Suzy
I was back home now and Lia was always with me while Georgia and Linda came over sometimes after work to help me with somethings. I did not bother telling Justin that I had given birth. I didn't even speak to him again after the incident that happened at his house. He already made it clear to me that he was not interested in the life of our baby which he even denied so there was no need to bring him in. I hadn't even think of a name for my baby so Lia suggested that I name her Katie which was after my mum. It was a nice name, I loved it so I didn't oppose it.
Lia had already healed from Elvis heartbreak. She didn't sulk anymore. She was now over him and moved on as if nothing ever happened. She was more lively and was very helpful to me. She took permission from her boss and worked from home for the first week after I was discharged from the hospital so now she went to work and came back earlier. She also helped me check up on my mum and always came back with sad news of how she was not getting any better and the bills kept on increasing. I was very sad because of my financial situation. I needed to pay my mum's bills. The worst of everything now was that I was jobless and hopeless. My boss laid me off through the maternity leave, saying that there was need to lay off some employees as the was no longer enough income to pay the workers. She took up the maternity leave as an opportunity to fire me. I was so angry. Where could I find another job offer. I really needed to find something immediately so that I could continue my mum's hospital bills.
Lia helped me for now because she was practically living with me so she bought groceries and all the expenses was taken care of by her. I felt like a burden and whenever I mentioned how grateful I was and how lucky I was to have a friend like her, she would just laugh and wave me off. But I knew that I could not continue living like this. She would not even stay at my house forever so I really needed a good job with a good pay in order to pay my mum's hospital bills and take care of my baby girl and me. I started applying for jobs online. I applied for a handful so that maybe if they gave me the job I could choose the one with the best pay. I told Lia about my job hunt and she discouraged me from looking for any job opportunities when I was still nursing my baby. But I was left with no choice. I needed a job. She would not continue to fend for me and my baby forever and what about my mum's hospital bills. If I don't pay for sometime, the hospital could withdraw treatment for sometime till I paid in something and when that time would come who will give me the money. I could only pay if I got a job. When I explained all these to her, she just nodded quietly. She knew that I made a valid point here and I was left with no choice so I just waited for interview dates to be sent over to me by these various jobs that I applied for.
After some days, some firms sent the date for my interview with them. I was so happy and I prepared for the interviews the best way I could.
On the day of the first interview, I begged Lia to stay with my baby while I rushed off for the interview. On reaching the address of the firm, it was not what I expected. It was very clear that I could not work there and I just turned back home. Definitely there was no need for an interview. Was that even a firm? because it looked more like a drug dealer's nest. When I went home Katie was sleeping soundly while Lia worked on her laptop. I sat down and told her about what I saw as a firm and she laughed out so hard that I could bet her tummy hurt. I just hoped that other interviews would go well because my time was ticking really fast.
The next interview I had was going well till I told them that I was still a nursing mother. That was it, they could not offer nursing mothers the job, nursing mothers were absolutely off the list for potential employees. I was on a rough road here. I didn't even know that it would be difficult for me to find a job as a nursing mother.
On my third interview, Georgia stayed with Katie and while I was still in the middle of the interview, she called me and said that Katie woke up crying and has refused to be consoled so I needed to come back home because she seemed hungry. Oh God! I was just going crazy. So the third interview came out fruitless and they told me they could not take on a nursing mother. I could not blame them. I had to rush back home to breastfeed Katie. I was totally hopeless by this situation that I started crying. Life was really unfair to me now. I cried and cried while Katie, oblivious of what I was going through just held on to me and fed as if she hadn't eaten for days. Poor girl, she did not even know how cruel the world could be. She didn't even know that her mum was having a hard time. How was I going to provide for her as I promised when I'm struggling to get a job now. I wasn't even feeding myself now. What if I didn't have Lia in my life. I would have been really doomed.