The grey apartment door slammed, the lace curtains on it flying at high speed, a gust of cold evening air coursed through the corridor. Nora entered looking pissed in a short black jacket and holding her handbag at the end of her fingertips. She marched down the house to the dining room table and began to rummage through the bag. Her face was scrunched up in a scowl.
Josh looked up from the sofa. "What's up?" He was leaning back, doing a crossword in the newspaper. There was a cleaning towel next to him on the coffee table from when he had completely cleaned the bottom floor earlier that day. He has resigned from the hospital a few days ago and was busying himself by making sure the place was more spotless than ever.
"All our absences have finally added up, I guess," she said, pulling out a notebook and a wad of receipts from the bag and frowning at them before shaking her hand again along the bottom of the bag.. "I tried to get out of a sudden night-shift they thrust upon me for this Saturday-"
Josh interjected, "But that's a-"
"Yeah, I know, that's why I didn't want it. But you try explaining to HR why we leave for months on end and come back picky about working on weekends without mentioning the wolf thing… It didn't end well. I'm fired, Josh."
Sally apparated into the kitchen, her face betrayed her with the expression of one who was trying very hard not to look like they had been eavesdropping from the other room. She couldn't hold it for long. "Nora! I just heard! That's terrible. Does Aidan have to go as well?"
"He still has a job," huffed Nora, "But frankly it's been hard enough paying for food and rent on just an orderly and a nurse's salary." She paused as she pulled out some sweet wrappers and keys from the bag in anger, "I can't imagine all three of us surviving on just an orderly's pocket money."
"Four of us."
"You don't pay rent and you don't eat food, Sally." Nora's hand chanced upon something and her eyes lit up.
"Well, I can't get a job," said Josh, "Not since I scared the crap out of literally everyone in the hospital."
"Found it!" Nora exclaimed, her fist in the air.
"What is it?" asked Josh.
Nora ignored the question and pulled wads of paper out of the the thing she was holding. It was a wallet. The paper was dollars. She laid it out on the table.
"That's all the money we have," she said.
Josh swung his legs over the couch, walked over and glanced down at the table. "It's not much." He pursed lips with worry.
Aidan strolled into the room, unaware of his surroundings. He pulled the fridge open to grab a bag of blood, then did a double take and checked behind him. "Why… is everyone staring at dollars?" he asked, opening the microwave. He carefully cut a hole in his bag and poured it into a yellow mug.
"Nora lost her job and we're poor now," called Sally.
Aidan put the mug in the microwave and turned it on. "Oh shit, and Josh can't get a job?"
"I scared everyone half to death, remember?" said Josh.
"We're screwed," summarized Sally.
Aidan opened the microwave and enjoyed his first sip of warm blood. "I wouldn't be so sure, I have some savings."
"What, in a bank?" asked Josh. His frown left and he stood up. Nora grinned and put her hand on his arm.
"Is there any other kind?" scoffed Aidan.
"Just tell me you didn't leave it there over the Great Depression," groaned Sally. She put on a disapproving face but was genuinely quite interested.
"'Course not! Anyway, interest has built up since then. Haven't had a look in ages." said Aidan, stringing her along with a knowing grin.
"We have to go check it out!" said Josh excitedly. His face was now wearing a goofy grin.
"Right now?" asked Aidan, suddenly aware of the time. It was getting quite late.
"We can check online," said Josh. He ran up the dark wooden stairs with puppy-like joy. Nora started slowly putting all the dollars back in her purse, she felt rather silly about the show she had just put on. She was also annoyed that the money was dusty now.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" she asked.
Aidan shrugged. "We didn't need it." And he had been hoping to use it to cover up any possible slip ups. Somehow he knew that answer wouldn't please Nora too much.
Josh's footsteps rumbled across the house as he returned with a large white laptop. It was surprisingly clean for a young man's laptop. His fingers zoomed across the keyboard as Aidan rattled off his account details. Nora stared from over his shoulder, Sally tried to feign disinterest and failed miserably with her constant darting eyes.
The computer revealed the sum. It was quite exorbitant.
"Ninety six thousand dollars!" cried Josh. "Ninety six thousand dollars!"
Aidan bit the inside of his cheek to stop smiling. "I know, I can read."
Sally jumped around on the spot squealing. "We're rich!"
"This money is just a safety net," said Aidan, "Just for now as we don't have work."
Sally fluttered her eyelashes at him. "But Aiden," she sang, "It is a rather large safety net."
Nora saw what she was hinting at. She nudged him. "Come on… Josh and I didn't even have a proper honeymoon."
Aidan laughed. "I guess so." Sally pouted and fluttered her eyelashes even harder. She appeared to be having a seizure.
"Come on, be sensible, Aidan's right. We don't deserve to do fun, normal, human things like go on holiday," said Josh in his most passive-aggressive tone. He gave Aidan a look and they burst out laughing.
"Where were you thinking of going?" asked the vampire. "I hear Prague's nice this time of year."