That was definitely better than $25, but it was still more than she would pay for daycare. She opened up the calculator on her computer to figure out just how much she could pay someone to make sure she wasn’t paying more than she currently paid for daycare. Ten dollars . When she thought back on the babysitting she did in middle school and the crisp twenty dollar bill her neighbors would give her after spending a whole day watching their daughter, ten dollars per hour didn’t sound so crazy, but as she looked through the messages that continued to come through asking for anything from fifteen to thirty-plus dollars, she was pretty sure she was screwed.

I’ll just email the daycare, she thought to herself. I’m sure it’s not too late.

She typed out the email and was just about to hit send when another message popped up on her screen. She thought about ignoring it, but decided to read it just so she could have a good laugh at her own expense.

Hey! My name is Blair Breckenridge! I’d love to watch your little dude for the summer. I am a recent college grad with no clue what I want to do next, but I need to get my parents off of my back. I’m not going to lie, I have no experience with kids (unless you count my little brother, which you probably don’t since he’s eighteen), but I’m a quick learner. I really don’t know how much people normally get paid for this kind of thing, but does fifty dollars a day sound okay? If that’s too much, I can negotiate. Honestly, I’ll take anything to get my parents to lay the hell off of me. Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you. I’ll put my number below. Feel free to text me. I’m barely ever on Facebook because, let’s be honest, it sucks.

Everything inside of Erin was telling her it would be a terrible idea to hire Blair as a babysitter. She clearly had no idea what she was doing and didn’t even know how to construct a somewhat professional pitch, but fifty dollars a day was hard to turn down. She could have Blair work five days instead of four and it would cost her less than what she was paying for daycare right now. That would be almost two hundred dollars less than what they wanted her to pay per week over the summer. And really… What's the worst that could happen? A knot formed in Erin’s stomach as all the worst-case scenarios played through her mind. Okay, so this could end very badly.

“This is a terrible idea,” Erin whispered under her breath as she typed out a reply.

Chapter 2

Blair