Unsuitable

On screen Mia and Reece were making statues, holding poses. Reece stood on one leg, arms in a circle above his head in a reasonable attempt at a ballet dancer, while Mia was a tree, or a possum or maybe a star, it was hard to tell. Didn’t matter, she was delightful.

“I don’t need root canal after all,” said Claire, as the song ended. “Are you watching The Wiggles?”

Mia said, “Again, again,” and there was no further question about whether she was comfortable being with Reece. He started the song over, and by that time Claire was leaning over Audrey’s shoulder.

“Is that the new nanny? You did not say he was man candy. Holy moley. You have that come to your house every day.”

“He’s taken,” said Les.

“You wouldn’t anyway,” said Claire, but she didn’t sound convinced, she prodded Audrey in the arm. “Would you?”

“No. Goodness me. He’s the nanny.”

“You have a male nanny?”

Audrey threw her hands up, as Marina walked in. She glared at her star project leader and went for the nanny cam menu again, but Les snatched the mouse, and Claire said, “We want to see this.”

The four of them watched while Reece worked up a sweat doing the propeller, and by the time he got to the up, up, up part, stretching his hands to the ceiling so that his t-shirt slurped against every muscle in his torso and gapped at the waist of his jeans, Sue had joined them. When he did his ballerina pose there was a chorus of awww, and if Audrey’s own reaction was anything to go by, a whole lot of highly inappropriate female body part clenching.

She punched a finger on the monitor power and the picture disappeared to the tune of noooo.

“Does that happen every day at this time?” said Sue. She was the only other female project manager, hired after Audrey.

“I’ll calendarise it,” said Claire.

“Make sure we’re all sent a reminder,” said Marina.

“We need a bigger screen, and popcorn,” said Les.

Audrey stood. “Out. All of you.” Marina and Claire both backed out. Les hovered.

It had never been a secret Audrey had a nanny for Mia, but she was uncomfortable with what just happened. It was one thing for her to spy on Reece and share that with Les, who she trusted implicitly, but half the office would know about this before the day was out, and that was a true violation of Reece’s privacy. Not that he’d ever know his propeller caused the kind of excitement in the office attributable to a teen pop star, but still, it had gotten out of hand.

“A male nanny,” said Sue. She frowned. Her kids were in high school. She’d had a nanny for her youngest. “Couldn’t you get a woman?”

It was none of her business, but she’d stayed behind to make a point. “He was the best candidate.”

“Brave of you.”

“He has terrific qualifications, sterling references. His rapport with Mia was instant. You just saw that. I’d have been an idiot not to hire him. I hired him instead of female candidates.”

Sue’s eyes flared. “But having a strange man in your house, and alone with Mia all day.” She shook her head. “It would’ve worried me sick. What will you do for the nights you’re travelling?”

Les’ handset chimed. She backed out of the room, making the kind of face behind Sue’s back that you might make if you had an urgent need to vomit.

“What are saying?” The unspoken implication was that Reece wasn’t a good choice, and worse, that Mia wasn’t safe with him.

“Oh, nothing. I’m sure it will be fine. And you’ve got the nanny cam. That’s some security.” Translation: I can’t believe you’ve just compromised the welfare of your child.

Audrey’d had enough of unspoken implications for one day. Enough of gender discrimination for a lifetime.

“And you can always keep looking.” Addendum: you’re a bad mother if you don’t act to fix this.”

Audrey stood. Everyone on the team assumed she and Sue would be friends because they were women. It didn’t work that way and was time for Sue to mind her own business. “I’m excited about having Reece look after Mia. I’m sorry you feel that’s a mistake.”

“I didn’t say it was a mistake. But I do think it’s taking an unnecessary risk.”

“Which is exactly why neither of us have been promoted. We’re an unnecessary risk.”