Claire had originally turned Pam down flat when she explained the wardrobe for the show; she’d never worn less than a one-piece swimsuit in public, so she certainly didn’t intend to lose her inhibitions in front of a room full of strange men.
The following day she received news that her mother’s heater would need to be replaced.
There was no way she could afford the new furnace/heater installation and her mother’s medicine; thus, she ended up with a second job that she would have never imagined in a lifetime. Running her mother’s house and her apartment was taking a toll on her, and she could barely get by with just her day job. Some years back, they had a scheduled HVAC service plan with the local heating dealership, but that had long been forgotten when her mother fell ill, and all her late father’s insurance money got depleted. She changed the furnace filter, but that barely qualifies as heater maintenance. With the new job that Pam had given her, she could easily afford to pay the HVAC tech for any heating repair needed and occasionally service the electric heating system. She also had her apartment to take care of. Her heated floors did not warm the house perfectly, but the same could not be said about the boiler for all her hot water needs. The heating industry was forever enticing her with new heat and AC products such as the wireless thermostat, but her account balance would not allow for such indulgence. For now, all she could do was attend to the most important things, her mother’s medication topping the list.