Chapter Three
I’ve got tofind an assistant,Trevor thought for about the fiftieth time in the last several weeks. First he’d advertised on the internet but after trying out several, he’d discovered that he needed more than a remote assistant. He needed someone to come into his home office in person. So he decided to forego the internet queries and go the old-fashioned route. He’d advertised in theWhiskey River Reviewand some of the other local papers from nearby towns, but so far that had been a complete bust. Was it too much to ask for someone who could organize shit and who had some rudimentary computer skills? Okay, more like a fair amount of computer skills, but still. Was he going to have to start looking in the big cities? He doubted anyone would want a long commute given what he could afford to pay them. Wasn’t there a soul in Whiskey River or a nearby town who could do the job?
His cell phone rang. He looked at the number and didn’t recognize it, and caller ID hadn’t picked up a name. That was the problem with advertising for assistants. You had to answer all the calls and often as not it would be a telemarketer. He was getting really sick of telemarketers, especially the robocalls. “Holt,” he said, after picking up.
“This is Jedidiah Walker.”
Now that was a surprise. Why was she calling him? “What can I do for you, Ms. Walker?”
“First, call me Jedidiah. I don’t know if you remember but we met at my sister’s wedding reception.”
Not remember? Not remember one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met? Not to mention one of the weirdest. “You’re a bit hard to forget.”
She laughed. A clear, musical sound. “Thanks, I think. Are you still looking for an assistant?”
“Yes.” She wanted a job?
“I’d like to email you my résumé.”
“You’re experienced in app design and development?” She hadn’t acted like it when they met. But come to think of it she hadn’t told him anything about her previous job.
“Not specifically, but I have a number of computer skills that I believe will be useful and I’m a fast learner.”
He couldn’t imagine she wanted to do what he needed but what the hell. It wouldn’t hurt to look at her résumé. Besides, it wasn’t like people were beating down his door to work for him. Nearly everyone he’d interviewed had wanted to work from home and had no interest in working at his office. Or they were just plain not right for the job. “I want someone who can work in the office and not remotely. Are you okay with that?”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
“All right. Email me your résumé and I’ll get back to you.” He gave her his email address and they ended the call.
A short time later he opened her email. He knew before he finished reading the first page that she was supremely overqualified for the job. He also knew that he’d kill to have an assistant with her skills. He picked up the phone and called a couple of her references. No surprise, they gave her rave reviews.
He picked up his land line and called her.
“Hello.”
“This is Trevor. I got your email and called a couple of your references. I’m sure you know your résumé is outstanding. Frankly, I’m wondering why you’d want this job. You’re overqualified, to say the least.”
“From what I’ve seen, other than yours there are basically no job openings around here for what I do. I don’t want to spend all my time on the road between here and Austin or San Antonio, or even Fredericksburg. And I don’t want to work remotely either.”
“Something better might open up.”
“Mightbeing the operative word.”
He tried to warn her one more time. “The pay isn’t great. At first it will be by the hour.” He gave her a number above minimum wage, though not by a lot.
“Any possibility of a raise?”
“Yes. But I was thinking more along the lines of if we both decide it’s working, we can negotiate a salary.”
“That sounds fair.”
He’d be a fool not to at least try her out. “You’re hired. When can you start?”
“Tomorrow?”
“All right.” He gave her his address. “See you at nine.”
At first he’d wanted someone to bounce ideas off of. Someone interested in app design. Someone like the team he’d left in Dallas who he still missed. When it appeared that wasn’t what he could get, he’d revised that preference to someone who could keep up with his shit and help organize him. A kind of business manager. It wasn’t that hecouldn’torganize himself. But he knew himself well enough to realize that what he could do and what he would do were two completely different things.
