Page 15 of Start A War (Saint View Psychos)

5

BLISS

In the brightly colored space of the childcare center, the night before seemed a million miles away. Caleb had been gone when I’d woken up, and I’d dressed for work slowly, carefully putting on more makeup than I normally did to hide the angry red mark across my cheek.

I couldn’t have a bunch of three- and four-year-old’s seeing that. They’d already asked questions about everything, and my slightly swollen eye was going to be hard enough to explain.

It would have been smarter to call in sick, but I needed to work. I loved my job, and being surrounded by smiling, happy, if sometimes grimy, faces was exactly where I needed to be after a night I’d rather forget.

“Miss Bethany? Did you know that dinosaurs can eat people?”

I grinned down at Kellan, a boy I’d had at the center since he was a baby. “I bet you’re right. If dinosaurs were alive today, they’d definitely try to chomp up little boys who didn’t eat their vegetables. That wouldn’t be you though, would it?”

“No way! I always eat my vegetables!”

I ruffled his hair, even though I doubted it. “Good man. You know some dinosaurs really liked vegetables too. They’re called herbivores.”

Kellan launched into a detailed description of all the herbivores he knew, but the buzzing noise of the center’s doorbell nabbed my attention. There was a security gate around the entrance to the expensive Providence daycare, and outside of parent pick-up and drop-off times, we kept it locked so all visitors needed to be buzzed in. I wandered over to the video monitor, expecting to see the weathered face of our postman, Ernie, but took a step back when a pair of dark-brown, unfamiliar eyes stared right into the camera, so close the rest of his face seemed out of proportion.

I scanned the grainy, distorted image, but there was no child with him for a late drop-off. I pressed the intercom button. “Good morning, sir. May I help you?”

He cleared his throat. “Good morning to you also. My name is Vincent Atwood. I have an appointment in…” The man glanced at his watch. “Three minutes and forty-seven seconds.”

I dropped my finger from the intercom button and called out to one of my co-workers. “Sarah? Do you have any meetings booked this morning?”

She jostled a baby an inch higher on her hip and led the toddler hanging off her leg toward a table set up for painting. “Nope, not me. Must have been Josie.”

I frowned. “She isn’t due in this morning.”

Sarah shrugged, distracted by the baby trying to crawl out of her arms, across the table, and into the paint pots.

I put my finger to the buzzer again, unwilling to let a strange man into the center unless I could verify his reason for being here. “My apologies, sir. I’m just trying to track down the person your appointment is with, and then we’ll be right with you.”

He nodded into the camera. “I’m happy to wait. I’m still early by one minute and twenty-three seconds.”

The corner of my mouth lifted at the odd, overly polite remark. “Ah, okay. Thank you. Won’t be long.”

I ducked into the educator’s office and snagged the phone from my boss’s desk. Punching in her cell number, I waited for her to pick up while I cradled the phone between my ear and shoulder and watched the man on the monitor.

“Who’s calling with an emergency? Bethany or Sarah? And believe me, it better be an emergency to be interrupting me on my day off.”

I stifled the urge to roll my eyes at the older woman’s accusations. Like I would call her on her day off just for fun. “Hi, Josie. It’s Bethany-Melissa. I’m sorry to interrupt, but we have a man named Vincent here. He says he has an appointment with you in…” I glanced at the monitor. “Probably about thirty-three seconds by now.”

“What?” Josie asked. But before I could explain further, she groaned. “Oh shit. I scheduled a job interview before I decided to take today off. I completely forgot about that.”

I cringed. “Should I ask him to reschedule then?”

“No, no. Can you just do the interview, please?”

I raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never done that before. Shouldn’t I just ask him to come back when you’re here?” Nerves picked up in my stomach at the thought of doing something like that with no warning or practice.

“You’ll be fine. You’re the one who’ll have to work with him anyway. We really need a male educator. After that center on Braidwood Road opened with three male staff members, that’s all I’ve heard parents talk about. I don’t want anyone accusing us of not being inclusive. Or not providing male role models. That would just open a whole can of worms I do not have time for. He’s the only male who applied for the position, so unless he’s a serial killer, just hire him, okay?”

“How would I know if he’s a serial killer? Are there questions for that?”

Josie laughed. “Just ask him.”

I let out a giggle at the thought of asking someone that in a job interview.

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