2.
Blaine Anderson was thirty four years old and unemployed. No matter how he tried to word it, he couldn't find a better way of saying it.
Out of work. In between jobs. Seeking employment.
No, all just as bad as each other because they all screamed the same thing.
Failure. Massive failure of epic proportions.
If someone had told him when he was in high school, standing bold on a national stage, and belting out a show choir number to an audience of thousands, that he'd still be struggling for work over ten years after graduating college, he wouldn't have believed it. He had always been so, so sure that by now things would have worked themselves out. He'd have his dream job, doing what he loved and loving what he was doing.
It wasn't like he'd always been out of work. It was just… The industry was hard. There were interviews and auditions and yet more auditions and with each one, the numbers of people his age dwindled, and he was left struggling in a sea of fresh faced twenty year olds.
He hadn't been short of work in the beginning. Competition had been stiff but he'd got by. He'd felt like he was really, finally making a name for himself. He adored his life. His days were swallowed by learning lines and practicing scales and his nights were full of grease paint and applause and after-show champagne.
He wasn't sure when things had started going so downhill. All he knew was that he felt old, and more and more washed out, dried up after every phone call of "I'm sorry, Mr Anderson."
Most of his roles now where either in a chorus or as an understudy.
In the end, he'd been forced to take a second job. He had no qualifications other than life experience, a killer voice (he still had it, he told himself in the mirror every morning. He did.), a degree in musical theatre… And a knack for dealing with children.
Maybe it was something he'd picked up from babysitting his brother Cooper's two boys, both by different mothers who Cooper had on the weekends. Maybe he'd just watched too many episodes of Super Nanny during his stretches of being out of work. Unemployed. Searching. But whatever it was, kids liked him. When they cried he could usually soothe them. When they screamed, he could make them laugh. And when they wandered off in stores, he could usually run round the isles pretty quick, grab them and drag them to the exit to be scolded.
So. Child-minding. It wasn't the dream, but he did enjoy it.
Or he would, if he wasn't currently out of that particular type of work as well. Blaine's last job… Well, that had been… Awkward. He'd worked for a lovely couple, both of them doctors with a hectic schedule and looked after their two gorgeous and oddly angelic children. It was heavenly. He'd still gone to auditions and tried to get back into acting again, but he was doing okay.
Then he'd let slip one day he was unable to work one weekend because he was heading to New York's gay pride festival. He hadn't expected the quiet, well spoken, intelligent couple to frown at him and usher him out of the house as if they couldn't get rid of him quickly enough. The next day he'd received a phone call asking him not to come to work.
Oddly enough, he missed it. He missed the smell of baby shampoo and testing milk temperature on the back of his wrist. He missed the pride that bloomed in him when a child stopped crying because of him.
So, of course he couldn't have been happier when he managed to leap out of the shower just in time to pick up his phone.
"Hello?"
"Hello, am I speaking to a Mr Blaine Anderson?" The voice on the other end of the line was a woman's, breathless and hopeful.
"Yes, can I help you?"
"I'm calling about your advert. You're a nanny?"
"A child-minder, yes."
"Fantastic! My name is Rachel Hudson. I'm calling on behalf of my brother-in-law, Kurt Hummel. He's very, uhhh, busy at the moment and could use some help with his daughter. Would you be available for an interview?"
"Yes, of course. When did you have in mind?"
"Is tomorrow too soon?"
Blaine exhaled the breath he'd been keeping tight in his chest. "No, tomorrow would be perfect."
"Great! Do you know where Café Crème is?"
"The one on Madison Avenue?"
"Yes, yes that's the one. Say… 10:30?"
"That sounds fine."
"Okay! I'll see you there tomorrow then. Don't forget; 10:30 sharp!"
"Okay, thank you. 'Bye then."
"Goodbye."
After he hung up, Blaine had to restrain himself from leaping around the furniture and punching the air. Finally, a job again. Hopefully. She had sounded desperate. This, on the one hand did mean he was more likely to get the job. On the other hand though, what was making her need a child minder so urgently? What was the hurry? And why hadn't her brother in law called Blaine himself? Could he really be that busy? It wasn't unheard of for his employers to be so rushed of their feet they barely had time to read his resume, but too busy even for the initial interview?
Already Blaine was building up a mental image of somebody not unlike his own father; cold and distant with gray hair peppered with white, a permanent frown and a hand never empty of a briefcase.
He couldn't have been more wrong.
Blaine was settled with an Americano at one of Café Crème's tables near the window by 10:05. He checked his emails on his phone while he waited, and when he'd finished that he nursed his drink, sipping it slowly to make it last. Thankfully, he wasn't the only one who arrived early.
Rachel Hudson turned out to be a tired, stressed looking woman with blindingly shiny brown hair and a determinedly steady smile. "Mr Anderson? Hi, I'm Rachel."
Blaine rose in his chair so he could lean across the table to shake her hand. "Blaine, please."
She took the seat opposite him. "Thank you for coming on such short notice."
"It's no problem."
Rachel took a deep breath in, held it for a few seconds as if to calm herself, then let it out. Blaine was about to offer her a drink when her arm shot straight up in the air, fingers snapping loudly. Blaine couldn't help but wince as a waitress hurried over. "Are you ready to order?"
"I'll have an iced green tea, venti, sweetened with half a teaspoon of classic syrup. Thank you."
As the waitress hurried off, Rachel turned back to Blaine and clapped her hands sharply together, making him jump. "So, Blaine. I read your resume online, and I was reasonably impressed.
Only reasonably? "Thank you."
"But I highly doubt you've encountered a situation like this before. It's very delicate and will require sensitive handling and tact if I am to hire you." Blaine didn't think he'd ever seen someone talk so quickly before. It amazed him how her words didn't run together. "As I mentioned on the phone, it's my brother in law, Kurt, whose child is in need of a nanny. He has a daughter, Adele, who's five. She's at school from 9am to 3pm every weekday so during those hours you should be free to do your own thing, pursue your own leisure actives, et cetera. If I do decide to let you watch her, your hours may be longer to begin with, especially at weekends but they will decrease over time as things get… Back to normal."
"I see." He didn't. "That sounds fine. Can I ask what makes things so sensitive?"
It was the first time he had seen Rachel hesitate. She took another breath. "Kurt… Adele's other dad passed away eight days ago. He was hit by a drunk driver on his way to work. The driver was also killed in the… Incident. Kurt is… Struggling right now. He hasn't gone back to work yet and won't leave his apartment so Adele has been staying with myself and my husband, Finn. Obviously Finn and I love having her but we have our own lives and we both work full time, but Kurt isn't in any position yet to take care of her on his own just yet."
Blaine nods silently. He was not expecting this.
"When things get better after the funeral, it's likely Kurt will still need assistance. He works long hours through the week and adjusting to being a single dad will be hard for him. Just until he works out a schedules. So this will be a long term commitment from you. Are you available to work the hours I mentioned or do you have any other work at the moment?"
"No. No, I'm free any hours."
Rachel nodded, seemingly satisfied. " Before I decide to employ you, and discuss payment, I'd like you to meet Adele. Does that sound alright?"
"That sounds fine."
"Great. She's staying at my apartment at the moment. If we hurry we can catch her before her afternoon nap."
As Rachel lead him rather forcefully out of the quiet Café Crème in the direction of the subway, leaving a bewildered looking waitress still holding Rachel's just-made tea, Blaine couldn't help but wonder what he was letting himself in for.