Job Acceptance

"What am I gonna do now? No one has called, yet! I might not go to college!" I told my friend Nicky in panic as we both lounged on the couch in our shared apartment that late Friday afternoon.

"Why not just apologize to your stepdad? He'll support your college, I'm sure about it." She suggested though lamely.

"Are you fucking kidding me? We both know I'll never step foot in that shitty town of ours again nor will I ever return to Kevin's demented a$s! He'll support my college alright but he’s also going to make a nut job out of me!” I shivered at the thought of my stepfather and his odd behavior and all those sleepless nights I kept one eye close and the other open. “I’m so tired of his crazy bullshits!"

"Well, you should think of something to get yourself out of this dilemma. You know we're both broke and has no plans on going back to where we came from."

"Easy for you to say. You already landed a nice paying job in the restaurant." I couldn’t help the bite of bitterness in my voice.

"I was wondering why you haven't been called, yet. You applied to so many jobs more than I did. Hope they didn’t hear how terrible you are at everything." Nicky giggled.

I pouted at my friend’s bullying. Well, I also actually hoped the jobs I applied to didn’t call my high school to ask about myself. Not that I didn’t do good in class. I wasn’t the brightest though but I managed to be a little more than average, too.

What Nicky was referring to me being terrible was my ability to catch accidents so easily. It’s as if I was doomed to be always in harm’s way. And that’s the reason why I hadn’t tried living life the way I wanted to. I couldn’t go out of the house without getting up close and personal with death. Plus, the fact that I kept dozing off. It seemed that I couldn’t help myself and sleep would always call out to me.

And now it's Friday. If we weren’t so broke, both of us might be out for a drink in a bar and me dodging anything destructive that’d come my way. But we're totally and practically broke and there's just no money to spend. Good thing Nicky already had a job so even without discussing it, she'd be the one to cover the rent for this month for both of us. I promised to pay next time once I also landed a job myself.

As if in afterthought, I stood and marched to the basket resting on the tall table just beside our door. It’s where I and Nicky put our mails and keys. I just remembered I haven’t checked my mails this morning yet.

There were a lot of them I scanned, mostly envelope after envelope about notice of due payments. It made me more desperate with my situation as I shuffled the mails. Until I stopped and stared at one mailing card with my name emblazoned in red capitalized fonts. I quickly tore the envelope with my sudden trembling excited hands. A sudden squeal of delight came out of my mouth after I read the content.

Nicky jumped in startle before dashing towards where I stood and peered over my shoulder to read the mail, too. It was a job acceptance letter from a certain Mr. Ivano Lombardi to become a baby sitter.

“Wow, his name sounds so yummy. French?”

“Italian, silly!” I corrected.

Though I haven’t met the man in person, I did know he’s Italian. I saw his posting of babysitting ad on the internet before during those times I’ve been sending a massive application to any job ads I thought I somehow had a background or something I could do when trained. I barely even remembered making this application because I was a little less interested. One of the requirements posted was that the sitter should at least knew a little of the Italian language or interested to learn. I stated I didn’t know Italian but willing to learn, applied for it, and forgot about it right after I clicked send. And now the acceptance letter surprised me.

“You’ve got to go now,” Nicky spoke behind me while nodding towards the letter.

“What?” I asked in a frown of confusion.

“It said the application will only be open until five o’clock on the sixth of this month. Today is sixth so you only have, what…” Nicki took a glance at her watch before looking back at me. “…three more hours before the slot closes. You have to go now.”

“Shit!” I shuffled with my feet and hurriedly went into our shared bedroom to change.

I’ve had a shower this morning so all I have to do is change into presentable clothes and put on some light makeup. I didn’t think I need to primp up so much, it’s just babysitting job anyway. I went out of the bedroom fifteen minutes after, slinging my shoulder bag before grabbing my keys from the basket near the door.

“Wish me luck!” I said to Nicky in both excitement and nervousness.

“Good luck and be careful, ok?” My friend smiled at me, depicting the same anxiety I felt.

“I will. Thanks. Bye!”

“Bye!” Nicky waved and saw me outside the door before closing it back after I hailed a cab.

After I gave the driver the address printed on the mail sender, I pulled the paper from the envelope once again to read the letter thoroughly. The babysitting required me to stay in during weekdays and allowed me out on weekends starting Friday night and be in the estate Sunday afternoon. Ok, that’s reasonable enough. Amenities, food was free. When my eyes zeroed in on the salary I’d be receiving, my mouth almost reached the floor. Holy shit! It’s huge! Way too huge for this job.

With an extra jolt of excitement and interest, I started searching for the details of the kid I’m about to look over but couldn’t find any. Maybe the parents didn’t want to post anything about their child in the ad and would only be seen and introduced in person. I shrugged and continued reading.

Another of the requirements was also the sitter being legal, single, and not more than twenty-one. My brow arched up on its own volition. Weird. Well, I’m eighteen five months ago so I’m good. Though the sitter wasn’t prohibited to use gadgets around the house minimal usage was encouraged. Not using any at all within the working period would be highly recommended. Huh! I wondered what kind of kid I’d be sitting. He must be a handful if mere texting couldn’t be done around him.

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