by Parker, Ali
“I’ll take care of it,” I assured her. Walking through the crowd, I went to my office, closed the door and ignored all those people waiting for me. Some were here for meetings, like the ones Neil had in the conference room, but I was assuming the others were here for the interviews.
I felt a dull headache building at the base of my skull. Making a decision on the fly, I grabbed my phone and put a call through to my father’s personal secretary. Like Arlene, Mary Jane was a stalwart and had been with my father for years.
“Good morning, sir,” she answered crisply. In the background, I could hear people talking and phones ringing, but Mary Jane didn’t let anything rush her. “What can I do for you?”
“Jeremiah. Not sir.” I corrected her for what felt like the millionth time. A losing battle, but I wasn’t going to stop fighting it. “You’ve probably heard Jannie’s gone. Interviews for her replacement are this morning. I’ve got a meeting scheduled and a hundred people out there waiting for me.”
“I’ll handle it.” She said it without needing further explanation. She was fucking awesome at her job. “I’ll vet them, pass them along the chain of command where necessary, and you’ll only see the second-round interviews later today.”
“Thank you, MJ. I really appreciate it.” For the first time this morning, I felt like I could breathe. Like MJ took a rock off my chest. “I owe you big time.”
“Not in the least, sir. I’ll get it done.” She ended the call before I could correct her again.
I knew I could trust Mary Jane with the task. Good. Fuck.
Scrubbing my hands over the stubble I didn’t shave this morning, I sank into my wide wingback office chair. I took care of a few of the most urgent things I had to do before going to the meeting, having let Neil know to get started on the first one without me.
A few minutes to myself was what I needed before I jumped into this crazy, hectic day. The pace of this lifestyle was insane. People born in suits probably didn’t realize it, but this shit wasn’t good for a person’s heart.
The noise in my head died down knowing there weren’t so many people waiting on me anymore, and now I’d gotten the basics covered. I walked over to my window, hooking my thumbs in my pockets as I took in my view.
I watched ant-sized people bustling around on the sidewalk below. Without warning, my mind drifted to wondering whether the thick-hipped girl from Friday night was down there somewhere.
“Where are you, Cinderella?” I mumbled to my empty office, smiling as I allowed myself a minute to relax and remember her body melting into mine.
The memory of her gave me a nice hard-on. A welcome change of pace for this shitty morning.
Feeling slightly rejuvenated and more like myself, I turned away from my window and got to work.
Chapter 9
STEPHANIE
“Why is it always on the most important days everything goes wrong?” My voice wobbled when Tiana answered her phone. I wasn’t a crier. Crying fixed nothing, but I couldn’t help the few tears that leaked from my eyes when I plucked my broken heel out of the crack in the sidewalk.
“What happened?” she asked. “You left less than an hour ago and everything was fine.”
I limped to the wall closest to me, resting my back against it as I stood in my one remaining high heel. “Let’s see, I was rushing to get to the interview early. I got downtown with time to spare so I thought I would grab a small coffee and go over my notes. Some guy on a bike crashed into me, and I spilled coffee all over my shirt. While I was trying to salvage it, my hose got stuck on the trash can I was dropping the dirty napkins into and tore. To top it all off, I just stepped in a crack and my heel broke off.”
My words came out in one long rush. When I was done, I was feeling less frazzled but was still out of breath, and the stark reality of missing my interview was setting in. So much for that plan.
Tiana didn’t interrupt me, letting me get it all out. Calmly, she said, “Okay. This is what we’re going to do. Stay right where you are, send me your location. I’ll come get you. We’ll go get you new everything you need, and then you’ll go over to Williams Inc. and explain the situation. I’m sure they can reschedule your interview time.”
I wasn’t so sure, but it couldn’t hurt to try. “I’m not sure what I did to get a friend like you, but I’m beyond grateful.”
“Don’t worry about it. You’ve seen me through much worse. I’m getting in the elevator now, send me that location. Let’s take it one step at a time.”
Tiana picked me up, arriving in record time. One step at a time, exactly as she’d said, we fixed my outfit first. When I was presentable again, she dropped me off right outside of Williams Tower.
“Here.” She dug around in her purse, pulling out a tube of bright red gloss and handing it to me. “A woman can get a lot of strength from having a powerful color on her lips.”
I smiled, taking the lip gloss she offered. “Thank you. You’re the best.”
“And don’t you forget it,” she told me, placing both her hands on my shoulders. “Right, pep talk time. I know the morning has been crappy and challenging, but you’re here now. You’re not the first person in the history of the world who’s late for an interview, and you won’t be the last. Don’t let the time get in your way. You’re a brilliant, hard-working graduate, and they will be lucky to have you. Got it?”
“Got it,” I repeated.
She gave me an encouraging smile and squeezed my shoulders before letting go. “Good. Go get ’em, tiger.”
“Grrr.” I formed a claw with my hand and pretended to swipe at the air before getting out of the car, feeling a hundred times better than I had when Tiana found me moping on that sidewalk. I can do this.
Tiana laughed when I got out of her car and shot me a last thumbs up before being forced to move by the horns blaring behind her. I hurried to the revolving door leading into the intimidating office building and joined the horde of people making their way inside.
Showtime, I thought when I made it through security and up to the forty-second floor. Risking a quick glance at my watch despite Tiana’s warning not to let the time get me down, I noticed I was now officially an hour late.
Swallowing past a lump that knowledge formed in my throat, I forced my most confident smile onto my face and approached a woman standing near glass walls that must lead to the inner sanctum of the company. She was older, wore her graying hair in a severe bun, and held a clipboard in her hands.
I joined a few people milling around her, listening as she assigned them numbers and told them to take a seat while I waited my turn. When her strict, pale blue eyes slid to mine, I took a deep breath and prayed to the interview gods that I wasn’t too late.
“Stephanie Donavan. I had an appointment a little earlier, but you won’t believe the morning I had. Is there any chance I could please move into a later slot? I don’t mind waiting, even if it takes all day.”
Her eyes snapped to her clipboard and then to her watch. “Your appointment was a full hour ago, Ms. Donavan. I’m afraid we can’t tolerate lateness in our employees. Not even in the potential ones. I’m sorry, but our day is fully booked. Do apply again next time, perhaps once you’ve invested in a functioning watch.”
What a bitch. I pushed the snide thought aside and tried again, despite having been quite obviously dismissed. “I promise you I’m a very punctual person. I was in the area half an hour early. All I wanted was a quick coffee to go over my notes so I could ensure I was properly prepared and wouldn’t waste anyone’s time.”
“Like you’re doing now?” She looked at me down the bridge of her nose, even though she was shorter than me.
“I don’t mean to waste your time, ma’am,” I said politely. Her shoulders relaxed somewhat and the tight line her lips were pressed into eased up a smidge. Politeness and professionalism would slay this beast. “I truly apologize for the inconvenience I’ve caused by arriving late. I assure you I’m ordinarily extremely punctual. H
owever, I thought it best not to arrive with a stained shirt, a torn hose and a broken heel. I looked positively dreadful.”
“That does sound like quite the run of bad luck.”
“It really was.” I nodded. “I just knew that if I showed up looking like that, I would have even less of a chance at landing such a coveted position than if I arrived late.”
“How do I know you’re not lying about all this? You look perfectly put together now?”
I paused. All my ruined gear was in the trash at the shop Tiana and I raided. Then I remembered the selfies she made me take to commemorate how an awful day could turn into an awesome one. Rummaging through my purse, I pulled out my phone and clicked into my gallery, turning the screen to her.
“My best friend had to come save me,” I admitted honestly. What was the harm at this point? “We took the pictures because this is such a big day for me. She thought we needed something to look back on when the time comes we can laugh about it.”
The woman scrolled through the photos, her eyebrows pinching close together. “I have to agree with you, you did look rather dreadful.”
She handed the phone back to me, her gaze running up and down the length of my body. “You’ve recovered very well. I can respect a girl who starts out like that, puts herself back together and then doesn’t take no for an answer.”
“Does that mean you’ll forgive me and possibly give me a second chance, Ms…?”
“Orson. Mary Jane Orson. I work for Mr. Williams Senior. If you get the job, you and I will end up coordinating schedules often.”
“I’m excellent at scheduling.” Or at least I was pretty sure I could be. “It would be an honor to work with you.”
She arched an eyebrow. “That’s very sweet of you to say.”
“Perhaps, but I’m being honest. I could learn a lot from a woman who’s survived a place like this working directly for the Commander in Chief.” I was angling for flattery, but it wasn’t a lie. “I don’t know how you do it, even this building scares me a little.”
I probably shouldn’t have admitted it to her, but I was rolling with the honesty approach that seemed to be working with her. Mary Jane chuckled and glanced at her watch again.
“It is a little scary, but you’ll get used to it. Let me tell you what, young lady. You’ve managed to impress me enough that I’m willing to go out on a limb for you and reschedule your interview. Mr. Colman is conducting the interviews this morning. It’s nearly lunchtime, but he might have a few minutes free before lunch if he finishes the interview he’s conducting at the moment in as good time as he’s been making this morning.”
“I will love you until the end of time if you can make that happen.”
Mary Jane chuckled again. “Polite, sweet and humorous. I would be able to work with you, but you don’t need to make any declarations of love. I’m merely doing my job.”
She hurried off as soon as a tall girl who looked like she might need clothes sizes in the minuses came striding in through the inner door. The girl flashed me a haughty smile, like she was sure she was going to be the one hired, then took off down the hallway to the elevators.
Mary Jane was back a second later. “Follow me, please.”
I did as she asked, letting her lead me past numerous closed doors and down a wide hallway to the corner of the building. The doors were spaced far apart, hinting at huge offices behind them. I didn’t know who Mr. Colman was, but he had to be pretty important to be up in one of the corners.
To my surprise, the man who waited for us in the doorway of the office where Mary Jane left me was young. I’d been expecting someone much older, but this dude couldn’t be more than very early thirties if that. He was tall and willowy, with big blue eyes and freckles. He looked like the quintessential best friend or brother. I liked him immediately.
“Neil Colman.” He extended his hand and gave mine a firm shake. “Come on in. MJ didn’t tell me much, just that you were running late, but you showed promise nonetheless. Her words, not mine.”
A warm feeling of confidence spread through my tummy at hearing her praise. She thought I showed promise. I was definitely chalking that up as score one for the home team.
“Stephanie Donavan. Mary Jane was very kind to allow me to reschedule.”
“Kind isn’t usually a word people use to describe MJ. Tell me, Ms. Donavan, what did you do to convince our fearless gatekeeper to let you pass when you committed the cardinal sin of tardiness?”
“I owned up to my sin, took responsibility for it,” I started solemnly. Amusement sparked in Neil’s blue eyes, so I carried on with the metaphor he started. “I confessed fully, took her into my confidence and convinced her I would never fall prey to that same sin again.”
He chuckled softly. “Other than telling her the truth about what happened and making her believe it was a one-time thing, which even getting her to listen is a feat in and of itself, why does she think you have potential?”
I shrugged. “No idea. I was just polite, honest and I showed her pictures to prove I would’ve been worse off coming in looking the way I did than being late.”
“You must’ve looked terrible if she actually agreed. I swear that woman was born with a stopwatch in her hand. Guard your soul if you don’t make the correct time.”
“I did look pretty terrible.” This was the most laid-back interview I’d ever had. Neil was so easy to talk to. He made me feel like we’d been friends for years.
He held out his hand, curling his fingers in a “gimme” motion. I pulled out my phone and handed it over without him needing to tell me what he wanted. We hit it off that well.
We talked for a few more minutes, and though Neil was kind, he was also meticulous about getting information from me. I could tell he was working with a very specific list in mind. Jeremiah Williams had to be quite demanding in what he expected from a secretary.
It had to be time for lunch by now, and my stomach was growling all the way through the interview. I just hoped Neil couldn’t hear it.
He walked me to his office door when we were done. “Look, let me level with you. I’m going to okay you to go through to the next round of interviews, so you can hang around and have lunch with the groups while you wait for round two, or you go out and be back later. When you see Jeremiah this afternoon, if he’s not interested in hiring you, come talk to me. The guy can be a little prickly, but he’s a good guy. Good luck, Stephanie. I’ll see you later.”
Nervous butterflies swirled around in my stomach as I headed for lunch in my group. I’m going through to an interview with Jeremiah Williams himself.
I was nervous as shit, wracking my brains for any information I could remember having read about the guy, but I was coming up empty. All I knew was between my studies, my own family drama and his, I hadn’t seen him in the media much recently. I couldn’t even remember what he looked like.
Before I got to that portion of the day, however, it was time for lunch. I was put in a group with two other girls, one who thought the sun shone right out of where it doesn’t actually shine and one who was mousy and quiet.
A guy got put in with us too, a super proper guy on a super high horse. Dear Lord. What kind of candidates were all interviewing for this position?
Chapter 10
JEREMIAH
“You know you can meet all of these people in the second round of interviews in less than an hour, right?” Neil asked, walking into the canteen beside me.
I hadn’t been planning on having lunch with the groups, but then I thought dropping in on them could be fun. Weed out the people who got flustered at me right from the outset. Two birds, one stone.
I smirked, sniffing the air in the staff canteen and pleasantly surprised by the aromas. “I know, but where’s the fun in the expected?”
“I’m all for fun,” Neil argued. The man did love himself a good time when he was away from the office. “But you’ll scare them away like this, and there are some great options.”
> “They don’t belong here if they scare that easily.” Might be doing some of them a favor.
The canteen was set up with tables seating four to six people at each table. Mary Jane and Arlene divided the second-round candidates into groups and staggered their meal times to give me some time to get through the rounds immediately after lunch before they were all done.
As always, the two had done a brilliant job. Some candidates were already finished with their lunch and were now just chatting while others were still waiting in line to dish up. Scanning the room, I realized there were way more people who made it to the second round than I’d hoped there would be.
Men and women dressed in vastly different interpretations of professional occupied the room. The men mostly wore suits, but then there were a few who opted for jeans and button-down shirts and one guy who was wearing cargo pants. Pass.
I didn’t even have to talk to him to know he wasn’t going to hit the mark. If I started a company, sure. Shorts and T-shirts for everyone if you weren’t in meetings or seeing investors. But this wasn’t my company.
My old man would have a coronary if I pitched at the investors meeting with a guy wearing sandals or jeans. I mentally eliminated a few more men on similar grounds.
A girl wearing half a dress walked past me, her skirt so short I don’t know how she was going to sit down without exposing herself. Hard pass.
There were several candidates I would fuck at a club but wasn’t willing to work with for a day in my life. Just looking at them made alarm sirens go off in my head. I didn’t want a repeat of Jannie. She was and still is a nightmare.
Neil stood next to me, watching my appraisal. “There are some interesting looking ones, huh?”
“What happened to ugly and married only?”
“Couldn’t get it past the board,” Neil said, only half-joking. “Something about discriminatory practices being frowned upon.”
