Page 5 of Our Sadie

Thank you,

Elegance Administrators

While Jerome and Zach each accepted without issue, from Dom, I received the following internally bot-generated message in my inbox.

To Sadie Vincent:

Contractor Dominic Adrian has rejected your offer. A personal message is included below:

Sadie,

I’d like to take you up on this gig, but that kind of uninterrupted time away won’t work for me. It’s too bad because I was looking forward to the stability of that type of job.

Sorry,

Dom

Fortunately, since I’m the one who designed the site all the way down to every line of code, I was able to put his cancellation on hold. When I reached out to Dom, I made sure to contact him through the site to keep my connection to Elegance hidden.

To Dominic Adrian:

Client Sadie Vincent is requesting more information. A personal message is included below:

Dom,

Please state why this time away is unacceptable. Is it the specific dates on the calendar or something else?

Sadie

His answer came in after nearly an hour.

For personal reasons, I can’t be gone for that long.

I inquired back.

What personal reasons, if you don’t mind my asking?

After some back and forth, he eventually divulged what was troubling him.

My eighteen-year-old sister requires around-the-clock supervision because she’s deaf and developmentally disabled. And yeah, she lives in an adult care home, but she’s used to seeing me every day or two. I’m the only family she has and can’t just up and disappear on her like that.

My chest ached as I reread the phrase, “only family she has.” No one knows better than I do what it’s like to lose those near and dear. Taking a crucial family member away—even temporarily—from someone who has a limited capacity to comprehend why is unconscionable to me.

I pondered what to do for several long minutes.

I could’ve offered to send him home every weekend, but that would’ve limited our time together. So much so that I might not have been able to make a fair analysis of how compatible Dom and I are. It would leave him at a disadvantage when stacked up against the other contenders.

What I ultimately came up with was a minor modification.

What if you were able to make a Zoom call to her as often as you’d like? I could make certain that you’d have the free time available to do that.

He didn’t get back to me for an entire twenty-four hours, but he did finally respond.

That might work. I’ve talked to the home about it. Can I say yes now with the option to change my mind later?

What else could I do but agree?

Yet despite all the negotiating we did over email, all he gives me as he advances forward is a slow lift of his chin. This momentarily throws the bump along the bridge of his nose into sharp relief. Maybe at some point I’ll get brave enough to ask him how he broke it. I let my mask slip a bit.