"If it's a question of money," he added, "then don't worry in the least. Whatever financial commitments you have, and I mean whatever they are, they will be covered by the additional time on this flight. This trip is a personal flight for a family vacation. This means that the money you earn wouldn't be at your standard Drummond Airlines rate of pay, am I right Mitch?"
Mitch was churning inside but didn't dare disagree.
"That's right Mr... uh, Alex."
"What do we usually pay cabin crew staff for these trips?"
"I'd have to check that out sir."
"Alex."
"Yes, Alex. I'd have to check it out."
"Do it."
"Yes, sir."
"Yes Alex."
"Yes."
"Do it now."
Melanie was loving it. This was even better than watching him nearly cry as she destroyed his iPad, his MacBook, and his iPhone with the baseball bat.
Mitch got onto his desk computer and quickly had an answer.
"Two nine-hour flights, approximately and then a period of eight days in between with a vacation day--"
"Paid vacation?" Alex asked in a way that made the answer obvious.
"Sure, I mean of course. All that would come to..." he did the calculations "$500 per flight."
Melanie was stunned, realizing that was over $50 an hour. After six years with Drummond, she still made less than $10 an hour on her usual flights.
"That's $1,000 plus seven days at $50 per hour--"
"It's eight days."
"Yep. Of course. Eight times eight--"
"Eight times twelve. Bill her for twelve hours a day just in case we need her for something. Oh, and Melanie, do you speak French?"
"I... uh, yes I do. I majored in it and spent a year in--"
"That's fine. Put in the supplemental rate for translation work."
"That comes to $80 an hour, Alex. Are you sure?"
"Mitch, stop kidding around!" He said with a laugh and an edge of absolute seriousness. "I want to know how much to pay her, not figure out if we can afford it or not."
"Okay, that comes to $80 per hour by twelve, which is $960. Multiply that by eight gives you $7,680 then add on the $1,000 for the round trip, and that's a total of $8,680."
Melanie breathed in and out very softly. She was afraid to move or speak in case it all went away. That was nearly the whole amount she needed to keep her mother in the home for another month at least. With only $1,320 short, she might be able to negotiate something with them.
"What about expenses?" Alex asked.
"What about them?" Mitch said. "She can keep receipts and then submit them."
"Put her on a per diem. Tahiti is an expensive place and Melanie is doing us a favor. I don't want her worrying about keeping receipts for bottled water and deodorant. What's the US State Department per diem rate for Tahiti?"