“Those candidates were all fine.” She pins me with her frown before pacing again.
I’ll tell her I’m proud when she hates me less. Based on how these interviews are going, that could be a while. I stare at the photo of Aryton Senna on her wall. I have one of Niki Lauda in my office. Our dad gifted us them at Christmas as a reminder of who we were named after.
Only my dad would gift those.
“Sen, I don’t want fine. I want exceptional.” Shit. That’s something he’d say. I want to be the old me, not him!
She stops again. At her scowl, lines form around her eyes. I can’t hug her to make her forget I’m an arse, so I offer a wincing smile, which only makes her linesdeepen.
“How can you tell if someone’s exceptional when you won’t let them get beyond shaking your hand?”
I shrug. “She insisted I shake it. I don’t want that in a personal assistant.”
Senna sits at her desk. “I’ve better things to be doing than interviewing for your assistant. I’ve spent the last day and a half watching you reject nearly fifty candidates, and I’m not doing it anymore. It’s bad enough they don’t know the job they’re applying for.”
“At least they don’t all want to fuck me like the ones I interviewed before Shakedown three weeks ago.” I’ve not mentioned my incident with the water and the press again. My sister gave Ollie a scoop to suppress what he wanted to write about me. She’s fucking amazing. “Connor, your boyfriend, said?—"
“I don’t care what Connor said. And why is Connor my boyfriend and not your best friend? You only call him that when he’s done something wrong.”
“He pranked me. He told me he’d got me a puppy. He gave me a lead and everything, then left a cuddly toy on my desk. He knows I want a dog?—”
“But you’re a reserve racing driver. You’ll have to travel with the team some days. How will you be able to have a dog?”
I sit on my hands to hide how they shake. I’d agreed to this role even though I’m terrified of travelling to places without having control over the circumstances. I can’t insist on a completely germ-free environment without my sister and best friend asking questions. At least I no longer need to wipe down my food wrappers with disinfectant. And I’m aware what went wrong at Shakedown. I can prepare differently this time, and I’ll have help. “That’s where my assistant comes in.”
She bangs her head on the desk. “Fine. I’ll interview this last one, but I’m doing it alone.”
“But—”
“No, Niki. You’re off-putting.” I furrow my brow. “When you came home in November, you were cold and distant.”
“Because you were kissing my best friend,” I grumble. “In front of me!”
She waves the comment away. “You’ve been softer recently, although you still don’t want to hug anyone.”
I shrug. “Do you have a point?”
“You’re mean to the interviewees, so I’m not seeing them at their best. You need to give them a chance or let me interview them alone.”
I sit back in my chair, propping my feet on her desk until she dead-eyes me. I drop them down and put my hands behind my head to stop from reapplying sanitiser. “I have conditions.”
She tips her head to the side. “Of course you fucking do.”
Her blond hair is the only similarity between us. Mine’s darker than hers, as she spent her New Year’s in the Maldives with Connor. I spent mine refusing to leave the house while deciphering how to be the old me.
“Go on.”
“If they ask about my scars, you kick them out. My burns or accident shouldn’t be anyone’s obsession.” I tap the brim of my cap, which I only take off when alone or jumping in the sea with a mysterious stranger. “And they can’t live in a suit. I don’t dress up, so they don’t need to. I’m in these because it’s interview day.”
She scans my suit trousers and crisp team shirt. “Anything else?”
“Tell me about this one so I can say if she’s worth interviewing.”
“She is.”
I give Senna my blue-eyed pleading stare. “Tell me anyway.”
I adore my sister. The team is lucky to have her at the helm. She wasn’t my dad’s first choice, but she was the best choice. “Rosie spent the last six months working locally as an administrator at a carpet business. She has a degree in psychology. She’s interned with a rugby club with their sports psychologist and was a semi-professional rugby player, but she stopped when she went to university?—”
