Page 68 of Too Much In Common
To her embarrassment, Tian’s first thought was that if it was a four-pilot flight, they would divide the flight hours by four, and she’d be short on her qualification. She’d have to do more simulator time and try again to accumulate her consolidation hours.
“If I am a fourth,” he added quickly, “I won’t have any more responsibility than a glorified jump seater. But I’ll be on the flight. I’ll know later today.”
“In the meantime, I have to take him down to get an echo.”
Her father groaned.
“You know as well as I do HR wants it before they make their final decision. Girls, will you clean up? We should be back in a couple of hours.”
After the last dish was done, Brit sat back down at the table. “If I didn’t know better, I would think that this was a ploy for Dad to have us all together.”
“Dad wouldn’t risk not being able to fly.”
“I have a feeling that whatever happened is more serious than either of them are saying. Hey, how are you getting back to Chicago for the flight?”
“I have a flight on the same commuter Dad does. As long as I sleep the night before, I’m good. I should get into Chicago three hours before the flight.”
“You won’t have your food for this trip.”
“I am not taking frozen food to Paris. I should check on my flight.”
Tian went up to their bedroom and opened her tablet. A notification for an email tagged as urgent caught her eye. The red exclamation point made her wonder as much as the words JOB OFFER.
She sat on her bed and opened the email, expecting spam.
Miss Christian Johnson—
Over the past week I’ve interviewed several pilots hoping to find the right fit for Robyn’s Place Angel Flights. So far, I have only found two pilots for our team, both captains. One of them mentioned you might be a good fit for us. Having met you, I believe he is correct. Please find our offer attached, including benefits. I expect the position to start in June. The majority of the flights would be Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday with overnights only as needed. For the near future, we will be based out of Midway Airport.
Sincerely,
Candace Ogilvie
Chairman of the Board of Directors Robyn’s Place
Tian read through the offer. If she had designed a dream job and hours, she couldn’t have planned it better. Some weeks would be longer than others, depending on where the recipient families were, and the pay was more than she would make at Legacy with another five years’ experience. Tempting to say the least. If she wanted to, she could stay on with Legacy as a reserve pilot, flying three or four days a month—enough to keep her at one hundred flight hours and advancing towards becoming a captain.
This couldn’t be real, could it?
19
ConvincingSimone to give him Tian’s work schedule for the rest of the month required some heavy-duty bribes. Still unsure how he was going to convince Javier into taking Simone salsa dancing, Chris walked into Hastings Security knowing what he wanted. Hopefully, he could negotiate with whatever assignment Alan had called the meeting for.
“Thanks for coming in on your day off. Candace Ogilvie has requested you for two assignments. One is most unusual.” Alan rubbed his jaw and stared at the computer screen.
Chris sat in the chair wondering what could be out of the ordinary enough that it had his boss puzzled.
“First, Candace has decided to surprise her husband with Valentine’s Day in Paris. She specifically requested you to be part of her team, but only as airport and night building security. She is staying at her cousin Zoe Gooding’s apartment, so there is already great security in place. They are using bodyguards fluent in French for the rest of the trip. I asked her why you, and she said there was no better bodyguard for the airport. They are flying commercial. I’m surprised they are leaving again so soon after Seattle. That’s not their style.”
“Or off of it completely.” This must have been Candace’s plan to put him in Paris at the same time as Tian. “If that’s what she requested, I’ll do it.”
“But you’ve never done international before and don’t speak French. I don’t understand why she is insisting on you.”
Chris shrugged. He didn’t want to lie, and he didn’t need to give Alan a reason to deny the request.
“The next request is somewhat expected. Robyn’s Place needs security. Candace has been working on balancing security needs with a child-friendly atmosphere. Of course, Colin has been inventing systems to take care of much of the security while keeping it hidden including, cameras, and metal and chemical detectors, not to mention hidden medical equipment and health monitors. However, there is still a need for in-person security. Some people, like you, look the part, and other people like Dana, who remain incognito. Candace has been testing various members of our team by rotating them through shifts with her children. She wants you to be on the park security team. It’s in the formation stages.”
“Would I need to move to Indiana?” The plan to build the park in a large Chicago area warehouse had been replaced with a larger park in connected custom buildings tripling the size of the original plan.
