Page 2 of Reluctantly Yours

I had found a reason to get rid of her.It would take an entire bottle of aspirin every day to put up with the incessant cheerfulness or an entire bottle of whiskey.My liver would lose out in the end, either way.

“Tell me about your personal habits,” I continued.There had to be some reason to dismiss her.Was I trying to convince myself?Was that the problem?

Turning my way and holding out one hand, she counted items off on her fingers.“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs.I dabbled with veganism in college, but I missed real cheese too much, so I’m a vegetarian.But I don’t try to, you know, convince other people to live in the same way.To each their own.”

The girl talked as though she pulled quotes directly from a positive thinking self-help book.“What about your social life?”

“I don’t have one, really.”

Finally.Something I could grab a hold of.“Not at all?You have no friends?”I didn’t bother concealing my skepticism.

“Not exactly.I have friends.I shared a house with two other girls in grad school, and we keep in touch now that they’ve moved out.I had friends in classes with me, study groups, and whatnot.People I connected with when I was working in the daycare center.”

“But you have no social life?You can see how I would question that as young as you are.”

“What does my age have to do with it?”she countered, still gentle and pleasant.Unflappable.“I don’t party if that’s what you’re getting at.You can ask anyone who knows me, and I did include a handful of names and phone numbers at the bottom of my resume.”

An interesting thing happened.She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes the slightest bit.Not angry, per se, but some of her relentless shine had worn off.“Mr.Knight, what you see is what you get with me.I wouldn’t paint myself as somebody I’m not for the sake of getting a job.”

“Mr.Knight?”My assistant had a bad habit of opening the door before knocking, which today meant the sudden, rambunctious presence of my daughter.Her chocolate brown curls bounced as she ran across the room toward my desk, then stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted the colorful stranger standing a few feet away.

“Hey, there.”Penny slowly lowered herself to one knee, grinning at Sofia.“My name is Penny.”

Sofia offered a shy grin that showed off her dimples as she looked Penny up and down.I waited, watching closely.“I’m Sofia,” she announced in a tiny voice.

“Something told me that was your name.”Penny glanced over her shoulder toward the ship that was my daughter’s namesake.“It’s very nice to meet you, Sofia.Let me guess.”She tapped a fingernail to her chin.Fuck me, she even wore glitter nail polish.“I bet you’re around four years old.Is that right?”

Sofia gasped, her hazel eyes perfectly round.“Wow!That’s amazing!”She turned to me.“Daddy!Did you hear that?How did she know?”

I shrugged while Penny stood upright again, smiling down at the equally entranced Sofia.“It must be magic,” I decided.“Now, you know when the door is closed, you’re supposed to sit with Miss Lauren, right?You can come in when the door is open.”

“I had to ask something really important, though.”

“And what is that?”I exchanged looks with my assistant, who could only shrug.What the fuck was it today with these incompetent people?

Folding her hands, Sofia begged, “Can I please, please get a new coloring book before we go home tonight?”

Lauren piped up from the doorway.“The book I had in my desk was all full.”

Before I could suggest Lauren give her some blank paper to draw on—honestly, the fact that I should have come up with such a simple idea made me wonder about her—Penny held up a hand.“It just so happens I have a coloring book in my bag.You can have it if you want.”

She wore glitter nail polish and carried coloring books around in her backpack.The whole thing kept getting more bizarre with each passing minute.

“Wow!”Sofia accepted the Disney Princess coloring book like it was a rare treasure.“Thank you!Are you sure I can have it?”

It’s yours,” she insisted, holding it out.“It’s okay,” Penny told her with a smile.“I’ve got lots of coloring books already.And I guess you could get bored hanging around here.”

“No, it’s fun…” But anyone could tell from Sofia’s reluctant tone that the opposite was true.My daughter was nothing if not polite.I covered up a laugh with a snort and sat back down.

“How about we make it an early day?”I suggested, because why not?My day was already shot to hell as it was.My presence wasn’t helping anyone, and my daughter was bored out of her mind.I doubted Lauren was able to get much work done, either.“Maybe we’ll stop for ice cream on the way home.”

“The pretty shop at the mall?With the fountain?”Sofia began to bounce on the balls of her feet.The kid was going to lift off, she was so excited.“Can Penny come with us?”

Son of a bitch.It was bad enough that I had a hard time denying her anything.She had to go and put me on the spot in front of someone whose relentlessly cheerful presence made my head hurt.

I forced a smile for Sofia’s sake.“Sure.”If anything, this would be a test.I hadn’t offered Penny the position yet.If she screwed up, she would make it that much easier for me to dismiss her and tell the owner of that goddamn agency to send somebody who didn’t look like she was about two seconds away from bursting into song and making friends with local wildlife.

However, when I noticed the way Sofia beamed up at her on the way out of my office, I had to ask myself if it would be so easy to dismiss this girl after all.

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