“Fine,” Trevor said on a long-drawn-out sigh as he pushed away from the counter. She did have a point, after all. “You can start after your interview.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding. “What do you need done?”
“I need you to go grocery shopping, do a load or two of laundry and a little light cleaning,” Trevor said, trying not to frighten her with the truth. She’d learn soon enough what hell awaited her. By the time she discovered the truth, she’d already be set on earning some extra money. Plus, she was desperate for work, so she shouldn’t be complaining about his dump. Instead, she should thank him.
“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Zoe murmured, pulling out a pen and a pad of paper. “Write down what you need,” she said, clearing her throat. “I’m going to need money for the grocery shopping,” she said, sounding embarrassed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Trevor said, taking the pen from her and writing his list down quickly. “You never told me why you left your window down last night,” he reminded her.
“The window came off its track again and I think it broke inside the door,” she said, trying to peek over his shoulder at his list. “I’m going to have to bring it by the garage today.”
He should just let her do that, but he knew how much those places charged for that shit. “No,” Trevor said, shaking his head and handing over his list so that he could pull his wallet out. “I’ll fix it over the weekend. Until then, place a few towels and a trash bag over the car seat when you’re using the car, otherwise, let it dry out. You can use my rug cleaner to suck the water out of it this afternoon,” he said, handing her some grocery money. He needed to move his ass now or he’d be late.
“Thanks,” Zoe mumbled absently as she frowned down at his grocery list. “You didn’t write anything.”
“Yes, I did,” he said, pointing to the only word on the notebook.
“Everything,” she murmured, lips twitching. “So helpful.”
“That’s just the kind of guy I am,” Trevor pointed out, knowing in time she’d come to realize just how lucky she was to have a landlord like him.
Chapter 5
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, Zoe thought as she stepped out of her car and looked around the large construction site. She didn’t know anything about construction. Absolutely nothing. On top of that, she was pretty sure that the bad reference that she was about to get would guarantee that she didn’t get this job or any other job for that matter.
Perhaps she should just get in the car and be content to work part-time for Trevor while she tried to figure out how to get a job without having to give a reference.
“Move your ass!” a rather large man standing in line for the coffee truck barked, startling the hell out of her.
Yeah, definitely not the place for her, Zoe decided as she opened her door to get back in her squishy car. Maybe if she did a really good job, Trevor would-
“Are you Zoe O’Shea?” a large man with short silver-tipped jet-black hair asked as he paused by her car. She quickly took in his good looks, large build, laugh lines around his eyes, button-down shirt, khakis, and clipboard and had a pretty good idea who this man was.
“Mr. Bradford?” Zoe asked, stepping away from her car, hoping that he hadn’t seen her escape attempt.
He held his hand out to her. “Jared,” he said, gesturing towards the doublewide office trailer with a nod as she shook his hand. “Why don’t we go inside and talk?”
“That sounds great, thank you,” Zoe said, feeling foolish going on a job interview in jeans and a summer blouse, but she had nothing else to wear and Trevor promised that it would be fine. She wasn’t entirely comfortable counting on one person for so much, but she also knew that she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter right now.
Jared held the door open for her and with a nervous smile, Zoe stepped inside. The first thing she noticed was the large refrigerator, cabinets, and kitchen sink taking up half the space. That was a little surprising. Didn’t these trailers usually have small kitchenettes? Zoe wondered as she glanced over at the small comfortable sitting area and the large “L” shaped desk to her left.
“I appreciate you coming in for an interview. We’re kind of desperate to get a full-time secretary and an office manager,” Jared said, reaching over the desk and grabbing another clipboard. He attached a few sheets of paper to the clipboard before handing it to her.
“If you could go ahead and fill out the reference section first, I would appreciate it. I can check those out while you finish the rest of the application,” Jared suggested with a warm smile.
“O-Okay,” Zoe said nervously as dread filled her. This was going to end very badly. She thought about giving him a head’s up about her situation but then decided against it since it would probably look like she was badmouthing her last employer.
With dread, Zoe sat down and quickly filled out the top sheet and handed it to him. With a smile, Jared disappeared through the doorway to the right of the desk and closed the door behind him, leaving her alone to either finish her paperwork or make a run for it.
Ah, what the hell, Zoe decided a minute later. What did she have to lose? Besides a little more of her pride and dignity, that is. It didn’t take her long to finish filling out the rest of the paperwork. When she was done, she sat there trying not to fidget.
Thankfully, Mr. Bradford didn’t make her wait too long.
“Why don’t you step into my office,” Jared said, still smiling. That had to be a good sign, Zoe thought, walking into his office and almost tripping over her feet when she got her first good look.
What the hell...
Half of his office was set up as an office with a large desk, filing cabinets, a computer, a couple of chairs, framed documents, and large pictures of past projects neatly lining the walls. The other half was a little odd to say the least.
