A broken marriage.
A new job.
She works as a Personal Assistant on the ForNoah Youtube channel.
Noah is on the autistic spectrum and she fixes things for him.
He's a shipwright and creates beautiful works of art.
She's a woman starting over who meet...
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The door opens on my second knock. A young woman stands at the entrance with a welcoming smile. I thrust my left hand out to shake—err, wrong hand—but I don't retract it. My daughter squeezes tight on my right hand, and I can feel the nervousness coming from her. It breaks my heart that she gets how much we need this paycheck.
"Hi, my name is Tari. Eh, Tari, and my kids. My daughter, Simir, and my son, Ade." Little Man—bless his heart—he takes that moment to pull out of his sister's hand. In a grand gesture, my son as Lando poses as if he was about to storm through Cloud City, a two-finger salute to the young woman in the doorway. My daughter shakes her head.
"Wow, Ade, that was a marvelous job," the woman smiles. "I'm Zoey Jude. Thanks for coming to the interview. C'mon in."
I reach out and awkwardly grasp her hand, hoping mine isn't as clammy as I think it is. Zoey looks like the girl next door went rockstar with an outline of a tattoo and a smokiness at the edge of her eyes.
Simir grabs hold of Ade's hand and pulls him along with us into the house. It's a beautiful two-story farmhouse—covered in quality natural wood finishes with stylish, casually modern furniture. Everything is wood, from floor to ceiling. Even the books have unique wooden book covers. Zoey picks up one book on the table, but the fancy cover does not appear to be kid-friendly.
"Ade would break that in a heartbeat." I say to Zoey.
"No, I won't," Ade proudly answers for himself.
I nod my head at her. Yes, he would. I fish in my big ole bag for washable pens and dry erase fold-up paper. Sim takes the color set and pulls Ade's hand. She plops down in the little play area and splits the haul between them. This isn't the first job I've had to bring them to, and it won't be the last. She knows the score.
"How old are they?" Zoey asks.
"They're four and six. And we've got both birthdays coming up soon in July, too," I reply and notice Zoey's warm smile. Very much the rock-and-roll star waiting to happen.
Zoey leads me down the hall to a small home office. I take out my tablet, ready to take notes. She smiles at me nervously and picks up her own tech gear from the desk. This is such an internet job moment—if you show me your tech I show you mine. I fight down my giggle by the skin of my teeth.
"Thanks again for coming. I've hired no one before," she blurts. I nod my head in reply. "This is all a little weird. I'll be unavailable for a full year during filming for The Tour, a YouTube Red singing contest. With the interviews, show dates, and all that comes with being a contestant on the show. I plan on staying at the hotel and won't be able to keep up with anything." The poised young woman looks surprised by saying out loud that she's a contestant for the show. It's in its first year and a tremendous deal. The multi-million dollar ad buys have blanketed the internet, news, and TV for months.
