Before she finishes her sentence, I cut her off. “I’m not. There’s no interest beyond bringing you onto my team,” I lie. It’s a double lie because the job offer wasn’t what made me come after her, but rather the fact of her having a blood connection with my daughter, and also because if the situation were different, I would pay to see where the physical attraction Olívia arouses in me led.
“I’m sorry,” she says, shaking her head. “I just wanted to be sure. I had a problem like this at my last job.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Why?”
“I want to know.”
She looks down at her hands again. “The manager accused me of stealing that fifty-dollar bill from you. When I suggested he check the security cameras to see that I hadn’t done anything wrong, he insinuated that I offered other things in exchange for money.”
“What?” Son of a bitch. “Why would he think something like that?”
“That doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It does matter. Tell me.”
“He’s a bit of a womanizer, you know? It’s not the first time a man has mistaken my friendliness for interest, but he was persistent, and then, right from the start, I said therewould never be anything between us. Since that day, he started harassing me.”
“That’s harassment. Completely unacceptable.”
She shrugs. “I managed to keep him away during all the months I worked there, but he always made me uncomfortable. I was already thinking of applying for another position. I only stayed there because of the tips from the night shift.”
“No amount of money is worth your safety.”
“Tell that to my bank,” she blurts out and then blushes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful.”
“I need an answer now,” I demand, and then I state the annual salary I’m willing to pay. “And of course, you’ll also have health insurance. What do you say?”
“All this money to prepare and serve your coffee and also be your assistant? I don’t want to sound ungrateful or crazy, but it’s a very high salary.”
“You’ll have to do small tasks for me as well, and believe me, I’m a demanding bastard as a boss.”
“What kind of small tasks?”
“Picking up a suit from the dry cleaner, reminding me to send birthday cards, things like that,” I quickly invent, creating roles for her that are already performed by my secretaries.
“So, a kind of personal assistant?”
“Exactly.” I just say that to close the subject, even though I know my main secretary, Kathleen, will be thoroughly confused, as she alone commands a team of junior secretaries assigned to all these roles. “So, yes or no?”
“Yes. I’ll work for you.”
“One last thing. Can you file a police report about what happened that day with your manager? We have a team of lawyers who work for our hotels—”
Before I finish, she’s already shaking her head. “No, thank you. I thought about it a lot and was tempted to go to the policestation, but I don’t want to be responsible for Thomas losing his job.”
“But he accused you of theft and harassed you.”
“I know, but his wife is about to have a baby. They’ll need money to support the child. I’ll let life itself take care of teaching him a lesson.”
Chapter 10
“When would I have to start?” I ask, trying my best to sound natural.
I haven’t been able to process everything he’s said yet, but I won’t act indifferent. I’m not the luckiest person in the world, so now that life is giving me an opportunity, I’ll seize it.
To be honest, I’ve been lost, not knowing which path to follow, so it seems like a dream come true—a very crazy dream because last night, unknowingly, my future boss gave me a wonderful orgasm—to have him now offering me a job.
