“Why do I feel like there's a ‘but’ coming?”
“Well, I still have another three months on contract with my present company. I really don't want to break it. There is a large severance pay if I don't. You can understand that, can't you? I don’t want to leave them in the lurch.”
Harold thought it was pretty reasonable, but at the same time, he wasn't very happy with the outcome. He wanted her to come to work with him immediately and waiting months more didn’t sound very pleasant to him. He had already waited six months, after all. Then a week. Harold didn't think that he could add three more months to that already long timeline. It was not working with the one that was in his head.
“Well, maybe you can do a little bit of work for both of us? I know that you have to stay with your contract. That is perfectly understandable.”
“I don't know how much time I will have to give to your business right now.”
“Well, let’s talk it over and see what we can come up with. I'm sure that we can work something out.”
Sarah agreed. She told him that she was open the next evening when he was trying to get a quicker appointment. Harold didn't want her to change her mind again. He wanted to get her on the payroll. He wanted to get everything sorted out, so that once the contract was over, he would have Sarah full time. Harold had always thought that if there was a deal worth doing, it was always better to do it sooner than later.
He hung up with her, and he must have had a grin on his face again because Steven passed by and asked him if he had just gotten off the phone with his lady luck.
“What are you talking about?”
“Come on, Harold. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about. That look, that idiotic smile that you have right now, I haven't seen it in months. Sarah her name was, wasn't it?”
Harold didn't like the idea that he remembered her name. It wasn't like he was worried about Steven doing anything with Sarah, but it was hard to imagine anybody else thinking about Sarah in the same way that he was. And besides, Harold didn't even know what was going on with him.
“I did just get off the phone with Sarah, but it has nothing to do with a smile on my face.”
“Well, then, what is it?”
Harold couldn’t give an excuse that was good enough to be believed. He could tell that Steven was amazed. It wasn't that often that Harold was interested in women at all. He usually just had a nice night with them and sent them away. It always worked out that way. Now though, he was smiling, probably was grinning like an idiot just like Steven said. All of that was because of Sarah.
“I don't know what it is, Steven.” Harold was telling the truth. He really didn’t have a clue.
Chapter 10
Sarah
She was far more nervous about talking to Harold than she thought that she would be. Sarah wanted to call him right away after the meeting and tell him that she would take the job, but she didn't want to seem desperate. Even though, Sarah actually was. It's not like she needed the money, she just needed something to keep her going. Sarah needed to do something helpful. She needed to accomplish something. She wasn't doing that in her current job, and it was kind of soul-sucking and mind-numbing.
All of that could change. Sarah just needed something decent to keep her busy and interested. She wasn't very interested at the moment. But working with Harold, she knew that it would be different. She didn’t know in what exact way that it would be different, just that it would be. Sarah was hopeful that it was the start of something great, some kind of new adventure to go on.
Work was different after the meeting. Sarah thought about leaving and it made everything a little bit easier. The fact that nobody would listen to her didn't even matter, because soon she would be in a place that would appreciate what she could bring to the table. That wasn't happening at the moment. At the moment, all she was good for was taking notes, bringing coffee, and once in a while, taking care of HR issues. None of that was what Sarah went to school for. She just wanted to make her degree worth it.
Harold would let her use that degree she had, and Sarah was hoping that it would put her in a better direction professionally. She was worried about what was going to happen to her personally as well. Sarah was attracted to the guy that was going to be her boss. But then again, he was probably going to be so far ahead of her that she wouldn't even have much to do with him there. He just hired her. It's not like they would see each other all the time. It was just a one-off thing, that's what she kept telling herself.
Sarah got through the next few months, thinking about what kind of opportunity she would have once her contract was over. It was hard for her to think about much else but the meeting with Harold. Sarah couldn't say for sure which one she thought about more. Probably Harold. He was gorgeous, rich.
She had talked to her friend on the phone for a while, telling her what was going on. Kelly had been the one that had first told Sarah about Harold, so she was definitely interested to know that Sarah might start working with him soon. She also had a lot of teasing she did as well. It was clear that Sarah saw it as an opportunity, but so did Kelly. She just thought about it in a different way. She thought it was an opportunity for Sarah to finally find a man that was interesting to her.
Sarah didn’t need to be reminded that she hadn't dated in a little too long. She could feel it most days, and she got off the phone with Kelly before she got into it too much with her. Kelly liked to say shocking things, and Sarah didn’t need help thinking up new ideas, especially not about her soon-to-be new boss.
***
Kelly's words were still in her head as she made her way into the huge twenty-story building in front of her. Sarah was nervous. She wasn’t ready to start yet, but she’d been summoned to see Harold.
The building in front of her was too big to fathom. It wasn’t a mixed complex, either. It was all Harold’s company and again, she was impressed by her new boss’ accomplishments.
It took her a minute of rubber-necking the place before she was ready to go inside. Sarah tried her best to keep calm. It was a great opportunity and soon to be where she worked. Even though it was intimidating, she knew that this was where she was supposed to be.
She made her way to the receptionist’s desk and was rather surprised when she was forced to show ID and then go through a metal detector. It was not at all what she had expected for her first day. She asked one of the two armed guards that were asking her questions and going through the paperwork if it was normal. It didn't feel normal.
“We do this for anyone that wants to see Harold. He has a lot of enemies, as you can imagine.”
