Wishful Thinking Read Online Free Page B

tough-love expression he’d trained on Jennifer just moments ago.
    “When we first discussed this a few weeks ago, Alicia, we talked about your coming on as the head of this project.” Alicia nodded. “But since then,” he continued, “I’ve reconsidered.” Jennifer now had the pleasure of watching the smugness drain right out of Alicia’s face. “After careful review, I’ve decided that the best thing would be for you and Jennifer to serve as co-heads of One Stop. You will manage the residents and community partnerships, and Jennifer will head strategy and interagency planning.”
    There was a pause you could have parked a car in. Then Alicia and Jennifer both began to talk at once.
    “Hold on a minute, now,” Bill said. “You don’t even know the whole offer yet!” Opening a file drawer, he produced two sets of blue-backed contracts. “I thought you might not like the cohead idea, Alicia. And, Jennifer, to be honest, I’ve been concerned about your level of commitment. So I decided to do a little innovating of my own. To sweeten the pot for both of you.” Bill passed a contract to each of them.
    “Because this is a public-private partnership,” he continued, “it’s possible for me to allocate some additional cash to staff costs from the private-foundation side. If you can meet the milestones set out here over the next twelve months,” he said, “you’ll be given a cash bonus of five thousand dollars
per quarter
, provided by BTE for Good.” Bill sat back again, clearly relishing having leaped from the Grinch to Santa Claus in a single bound.
    Jennifer couldn’t believe her ears. A $20,000 bonus in a single year? With that, she could put something away for the boys’ college fund. She could pay off her credit card bills. She could even, she thought, take her sons on a real vacation. (Or maybe just pay off her credit card bills.) With what was effectively a $20,000 raise, she could breathe a little easier— financially, anyway—for the first time since she and Norman had split.
    “It isn’t charity,” Bill added. “If you fail to meet your quarterly milestones, you’ll be let go. Simple as that.”
    Alicia was looking over the contract, brows knit. Jennifer began to scan hers too. Twenty thousand dollars was a lot of money, but at a glance, Jennifer could see that if she accepted these terms, she’d pay for every penny.
    “This is a lot to take in,” Jennifer said, looking up at Bill. “I’m sure Alicia will also need some time to review it.”
    Alicia nodded once, already standing.
    “Of course,” Bill said, standing too. “But I think you’ll findit a very attractive proposal. An offer you can’t refuse, as they say.”
As who says?
Jennifer wanted to ask.
Mob bosses?
Coming around his desk, Bill joined the two of them, picking up the copy of the proposal for It Takes a Village—now called One Stop, apparently—that he kept on his desk.
    “You know, Jennifer,” he said, “we never really talked about why I took this job. About why I’m taking time out from projects like that”—again with the goddamn skyscraper—“to work on a project like this.” Bill tapped the proposal’s cover. “Alicia knows,” he said, nodding toward her. Bill opened up the proposal to a dog-eared page: a photograph of Coco, a young single mother from the Whitman Houses, on a stoop with her three sons. Jennifer loved Coco. From the look on Bill’s face as he gazed at the photograph, Bill did too.
    “I’m doing this for her,” Bill said. “No man in this picture. Just a single African American mom, buried in paperwork and government bureaucracy every time she tries to change her life, or even just get what she needs, stuck in a system that isn’t an opportunity but a trap.” Looking up, Bill met Jennifer’s eyes. Jennifer saw true feeling there, but she also saw a flash of the politician she suspected Bill aspired to be. “That was my grandmother, in public housing in 1950’s