Stumbling Through It {C.H}

Chapter 14

"Hi Ellie." Calum's eyes lit up when he opened the door.

"Good morning!" I stepped inside.

"ELLIE!" Daniel ran at top speed down the hallway, latching himself on my leg in a hug.

"Hey Daniel, how are you?" I ruffled his dark hair.

"Great!" He beamed, practically glowing in excitement. It was the first time I had come over to babysit since Calum and I started dating.

"I will be back in a few hours. I just have to run some errands. Thanks for coming." Calum lightly took my hand.

"No problem! I missed this little fella." I looked to Daniel who was still wrapped around my leg.

"Well, I will let you do your thing. See you soon." His thumb graced the back of my hand gently, before he let it go, turning to head out the door. I watched his as he drove away, before turning to Daniel.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked him.

"Let's play trains!" He detached from my leg, running off to his toy room.

-

"Choo choo! Chugga chugga, chugga chugga..." Daniel made train noises as he pushed a Thomas engine around a plastic track.

"Thomas, you better hurry with that delivery, or you will cause confusion and delay!" I spoke through a Sir Topham Hatt figure, quoting the only thing I remembered from the Thomas tv show.

"A tree fell on the track!" The little boy gasped, knocking a plastic tree in front of his train, "Better get Cranky the crane!" He pushed a crane over to where Thomas was, lifting the tree off the track.

"Phew, that was a close one!" I faked a sigh of relief. I felt a buzzing in my pocket. I turned away from our game, pulling out my phone, "I'm getting a phone call. You keep playing, I will be right back." I told him, stepping out of the toy room.

"Hello?" I answered the call from an unfamiliar number.

"Hello, is this Ellie Benson?" A woman's voice spoke from the other end.

"Yes."

"Hi Miss Benson. This is Fran from Parenthood Magazine." My heart skipped a beat, the voice suddenly sounding very familiar, "Do you have a moment to talk?" Her tone was unreadable. I couldn't tell if this was going to be good or bad news.

"Y-yes!" I stuttered slightly, out of nervousness.

"Great. So we at Parenthood were impressed with you application and qualifications," she started positively, making me excited, "but there is the problem of your lack of experience. You are fresh out of college and haven't had any journalism jobs before, is that correct?"

My smile dropped, it wasn't going so positively any more, "Yes." I repeated, less with less enthusiasm.

"Mhmm, so that does present a problem. But we decided that everyone has to start somewhere, so we would like to offer you the job." Fran finished.

My jaw fell, "Oh, I would love to! I accept!" I cringed at how squeaky my voice sounded as I held back excitement.

"Wonderful! I will see you Monday, at 9:00 for your first day."

"Of course. Thank you!" I finished the phone call, making sure the call was ended before I released my excitement. I screamed joyously, jumping up and down.

Daniel ran out of the toy room, "Ellie are you okay?" He asked with a concerned look.

I laughed, bending down to his height, "Yes Daniel, I'm amazing actually!"

The worry faded off his face once he realized I was happy, "Why did you scream?"

"I got a new job!" I told him.

"Oh, is that good?" He tilted his head, his innocent eyes sparkling.

"It is! Very good!" I giggled.

"Yay!" He flung his arms around my neck, pulling me in a hug. It took me by surprise at first, but I quickly returned the hug, holding the little boy close.