Travels in Eire #36

Cailin was awakened by the ringing of her house phone. She rolled over in bed and sleepily grabbed the receiver.
“Helloooo,” she groggily answered.
“Hey Babe, I was wondering when I'd catch you. Good morning sleepy head.” chirped Nick as if they had just left each other.

“Are you there, Cailin?” Nick was wondering why the other end of the line was silent.

Cailin was trying to figure out what to say. She kept thinking about hanging up as an option.
“Not now Nick, I'll call you later. This is not a good time,” Cailin wanted to wait to deal with Nick.

“Your call, Babe. Just know I'm waiting to hear from you and won't take no for an answer for very long,” Nick was being insistent as he hung up the phone.

Cailin rolled over in bed and groaned. This was not the way she wanted to start this day. She needed to be focused and sure about herself when she met with Rob. His decision would mean a lot to her and she wanted to make sure he agreed with what she wanted to do in terms of working in Ireland. She took a look at her clock and realized she had already overslept and needed to get moving to get ready to meet Rob for lunch.

Cailin walked to Luigi's after getting off the bus. It was a warm and slightly humid day and she was wearing a flowered cotton tank dress that floated away from her as she quickly strolled down the street. As she approached the entrance to Luigi's she could see Rob sitting in his regular seat by the window. She flashed back to Rorey sitting in the cafe by the window and smiled.

Rob stood as Cailin approached the table and gave her a welcoming hug.
“Hope you had a good trip Cailin,” Rob was curious as to what Cailin wanted to talk about.

“It was a wonderful trip, Rob. I found my family roots and saw some amazing sites along the way,” Cailin wanted to broach the subject slowly.

This was followed by small talk about Cailin's trip, some catching up with office news, ordering their lunches, and general family discussion. As Cailin and Rob finished lunch, Rob was the first to broach the reason for this lunch meeting.

“So Cailin, have you come back to tell me you are quitting and leaving the company?”

“Rob, you should know me better than that. I love my job. But I am interested in the possibility of making a few changes in how I do my work.”

“What do you mean changes, Cailin?”

“Rob, you know as well as I do that the work I do can be done as easily from home as it can be done from the office. So what if I worked remotely?” Cailin was trying to be careful about how she approached this idea.

“You have a point, Cailin. So are you saying you want to work from home, now? Or are you thinking about working from somewhere else?” Rob was quick, and had an idea of what Cailin was proposing.

“Rob, I have a feeling you are way ahead of me. So I'm just going to throw this out here. What would be the possibility of my working remotely from Ireland?” Cailin bit her lip and held her breath.

“Cailin, you must have some very special reason for wanting to move to Ireland to work. I never expected you to come back from vacation and propose this. But I can't just say yes. I need a little time to think this over. And I also get the feeling that you don't want to wait very long. It's Friday now, how about I let you know on Monday. And I need some information from you about all this. How soon would you want this to happen? A week? A month? And what if we needed you for client meetings, would you be agreeable to fly back and forth? You may not think there is a lot of detail to arrange something like this, but there is, and I need some time.”

Cailin could see Rob trying to cover all the questions that might arise. She felt that this was going better than she had envisioned and was happy that Rob could see how serious she was about this plan. She also respected the flexibility that he always seemed to have with his employees. They agreed to talk again on Monday when Cailin returned to work. Rob understood that she was hoping that she could make this happen within two weeks or less.

Cailin left the meeting feeling that all things were going just as she had envisioned. As she left the bus stop and approached her flat, she realized that her biggest problem yet had to be dealt with. Nick was sitting on the steps of the stoop of her apartment.