Where did that come from? “Thank me?” he asked. “For what?”
“For being there for me tonight. You helped to calm me down. You certainly calmed down that irate driver. But you really helped me.”
“The least I could do. You gave me a little excitement.” She laughed. “Before your accident, the most I could hope for was a comfortable, lonely bed. Now I get to talk to you a few minutes longer. I say I should be thanking you.”
She smiled. “So what do you do, Mr. Sinatra? And if you say you’re a singer, I’ll jump from this car right now.”
Charles laughed. “No, I’m not that Sinatra. I buy and sell several businesses actually.”
“Ah. A venture capitalist.”
“There you go.”
“Own any businesses in Boston?”
“A couple, yes. And quite a few across the country. But primarily in Maine.”
“A Maine man,” she said with a nod. “I got you. You like what you do?”
“Love it. Or hate it. It depends on what I’m doing. My businesses are so vast, and so different, that my enjoyment runs hot and cold. Good and bad. Black and white. I try to sell the ones I don’t like, but it rarely works out that way.”
“I think I’m going to love my job,” Jenay said.
He looked at her. “Oh, yeah?”
“I think so. I don’t have a lot of hands-on experience yet. At least, not the kind I would have liked to have.”
“What about that internship? Isn’t that hands on?”
“It is, yes, and it helps, but is has mainly been event-driven, rather than day-to-day. But it’s a two-year course and I did what they required of me. So I’m graduating, on time, with an associate’s degree in Hotel Management. And I’m graduating at the top of my class, I might add.”
Charles smiled. “No shit? Top of your class? That’s very wonderful, Jenay.”
“Thank-you.” Considering where she was just three years ago, in divorce court and miserable, she was proud of herself.
“So what’s your plan?” Charles asked. “That hotel hiring you after your internship?”
“I wish,” Jenay responded. “I haven’t received any offers of that caliber. Not one. But I do have two offers I’m considering.”
Charles was impressed, as he continued to drive. “Two?” he asked. “Very good. Where? Here in Boston?”
“Both are just outside of Boston, but yes.”
“Well are you going to tell me the names, or am I supposed to guess?”
She withheld the names on purpose, knowing they would not impress. “I have an offer from the Econolodge. I’ll be the manager if I accept there. And I’ll be an assistant manager if I accept the offer from Motel 6.”
“Motel 6?” Charles asked as if he was astounded. “Who goes to college to get a job at a Motel 6? That’ll be like going to college to get a job at McDonald’s. What’s wrong with that management team where you did your internship? I don’t get it. You graduated top of your class. Why aren’t they snatching you up?”
“I don’t have the experience,” Jenay said. “And I’m a woman, and I’m a minority, and it’s not that simple. It’s tough getting those management jobs. With the job market the way it is, I’m competing against white guys with resumes an arm long. And they have a corner on the market. It’s going to be tough. I’m going to have to prove myself at the neighborhood dance before I get invited to the prom. But I’m a hard worker. I’ll get to that prom.”
Charles loved her attitude. But still. “So which one are you going to choose? Econolodge, or the Motel 6?”
“I haven’t decided,” Jenay said. “I just got the news yesterday. I was selected after a job fair at BHI. The offers are on the table for five days, as per the school’s rules when they agree to attend the fair. So I have a few more days to decide.”
Charles continued to drive. Among the many businesses he owned in Jericho, Maine, one of them was a Bed and Breakfast that could always use a good person to help run it. Lord knows Beatrice Moynihan was running it into the ground! But hiring Jenay was complicated. It could commit him in a way he wasn’t ready to commit. He also remembered his reaction tonight when he thought she was injured in that car accident. He was mortified. He barely knew this woman and he was mortified. What would happen to him, he thought, if she became a major part of his life?
But then he dismissed such unproductive thoughts. She was a Bostonian. Who said she would want to go to a town like Jericho, and a state like Maine, anyway? It wasn’t going to happen. Thinking about it was fruitless.