“Max, your three o’clock is here.” Delilah’s voice filled the room. We even had Greg and Jack’s sister helping us out while we tried to interview to get someone as a receptionist. Max was picky, though. He only wanted the best of the best. I was pretty sure the person he was interviewing today was the fastest person to get through the process to an interview, so Max must have seen something he liked.
“We’ll talk more about a game plan.” Max dismissed me as he opened the door to his office and I made my way to mine, not before looking over to see who was here to interview with him. That’s when my eyes locked on her.
Erica.
My peaches.
I had to stop myself from skidding to a halt and staring. Instead, I went into my office and left my door open, something I almost never did. I loved my privacy when working, but I knew in order to get to Max’s office, he had to walk past mine and I wanted a closer look at her. I wanted to make sure it was actually her and not just my head playing tricks on me.
I had thought I’d seen Erica many times over the years, but it was also just a trick of the light or more so, my heart wanting to see her, even though she wasn’t there.
I sat there, pretending to work on my computer, and waited for their footsteps to come past my door. As they approached I looked up just in time to see Max pass by with Erica. She was really here, in our office building, looking for a job at our company. Max shot a glance into the room, giving me a nod. Erica’s head didn’t even turn. She stared straight ahead at Max and walked with him into his office.
I wished with all my might that I hadn’t asked for a soundproof office so I could work better, but yet here I was sitting in the room, straining to hear anything I could with the door open, but there was nothing. I leaned in my chair, moving it closer to where the door was, hoping for just even a wisp of her voice.
I tried to read through one of our current client’s final edits, but I ended up reading the same page three times and still missed half the page with each read. My mind was racing, trying to figure out if Max was going to hire her or not. I needed him to. I needed to have her here in this building with me each day, even if it meant it was just for work.
I waited for what felt like half an hour but when I looked down at my clock to see only fifteen minutes had passed and Max’s door was opening, my heart sank. I had to convince him that we needed Erica. She was interviewing for the finance department. I knew just how good she was with math, so I could convince him, even if I made it seem like I didn’t know her, because I couldn’t let Max know that I knew Erica.
He would ask questions, then so would Greg and Jack, and that just wasn’t something I wanted to talk to them about just yet. I wanted to keep Erica my little secret until I figured out what to do with her, either it be being friends, or something more. I also needed to figure out if she still remembered me.
I stared out my door, just as Max and Erica stopped in front of it, standing there talking. I watched as Max looked at her with wonder and I knew he saw the same thing I did when I first met her.
Her uniqueness.
Her passion.
Her soul.
I had to get him away.
“Max!” I shouted to him. I watched as Erica jumped and immediately regretted the yell, but that went away when I saw the annoyed look on Max’s face when he said something else to her and then entered my office.
He slammed the door behind him and stared me down.
“What?”
“Did you hire her?” I asked, knowing there were two reasons behind my question. I wanted Max to say yes because I wanted her here beside me, but I also wanted him to say yes because that meant he couldn’t have anything to do with her.
Max was our resident playboy, same as Jack. Greg and I had them both sign waivers that they wouldn’t sleep with any personnel or clients. Luckily they both signed last week and it was all scanned into our filing system. No going back now.
“Maybe.” Max squinted his eyes at me, knowing what I was coming after.
“You know the rules, Max.”
“Fuck the rules.”
“That right there.” I pointed to him, with his hands in his pockets and heavy breathing. “That’s why Greg and I created this. Stop running after every girl who walks in here. Wewantthem to stay and work, don’t we?”
“Yes,” Max said with an annoyed voice. He knew I was right and hated it. I was the oldest of all of us and tried to keep us in line as much as possible. “Fine. I won’t go after her, but yes, I hired her. She had a good background in what we need to help Greg, but now we need to find people to edit.”
He looked just as frustrated as I was.
“We’ll get there. Let’s just keep going and do what we can. We’ll look at more applications, maybe open some internships from the university. I know they added on some great editors to the paper, who need some more work.”
“Yeah, reach out to the school, see if we can get them credit for working with us.” Max snapped his finger at me and backed out of the room. “Also, get Greg and Jack together. I want to let them know I hired someone too. Greg is going to have a field day.”
“You didn’t tell him?” I yelled at Max as I watched him go into his office and I bolted from mine to Greg’s. Both he and Jack were in there. It was always so weird to see them next to each other, even after so many years. Jack shaved his beard off a few months ago, and the semblance between them was out of this world now.
