“Have a seat,” Ethan said, motioning to one of plush chairs facing the massive desk.
“Thank you,” I replied, having a seat.
Ethan walked up to one spot on the bookshelf and pulled it aside, briefly shocking me. I watched as he opened a small camouflaged door that covered a couple of the shelves. He reached in and pulled out a couple of water bottles and shut it again. He handed one over to me, and still recovering from how beautiful he was, and his hidden fridge, I just shook my head.
“Not thirsty?” he said, setting the bottle down in front of me, and then settling into his leather desk chair.
I felt like an idiot. To make matters worse, I was actually really thirsty. “I’m just too nervous to drink I think.”
Ethan smiled again and it was a ray of sunshine. “There’s no need to be nervous. Your credentials speak for themselves. I guess I’d just love to know a little bit more about how you came to want to do this as opposed to working in a school or counselor’s office?”
I was prepared for that question. “I’ve actually always loved kids. I never had any siblings, so I always wanted to go hang out with my friends that had little kids in the home and jumped at the opportunity to work with younger grades when I was in high school. I just think I do a good job of speaking their language, which is why I went to school for child psychology and early childhood development. Maybe at some point I’d love to go work in some office where I only get to see kids 30% of my day, but right now I want to be able to work with them all day, every day.”
Ethan nodded with his lip turned up as if impressed. “Very good, well, I’ve got great news for you then.”
“Oh yeah?” I replied.
Ethan nodded. “It was entirely clear from the job description, by design, but this position isn’t just to look after my kids, it’s to become the official nanny of, what I call, the Single Dad Club.”
Everything Ethan said and did was shocking. “The Single Dad Club?”
“I’m not sure what it is, but single fathers tend to gravitate towards one another. In my life, I have crossed paths with five other gentlemen who are all in positions similar to myself. We’ve all found ourselves raising our children alone, and we all have very successful careers that demand a lot of our attention. We had been finding nannies on our own, but we found that a lot of our nannies were doing similar things at similar times, and that there was always a few of us who were struggling to find a nanny we could trust.” Ethan took a drink of his water. “We were also spending a lot of money. So, we decided to switch it up. We pooled our resources and made sure our kids’ schedules were conducive to one another, and decided to vet one really good nanny to take care of all of them.”
“Am I the first one to try it?” I asked.
“No,” Ethan asked. “There were two before you, but they weren’t great. They were glorified babysitters, and we like your education and passion for children.”
I took a deep breath. It sounded intense. Six families as opposed to one was way more than I signed up for. “How many kids in total?”
“Seven,” Ethan responded. “My two boys, aged 6, another 6-year-old boy, a 5-year-old boy, and two 6-year-old girls.”
“Wow,” I responded breathlessly.
“I know it’s a lot of work for one person, but they all go to the same school, and we’ve done a pretty good job of aligning their after-school activities so that they’re manageable. You’ll rarely have all seven kids all at once, but rather about half of them from day to day.” He raised an eyebrow. “Before you make a decision, I’ll tell you, we respect the size of the job, and need someone we can trust, so we each pool in $1250 a month for your payment.”
My jaw dropped. “You pool together $1250?” Surely, that’s what he meant to say.
He chuckled. “No. We each contribute $1250. The total monthly pay for this position is $7500.”
I sat in silence for a moment. I could think of few things I wouldn’t do for $7500 a month.
“One of us owns an accounting firm, so if you need it, he can add you as an employee to his company so that you’ll be eligible for benefits as well. Obviously, if you’re going to be caring for our kids, we want you healthy.” $7500 and benefits? Correction, there was nothing I wouldn’t do for that. “There will also be bonuses and incentives along the way, and we’ll pay you overtime for nights and weekends.”
I finally released the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. “Well, I’m not going to lie to you, I’m pretty convinced you’re going to sell me into slavery.”