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The interview went much like that. Leo played with the kids in the living room while the parents tried not to be obvious about watching him, but he didn’t really mind—it wasn’t like he was going to get the job, and Lily and Sam were cool.
His unaffected responses seemed to calm Lily down until she showed him an awesome book about mythical creatures around the world, the little drawing of each of them hovering over the maps of different countries.
“This one is my favourite, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one,” Lily pointed out.
“My favourite is this one,” Leo said as he jiggled Sam in his lap. “It looks super cool with those horns.”
“The horns are poisonous.”
“Cool fact, stuff that stabs you and you get sick is venomous. Stuff that you put in your mouth and get sick is poisonous. Like, if I ate an apple with poison in it, it would be poisonous, but if that apple grew fangs and bit me, it would be venomous.”
Lily blinked at him. “I’m venomous.”
Leo widened his eyes. “Okay, be careful then. Don’t bite me.”
“I wouldn’t,” she said seriously.
It was a good time, really. Even the parents seemed nice, chatting with him when he and the kids transferred to the kitchen.
By the end, he was sad he was never going to see them again and wasn’t surprised when Melissa said, “We were originally looking for someone with some experience with children.”
Leo raised his hands up. “No, I totally get that. Thanks for meeting with me. It was awesome to meet Lily and Sam. And you guys too, obviously.” He smiled awkwardly.
Melissa laughed, shaking her head. “Well, I was actually going to say that we were originally looking for that but to be honest…you were great with them. Lily hasn’t warmed up to any of the other people we’ve seen. Like, not even close.”
Leo shrugged, feeling himself blush. “She’s a cool kid.”
“We think so too. She just needs that extra bit of attention, you know? And patience.”
“Yeah, I get that. A lot of people could do with a little more attention and patience.”
George let out an amused breath. “You’re right about that.”
Melissa went on, “How do you feel about a trial run? We can do two weeks, see if we fit, and go from there.”
Leo blinked at her, not quite sure he’d heard right. “You want to…hire me?”
“Well, on a trial run, but if everything goes well…yes.”
Leo’s brain was having trouble booting up, but his mouth was running without it. “Wow. I mean, thank you so much. That would be amazing.”
Melissa beamed, and George nodded happily. “Great! Okay. I’ve got your number so we can talk in a couple of days about the details, but if you’re free to start next week…”
“That would be amazing.”
“And if you have a ballpark of what you want per hour, please tell us, and we can talk about it.”
Leo raised his hands. “I really don’t know. Whatever seems fair to you is fine with me.”
Melissa and George looked at each other. “Well. We were thinking like twenty an hour? Starting at nine, ending at six.”
“Uh…yeah. That sounds perfect. Thank you.”
“Great! Okay. Well, we’ll call you in a couple of days anyway, okay?” Melissa said.
“Yeah, of course. Okay. Thank you so much.”
“Lovely to meet you, Leo. We’ll talk soon.”
