Page 59 of Moon Tamed

“You should give her a raise for understanding she ventures deep into bureaucratic hell,” Calden stated.

“I don’t mind paying everyone more overtime until we have the number from the human resources department. They’re probably trying to recover from the shock of me deciding to poach someone from a temp firm. This does mean you get paid overtime for all your camping trips, too, no matter how few calls you have to field.”

Calden’s sly smile added a twinkle to his eyes. “Imagine all the books you could buy with that. Weeks upon weeks of overtime pay.” He picked up the papers and waved them at me. “If you sign now, I’ll make him give you an extra week of camping, and he’ll have to provide at least a hundred new books for you to read.” He took to swinging the pages in front of me back and forth. “Books and camping, Coraline. You can’t resist books and camping.”

Calden’s father grabbed a piece of paper, jotted something down, and signed it. He showed it to me.

The paper agreed to the additional terms Calden had suggested.

“Coercion,” I muttered, although I reached for the nearest pen. “Write a note allowing me to immediately negotiate for a raise if the fiscal compensation is not sufficient.”

He did as told and showed me the note, which I claimed and added to my pile.

My parents would scold me for hours when they found out, but I signed. “I’m going to miss free rent in a year.”

“I’m sure we can come up with a suitable arrangement for your rent in a year.” Before the ink had a chance to dry, Mr. Stephans claimed the sheets and grabbed his phone, stabbing at the keypad to connect a call. “Daniel, I have secured her agreement to put up with us and wrangle my paperwork. She has suckered a week of camping out of me, the right to negotiate if the salary is insufficient, and I personally owe her a collection of a hundred books as punishment for forcing her to sign a legal agreement of employment without seeing the salary. You can go home and finish the paperwork tomorrow, or you can attack the faction coffers more, whichever suits you. I recommend going home and claiming you worked an extra hour. Consider that to be penance for my bad behavior today. I’m going to force the children to leave now, although we shall be delivering the papers first.”

I took that as my cue to get ready to go, gathering my things and making sure I didn’t forget anything. “What have I done?”

“You agreed to be kidnapped, secured a week of extra camping with books for yourself, and resolved your financial woes in one fell swoop,” Calden informed me. “Your time as an unaffiliated counts as work experience for secretarial work, as you’ve been doing applicable work in the same field. If our copy of your resume is correct, you’ve filled in for numerous executive secretaries without issue.”

I had, although I hadn’t really thought much about the work. I’d done my job and left at the conclusion of my contract.

“Please don’t make me regret this,” I begged Calden’s father.

“You’ll be fine.”

After escorting Mr. Stephans back to his home, Calden herded me to his, asked me to sit in front of his fireplace, which he set up with a nice fire, and went to work paying out dinner. As promised, he ferried hot chocolate to me and left me to my reading.

Had the job offer promised frequent nights in front of a fireplace with a book and the quiet needed to enjoy it, I wouldn’t have even cared about the money. Time escaped me, and it took Calden waving his hand between my face and my book to catch my attention. “Dinner is ready.”

“How long did I leave you trying to get my attention?”

“About five minutes, which is fine, because the meat needed to rest before I could carve it. Now that it’s ready to be carved, I upgraded from laughing, calling your name, and clicking my tongue to get your attention to blocking your field of vision. I understand a lot better why you could manage on your budget. When you’re that enthralled with your book, you don’t need a huge entertainment budget, do you?”

“Not with good libraries around,” I replied, putting my digireader away. “I have a timer I use when reading at work, and I’ve trained myself to pay attention to that specific sound.”

“Clever.” Calden smiled. “I am sorry for interrupting your reading, and I even promise to get you up in time to get a shower and change if you happen to fall asleep while reading.”

“This is compensation for being coerced, isn’t it?”

He chuckled. “Just a little. Mostly, I owe you some quality reading time, and I’m making sure you get it.”

“That’s really kind of you. I do appreciate it. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now, come sit in the dining room, where you must be served dinner. Wine? Beer? Champagne? Something else? I have a good selection, as my father sometimes brings guests here, rather than his place.”

“Champagne?”

“We can make a toast to Earth, and I even have an actual bottle of Champagne. I brought it back from Earth, and it was waiting for a night like tonight. We’ll give Earth a toast. She deserves one.”

That she did. “But it’s so valuable.”

“It was made to be consumed. I’ll keep the bottle as a memento,” he replied. “For all its faults, Earth was a truly marvelous place. Having been there and witnessed parts of her decline, I marvel anyone made it off at all. The people always accepted their fate with good humor.”

“But some made it off.”

“Some did. Reports coming in from other worlds say at least a hundred million people escaped through the various portals.”

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