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Ria Hampton was on the verge of tears.
She’d been called in to a meeting at Oh Pear!, the nannying agency she’d signed on with a few weeks ago. Usually, meetings like this meant good news, but Ria knew that this one wouldn’t be good news. Not at all.
Ria wanted to enjoy the bright-green leaves and blossoming flowers of mid-March, but all she could think about was whether she was going to get fired from the agency. The last job she’d worked for them had been a complete disaster.
Ria was an excellent nanny. She knew that. At thirty years old, she’d been doing this job for over a decade, and had worked with dozens of satisfied families. In most cases, caring for and taking care of the kids was enough, but this time, it wasn’t. Not with the new agency.
Ria knew it was her own fault that she’d stretched her qualifications to land the job at Oh Pear! Yet the agency paid double what any other agency did, and she needed the money. Her four younger sisters and brothers relied on her, her youngest sister most of all — Nora was still in college, after all. She needed Ria’s help to pay tuition for two more years. If Ria didn’t have a job, she wouldn’t be able to help, and Nora’s college education would be in peril.
Ria burst into the Oh Pear! offices and hurried to the back meeting room. A few weeks ago, she’d sat in this same room and told the manager that she was ready to be a nanny at the elite agency. Apparently, she’d been wrong, since her job was already in danger.
The manager, Eloise Rice, was sitting at a large mahogany table with a mug of mint tea steaming in front of her. Her lipstick was bright red, her eyes were outlined in deep blue, and she’d used enough blush to make her cheeks as pink as strawberries. Her hair was bottle-blond, though Ria could see a little gray at the roots.
“Ria. Please, sit.” Eloise’s tone was firm and not very friendly, the opposite of how it had been a few weeks ago. Ria also noticed that Eloise didn’t offer her a cup of tea, as she had last time.
“Thank you for seeing me,” Ria said. She smoothed one of her red curls self-consciously behind her ear.
“Yes, well, I didn’t really have a choice, did I?” Eloise withdrew a folder from somewhere beneath the table and opened it. “You’ve only been us a few weeks, dear, and you’ve already had several complaints.”
“I can explain?—”
“I’m sure you can, but I’m not really interested in your explanations right now.”
Ria smoothed her slacks with both palms, which had suddenly become sweaty. She usually wore comfy, easy-to-move-in clothes that didn’t stain for her work with children, but she’d dressed up today in a pair of slacks and a gray blouse for this meeting. Despite everything, she wanted to make a good impression.
“I understand.”
“Let’s see.” Eloise flipped open the folder. “The first family you worked with, the Amsteads, mentioned that your knowledge of Mandarin wasn’t quite up to snuff.”
“It’s true,” Ria said, already flushing. As a redhead, she blushed far too easily. “But the parents don’t speak Mandarin either, and little Timothy already has a daily Mandarin tutor, even though he’s only eighteen months old?—”
Eloise held up a hand. “Your next placement, the O’Connells, mentioned that you don’t play the violin. They specifically requested a nanny who could play the violin to soothe their daughter to sleep.”
“I know, but I sang to her, and played violin music on the speaker system in her room. Surely, at nine months old, it can’t make much of a diff?—”
Eloise’s hand was up again. “Your last placement, the Davises, lasted less than a day. Apparently, you made their son a grilled cheese sandwich and apple slices for lunch, when they expressly told you to make a croque monsieur and an apple swan.”
This time, Ria didn’t even try to point out that a croque monsieur was really a French grilled cheese, or that the apple swan was a pile of apple slices arranged in a sculpture. She just folded her hands in her lap and bent her head. Clearly, nothing she said was going to help. Even if Ria pointed out that she’d spent the extra time she didn’t use making lunch helping little Ryan Davis with his math homework, it wouldn’t help. Even if she mentioned that she’d never had complaints about her nannying skills before, it wouldn’t make a difference. Certainly, explaining why she needed this job so badly wouldn’t impact Eloise at all.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Rice,” Ria said.
“That’s as may be, but it doesn’t fix the problem at hand. You’ve clearly inflated your qualifications.” Eloise raised her painted-on eyebrows and looked down her nose at Ria.
“Yes.” Ria smoothed her hands against her slacks again. “I’m sorry that I overstated a few of my qualifications, but I can assure you that I never inflated any qualifications that really mattered. I really have had eleven years of nannying experience, I’ve worked with families that have multiple young children, I’m trained in the Waldorf style of education, I?—”
“Yes, yes.” Eloise nodded, though her expression was still pinched. “I understand that you care about the children and your work, but, dear, simplycaringisn’t enough. Oh Pear! offers nannies who can help children become true global citizens, prepared for a future in elite academies and in the upper echelons of the workforce. If you can’t offer that, you’ll need to seek employment elsewhere.”
Ria’s heart began to race. It was all she could do not to start fiddling with a strand of her red curls, as she often did when she was very stressed.
“Please, Ms. Rice, give me one more chance. I’ll show you that I’m up to your agency’s standards.”
“I’ll see if something appropriate comes up, but you are on thin ice, dear.” Ms. Rice closed the folder, slid it to one side, and got to her feet. It was a clear dismissal, so Ria stood as well and held out a hand. Ms. Rice took it, but her gaze drifted to Ria’s gray blouse. She wrinkled her nose, and Ria saw in horror that there was a small smudge of tomato sauce near the hem.
“Thank you very much for your time,” Ria said. “I can do better.”
“You’ll have to.” Eloise nodded, released Ria’s hand, and gestured towards the door.
Ria ducked her head and hurried out, feeling terrible. She knew she’d made a mistake when she’d inflated her qualifications, but she hadn’t felt that she had any other choice. After all, Ria’s family relied on her. She sent money to her mother every month to help with her expenses and paid most of her sister’s college expenses, as she’d done for each of her siblings in turn. Other nannying jobs just didn’t pay well enough to keep up with her family’s outgoings.