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I shrugged, indifferent. “It pays the bills.
“Would you be open to another position? A better paid one?”
I studied him, wondering if he was serious. “Of course, but—"
“I own a medium sized investment firm, and I’ve had some trouble of late with my building manager. I discovered he was stealing money from me.” He cast me a cynical glance.
“Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry to hear that.”
He waved me away. “He was always a bit of a shifty one. I should’ve known he was up to something when he told me the call out fee for a plumber was five hundred euros.”
I gaped at him, knowing from personal experience most Dublin plumbers only charged between eighty to a hundred and fifty per call out. I supposed that was the downside of being as rich as Mr Oaks. You didn’t give as much attention to the price of things.
“He’d been regularly pocketing the extra few hundred for himself. Obviously, I had to fire him, which means there’s a vacancy that needs filling, and I’ve had trouble finding the right candidate. I need someone I can trust. You’ve had unsupervised access to both my penthouses for over a year, and you’ve never stolen so much as a bar of soap from me. What do you think?”
Time froze as I stared at him. Was I dreaming? Because that was the sort of dream I had on occasion, someone coming along and offering to change my circumstances, whisk me away to a better life. Well, it perhaps wasn’t that, but it certainly wasn’t every day I was offered a brand-new job without having to go through the stress of searching and applying and being interviewed. No more scrubbing toilets. No more vacuuming.
“You’re offering me the job of being your building manager because I never stole any soap?”
He nodded, and I began to realise Mr Oaks was someone who didn’t beat around the bush. “Are you interested?”
I worried my lip. “I’m not exactly qualified.”
“Qualifications are overrated, and you seem like a fast learner. You’d be in charge of a team of cleaners, and you’d need to arrange for maintenance people to come and fix things when they break. There are a few other duties, but it’s not rocket science, Miss Lydon.” He eyed me, and my pulse thrummed. His offer seemed too good to be true. “The salary is fifty thousand a year, plus benefits. Think about it, and let me know. You have my number.”
With that, he knocked back the last of his espresso and checked his watch. “Ben still hasn’t arrived, so it looks like I’ll be catching a taxi to the office this morning.”
“Have a good day,” I said to him as he left, still reeling from his job offer. Fifty thousand a year was almost double what I earned. I didn’t know what the benefits were, but they were surely better than my current ones. Ahem, the non-existent kind.
I was in a daze when I finally started cleaning. The job could greatly improve my life. I’d be a fool to say no, but I was also hesitant. One, because I had clients who I really liked, such as Mr Cole and the Connollys. They’d been able to rely on me for years, and I didn’t like the idea of quitting on them. Obviously, the same sentiment didn’t apply to Mrs Reynolds.
And two, well, I’d never been in charge of other people before. Being a manager might pay better, but what if it came with a heap more stress?
Then I thought of Vivi, Robbie, Shelly and Eamonn. How much I could improve their lives with greater earnings. Of course, I’d never plan to take them away from their foster parents, but if I could save enough for a bigger place to live, then they could come and stay with me for weekends or school holidays. They could stop by whenever they wanted.
I was full of optimism as I thought about all the ways the job could improve not only my life but the life of my siblings, too.
Almost to counterbalance my optimistic mood, the weather worsened greatly by the end of the day. I grimaced as I put on my raincoat, which had thankfully dried since the morning, though it was about to get soaked again. I hurried out but was disappointed when I didn’t see Shay at the bus stop. Maybe he was running late because of the weather. I closed my umbrella and joined the others waiting under the shelter when a car horn beeped.
A silvery grey SUV had pulled up just past the bus stop and Shay threw the door open, waving me over. Surprised, I hurried to the car and found Rhys in the driver’s seat. Stephanie was next to him while Shay sat in the back.
“You look like you could use a lift,” Rhys said, and I was filled with gratitude as the rain poured down on me.
