I offered her the position with a proper contract and flexible hours.

The relief in her expression stayed with me afterward.

A month later she told me, “You’re the first person who talked about those years as experience.”

“They were experience.”

I remembered how Gordon used to laugh when I called myself good with numbers.

He had no idea how many invoices I had corrected, how many unnecessary fees I had caught, or how carefully I had planned our household spending.

My new clients did.