“I’m sorry,” we both said at the same time.
“I didn’t hear you come in,” she said.
“Yeah, I called out but no one was here.”
“I was in the back getting these…” she spread her hands out and looked at the floor. She then looked up at me. “I assume you’re Paige Anton?”
I nodded. “I am. Can I help you clean this up?” It was a rhetorical question as I bent down and started grabbing papers.
“These are all our old rejected grant applications for the past five years. We’re in the process of re-applying and wanted to pull some information off of them.” She looked at me, “You don’t have any experience in grants, do you?”
I shook my head. “Not really. I’m a fast learner, though.”
“No, we need someone who has experience getting grants. Our funding is running out and we need to source additional grants if we’re going to stay afloat.”
We finished putting the papers back in the box and she turned and started walking away. Was that it? The whole interview?
She then turned to look at me and said, “Come on. Follow me back here.”
I did as instructed and followed her down a small hallway that led to a room that looked like it used to be a single office. There were four cubicles stuffed in it, one on each wall. It was insanely cramped and not at all what I’d been expecting.
“What did you get your degree in?” she asked, setting the box down on top of several others just like it.
“Sociology. My GPA was…”
“Too bad. We really need someone with a business background. Everyone on staff has a MSW.”
That was the exact degree I’d been thinking of getting. But maybe a Masters in Social Work wasn’t such a good idea after all.
“Okay, so no grant experience. No business background. Do you know anything about fund raising? Or accounting?”
“I took an accounting class one summer in high school.” This was not going very well, I could tell.
“I seem to recall reading that you grew up in Verde Hills. Do you have any contacts up there that might be a potential donor?”
Honestly, even if I did, I wasn’t exactly going to call them and hit them up for money. I got that this place seemed to be hard up for funds, but I wanted to make a difference in the community, not raise funds for some organization. My goal was to work hands-on with young people.
I was starting to think that maybe this wasn’t the job for me after all.
“No, I’m afraid I don’t.”
Elizabeth stood up and we both realized that the interview was over. “Well, Paige, as you can see we are really short-staffed and we need to find someone who can help get us the funding to stay afloat. We would welcome you as a volunteer, but…”
I smiled and extended my hand to shake hers. “Thank you for the interview and the opportunity, but I think I’ll keep looking.”
She nodded in understanding. “All right, then. Best of luck to you, Paige.”
The smile faded as soon as I turned my back to walk out the door. Tears threatened to come and my heart sank. Maybe I should just quit and go home to Verde Hills. Maybe my parents were right, and this whole thing was a huge mistake.
Nineteen
Ryder
The church clock was gonging, telling me it was midnight. The church down the street from our apartment complex had this bell that went off every half hour. It was supposed to stop at night so nearby residents could get some sleep, but evidently the timer was broken so it gonged every half hour all day and night. While most people would find it irritating, I found it kind of soothing. Sort of a reminder that we were being watched over day and night by a higher power.
But tonight, I wasn’t thinking about that or feeling soothed. Seething was more like it. Lily had said she and a friend from school were going to a movie that was supposed to get out at ten. The theater was literally three miles from here, so either they went somewhere else after, didn’t go to the movie at all, or she was out with Scorpion again.
If it were the latter, that little shit better realize how close he was to being seriously injured by me. I was not kidding when I told him to leave Lily alone.
