Chapter Three
Dunkin Donuts
East 43rd Street
Jack had to admit- he was nervous. There was absolutely no reason to be, and yet he was. Tommy Ryan was one of the most relaxed guys he'd ever met, and it wasn't like this was an official job interview with an employer or anything, but still. It was the biggest chance of his life. This morning he'd done his best to put together a presentable outfit. After twenty minutes of rummaging through his closet, he'd finally managed to find a leather jacket he hadn't worn since he was about seventeen. It was a little bit worn on the elbows, but hey, it was better than the white t-shirt he wore almost every day. Oh no, the jacket would go over the white t-shirt! Just that idea in itself reminded him how exciting this opportunity was for him.
As he opened the door to Dunkin Donuts, a little bell sounded to announce his regal presence to the faithful populace. Heck, maybe someday he really would be the king of the world, what with this whole job thing starting to work itself out.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw a wild tangle of dark curls spring up from the corner of the coffee shop and run in his direction. Evidently, Cora had heard the bell.
"Jack!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his waist. "You came! You really came!"
Wondering what in the world he'd done to earn this little girl's admiration, Jack wrapped his arms around her waist and patting her on the back.
"Well, if it isn't my best girl! Of course I came," he said reassuringly. "Why wouldn't I?"
Cora shrugged just as her uncle approached her from behind. Cora seemed to spend a lot of time with her uncle, and Jack was interested in learning why. She evidently lived with her father and presumably her mother, and yet she spent her weekends in downtown New York with her mother's brother. Those moments... long afternoons in the Central Park Zoo, running in the wind and spending hours gazing at the animals... those were moments that Jack just couldn't understand any parent willingly missing. Tommy evidently cared deeply for her, which was good, but growing up with your parents in your life was important. Really important.
"I told ya, Cora," he said to the little girl with a laugh, then looked up at Jack. They stood almost at eye level with each other, although Jack was a bit taller. "She talked my ear of about ye all the way home yesterday, and as soon as I came to pick her up this morning she started up again. It was like all she knew how to say was 'I can't wait to see Jack again! Is he really gonna be there tomorrow? He's so nice!' " Tommy's imitation of Cora's high-pitched, little girl voice was almost spot on, and it made Jack throw his head back in laughter.
Leaning in towards Jack's ear, Tommy whispered, "I think she's got a wee bit of a thing for ye, to be honest."
Still laughing, Jack crouched down and lifted up Cora onto his hip. He looked her in the eye and said, "Well, aren't I quite the lucky guy then? Cause you're beautiful."
A light blush crept up the young girl's full cheeks. "You're so nice, Jack," she said, smiling ear-to-ear.
Still carrying Cora on his hip, Jack followed Tommy's lead to a booth in the back of the coffee shop.
"I ordered you a coffee; hope you don't mind," Tommy said.
"Not at all," Jack replied, reaching into his pocket. He had a job now; it was okay to spend a little bit of money. At a quick shake of Tommy's head, however, Jack took his hand out of his pocket and placed it on Cora's waist, sitting her down in the window seat of the booth. There was really no point in fighting it when someone volunteered to pay for something. They always seemed to win, which thus far had been perfectly fine with Jack.
"So," Tommy said, apparently eager to get down to business, "I had a little talk with me brother-in-law last night, and he said he'd be happy to hire you. I think his exact words were, 'At this point, I'd take anybody,' weren't they, Cora?"
Beaming, Cora nodded. "I told Daddy all about you, and he said that he can't wait for you to start working for him. Does that mean I'm going to see you every day?" she added as an afterthought.
Not wanting to lie to her, because Cora appeared to be the type of kid who never missed a trick, Jack thought about her question for a moment. "Well," he replied, "probably not every day, but at least once a week. Unless, of course, your uncle Tommy takes you to visit me sometimes."
The little girl looked up at her uncle expectantly, with big brown puppy-dog eyes. They way in which she held on to Jack's every word as though it was her only lifeline in the entire world was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. He'd never really been somebody's idol before. Okay, maybe idol wasn't the right word. First crush was probably a better term. Either way, it was a good feeling to know that you could make or break somebody's day.
Tommy laughed at his niece and stirred his coffee slowly. "We'll have to see about that later, Cora," he said. "But what I do want to talk about now is the whole job situation."
When he said it like that, it seemed like a bad thing. Not that he'd meant it that way or anything; it was just that Jack had never really been suppressed by rules before. It was the strangest feeling- just a moment ago he'd been over the moon; on top of the world, but within a second he felt sorely inadequate. Tommy's tone conveyed the side of the working life that he'd never really given any thought to before: the fact that he would have to play the game by somebody else's rules, or else risk losing everything. Life had never been like that for him before. What if he wasn't good enough?
"Umm, right..." he said slowly. He didn't even know what to say to that; whether to view Tommy as a friend or a boss or both or neither. In that moment he realized how little he really knew about anything. "So, what does this job entail?" Using big words was always good, wasn't it?
"Basically," Tommy explained, "you'd just have to clean up at night and make sure nobody breaks in. It's not terribly hard work, and it seems like the sort of thing you'd enjoy. Have you ever been to the Heller Gallery?"
Jack's past was something he was pretty proud of because it had made him the person he was today, but there were a lot of dark patches hidden back there that he'd rather not discuss, or even think about. In short, he had never been to any art gallery, ever, let alone the Heller gallery. In truth, he'd only vaguely even heard of it.
"I actually haven't," he said, trying to make it sound like, what with all the other things he'd done in his immensely busy life, he'd just never gotten the time.
Cora's face lit up like a thousand light bulbs at this revelation. "Jack!" she exclaimed. "Jack, I have to take you! Me and Uncle Tommy will take you right now, right? Right, Uncle Jack? Right?"
Tommy sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his coffee. Evidently it had been his plan all along to go with Jack and check out the gallery, but he clearly took a great amount of pleasure in teasing his niece.
"What do you think, Jack?" he asked casually. "Do you really want to go right now? Cause we can just stay here, if you'd rather do that."
Jack shrugged. "I wouldn't mind going, but if it's too much of a hassle for you..." Playing in to Tommy's mind game was just much too fun to pass up.
"It's not," Cora said simply. Her word was law, or at least it was law in her head. It had been a long time since Jack had really viewed the world through a child's eyes. He had no cousins, nieces or nephews, or even and teenage brothers or sisters. Over the last five years, his view on life had become optimistic but slightly cynical, the only way he could push through each day of trying to pay the bills without going hungry. He had to take things for what they were and never had the chance to be completely in awe of anything anymore. Cora was the person we wished he could still be. And considering she was like six, that was kind of sad.
"Well then," Tommy said, "I guess we best be off, then. Ready to see you future life, Jack?"
Not really, he thought. Not at all. But he just nodded. Cora swallowed the last bit of her donut and wiped some powder off her chin as the men got out of their seats. Jack lifted the little girl from the booth and set her on the ground, taking her hand in his. Without warning, she began to skip happily through the coffee shop, causing Jack to run to keep up with her. God, little kids were surprisingly springy.
The familiar sound of a little bell dinged as they walked out into the street, and it was almost as though the faint noise had reminded Cora of something, because she stopped dead in her tracks.
"I just remembered something," she declared importantly, the cool autumn breeze running through her dark curls.
"What's that?" Jack asked, kneeling down and getting to her level.
Smiling widely, she said, "My daddy wants to have sort of like a party for the end of summer and we have a pool and he said you can go and its going to be a lot of fun so do you want to?"
The child's mile-a-minute speech took a minute to get through to Jack, but when he did figure it out, he was completely surprised. For one, Cora had known him for a grand total of about 50 minutes, and her father didn't know him at all. Of course, it sort of made sense, because a casual party would be a really great way to get to know your future employee personally, but still. It was weird. Cool, but weird. And secondly, he hadn't been invited to any sort of party since he'd been in school, which was about five years, give or take. He didn't know what to say.
"I'd love to go, Cora," he explained gently, "but are you sure your dad thinks it's okay? Because I really wouldn't want to be intruding, if it's like a family thing and-"
"It's not!" Cora exclaimed. "Trust me, you can go. Even Uncle Tommy's coming! Oh, it's just going to be so much fun! We can go swimming and there's gonna be music and it's going to be so much fun!"
Judging by her words, it seemed as though Cora already had her mind set on Jack's coming to this little get-together. In her mind, there was no real question. Plus, her million-watt smile was one that not even the most cold hearted of people could say no to.
Smiling almost as big as his little counterpart, Jack said, "Well, then I'd love to."
