He pushed his breakfast to the side. “Moving forward, when I ask you to take notes, I mean plural, and I also mean that I expect you to put some actual effort into them.”
“I did put effort into my notes, sir.”
“Is thiseffortin the room with us right now?”
“I don’t think it’s possible for you to come off more likable in interviews,” I said, keeping my voice firm. “And in my professional opinion, I think you should take on a persona for each session instead.”
“I don’t have time for acting lessons, Miss Stone.”
“Mr. Lewis didn’t either,” I offered. “We picked and chose mannerisms from a collection of other businessmen and rehearsed for weeks.”
“I see…” He crumpled my note and tossed it in the trash. “If I told you to make me a list of five things that would improve our baristas’ quality of work, would you be able to give me that?”
“Yes.”
“Within the next three minutes?” He clicked a pen.
“Yes.”
“I’m listening.”
“Better training, limiting premium coffees, better pay, uniforms that itch a little less, and better perks when we have great sales weeks.”
“Interesting.” He scribbled down my notes on a pad, and then he looked up. “If you’re right about this, I’ll assign you to do some further investigating.”
“And if I’m wrong?”
“You’ll regret it.”
“You mean I’ll get fired?”
“There are far worse things I’d do to you before firing you, Miss Stone.”
Silence.
I sat still, waiting for him to change the subject or free me from the hold his eyes had over me, but I couldn’t move if I tried.
He pulled his breakfast tray closer and picked up a knife. He took his time spreading cream cheese across his bagel, still keeping his eyes on mine.
“We have a rare half-hour gap before my next meeting,” he said, gently pressing the knife through the bagel’s hole. “You should stop watching me and start filling it with work, since this will be the only gap we have for weeks.”
“I will…” I said, standing. “I have some tax studying to do.”
“Come again?” He sat up. “I don’t recall assigning you that.”
“You didn’t,” I said. “But I think Human Resources would be quite upset to know you’re giving yourself thirty minutes to eat a bagel?—”
“Three bagels.”
“Three bagels.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “I think they’d understand me wanting to use this time for something on myself.”
“We clearly need to have another conversation on time, Miss Stone.”
“Maybe,” I said. “It’ll have to be after I spend some time in the employee lounge by myself, though.”
“Okay, then.” A slow smile spread across his lips. “Go ahead and enjoy it…”
I didn’t bother saying anything else.
