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"Oh, well that sounds excellent!" Mary exclaimed. "We have an application process, but it's fairly simple. I'll email you the form. It's just the basics, name, address, schools you attended, you know, the usual. Oh, and, of course, a background check will be necessary."
If my heart skipped a beat about her 'schools attended' comment, it sunk at the 'background check' one. How stupid of me. I'd hoped because it was an online job that maybe that would be skipped. Mary obviously noticed the silence on my part.
"Is there a problem?" Her voice was crisp with alertness.
I hesitated, even considered hanging up and ending this pipe dream right there. But I also recognized this was a situation I was going to encounter over and over again, and the sooner I practiced dealing with it, the better.
"Well, I've had some unfortunate events happen, and I'm afraid I didn't finish school in the conventional way, but I assure you I excelled in all my classes, most of which were advanced, and I can support that with my transcripts."
"Could you be more specific?"
I sensed an edge of impatience, but at least she hadn't bid me a good day and hung up.
"To be honest, I couldn’t graduate with my class, and my few college credits are from online courses."
"Due to illness?"
I blew out my breath and blurted, "No. I was in prison."
There was the expected moment of silence, and I waited to hear the click as she disconnected the call.
"Well," she finally said, "I wasn't anticipating that."
"I understand," I said softly, disappointment burning behind my eyes. "I'm sorry for wasting your time."
"Wait!" Her sharp voice caught my attention before I replaced the receiver on the hook. "Don't hang up."
"Um, okay." I was nervous about what she might have to say. I prepared myself to be blasted with accusations about being a predator or who knows what?
"I'm thinking," she said, and I waited for what felt like an eternity of silence. Finally, she continued. "I'll admit it's not the ideal circumstance, especially since you'd be working with minors. But I know about troubled paths myself. I hope you understand that I need to know
more about you, your circumstances, and I'd require several letters of recommendations. And I think this calls for a personal interview. Would you be agreeable to that, even knowing I can't promise anything?"
I was flooded with hope. Even with no guarantees, here was a woman who was willing to judge me on more than the one incident that irrevocably changed my life. "Yes! Definitely yes." My face flushed with excitement as we arranged a meeting for the next evening. I hung up the phone but continued to sit, needing a few moments to contain my excitement.
An amused voice startled me from my daydreams. "You look like the cat that got the cream."
I looked into the dark brown eyes of Holten Andrews. I had only caught glimpses of him during my time here, and those were mostly limited to seeing him through the windows of a conference room. I guessed he must be busy getting ready for something big, given the number of books I was constantly replacing in the library that had been checked out in his name.
"Know a lot about cats, do you?" I teased. Even he wasn't going to bring down my mood.
"It's just an expression my mom uses." He smirked. "I'm more of a dog man. I find them easier to understand than cats...or women."
I ignored all the pussy innuendos that floated through my brain about his experience with women. "Well, let me try to make it easy for you, then, Mr. Andrews. I was simply happy with a possible new opportunity."
"Moving on from this one already?" He frowned.
Immediately my defenses flared at what sounded like an accusation. "What? No! I like my job here." I crossed my arms. "Not that I owe you an explanation, but it's a chance to do something I've always wanted to do, in addition to this job." Angered at his assumptions, I whirled around and pretended to straighten some papers that were on the table.
I heard him sigh. "Look, I'm sorry. And call me Holt."
I shrugged. "It's fine."
"No, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. Everyone is entitled to go for their dreams."
"Even girls like me?" I didn't bother to douse the snark in my words as I hurled them over my shoulder. Damn it! What was it about him that I allowed myself to get so impassioned?
"Pull in your claws, Madelyn. I was merely--"
