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“Hey,stranger.”Nickyscratchedher fingertips over my shoulder and plunked down next to me on my beanbag. “No Billie tonight?”
“Jasper took them on a date night, so it's just you and me.”
“I have a proposition for you,” she said.
“Whatkindof proposition?” I asked with a wink.
Her cheeks turned pink. “Okay, I hear it now. It's not a sexy one. I was wondering if you might be interested in being one of our featured careers. We’re doing some outreach with a few local high schools and one of the community colleges. Most of the people we have on board are trades and some of the standard ‘I wanted to be that when I was six years old’ kind of jobs. But I would really love to get some more creative careers involved. Editing work would be perfect, and a lot of students might not know much about it. I also think it would be really cool if you could talk to them about balancing travel and education, for the ones who are eager to spread their wings and see the world.”
“Yeah, absolutely! I’d love to. What's all involved?”
Nicky gave a squeak of delight, practically blinding me with her smile at my agreement. She walked me through the program that was part informational, part mentorship, and would take about four days of my time outside of preparation. “I’ll be coming in to help as well. I think you and I will have some crossover with the students that are interested in book-related careers.”
I hadn’t really considered mentorship before, but now that Nicky had broached the subject, the idea was definitely something I wanted to pursue. For all the strides the world had made, a lot of parents were still very unsupportive of careers outside of standard fields.
The grin she put on my face was untamable. “Thank you for thinking of me.”
“I’m just glad you’re excited about it. Not everyone is thrilled about donating time to kids, but I had a good feeling about you.”
“I would’ve killed for a program like this when I was younger. People shitting on English degrees with no imagination for the careers it could lead to gets very old.”
Nicky laughed. “I don’t doubt that. Mom wasbaffledwhen I told her how much school was needed to become a librarian. People know nothing about my job, either. I’m kind of hopping into the project part way through. Miranda's been working on the set up for a couple months and finally brought me on board.”
I set aside my work task for the moment, and Nicky and I sketched out a brief plan for our involvement in the project. It was exactly the fire I needed to bring back some of the joy in my career that copy editing bylaw propositions didn’t quite provide.
Her little smile and quiet laughter was ever-present, the light in her eyes dancing as her pencil flew over her notepad.
She was entirely too cute when she got into full librarian mode.
“Do you want me to reach out to some of my contacts in the publishing industry?” I asked. “I’m not sure how many of them would be available to participate, but I can brush up on some things so I can at least answer if someone asks.”
“Oh my god! That would be great! I knew you were the perfect person to ask about this.” Her head perked up from her notes. “The program is being distributed throughout the year, with different industries grouped together. Do you think Jasper might be interested when we get to food services?”
“I’m pretty sure he’d be ecstatic. Jasper loves kids, especially ones that will listen to him talk.”
Nicky giggled and made herself a note at the top of the page. She stayed far longer than I would’ve expected with her break times, but maybe the library counted this towards work. By the time she retreated to set up for the day programs, we had a dozen pages of notes between us.
I probably would’ve said yes no matter what. The ability to say no to that woman was disappearing rapidly.
I drafted up a few emails to some of my preferred industry contacts explaining the program and asking if they had anything they might want to share. Even if none of them responded, I was going to do my best to make the experience a success.
My brain protested when I went back to my copy editing. Councillor Harvey was a rambler and had dumped another stack of work on me with a very short deadline. Thankfully the other councillors were a little more forgiving.
Towards the end of her shift, I caught Nicky at the windows staring out at the parking lot.
“Anything?” I asked.
“Not unless he got a new car.” She sighed and slumped against the glass. “This was so much easier last time when I changed jobs while he was out of the country. I don’t want to leave this place. I just want him to leave me alone.”
“Maybe he got the message,” I suggested. “It's possible that Italy made him reassess his priorities. Maybe he’ll never show up again.”
“I want to be that optimistic.” She laughed softly and stood on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek. “What's your plan for the morning?”
“Just a bit more work before bed,” I replied.
“A little Belgian waffle shop just opened up down the street and it looks amazing. I don’t suppose I could entice you to get some with me?”
“I could be persuaded.” I offered her a grin and tidied an escaped strand of her hair behind her ear, ridiculously pleased when she nuzzled against my hand.
