“I am trying to work and you are making it difficult. I know you came up here just to torment me. It’s not very nice.” I was interrupted by the entrance of Mr. Smith (full name Joseph Smith, no relation to the founder of the Mormon church), the head of Accounting. He had certainly gotten raked over the coals for the embezzling debacle and it was a miracle he still had a job. Lucah cleared his throat and left, but not before giving me a wink that Mr. Smith couldn’t see.
“Hello, Rory. How are you this morning?” I smiled. You had to feel for the guy. He was another one of the oldest employees and one of Dad’s good friends. I happened to know Dad vouched for him and that was the only reason he was still working here. Most everyone else had shunned him, and his shoulders were always slumped forward now. He even avoided most eye contact.
“I’m very well, how are you?” He was another one that got a free pass to call me by my nickname.
“Oh I’m doing well, doing well.” He wasn’t, and we both knew that.
“Good, good. You’ll let me know if you need anything, okay? We’ve all gotta pull together, right?” I gave him a pat on the shoulder. I knew he wasn’t going to slap me with a sexual harassment suit. He gave me a sad smile and returned the pat.
“You’re a good girl, Rory.” At least he thought so. I took my coffee and went back to my office and prepared for the daily onslaught. It was time to put Lucah out of my mind and be the Rory I was before he came into my life.
Of course, it would be lot easier to be the old Rory if Lucah wasn’t constantly popping up. Granted, not all of it was his fault. He often sent me completely work-related emails about new projects and so forth, but they were almost always group emails, written in stiff businessese. Work emails were strictly monitored, even more so now, so he would never take risk sending me something that wasn’t strictly on the up and up. That would definitely get both of us fired.
But I had something else that afternoon to distract me from thinking about Lucah. Once again, I’d forgotten about the interviews the Board and Human Resources were conducting to fill the disgraced Mr. Craig’s place. They’d farmed out some of his other jobs (since he hadn’t really been doing them in the first place), but we still needed another Vice President and head of Marketing.
I wasn’t required to be in the initial interviews, but once they’d narrowed down the candidates, I would be present for the final interview and to help choose who would ultimately take the job.
Poor Mrs. Andrews had to escort each one from the reception area all the way down the hall to the boardroom. Because I was nosy, I kept my door open so I could check them out as they walked by.
For me, first impressions were extremely important. Case in point, Lucah. He’d made my ladyparts throb with desire from the second I’d met him. I’d also thought he was irritating and cocky, but that was beside the point.
Mrs. Andrews also knew that I liked to get a visual, so she slowed down when she led them by my office so I could get a good look. I knew, based on experience, that a lot of them didn’t even belong here and with the Board being more exclusive than ever, most of them didn’t have a prayer.
Almost all of the candidates were older, and male. Big shock. But there was one that Mrs. Andrews took by that made me do a double take. It wasn’t just that she looked like she was around my age, but her fiery red curls were hard to miss. I’d gained Redhead Radar because of Lucah.
She sauntered past my office without a glance at me, but Mrs. Andrews gave me a look. I would definitely have to make a trip to her desk later and see what the deal was with this girl.
I was completely distracted for the next twenty minutes as I waited for her to walk by again. When she did, she was chatting with Mrs. Andrews and laughing. I had to admit, after the second glance, she was lovely, the poised kind of lovely that my mother had. She vanished again and I went back to work.
Not more than ten minutes later, Mrs. Andrews knocked on the doorframe.
“I just wanted to see what you thought, and bring you these,” she said, after I nodded at her to come in and close the door. She also had a stack of papers I hoped were résumés that she handed me. Technically, I wasn’t supposed to see them until the choices had been narrowed down, but Mrs. Andrews made exceptions for me.
“Thank you very much. When do you need them back?” I started thumbing through them, putting aside the ones that I knew immediately were no’s in my book.
“If you could be done in an hour, no one will know they’re missing.” I gave her a smile and a thumbs up and went back through them. The girl with the red hair, I assumed, belonged to one of the résumés on the bottom. Violet Cooper, twenty-five, former Vice President of a small cable company, MBA from a small college. She’d started out in retail, and had worked her way up. This girl was a fighter. Maybe it had something to do with the red hair. I read her résumé a few more times before I put it with the rest, stuck it in a folder and scurried down to Mrs. Andrews’ desk. I was surprised to find Lucah leaning against it and chatting with her as she threw her head back and laughed.
“What are you doing on this level, Mr. Blythe?”
“I was just visiting, Miss Clarke. I had to deliver something to Mr. Clarke, so I thought I would take a moment to stop and say hello to Mrs. Andrews.” Smooth.
“Well, how sweet of you, Mr. Blythe.” I wanted to kiss him, to close the three-foot space between us, lay one on him and feel his tongue with the plastic barbell in my mouth. Judging by the look on his face, he was thinking the same thing.
“Is it warm in here?” Mrs. Andrews said, fanning herself. “Maybe it’s just me having a hot flash.” I couldn’t decide if that was a joke, or if she was being serious. Judging from the look on Lucah’s face, he couldn’t either.
“On that note, I believe I should get back to the underworld where I belong.” He did a bow and headed for the stairs instead of the elevator.
“Don’t forget your coin to pay the toll,” I called after him. His laugh echoed up from a few stairs down.
I sighed and leaned on Mrs. Andrews’ desk. She had a smug smile on her face as if she was very pleased with herself.
“So, on further inspection, what did you think? I was very impressed with that young girl, what was her name?” She started rifling through the papers.
“Violet,” I said. “Yeah, she did look impressive, but I’m not sure they’re going to go for her. Given that she’s so young and you know how much they adore youth.”