by Sam Mariano
He unwrinkled the page and offered it back to Julie, his demeanor apologetic. "I believe this belongs to you."
"The one I needed is already sleeping with the fishes, but thanks anyway," she replied, taking the blank paper without looking at it.
"I'm so sorry, was she bothering you? I didn't mean to—I never have her during work hours so I’m not used to… still, I'm sorry."
She wanted to lecture him on his parenting skills, but it was really none of her business. On the other hand, someone could steal her someday, so she felt like she had to say something.
"I'm not all that worried about the notes, she's just such a sweet little girl, I would hate for her to fall and get hurt, or… for someone untrustworthy to lure her away with a piece of paper while you're on the phone."
She expected him to be offended, to tell her to mind her own business, so she was surprised when he sighed instead and said, "I know, that's exactly what I tried to tell her mother, why I need her to—I can't work and watch a one-year-old at the same time.”
Since he at least owned up to his crappy parenting skills, Julie smiled a bit reluctantly. "Perhaps a babysitter would help?"
"We're trying to find a new nanny," he explained, looking down as Anna pulled herself up using his leg and then tugged on Julie's skirt. "No, Anna, don't do that," he said, grabbing her little fist.
"Nana," she said, ignoring her father and going right back to holding onto the hem of Julie's skirt to balance herself, then she smiled up at Julie and started walking again.
"A nanny would probably solve that problem,” Julie agreed.
"It would if her mother wouldn’t scare them all off," he said, lightly.
Julie smiled as Anna came back over to her babbling nonsensically. "I imagine it would be very hard to trust someone else with your child."
As Julie responded to Anna, she felt the man watching her, and it made her squirm a bit.
"You're good with her," he remarked, still watching her.
Julie just smiled. "She’s sweet. I love kids."
Suddenly he was looking at her as if he’d just realized she was someone important. "I don't believe I introduced myself; my name’s Matt Turner," he said, offering his hand.
"Julie Kingsley," she replied, offering a pleasant smile and shaking his hand.
"Do you have much experience with children, Julie?"
"Uh, kind of. I babysat a lot in high school and I have a little brother back home, so I helped out a lot with him," she said, not sure why he would ask such a strange question.
“That’s cool,” he said a bit lamely.
Julie smiled a bit awkwardly. “Yep, super cool.”
"Listen, this will probably sound very strange, but you wouldn't be interested in interviewing for a nanny position, would you?”
"You mean for her?" Julie asked, eyes widening.
He nodded. "You seem nice and even though you don’t even know us, you’re responsible enough to lecture me in the interest of her safety. I’m sure you won't think much more of my parenting skills for picking a nanny up off the street, but I'm in pretty desperate need, and she seems to like you. As long as you wouldn’t object to a background check, it couldn’t hurt to have an interview, right?"
To say she was shocked would be an understatement. Pretty much anything would beat her job though, and she wouldn't have to wash her work clothes separately from everything else anymore. Besides, she assumed she would make more as a nanny than at Pizza Hut.
"Um, well, I've never been a nanny before. I mean, I've babysat on nights and weekends, but… I don’t really have full-time references—or even recent ones.”
"Inexperience can be a good thing," he said. "We can mold you to be the kind of nanny we’re looking for rather than finding someone older and set in their ways." He spoke as if he was gaining confidence in the idea. "Listen, I only have," he flicked a glance at his watch, "about 15 more minutes, and I still have to drop her off, so I should be going, but if you're interested you could give me your number, maybe we could have lunch or you could come over to our apartment for a little interview. I'll need to make sure you have a clean record, some character references if you don’t have a lot of babysitting references. Just, you know, the general information."
"Well, I'm perfectly normal, so that shouldn't be a problem," she told him.
He smiled. "You seem perfectly normal. I wouldn't typically offer to give my daughter over to someone I met on a bench, but I have a good feeling about you."
"That's great," she said, trying to wrap her head around it. Then she remembered he had to leave, so she said, "Oh!" and ran over to her notebook, grabbing a pen out of her bag and quickly jotting down her name and phone number on the blank piece of paper.
"Here you go," she said, holding it out for him.
"Would you be available to come over Friday per chance? I know it's short notice," he began.
"I absolutely would. I’m actually off this Friday, no classes or anything, so that’s perfect."
"You're in school? I probably should have asked that," he added a bit ruefully.
She nodded. "College. I'm a sophomore."
"Okay, well bring your schedule, too," he said, offering one last smile.
“Will do.”
Anna tugged on his pants again. "I really have to go, but I'll be in touch," he told her, scooping up his daughter and picking up his briefcase.
"Okay," she said, offering a little wave and turning back toward her things.
He made it a few feet before he turned around and said, “Oh, one more thing.”
Julie turned back around, eyebrows lifting expectantly. “Yes?”
“How are you with…strong personalities?”
Unsure whether she was referring to the baby or someone else, she said a little cautiously, “I do all right…”
“Good,” he replied brightly, then—without explanation—he continued on his way.
Julie watched until they were gone, offering a wave at Anna, who watched her with a pleasant smile.
Only when they were out of sight did she remember she should probably gather her stuff and head to class.
Chapter Two-
Thursday was Julie's last midterm, and she was glad to be done with it.
Just as she was unlocking her apartment door, she felt her cell phone vibrating in her pocket. She dug it out and read a phone number she didn’t recognize, but she answered it as she kicked open the door.
"Julie?" a male voice asked.
"Yes?”
"Hi, this is Matt Turner, we met yesterday."
After the necessary niceties were exchanged, Matt asked Julie if she would be able to come over the following day at 6:45. She said that she could and she jotted down the address of the apartment.
"Who was that?" Jack asked before she even ended the call.
Julie hadn't told him about what happened at the river. When she came home he wasn't there, so she took advantage of the rare alone time to study. Within an hour Jacob and Jack returned, and Jack made it very clear that he wanted to go straight to bed.
So she finally relayed the story.
His eyebrows shot upward. "Some guy just accosted you by the river and pawned his kid off on you?"
"He didn't accost me. I know it’s kind of random, but hey, as long as he doesn’t turn out to be a serial killer, this would be a much better job than the one I have."
"True," he acknowledged, taking her hand and pulling her into his lap, smiling. "Hi."
She chuckled a little. "Hi."
"How was school?"
"Well, today was my midterm, as you may remember. I was totally nervous, especially—”
"Mm hmm," he murmured before she had finished, his lips finding her neck.
Taking the hint that he didn't care about the details, she summed it up before he could cut her off again. "But I actually did surprisingly well, I think."
"That's good," he murmured, peeling her zip up sweater off of her.
"Perhaps we shouldn't do this right here on the couch where anyone could walk in and see," she suggested, but he was already smothering her words, pulling himself above her.
She released a little sigh of annoyance, then guiltily hoped he hadn't heard her.
Apparently he either didn't hear, or didn't pay attention.
---
Julie got the job.
She wasn't sure how, as he hadn't even had a chance to check the reference sheet she had carefully compiled on her computer that morning, and his wife spent approximately 70 seconds sitting in on the interview before flitting out the door for some client meeting, leaving Matt to conduct the rest of it.
Julie happily took the job. He was offering more money, and she would much rather watch a sweet baby than serve pizza. The baby would also take naps, hopefully allowing her some time to study while she worked.
When she asked when he wanted her to start, he replied, "Is this week too soon?"
So when she went in to work on Saturday, she happily put in her two week notice. Julie couldn't get over her luck, but she wasn't about to question it. It was, after all, just babysitting; how hard could it possibly be?
---
The first week was a piece of cake. Julie was able to read or study during naps, and Anna was a generally good-spirited kid.
It was the end of Julie's first week before she actually met the mother again, and by then she had all but forgotten about Matt’s “strong personality” comment.
She was reminded when, while chatting into a cell phone and raiding the cupboard, the petite blue-eyed blonde turned on Julie with a raised eyebrow and demanded to know why her crackers weren't in the cupboard.
Confused, Julie asked, "Which crackers?"
"My crackers," she said shortly.
Julie continued to stare, more than a little confused.
"I swear, I let Matt make one decision and he hires another moron… Oh, I know… Not that she couldn't stand to lose a little weight," she muttered.
Julie could only gape, wordless, as the woman walked out the door.
Later, when she was at home complaining to Jack about the rude bitch she worked for, she wondered why she didn't say something.
"She accused you of eating her crackers?" Jack asked with raised eyebrows as he munched on some Fritos.
Julie’s eyes went wide. "Yes! I mean, I think so. And she insulted me like I wasn’t even there. Not only do I steal her crackers, I am apparently deaf and dumb."
"Wow, she sounds awesome," he remarked.
"Oh yeah. Not that she's ever home anyway, thank God," Julie complained, pacing the floor. "I swear. You know how most kids try to go to their parents when they're around? When the Wicked Witch walked over and smiled at Anna before she left for the gym today, Anna just looked at her blankly and actually leaned closer to me. She's known me for a week, and already she prefers me over her mother. Not that I blame the poor kid. The dad seems nice, but the mother… I wonder where Emma goes. Does she work, or does she just work out 40 hours a week? Matt never actually mentions her when she isn't around. But at least he's involved, you know? The other day when I got there, Matt was sitting at the table with Anna in her high chair and he was reading her the Chicago Sun Times." Julie chuckled, smiling a little at the memory. "She wasn’t interested, but hey, at least he tried, right?"
When she turned to Jack to hear his response to her rant, she saw not only was he not listening to her, he was on the phone.
Julie frowned, a little put out. She always listened to him after a bad day at work.
Jack laughed into the phone. "No, that's awesome. We'll see you there."
As he hung up, Julie said, "You answered your phone while I was talking?"
"That's implied, since I was talking on it," he replied sarcastically. "Anyway, that was Evan, and he invited us to a party at someone's apartment in Wicker Park."
"A party?" she asked unenthusiastically.
"Yeah, a party. It's Friday night, you don't have class tomorrow, let's go.”
"Well… it's just… I need to study for sociology tonight, and I have this extra credit thing for humanities that I'm supposed to do on ancient Greece vase painting, so I wasn't planning on going to a party tonight."
"You've got all weekend," Jack reasoned. "Do that tomorrow."
"Tomorrow I have to work at Pizza Hut and read an entire chapter of my earth science book, and do the practice at the end."
"Which you could put off until Sunday, when you don't work."
"I don't work there," she corrected. "I have to watch Anna from 9 to 3 Sunday."
"So do it after," he stated, getting up off the couch. "Come on, don't be such a party pooper."
He wasn't in college; he didn't have tests to study for or assignments to complete. She couldn't say that, however, so instead she struck a compromise.
"How about this?" she said. "I'm going to do the humanities assignment right now, then when I get done, we can go to the party."
"You're gonna study? But Jacob's not here; what am I supposed to do until we leave?"
She felt like snapping at him to amuse himself for an hour, but instead she counted to three and said, "I'm sure you'll think of something. Now I need to go concentrate right now."
"Don't be a perfectionist. I don't want to be here all night."
"I'll try not to," she said, opening up Microsoft Word on her pink laptop and opening up another window for the Internet.
She had just pushed search for "ancient Greece vase painting" when she heard Jack say, "Morgan, what are you doing? Want to go to a party tonight?"
Ugh, he was inviting along the stuck up bitch from down the hall.
That would definitely help her concentration.
---
Julie was only halfway through her chapter of earth science on Saturday when her cell phone started ringing, bringing her right out of her concentration zone.
She growled a little, picking up the phone and answering it without even looking at the caller ID.
"Hello?" she answered, her tone somewhat perturbed.
"Julie? This is Matt Turner."
A little surprised, she took the edge off her tone. "Oh, hi Matt, how are you?"
"I'm fine, but I'm in a bit of a pinch, I was hoping you could help me out..."
That did not sound good. "What can I help you with?" she asked cautiously.
"I know you weren't supposed to work today, but I have to run to the office and Emma… can't watch Anna," he said, a bit of irritation evident in his voice. "I can't take her with me, and I was really hoping you could come over and sit with her. I won't be more than an hour, I just… I'm stuck."
Julie stole a look at her watch, barely stifling a sigh. "I suppose I could come over."
He sounded more than a little relieved. "Thank you so much, Julie. I really appreciate it."
It was only an hour, she reasoned as she slid her notes inside her book to mark her page and flipped it shut. Jack wouldn't be home from work until closer to 10:30, so she could still go sit with Anna and be back in time to finish her studying before he got home.
With that plan in mind, she ran down the hall to grab her purse and keys out of her room.
---
True to his word, Matt was back at the apartment by 7:50.
He yanked his tie off as he flopped onto the couch with a heavy sigh. "Thank you for coming over on such short notice," he said.
"Oh, it was no problem," she fibbed.
"I'm sure this isn't how you wanted to spend your Saturday night. I don't want to make you hate your job your first week, I just… Emma tends to have a one-track mind and she does things like this without much regard for anyone else’s schedule."
Julie was curious, even though it was none of her business, what was so important that Emma had to do.
Attempting a casual but not curious tone, she asked, "Did she have a work thing, or…?"
He kind of scoffed. "She had to go for drinks with a 'potential clien
t.'"
So the Workout Witch did have a job. Julie forced a half smile. "Sounds important."
"Self-important, maybe," he said, glancing at his watch. "She's an art dealer." Then, somehow switching topics completely, he asked, "Are you hungry?"
Taken off guard by the shift in conversation she repeated, "Hungry?"
"Yeah, I'm starving," he said, getting up off the couch. "I made you come all the way over here, ruined your Saturday night, the least I could do is feed you."
Actually, she realized she hadn't eaten in quite some time, and since he mentioned it her stomach finally caught on.
"Let's see what we have in here," he said, opening up the freezer. "Frozen quinoa, frozen eggplant, a Lean Cuisine, broccoli… deli spirals? Okay," he said, closing the door. "Take-out it is." He flashed Julie a smile. "What do you feel like?"
"You don't have to do that," she said. "I should probably go anyway."
"Do you want pizza? No, probably not, you work at Pizza Hut, don't you?"
She wasn't sure why, but she was flattered that he remembered. "Is Potbelly's still open?"
"I honestly couldn't tell you. Come on, we'll go find something to eat in this damn city," he said with a smile. "Let me just go change out of this shirt and I'll be right out."
Well, she wasn't going to argue. "Come on Anna, let's get your little sweater on and we'll take your daddy out to get some real food." She leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, "No health crackers allowed."
As if she understood, Anna giggled.
---
They ended up at Wendy's, eating French fries and Frosties and talking about life.
"So what are you going to school for?" Matt asked idly as he dipped a fry in ketchup.
"I'm majoring in English with a minor in communications."
"That's cool," he said, nodding his head. "Hopefully you don't do what I did and change majors every time you change your clothes."
She smiled and dipped a fry. "What were you originally doing?"
"Well, for the first half of my freshman year I was going to go into business administration, the second half I was going to be a computer programmer, and in the spring semester of my sophomore year I finally decided on actuarial studies."
