Different Circles

Meghan Zachary sat at the dining room table in the formal dining room. It was 11:00 AM, two days after Laura had bought the new minivan, and she was here for her final interview for the job of nanny to the Kingsleys. She had been told to dress casually for the event and she had done so. She was wearing a pair of black slacks and a button-up blouse. Her brunette hair was down and flowing over her shoulders, though it was neatly styled. She had cubic zirconia studs in her ears and a Christian cross on a chain around her neck. Her face was pretty, a younger version of her sister’s, but her body was a little bigger than Danielle’s and she was just a little shorter. She was not fat by any stretch of the imagination, but full-bodied—the kind of body where weight might be an issue later in life but currently was not. She had a healthy set of young breasts on her and while Jake managed to keep his eyes from dropping to them, Laura could not help but catch little peeks every now and then. She really did enjoy the sight of a nice pair of healthy boobs.

“First of all,” Jake told her, “before we go any further here, I have to ask: Do you want the position?”

“Oh yes,” she said immediately. “It would be a dream job! Living here in your house, taking care of just one baby. I’m all in for this.”

“Don’t you want to hear the particulars?” Laura asked. “You know? How much we’ll be paying you? Benefits? That kind of thing.”

“Whatever it is, it’s better than what I have now,” Meghan said brightly. “I’m making a little over six dollars an hour for twenty-four hours a week and have no benefits at all. No health insurance, no sick time, no vacation time. And I live with my parents, who are good people and they love me and I love them, but they can be a bit overbearing and I would rather live somewhere else.”

“I suppose that’s a good way to look at it,” Jake said. “Shall we discuss salary and other compensation now?”

“Sure!” she chirped. “I can’t wait to hear it.”

“We are prepared to pay you two thousand dollars a month for being our nanny,” Jake said.

Meghan’s eyes got very wide. “Two thousand dollars ... a month?”

“That is correct,” Jake said.

“Oh ... wow,” she said. “Just wow, I mean. That’s like three times as much as I make now.”

“That is pre-tax,” Jake pointed out. “And for forty hours a week of actual work time instead of twenty-four. But that is only monetary compensation. You will also have the benefit of room and board here in the house and a parking spot in the garage. If you need to take Caydee somewhere in your vehicle, we will compensate you for the fuel you use. In addition, we will foot the bill for a comprehensive health insurance, dental, and vision plan. You will have weekends off for the most part, but if we do need to use you on a weekend or at night, we will pay you time and a half of your average hourly rate, which, when we do the math for an average of forty hours per week divided by two thousand dollars per month, is...” He looked at some figures he had scribbled on a piece of paper. “ ... twelve dollars and fifty cents per hour, time and a half of which would be eighteen dollars and seventy-five cents per hour.”

“Wow,” she said again. She then looked at the couple carefully. “And this is just for ... you know ... taking care of Caydee for you, right?”

“What else would it be for?” Jake asked. “Your duties will be well-defined.”

“Uh ... well ... when I told my mom and dad about this job ... they ... uh ... they didn’t want me to take it. They wanted me to stay away from you two.”

“Because of our reputation?” Laura asked.

“Yes,” Meghan said. “They’ve heard all kinds of things about you two. That you have orgies up here, that you do drugs all the time, that you even ... you know ... rape women. They’re afraid that you’ll sell me into white slavery or something if I work for you.”

“If we sold you into white slavery,” said Jake, “then who would take care of Caydee when we’re working?”

She looked at him for a moment and then laughed. “I guess that’s a good point,” she said. “Anyway, I like you two and I get good vibes off of you, but ... you know ... I just want to make sure that all you’re paying me for is to be the nanny and that there are no misunderstandings about that.”

“We believe in compensating our employees well,” Jake said. “We have no plans of trying to seduce you, do drugs with you, or rape you. And I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking for a good white slavery broker.”

She laughed again. “Understood,” she said.

“There is however,” Jake went on, “one very important thing apart from taking care of Caydee that will be specifically spelled out in your work agreement and that we insist you agree to and abide by.”

“What’s that?” she asked carefully.

“Privacy,” Jake said.

“Privacy?” she asked.