Who: Kathy and Eli, with an appearance by Georgie Where: Reliquary When: 2 January What: A job interview of sorts. Status: Complete
Kathleen knew where Reliquary was, Georgie was bouncing down the street while holding onto Kathy’s hand. She was excited about meeting Mr. Pride (finally!), while Kathleen was a bit apprehensive. She’d been stressed lately, spending her vacation interviewing nannies, and spending as much time NOT working as she could. She had to go back to work on Monday, and she needed to have an arrangement for Georgie, preferably a permanent one.
She wasn’t convinced that hanging around a coffee shop for a few hours every day was the best plan for her, but she was willing to look into it. She wasn’t a snob when it came to her childcare, not at all. She just wanted someone who was responsible, fun and could keep Georgie entertained. That didn’t sound so difficult, but it was no lie that Georgie was a very active child. She didn’t want to think she might be in the way while people tried to work, or worse, that they might get too busy and not be able to keep an eye on her and she’d see her on the news climbing the space needle like King Kong.
They approached the coffee shop and Kathy opened the door and Georgie went in immediately in front of her and started squirming out of her coat. She was going through an ‘I hate coats’ phase and now that they were inside she was determined to get rid of it. Kathy helped her out of it, as she walked up to the counter to inquire after Eli and get Georgie the hot chocolate she’d been asking for the entire way here.
Eli had noticed Georgie almost immediately. It wasn’t every day that a child burst through the doors acting like their coat was eating them alive. He was smiling by the time he rounded the counter, his hangover and bad mood partially eclipsed by the War of the Coat. He crouched in front of the child, not knowing who she was, just thinking her entertaining. “You won,” he told her, glancing toward the defeated coat in Kathy’s hand. “I think such a brave and valorous act merits a hot cocoa. What says the brave knight?” he asked her, looking up from his crouch and toward Kathy. “On the house,” he clarified, straightening and holding out his hand for her to shake. “Eli Pride. Welcome to Reliquary.”
Georgie nodded enthusiastically, said a very hurried “yes please.” Kathy was pleased to see Eli introduce himself and before she introduced herself she took stock of him. He didn’t seem like a crazy person. That was a point in his favor. She was about to introduce herself when Georgie pulled on her coat, “Mommy, it’s Mr. Pride!” well that took care of that.
She held out her hand to shake his, “Mr. Pride, it’s very nice to meet you, I’m Kathleen Ehrlich-Cohen,” she said smiling a bit. “And this is Georgia.”
Eli’s surprise showed on his face, and he held her hand a moment before he shoot it, the grip firm without being hard. “It’s lovely to meet you,” he told her, meeting her gazed with his own blue one and holding it a moment longer. He turned his attention to Georgie, then, looking down at her. “Georgia,” he said, holding his hand out to her immediately after saying her name. “It is a pleasure to meet you, also.” He motioned to a table by the window with his free hand, a sunny spot. “Please, have a seat, and I’ll bring the ladies their drinks,” he said, smiling up at Kathy.
Kathy shook his hand and repeated the sentiment, Georgia likewise shook his hand complete with a bounce on the balls of her feet and without much warning hurried over to the table and crawled into a seat closest to the window and started looking outside with her nose pressed against the glass.
“Thank you,” she said chuckling a little and found her way over to the table and sat down next to Georgia who immediately started talking her ear off about all that she’d missed in the last ten seconds (a dog had walked by, as had a mailman, which she found to be spectacularly hilarious).
Eli chuckled, hearing Georgie’s voice as he walked behind the counter and frothed milk for the hot cocoa. He came back a few minutes later, two huge mugs and decadent drinking cocoa with whipped cream and a candy cane in each hand, which he set in front of Kathy and Georgie. He pulled a seat over next, and he sat down. “Shall you tell me what I’ve missed?” he asked Georgie, while giving Kathy a smile.
Georgie’s eyes got wide at her drink and was clearly appeased by a giant glass of sugar to drink, and she practically put her face in the whipped cream, because what else was she supposed to do when presented with such a thing. Then she looked over at Eli and nodded thinking over what else he might have missed, “Earlier today you missed my show and tell, I brought my scooter, and Taylor brought her Hamster named Steve.”
Kathy smiled as Georgie went on and on, because listening to her go on and on was easily one of the better parts of her day. Oh she got annoyed from time to time, but she knew it was only a matter of time before she was a teenager and the last thing she wanted to do was talk to her mother. “This is the first time Georgie didn’t take a living thing to her show and tell, last week it was our neighbor girl, the week before that it was her fish,” she said chuckling a little.
Eli chuckled at the concept of taking a neighbor girl to show and tell, and he turned his attention to Georgie, as if he was being very serious. “Have you taken your mother to show and tell?” he asked, glancing up at Kathy and giving her a wink. “Or is she not nearly as interesting as the fish?” It was clear he felt his competitor was much more interesting than a guppy.
As he spoke, the kindly old woman who worked in the kitchen came out to change the soup offering on the board, and Eli waved her over. “This,” he said, as if he was introducing the queen of England, “Is Nana. She’s here from nine to five every day, and she makes us lovely things to eat,” he told Kathy and Georgie both, and then in a conspiratorial whisper, he added for Georgie’s benefit. “She makes divine grilled cheese.”
Georgie was devouring the whipped cream again and she nodded, moving from her bottom to her knees in the chair and continued with her fidgeting as much as she could manage. “Yes, Mommy brought muffins from Starbucks and Madelines. I love Madelines, do you know what those are?” she looked at her mother then, “Do you have any?” she asked her and Kathy looked in her purse unable to hide the slight grin at the situation of bringing a purse full of Starbucks Madelines into Eli’s coffee shop. She handed opened the package and handed it to Georgia. “Share with Mr. Pride please,” and Georgie took one of the cookies out and handed it to Eli.
When the other woman approached Kathy smiled kindly and held her hand out, “I’m Kathy, this is Georgie, and...She likes to eat,” she said chuckling a bit. Georgie was proving this right as she dipped her Starbucks cooking into her Reliquary hot chocolate and smiled widely at the mention of more things to eat, including grilled cheese. “I can make grilled cheese too!” she said shifting on her knees in her seat, “I help butter the bread.”
Eli took one of the offered Madelines, and he turned it over, as if he was examining it with the utmost care. “Nana will be glad to have your skilled expertise in the kitchen,” he told Georgie certainly. He held the Madeline up to the older cook, and he grinned. “I believe she can also one-up your Madelines by your next visit,” he said, smiling over at Kathy easily, without malice. “We shall have a Madeline eat off. I think that is in the competitive spirit,” he said as Nana began asking Georgie what she liked best about the cookies.
He turned to Kathy, and he smiled warmly. “She’s lovely, as is her mother.”
Kathy watched Georgie get settled into her conversation about cookies with a smile on her face. Georgie could talk at great length about anything, but cookies were a favorite topic of hers. She turned back to Eli and smiled, “Thank you, she’s...Sensational,” she said easily. She was clearly a woman who took care of her family, and enjoyed doing it. “Well, I think you’ve got Georgie’s vote.”
Eli chuckled. “And do I have yours?” he asked. “You seem rather harmless,” he told her, “seeing as I’m told your entire purpose in life is the demolition of my tiny business.” He sat back in his chair, and he smiled wider, entertained. “This might all be a ploy, you know, to ensure you don’t run me out of town. Make Georgie fond of me, give her Madelines, take over babysitting.”
“I’ll have to do a background check, but she’s rarely this captivated for this long, so I feel like I should warn you, she’s a handful,” the good kind of handful, but a handful just the same. She gave him a wry smile when he said she was out to destroy his business and shook her head, “How do you know Georgie’s not a spy?” she retorted easily.
“If a child her age isn’t a handful, something is wrong,” he said, the voice of someone who had grown up with a lot of children younger than him in the house. His easy smile turned into a hearty laugh at the notion of Georgie being a spy. “I’ll win her over if she is,” he said, “with better hot cocoa and Madelines than Starbucks can provide.”
“Never, she knows what side her bread is buttered on,” she said with a smile.
She tried to think of the pertinent information he’d want before he took on this responsibility, she still wasn’t sure if he’d be okay with everything. He did have a business to run after all. “As far as behavior goes, she has her moments but for the most part she’s does okay. I mean, we all have bad days,” she said shrugging a bit. Georgia wasn’t what she’d classify as a brat by any means, but she certainly had her bratty moments. “She isn’t the easiest to entertain simply because she’s not a sit still and watch TV unless she’s sick or really tired,” she didn’t think Georgie would be around here watching TV, but she felt obligated to give him all the information on what he, and quite possibly, his staff was getting into.
“She tries pretty hard to listen, but sometimes you need to really get on her level and make her repeat it back if it’s really important. She leaves her coat everywhere so when she gets picked up for school definitely make sure she has that, and her backpack. She really likes drawing and most days you’ll see she likes to get her take home work done as soon as she gets off school so she can goof off the rest of the day. The days she doesn’t WANT to do it right away she doesn’t always stay on task, so nudges in that direction help. And she’ll ask if she needs help, she likes asking questions period.”
She was trying to think of any information she could share, but it was all fairly straight forward, she didn’t think that Georgia was a problem child by any means, no one had ever really complained, on the days she had that were bad it wasn’t drastic. “If you’re still interested we can discuss compensation.”
Eli listened to everything, and he glanced over at Georgie, who was animatedly talking to Nana about something or another, with one of the college girl’s listening. “I think they’ll quite enjoy having her around,” he told Kathy honestly, looking back at her. “If it’s a disruption, we can talk compensation, right now, it’s a friend doing a friend a favor.” He inclined his head toward where he’d just been looking, where Georgie was holding court. “Nana’s family has all moved on, and she’s quite alone, and she’ll be grateful of Georgie’s presence. And the girls who work, they’ll relish the opportunity as well. They’re education majors. Perhaps we can even see if they can’t receive school credit for it,” he suggested.
He sat back, and he considered his words before he continued. “This place,” he motioned to the coffee shop. “It’s a reminder of the way life was when people stopped and talked, when they knew their neighbors. Something simpler, a simpler way of living. I’d be a hypocrite if I charged you, given what this place stands for. She can come for as long as she likes, and if she’s still here in a few years, we’ll put an apron on her and pay her for seating new arrivals,” he said, his smile a fond one as he looked toward the voices again. “My family is quite large,” he added. “I have a younger sister who was that age the last time I saw her.” He looked back at Kathy again. “Do we have a deal, Big Coffee?”
Kathy furrowed her brow a bit, she understood what he was saying, she appreciated his viewpoint but she felt terrible about not compensating him, or at least his staff. It wasn’t a money issue for her, she certainly wasn’t hurting for it, child care was something she budgeted for. And it was something she didn’t feel comfortable not compensating, “I really appreciate that, and I appreciate your views on it, but it isn’t hypocritical to take compensation for a service you’re providing,” she said seriously. “I’d feel better if you let me do something.”
“Something for the others, then,” he said, glancing back at the older woman and the college girl. Or some money into a school fund for the girls,” he agreed, knowing that pride didn’t let some people take without giving. “But it isn’t a requirement, and if you’re ever short on funds, there is no requirement,” he clarified, feeling it important to do so.
At the counter, a woman asked for the manager, and he gave Kathy an apologetic glance. “I apologize,” he said, pushing his seat out and standing. “Write down directions to her school? As I wait on the customer?”
That was better, and she nodded, “I can agree to that,” she said smiling, she understood his apprehension, she respected it, but she wasn’t going to do nothing. She also thought it spoke to his character that he’d suggest something related to school for the girls that worked for him.
“Oh no go ahead,” she said and took out her pen and notepad and wrote down the information for Georgie’s school.
Eli rang the woman up, taking a regular standing order for a combination blend she liked, and by the time he came back, the shop was starting to fill in. He held out a hand to help Kathy up, and he took the note from her. “Any particular drink you’d prefer I have waiting for you in the evenings, when you pick her up?” he asked, clearly pleased at the idea of getting to ply her with his own, non-Starbucks coffee.
She narrowed her eyes, but it was all in good nature and she sighed, “Not off the top of my head should I pick you something up from Starbucks on my way?” she teased lightly. “Now I’m going to let her school know you’ll be picking her up, you’ll have to give your drivers license the first day you do, and they’ll ask all sorts of questions and once you’ve promised them your first born you’ll be free to take her with you.” She said taking his hand as he helped her. Huh. Apparently chivalry wasn’t dead.
She picked up Georgie’s coat, “Honey come on, let’s head out. You can come back for cookies when school starts again,” she said holding the coat open for her. Georgie looked at her Mother with the same look Kathy got on her face when she was about to strike a bargain.
“How many days is that?” she asked completely seriously.
Kathy chuckled, “Two, now get over here, and get your coat on,” she said sighing a bit. Georgie looked at Eli and then back at the group she’d had so captivated and said “I’ll be back in two,” she held up two fingers, “days.”
Eli chuckled. “We’ll be counting,” he told Georgie, and he was fairly sure Nana would be. He was glad to give her something to coddle, and he was glad to help Kathy out, even if she did want to put him out of business. “Take care of your mother, Georgie,” he told her, while winking at Kathy over her head, and then he walked them to the door and pushed it open ahead of them.