Slow and Steady Wins the Race
"Mommy? What's a N-turn?"
"IN-tern, honey. It's someone who works for the experience instead of for money."
"Oh," her daughter said. "Why do you need 'sperience?"
"Well, so mommy can get a good job making lots of money."
"Oh. Why don't you do a job now and make lots of money?"
"Um, because Mommy doesn't have any experience," she patiently explained hoping the tautology was lost on her four-year old daughter, Peyton.
The answer seemed to satisfy her for the moment and lately it seemed like that's how Jaydan Kennison lived her entire life—from one moment to the next trying to survive. At 29 she never expected herself to be divorced, working a crappy job at night to pay the bills—bills she juggled every month trying not to ask for extra time on the same one two months in a row—while raising her daughter alone and trying to finish college.
After taking six years off, she was now officially a senior—again—and she had to complete an internship in one of her last two semesters to graduate. It was considered work experience, and even though it was unpaid, it was a requirement to get her bachelor's degree in financial management.
She'd applied to a dozen different companies around the Seattle area during her first semester, and two of them had offered her a slot starting in January right after the winter break. She chose Financial Enterprise, Incorporated, because it was in the perfect location relative to where she lived, went to school, worked, and her mother's apartment which was the drop-off point for Peyton. She would have preferred to work for the other business, but because it was all the way across town, it was simply impractical. It was a much smaller company and that appealed to Jaydan, but there was just no way to make it work. So Enterprise would get her services free of charge 20 hours a week until the end of May while she parented her daughter, took one additional class, and worked as many hours a week as she could get.
"Okay, baby. We're here. You ready to go see Nana?"
"Yes, I'm ready," she said matter-of-factly. Peyton was a very precocious child, but since her father walked out on them last summer, she wasn't the same. She didn't cry or pout, she just seemed...different. Fortunately for Jaydan, her daughter loved spending time with Nana and Jaydan's widowed mother, Denise Archer, loved having her.
"Thanks, Mom. You know how much this means to me, right?" Jaydan said yet again as Peyton ran into the house to find Nana's dog, Millie.
"I'm the one who gets all the benefits from it, honey. Having her here makes me feel young again, and it gives me purpose. But thank you for saying that."
"Peanut? Come back here and give me my kiss!" her mother called out. She heard Peyton tell Millie to 'come' and moments later both her daughter and the Golden Retriever with the wagging tail were at the door.
"Bye, Mommy! I love you! Have a good day at the N-turn place!" Jaydan bent down to give and get a hug big enough to last her until she got home around midnight after school and a six-hour shift waiting tables, then kissed her daughter goodbye.
Denise went outside with Jaydan and closed the door. "Sweetheart? I'm worried about you. How long can you keep this up? You really are burning the candle at both ends since Jeff walked out."
"As long as it takes, Mom," she said. "Hopefully I'll get hired somewhere after I graduate and then I can just work full time." She said it like it was a joke, but it really wasn't all that funny. She'd still be gone at least 50 hours a week including commute time, but new hires tended to have to work longer hours to make a name for themselves so very little would probably change even then in terms of how often she was home. And yet, what choice did she have? Her now ex-husband paid child support, but that did nothing to pay the mortgage, property taxes, car payment, buy groceries, and cover tuition. Jaydan had borrowed heavily to pay for school, both credit cards were nearly maxed out, and what little she'd had in savings would soon be gone. The idea of going out for something as simple as ice cream was out of the question. But she never let on in front of Peyton—or even her mother—that, like her credit cards, her stress level was also nearly maxed out.
"I know it's old fashioned, but you're such a beautiful girl. Do you ever think about, you know, getting married again?"
Jaydan rolled her eyes and said, "Mom? If and when the right guy comes along, we'll see. But there is no way on earth I'd ever marry for money."
"No, not...just for money. But you're so young and pretty. You could easily find a nice guy and if he, you know, happened to have a decent job, and assuming he could accept Peyton as his own, would that be so awful?"
Jaydan was an attractive woman. That wasn't in dispute. At 5' 4" and maybe 105 pounds, she was small but not petite. Her husband had asked her numerous times to enhance her full-B breasts, but she knew that anything bigger would look out of place on a woman her size. Thankfully, she'd managed to fend him off and couldn't happier she had.
She had the perfect face for shorter hair and wore hers above the ears in a very feminine, very smooth style. When she'd had the money, she loved to bleach it blonde, but that was another luxury she could no longer afford so it had returned to its very dark-brown natural color. She loved the blonde look that went so well with her bright blue eyes and very white smile, but she knew she looked just at attractive with her natural color.
She also knew her mother meant well, but right now wasn't the time for this discussion. She had to be at Enterprise in forty-five minutes and that meant catching the bus in ten. Yes, she could drive, but traffic was gawd-awful bad and that was additional stress she just didn't need. If she missed the bus, she'd be late for orientation on her very first day; not the way someone looking for a future in financial management wanted to start out.
"Mom, I've gotta run. We'll talk some other time, okay?" She hugged her mother and thanked her again, then briskly walked the two blocks in the cold, raw air to the bus stop and waited. Two minutes later she was on her way to start the internship she should have completed six years ago.
Enterprise was an up-and-coming business that had expanded so rapidly it had had to relocated twice in the last five years. It now took up two full floors of a twenty-story glass-enclosed building in downtown Seattle where Enterprise leased the 7th and 8th floors.
Jaydan managed to slide inside the elevator going up before the doors closed and she was just able to turn around without bumping into anyone else. When the bell rang indicating they were at the 7th floor, she excused herself and stepped out into the brightly-tiled, very modern looking office space where with the company logo was staring her in the face. She looked both directions and noticed what appeared to be a reception desk to her left and headed that way.
She saw a woman about her age behind the desk who was talking on the phone. Jaydan waited until she was done before saying, "Hi, this is my first day and I was wondering...."
"Oh, you're the new executive assistant. Mr. Hardaway will be glad to see you. Let me just give him a call and...."
"Sorry. No, I'm...I'm an intern."
"Oh. I see," the other woman said not sure what to make of someone her age interning.
"That means she belongs to me, Renee," Jaydan heard a voice say from behind her. She turned around and saw another woman who was maybe 35 smiling at her.
"I'm Sharon Cummings. You must be Jaydan. Everyone else is in the conference room so follow me and we'll get started with orientation."
Jaydan didn't even get a chance to say hello. She just followed Sharon down the hall and into a large room with a huge table surrounded by comfortable-looking leather chairs. "Please have a seat and we'll get going."
Jaydan did just that then scanned the other interns, and with the exception of the lone male, they all looked to be between 20-22, the age she should be.
Sharon had everyone quickly introduce themselves and as she'd assumed, the other four people were all seniors at the University of Washington. There were three women and one young man who looked more like he was maybe 17 than 20. All three of the females were not only young but attractive, as well. No one was beautiful and no objective observer would have argued that Jaydan wasn't by far the most attractive of the four.
