and strong. Burly.
And they didn’t take shit from anyone. They were animals that dwarfed me but held a great deal of respect for the other animals around them.
They were never fighters unless they had to be, and they held an intensity in their eyes that made me feel kindred to them.
Kind of like the man on the bike.
I sighed as I sat down in the worn leather chair. It hissed with air as the cushions deflated underneath me, but I didn’t care. I pulled out my cell phone, wondering if I had any missed calls.
Disappointment rushed through me when I didn’t see anything.
I booted up my computer and tried to familiarize myself with the system the zoo used.
I wrote down my schedule for the next two weeks on a pad with a pen I found stuffed in the desk.
I folded it up and stuffed it into my bra so that when I got home and undressed, I could tack it up somewhere.
Not that I’d ever forget it. Not with how anxious I was to learn the ropes and really dig into working with these animals.
But every little reminder helped for when I got distracted.
The more I focused on work, the more his face bombarded my mind.
Those rugged features. Those piercing green eyes.
That disheveled brown hair on top of his head.
The man was a tank. Thick with muscle and brimming with height.
I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off him in that parking lot, and I was having a hard time focusing on my new damn job because of him.
“Why didn’t you get his name again?” I asked myself.
Those emerald orbs stuck with me. They glared at me from my mind’s eye beneath that shit-eating grin of his. I picked my phone back up to see if I had missed anything. A call. A text. A voice message because I had shitty service. Anything.
And still, there was nothing.
I mean, he didn’t say he’d call me. Just that he’d call me if his bike had issues.
So, I shouldn’t want a call from him, yeah?
That would cost me money I didn’t have. And yet, I wanted him to.
I wanted my damn cell phone to ring. I wanted to hear his voice on the other end of it, rugged and raw.
I wanted to ask him his name and see if he’d give it to me.
Maybe ask him for coffee.
“Knock knock.”
Sarah’s voice emanated from my office door. I slowly pulled my eyes away from my computer screen, and I was still staring at the fucking main desktop screen. Holy shit, had I not done anything? I looked at the clock in the bottom right-hand corner and saw an entire hour had gone by.
Had I been dreaming about some nameless asshat for an hour?
“Hey there. Ready to go?” I asked.
“Actually, food is going to have to be postponed. One of our pandas is about to give birth. Want to come watch?” Sarah asked.
I ripped myself out of my chair and scrambled for my purse.
I’d finish cleaning and decorating later.
This was the shit I lived for, helping animals through their natural processes and making sure they were healthy.
Sarah smiled at me as she opened my door further, and I closed it behind me as we poured into the hallway.
“Oh, by the way? These are yours,” she said.
And when she dangled my office keys in front of my face, it solidified my dream. I was officially a zoologist at the San Diego zoo.
The one place my mother always took me to as a child.