Page 27 of Error Handling
“I never know what to paint,” I say, “and when I finally come up with an idea, I overmix the paint and everything turns brown.”
“Brown is a good color,” he says, motioning to the brown décor surrounding us.
“Not when you’re trying to paint oak leaves which are typically green.”
Christopher looks at me sideways. “I don’t think you suck.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t. I just doubt that you would pay all that money to stick with a major that you suck at.”
“My dad is paying for it, so it’s all good.”
Christopher’s eyebrows rise. “Really?”
“Yes. Thankfully. So, when I graduate, I won’t be in debt, but I will have to find a real job because I hear muddy paintings of oak trees aren’t fetching much on the market.”
After a pause, during which Christopher takes a long drink of coffee, he asks, “When do you graduate?”
“In May.” I groan.
“Can you keep working for Cassie afterward?”
I take a sip of coffee. “I could, I suppose. But I’m pushing thirty, and it’s not exactly a career path. She pays me as much as she can manage, but it would be hard to make ends meet without my dad’s monthly ‘stipend,’ as he calls it.”
“You know...I know this guy in HR who might be able to help you find a job.”
My ears perk. “Really?”
“We can’t keep jobs filled. No one wants to work.”
I don’t want to work either. But I want to be a pauper on the street even less.
“When you’re ready to start looking,” he continues, “just let me know. We have a legal department.”
I groan again.
“Or...you could try marketing, or IT.”
“IT?”
“Sure, I hire people without technical degrees. You would just need to get a certificate of some kind. We do a lot of dot NET.”
“Is that ping pong or something?”
“Ping pong does involve a net, so I can understand your confusion. But I believe it has something to do with web applications.”
“Oh.” I turn my attention to the lid on my coffee and begin tracing the circle with my finger. I’ve never considered going into IT, but I’m not in a place to rule anything out, except for anything related to law or painting. “If you don’t like your job, what would you rather be doing instead?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it. The people are nice, and we have fun. It’s just not personally fulfilling.”
“What would be fulfilling?”
“I do photography on the side.”
“You can get a degree in photography at College of Charleston.”
“I know, I’ve looked into it. But I’m not in the mood to take on that much student debt.”