Page 16 of Help Wanted

Chapter 4

Kenley sang along with the radio for her twenty-five minute commute to work on Monday morning. It was nice to be able to use her car again. She hadn’t been able to keep it in the city, so it had been her parents’ spare car.

She found herself clenching the wheel. Occasionally, she would glance over at the car next to her and smile. No one smiled back.

Apparently they weren’t starting new jobs today. They weren’t beginning careers as Executive Production Coordinators with a growing company. They didn’t have a sweet, sexy boss with a gorgeous smile and kind blue eyes, and muscles, and—

“Knock it the hell off,” she scolded herself for getting dreamy about Zane.

By the time she pulled in—thirteen minutes early—she had already decided she would start looking for an apartment in New Haven as soon as possible. She needed to get out of Vanessa and Eric’s house. While she loved her brother, seeing him every day was too much. Not to mention how she was growing tired of changing doll clothes over and over at the demand of her six-year-old niece.

“Good morning,” Sidney greeted her when she walked in.

“Morning,” Kenley answered as she looked around the transformed office space. It was more office than rainforest now.

“I already had my husband come move my plants to our sunroom.”

“Ah.” Inside Kenley was dancing with glee. She didn’t have any plants and was convinced she would have killed the monstrous foliage in a matter of days.

“They were mine. Zane always hated them, but I just added more when he was away.” She shrugged it off.

“Is he here?” She tried to hide the hope in her voice as she glanced toward the hallway leading to his office. He’d said he wouldn’t be in, but maybe his plans changed.

“Nope. He’s going to be out for the next two weeks. I’ll be training you all on my own. The Friday after next is my last day, so you’ll be going solo after that.”

“Okay.” She hid her disappointment and forced a smile.

They spent the morning going over the hiring forms and taking a more extensive tour of the huge building attached to the smaller office. It was empty of humans except for the two of them and Paul, who was up to his elbows in a greasy engine.

He seemed nice. He mentioned he was getting married, twice. Was he worried she was going to try to seduce him? He gestured at the boats surrounding him. They all had catchy names painted in artistic fonts.

Back inside the warm office, Sidney gave her a list of the other workers along with their cell numbers.

“So basically, if you can’t get Zane on the phone and it’s important, call Paul. Paul has an office in here, but he spends most of his time out on road or in the shop. If you can’t get Paul, then try Brady. If Brady doesn’t answer you’ll just have to wait, because none of these other guys know much about the business end of things.”

“Got it.”

“My guess is Zane will be more likely to take your calls than he was to take mine.” Sidney gave Kenley a knowing smile and Kenley wondered what that meant.

“So do customers come in?” Kenley asked, mostly to change the subject.

“Locals will stop in to schedule service or pay a bill. We have some cash in the box in Zane’s office. We take checks if you get a copy of their license. And you can run a credit card on this little gizmo that snaps in the tablet. Most everyone else will call ahead to make sure Zane is in, and make an appointment. Over the years, people have learned how sporadic his schedule is.”

Surely he had to spend some time here working on boats and running his business. She hoped, as Sid showed her how to fill out a service ticket and where to put them.

“Paul has the emergency line, so those calls go directly to him. If he’s out of the area, he’ll transfer the calls to one of the other guys who stay here. You shouldn’t need to worry about that. If you get a call that someone is dead in the water, transfer the call to Paul.” Kenley nodded.

Lunch was brought in from down the street, and she and Sidney chatted like old friends. When they finished, Sidney started up the computer system to show her payables and receivables.

“You’ll make copies of all the bills, and put the copies in the proper job folder so Zane can review them when he bills out the customer. He takes care of that. He knows what he quoted and won’t send out a bill for more unless there’s a good reason. You’ll apply the customer’s payment to their account when it arrives and take the deposit to the bank when needed. Zane approves the original invoices for supplies and expenses, and then you can enter them for payment.”

“Got it.”

“Here are a few to start.”

They spent the rest of the afternoon in training. They covered how to enter a payment and when to run statements so Zane could review customers who hadn’t paid. At the end of the day she was shown how to lock up and set the alarm.

Her head was swimming as she drove to Vanessa’s. She was mentally exhausted, but it was a great feeling.