If Only I Could: A Sense and Sensibility contemporary fiction

Chapter 1

"How was the dinner?" Elinor asked her friend as soon as she took a seat in his comfortably leather sofa, cradling her mug of delicious coffee. The perks of being the boss: a light and spacious office. The perks of being good at your job: making your light and spacious office so gloriously attractive Elinor could have happily moved in to live in it.

Christopher Brandon brought his coffee over to the sofa as well and sat himself down, taking some time to formulate an answer to his friend's question.
"Not too bad, on the whole," he then managed to say. He tried to keep his tone light, but knew far too well that Elinor would hear his every apprehension in that statement. As she did:

"On the whole?"

A long sigh and a frown were all that Brandon could muster in reply.

"I'm sorry. So John did bring you a blind date over?" She confirmed. She knew Christopher loved his old friend Sir John Middleton like no other friend, but she also knew how frustrated he got over the older man's attempts at match-making. Apparently a man was not supposed to remain single even if tried to explain he was not interested in half-hearted pass-time relationships he knew would not last. Sir John's view was simply that Brandon couldn't possibly know if a relationship would last or not unless he gave it a go every now and then. Last night had been one of Sir John's regular "art-meets-business" networking dinners, and as both Elinor and Christopher had anticipated, there had been a new "introduction".

"So, what was it like? Anyone you knew?" Elinor asked, sipping her delightful coffee. It was positively sinful how good the coffee machine in the executive wing was.

"No, no one I knew. Someone who'd just moved to London from Madrid. Consuela something-or-other. She was nice. Caught on to what John was doing straight away and we managed to express mutual understanding I think. She's not looking for company any more than I am and I suppose I'm just lucky that she understood this straight away and there wasn't much awkwardness." Brandon explained. But that was enough on that topic. Elinor was as good a friend as he had, but his dating – or not dating as it were – was not something he wished to keep talking about.

"So, what else is new? You said you wanted to ask something, and I assume it wasn't about last night's dinner?" he changed the subject smoothly.

"Yes, there was. And please, please tell me straight off this is not appropriate or none of my business, ok? It's not personal, at least for you, but I'm afraid I am leaning on our friendship here a little," Elinor started. She did not like to mix her friendship with Christopher into matters of work, but these were exceptional times for her family.

"Go on, is everything all right?" Brandon focused – Elinor was a stickler to proper channels and behaviour, so this was clearly a big deal for her. The girl (if he was allowed to think of her as such, her being somewhat younger) and her family had had difficult time of it for the past year after their father had died. Elinor's mother had been a housewife ever since Elinor was born, and there were two younger sisters, not quite out of the family home yet.

"Yes, yes, we're ok. As much as we have been. It was just about those summer trainee positions you were talking about last week, for the creative departments?" Elinor reminded Brandon of the meeting where this had been talked about. Brandon nodded for her to continue, yes, he was still more or less in control of his faculties and remembered the plan. Poor Elinor must have been a bit beside herself to babble on like this.

"Well, here goes: would it be awfully forward and rude of me to recommend and promote our Marianne for one of the posts in graphics?" Elinor then asked, not quite daring to meet Christopher's eyes. He was known for fairness and open procedures in the company, and nepotism – even if it wasn't his family but his friend's family – probably did not sit well in his view of how people get selected to various jobs.

Brandon was unsure of how to respond. No wonder Elinor had been a bit apprehensive about asking this. She was always so very correct about everything that even this occasional casual coffee moment of theirs was pushing the boundaries for her. Brandon did not want to say no, but there were problems with saying yes, too.

"What year is she, again?" he then asked and heard Elinor breathe. Had she been holding her breath until he responded? Goodness, this was serious.

"Second. She's going to find a job, any job, regardless, and obviously I've said nothing about the possible posts, but I just thought if there's a chance for a job that matches her training it would give her such a boost in her confidence." Elinor answered, her additional explanation bursting out of her mouth before she managed to curb herself.

"And, as objectively as an older sister is able to, you'd say she knows her stuff?" Brandon then asked. Elinor was so on tenterhooks about this that he clearly was not going to have to ask many questions here.

"As far as I can say, based on the assignments I've seen so far, she should know her stuff. I'm not a professional, of course, but I've tried to compare what I've seen here to the things I've seen her do and I'm quite sure she can't be far off the mark." Elinor assured Brandon.

"I don't want to put you in an awkward situation, but if I could – when the time comes to apply for the posts – get her to apply and perhaps make her feel like she has a genuine chance, it would really help her." She continued. It was, of course, too much to ask Christopher to give Marianne a job outright, but if he could assure her that Marianne would be considered, that would be good, too.

"And why wouldn't she have a chance, if she knows her stuff? And why would she not think she does?" Brandon queried. Elinor was a confident young woman who tended to tackle problems and adversity by analysing each situation, formulating a plan of action and then going for it. Perhaps the sister was not the same?

"As said, she's second year. There are so many more experienced graduates around, too, who still need jobs and are happy to accept traineeships and even unpaid internships," Elinor started. She wondered how far into Marianne's person she should go. After all, it might not be fair to present Marianne in any particular light before her sister had a chance to make her own first impression. "Marianne knows she's not as experienced as so many other applicants that are around for any graphics jobs right now. And remember I told you about her taking time off after… father..? Marianne is a bit concerned that that will look bad on her CV as well. She's lost some of her natural confidence, I'm afraid, but I don't think it affects the quality of her work."

Brandon was quiet again for a while, sipping his coffee, seemingly in deep thought. Elinor sipped her coffee as well, waiting for what he had to say.

"Look, Christopher, if anything you're fair boss and a good friend. You can tell me straight up if you don't want to know about this, and if I've overstepped the line here, I'll not be offended," she then said quietly. Brandon turned to look at her and smiled.

"Don't worry. Surely you don't think you're the only one who's ever approached me with something like this? Everyone's got a brother or a sister or a teenage kid or a cousin or what have you who could do with a bit of a leg-up. Really. If you can't ask a friend then who can you ask? And you and I both know how half of getting any job these days is about who you know instead of what you know." Brandon started and reached out to take Elinor's hand in what he hoped was a friendly and re-assuring gesture. Elinor gave back a small smile of relief.

"Why don't I just see about her application when the time comes, and we'll interview her for sure. I can't promise the job just based on this, but how about I make sure that she has a good chance of it if she's otherwise about on par with the other applicants in terms of skills?" Brandon then suggested. He'd be involved in the recruitment anyways, as he always was when the creative end of his company was hiring. A little bit of positive discrimination would not hurt in this case.

"I couldn't ask for more." Elinor replied. "And I'll not say anything else to Marianne than that I've asked you if she would be eligible, in a general sense," Elinor added. It wouldn't do to make her sister think that she could just walk into a very sought-after job.

"Yes, perhaps it's best. All I'm promising here is to be open to her application. She'll not get it unless she's good enough, yes?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"And don't worry about this. Like I said, everyone looking for a job is looking for a way of getting their application lifted onto the top of the pile. This isn't any more than that." Brandon assured her.

"Thank you, Christopher," she said, giving his hand a little squeeze.

When Elinor had gone, Brandon had a meeting of department heads, but he had trouble concentrating. From what he'd heard from Elinor, Marianne had taken their father's death very badly. So had the youngest sister, Margaret. Elinor was in pieces, too, and Brandon had just about forced her to take some time off back then. Elinor had been grieving herself, too, but somehow she had been assigned to the role of the one who would take care of things. The one who had to keep her wits about her and make sure everyone else was fine. They weren't fine, of course, but thanks to Elinor the funeral and the solicitors and all the nasty formalities that went with someone's death were dealt with while the rest of the family could more focus on their own grief. Elinor clearly hadn't really let go of that role even now.