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was a nice, nonromantic way to spend time with himthat didn’t violate any previously established solemn oaths. Meanwhile, he probably thought I was just a big type A who couldn’t leave until every fleck of baking soda was restored to its rightful space in the pantry.
    I could live with that.
    As much as I enjoyed our housekeeping sessions together, Seth was right: Cleaning up after the students was a huge pain in the butt.
    “Remind me again why we didn’t make Barrie and Pete do this,” he huffed while scraping away at a bean that someone had ground into the floor tiles with particular aplomb.
    I shuddered. “Honestly? I really don’t trust them to do a thorough job. And we’re the ones on the line if we trash the kitchen,” I said. I am nothing if not matter-of-fact about my control issues, if a little bit euphemistic about it , I thought.
    “Besides,” I continued, “the nicer we are to them, the bigger the tips from their parents at the end of the summer.” Yeah, it was a paid gig, but as teachers, our base salaries were laughably low. Halliday wasn’t exactlyflush with cash. I was counting on tips from satisfied parentals to supplement my college fund.
    Seth looked up from his bean mission. “Tips?”
    “Um, yeah. You know, like you get at camp,” I said, wondering if I had somehow lapsed into a different language or something.
    I have to admit, the expression on Seth’s face worried me. But then, it was obvious that he hadn’t spent much time around kids. So maybe it made sense that he was a tip virgin.
    “Uh, Laine,” he said, sounding a little bit like my mom had when she’d broken the news to me that our cat, Itsy, had run away, “didn’t Nora tell you? The parents aren’t allowed to tip. It’s Halliday policy.”
    My stomach dropped. I wanted to faint.
    No, wait—I wanted to scream .
    Not allowed?
    Policy?
    What sort of lunatic policy was that?
    Well, okay, it was obviously the sort of lunatic policy that went toward making sure certain kids didn’t get special treatment. Obviously, I knew that much. ButNora had clearly forgotten to share this little tidbit of information with me.
    I mean, I like to think I would have taken the job anyway. After all, the community center was a great city resource, and it was important that we support it. And the cooking class was something that college admissions boards would eat up (no pun intended), especially since I come from a culinary background. But that didn’t change the fact that a journalist’s salary and student loans only went so far. And I’d really been counting on those tips.
    I sighed, forlorn. My money woes were slowly turning me into a glass-half-empty sort of girl.
    “I wish someone had told me that before I’d decided to blow off working at the swim club for the summer.”
    Poor, poor me. And to think, I was missing out on all the adorable lifeguards as well. Swearing off boys suddenly seemed like a terrible idea: Why deprive myself of one of life’s few real joys?
    I had made a huge mistake.
    Seth tied off the enormous black garbage bag he’d been wrestling with. “You need a job?” he asked with interest.
    “‘Need’ is a very subjective word,” Ireplied, “but yes, now that you mention it, my bank account could use some subsidizing.”
    “Why don’t you come work for me?” Seth offered.
    Yeah, more time with the boy I was lusting after—whom I wasn’t supposed to be lusting after. That sounded like a good idea. Not . Crushing was one thing, but at this point Seth and I were too close for comfort. Getting involved with him would be stickier than a Cinnabon.
    He smiled encouragingly. “The tips are great.”
    Well, see, now he had me. But what would working for him entail, especially seeing as how tips were involved? “Say more.”
    “It’s just, we might be able to help each other out. Can you wait?”
    I frowned. Waiting was not one of my strong suits. I think the patience fairy skipped me back when I was