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Taking care of children wasn’t my forte, but how different could it be from caring for whiny hotel guests? And with Felix back in town, a job that took me out of the country would be fantastic.
It took three seconds for me to submit my resume and close the app. It was a long shot, a wild card that I was wildly underqualified for, but it did help calm my mind a little.
I would go home, get intimately familiar with that last bottle of wine, and tomorrow… Tomorrow I would apply for every job under the sun.
2
SUMMER
Three days later, through some insane stroke of luck, I was on my way to Helix for an interview for the in-house nanny position. How any of the fudged information on my resume had made it past whoever was in charge of the hiring process, I had no idea, but I wasn’t in any position to pass it up.
The three days I had spent huddled in my pajamas scrolling through every job website I could find, had resulted in four bites (including the job with Helix), and compared to the other three, it stood out like a beacon. The other three would result in me taking a big pay cut, and who was I to pass up the chance to earn ten granda daylooking after some children?
There was such a thing as a Christmas miracle, right?
The confidence I had to bluff my way through any sort of interview, however, promptly died the moment I climbed out of my cab onto the main street and came face-to-face with the sheer glass shard building that served as the headquarters of Helix Security. It wasn’t the shining, clear windows or the gigantic Christmas tree propped up against their logo on the building, nor was it the spiral statue out in the front of the building that shattered my confidence. It was the clothing that graced the back of each man and woman I watched moving through the revolving glass door.
Helix was a multibillion-dollar company, so of course, everyone was dressed to the nines, but it wasn’t something I had considered until I was standing on the pavement surrounded by melting slush and caressed by a cold wind. I was not rich by any means, and in my faux-confident desperation that morning, I had thrown on my trusty black dress that was one size too small and had a hole under one armpit. It wasn’tgreat,but it had served me well at interviews before.
Interviews for fast food restaurants and high-end hotels, not multibillion-dollar tech companies.
I huddled under my coat and toyed with the end of my scarf, quickly debating how important clothes would be in the interview. They were looking for a nanny. There was no need for me to dress fancy because nannies didn’t dress fancy… right?
A chill stole through my body the longer I stood there trying to convince myself that what I was wearing was fine. Then a beautifully tall and slender woman seemed to float out of the door flanked by two bulky men dressed in pristine suits. She had a small, fluffy hat on top of her head and a figure-hugging red dress complete with gold heels while her hands were tucked neatly into a pure white fluffy muffler.
She looked stunning, completely untouched by the cold, and no wonder. Within thirty seconds, she was swept away into a car and driven into the city, out of sight.
The people that worked here, regardless of position, didn’t have to dress for the weather, did they? They dressed like they belonged in the upper class and that the weather should bend to them. The picture of that woman lingered in my head as I glanced down at my coat and contemplated how impressive my dowdy dress would look in a place like that.
Fuck.
I couldn’t impress them looking like this. I turned on my heel and glanced down the street, spotting my savior a few buildings down. The couture fashion brand Pluxuro had a shop not far, and it was the only place that I could get to, buy something, and get back in time for my interview.
They let people shop on credit in places like that, I’m sure.
Tucking my hair behind my cold ears, I hurried across the street and dodged slushy puddles to the best of my ability, trying to keep the snow to a minimum on my black boots. The last thing I needed was to create a puddle in Helix and send some rich person to the hospital because they slipped.
The thought made me smile, though, and by the time I bundled into the shop, I was breathless with warm cheeks. They flushed hotter the moment I hit the wall of heat within the store, and I quickly shrugged off my coat and draped it over one arm. Blowing my hair out of my face and smoothing a nervous hand down my rumpled dress, I perused the hangers and mannequins for something that screamedrespectableandupper classbut alsocapable-of-caring-for-your-snobby-rich-children.
Everything I looked at took my breath away when I checked the price. Each dress cost five times my rent and then some. There was no way in hell I could afford anything in here, not even on credit. As I wandered the store, I repeatedly checked my watch and counted the minutes as they flew by, bringing me closer and closer to an interview I would surely fail the moment I walked through the door.
And I needed this job. Fuck, I needed this job more than I was willing to admit.
Ten minutes in, I finally settled on a dress that only cost four months’ rent and dragged it with me into the dressing room. Wriggling out of my dress was more of a challenge than I was prepared for. The heat from rushing here and the smothering warmth in the store had caused me to sweat profusely. My dress stuck to me over my wide hips and clung to my thighs. By the time I wrestled free, I kicked it into the corner and then stood there, catching my breath for a good few seconds.
“Breathe, Summer,” I muttered to myself. “You’ve got this.”
I closed my eyes and counted to sixty, focusing on my breathing and giving my body a chance to cool down; then I grabbed the new dress and slipped it on. It took a few seconds of twisting to get the zipper up in the back, but I almost didn’t recognize myself when I stepped out from the curtain to admire myself in the mirror.
The dress was a V-neck, blue floral print ruffle dress made from lightweight contrast mesh. The short flutter sleeves caressed my shoulders with every movement, and the light material meant that the long skirt barely held any weight. It clung to my body in all the right places, accentuating my chest and hips while being light enough that I could definitely picture myself with rich kids by my side.
It was beautiful. And it cost far too much.
“Everything alright here?” asked a tight, feminine voice from behind me. I spun around in surprise and marveled at how the dress moved with me, to find one of the shop assistants standing there clutching her lanyard. Her powdered face showed streaks from the heat, and her faint, over-plucked eyebrows had her looking constantly surprised.
“Oh, no, thank you. I was just… I’m just looking right now,” I said, clasping my hands to my abdomen.
“This is your first time here?” she asked, but from the tone of her voice, it didn’t sound like I was supposed to give an answer. “We have a policy that customers can only try on garments that they intend to purchase.”
