I shook my head. “Generally that’s discussed once the job’s been awarded.”
“I’m offering a hundred-thousand-dollar payout upon completion of the six-month term. During the six months on the island, you would receive a stipend to cover any costs you might incur through your work with the children, or your own personal requirements. This monthly sum is outside of the final one-hundred-thousand-dollar payment. Perhaps you’d like to think about what your answer will be should you be offered the job, Ophelia.”
A hundred thousand dollars? My salary at St. Augustus’s was only fifty-five thousand, and that was for an entire year. A hundred grand could solve a lot of problems at the restaurant. It could literally turn everything around for Mom and Dad. I just couldn’t envisage it, though. Another state? Another time zone? A tiny little island off the coast, in the middle of nowhere? God, it was all too much to take in.
“I suppose you’re right,” I said. “I’d at least think about it if I were offered the job,” I said. “It’s a very tempting offer.”
Ronan scratched his clean-shaven jaw, giving me a tight smile. “Excellent. Thank you, Ophelia. Then I suppose we shall be in touch soon to let you know one way or another.”
“That’s it?” I’d barely been sitting in the chair for twenty minutes. They told us repeatedly at the agency that a good, successful interview generally lasted anywhere between thirty minutes and an hour. A paltry twenty-minute conversation definitely wasn’t going to impress them when I gave them telephone feedback tomorrow. Damn it. Who knew how many more people he was going to interview, or how many people he’d already seen? There was no way my bumbling explanation of my capabilities, followed by my hostile reaction to his line of questioning had made anything but a bad impression.
“Yes, Ophelia. I’ve heard all I need to hear. Thank you for coming all this way to meet with me.” Ronan got to his feet, his composure well and truly regained now. “Please return your security pass to Davey, the security guard who showed you up here on your way out.”
What the hell did he think I was going to try and do, break in here later and try to steal his confidential files or something? Ridiculous. I arranged my face into what I hoped looked like professional gratitude, but on the inside I was burning with disappointment, alongside a splash of anger. Getting to my feet, I hoped he didn’t notice the identical flushed, red spots coloring my cheeks.
“Thank you, Ronan. I’ll make sure I do that.” I didn’t offer my hand out to shake his, even though I knew I should. It would be ill advised to leave the interview on an awkward or discordant note, and yet I couldn’t get myself to toe the line.
I felt naked for a moment, then collected my purse that I’d sat at my feet. I felt foolish as I turned away from Ronan Fletcher and walked quickly to the same elevator I came out of only a short while ago.
I almost expected the man behind me to call out to me, wish me a safe flight back to Los Angeles or something equally as polite and measured, but he didn’t. He didn’t speak another word. As the elevator doors closed, his figure was silhouetted against the bright afternoon sun blazing through the high windows behind him, and I couldn’t see his face. I would always remember it, though. I would never be able to forget.
CHAPTER FOUR
Patience
“The Causeway? That doesn’t sound in the least bit exotic at all. Sounds cold if you ask me.” No one had asked my mother, but that never seemed to matter to her. She’d always been one to voice her opinion, solicited or otherwise, and woe betide the poor bastard who ever disagreed with her. In light of this, I nodded sagely from the bussing station at the entrance to the kitchen while Mom shouted to me from the meat section, where she was cooking a pair of steaks. Dad was nowhere to be seen, as usual.
“It’s a part of Maine, Mom. I don’t think it’s ever particularly warm there.”