“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “I’m just… I completely forgot. I thought you said tomorrow night.”
“I didn’t,” she replied crisply. “I have a doctor’s appointment to get to, Mr. Middleton.”
“Right,” I said. “You said your father is going through something.”
“Cancer,” Janet said tersely. “He’s going through cancer.”
“Of course, I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “The thing
is… I can’t get away today. I have two important meetings that start in five minutes, and it’s absolutely necessary that be there.”
“Mr. Middleton—”
“I’ll double your pay for today,” I said, cutting her off before she could tell me off.
“Mr. Middleton—”
“I’ll triple it,” I said.
There was another second of silence, and then I heard a loud sigh. “I suppose I will have to call my sister and ask her to go with my father for chemotherapy.”
“Thank you, Janet,” I said, sighing in relief. “I can’t thank you enough.”
“I gave you a week’s notice about this, Mr. Middleton,” she said, and I knew she was upset. “I expected you here by six.”
“I know,” I said, trying to control my own sense of irritation. “And, I understand you have an emergency. But when I hired you, I made it very clear that I would need you on call twenty-four seven. You promised me that you would make yourself available to me whenever I required your services.”
“That was before my father was diagnosed,” Janet replied curtly.
“Again, I understand. It’s just... I pay you extremely well, Janet,” I said. “I’m paying you double what full-time au-pairs are being paid in France’s richest homes. And, I made it very clear what I expected of you when I hired you.”
“I suppose we’ll have to come to some sort of understanding in the future,” Janet replied. “Or I will have to move on.”
There was nothing veiled about that threat. I gritted my teeth and forced myself not to reply. Her father was going through cancer; she was obviously going through a hard time, and I didn’t want to seem like a complete asshole. I was pretty sure I had crossed the asshole line a few sentences ago, however.
“We’ll discuss it later… When I’m home,” I said.
“Alright.” I sensed the suppressed anger in her tone.
“Is Noah around?” I asked.
“Hold on,” Janet said.
I heard a few seconds of static as the phone was passed over and then I heard a clear, high-pitched voice that made me feel sad and happy all at the same time.
“Daddy?”
“Hi, buddy,” I said, hating that I wasn’t there to see his face. I imagined him sitting on the stool by the phone in his dinosaur jammies, holding the phone with both hands, as he had grown accustomed to do.
“I ate noodles today,” Noah informed me.
I frowned. Janet was a decent babysitter, but she was a lazy cook. I gave her an allowance each week for food and groceries, but she spent it all on microwaveable meals and instant noodles because that meant she could avoid cooking something that was actually nutritious.
“Again?” I asked.
“Uh-huh,” he replied. “I poured the packet in. Janet let me.”
He was talking about the flavor packets that came with the instant noodles. I had already spoken to Janet about not feeding Noah those noodles last week. Obviously, she had chosen to ignore me. The sad fact was that I was so hard up for a babysitter that I had no choice but to swallow my words half the time and accept certain things as necessary sacrifices.