Page 5 of The Single Dad Dilemma

Despite only being able to have the ad up for the weekend before I absolutely had to interview and hire, I got a decent amount of replies. Now I just have to pray that the stars align and the perfect candidate can also start immediately. And by immediately, I mean tomorrow.

“Dad, how many people are coming to interview, and how many of them are girls and how many are boys?” Lou asks from her seat next to me.

She’s sprawled out on the floor next to my office chair, with three different coloring books open at the same time. It appears she’s started a picture in each of them and keeps bouncing from one to the next and so on. It’s a weird technique, but it keeps her pretty occupied.

I’m not sure if anyone has ever interviewed for a nanny inside a tattoo shop. This might be the first time. They’ll be watching her at my house, and I considered having them meet me there, but the idea of that many strangers knowing where I live felt weird. What if they’re undercover child kidnappers? It’s the perfect ruse. So I felt like a different location was best.I mean, it’s not exactly neutral, because now they know where I work, but it serves as a buffer.

“There are four nice ladies coming to see if they’re a good fit to be your nanny during the day while I work,” I say. “No boys.”

I don’t think I would have been opposed to a male nanny. I just didn’t see any on the website.

“Good,” she says. “I don’t want a boy.”

“You like the boys who work here,” I say. “It would be like that.”

“I know,” she says, looking up from her page. “But there aren’t enough girls around here.”

A pang of sadness hits me in the chest. It’s a very specific kind of sadness. I hate that she doesn’t have her mom around. I hate that she’s lacking women in her life. She has Grandma Alma and that’s it. I don’t have siblings and neither did Vanessa, so no aunts or uncles or cousins. The guys here serve as her uncles, but none of them even have serious girlfriends. And when she says things like this, it’s just one of those subtle reminders of this hard reality.

“Well, maybe we will find one today,” I say before giving her my best hopeful smile.

She turns her attention back to her books, satisfied for the moment. I really do hope we find someone today. I need it. She needs it. We’re a very needy pair right now.

Thirty minutes later, the first applicant arrives and Waylon shows her back to the office.

“Nice to meet you,” I say, reaching my hand out to shake hers.

“Oh, sorry, I don’t shake,” she says.

“Oh. Alright.” That’s weird, right? Maybe it’s just a pet peeve or something.

“So I have your resume here,” I say, holding the piece of paper up. “It looks like you have a lot of experience working indaycares. What makes you want to change to nannying a single child?”

“Less germs,” she says.

That’s it. That’s all she says. She just stares blankly at me, and when she doesn’t elaborate, I ask another question.

“Would you be able to incorporate learning activities while watching Lou?” I ask.

“Of course.”

Again, she doesn’t elaborate. She reached into her purse and pulls out a bottle of hand sanitizer, then squirts a huge glob into her hand and begins lathering it in. Mind you, she’s touched nothing since entering my office.

“And Lou really loves being outdoors, so I’d love for whomever I chose to make that a regular activity.”

“Oh, I can’t take her outside. Too many germs.”

Okay, well that about does it. I double-check the name on the resume. Miss Betty Schmidlin is not as promising as her resume makes her out to be. Which worries the shit out of me. What if they’re all like this? Good on paper, crazy in person. I feel doomed.

I thank her for her time as quickly as I can, not even bothering to introduce Lou to see what she thinks. It’s important for both of us to like the person watching her.

“I didn’t like her,” Lou says, not even looking up from her coloring.

It seems she’s paying attention. I don’t know if that makes this easier or more difficult.

“Yeah, she’s not the one,” I say, reassuring her.

Minutes tick by until Waylon appears at the door with the second candidate.

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