Chapter 5
ASSUMING THE WORST
“Tell me how the interview went with Blair,” her father said the minute they were seated in a booth of a restaurant a few buildings down from Bond Enterprises.
“It went well,” she said.
“Good thing you were dressed appropriately. Though you should have had a suit jacket on with those pants. That’s probably why you haven’t gotten other calls back.”
She kept the roll from her eyes. If she weren’t interviewing close by she wouldn’t have stopped.
Her father was old school and still thought everyone should wear a suit and tie to work. He was the only one that was.
Not even Mitchell Bond, who was closer to her father’s age, had a tie on. Just black pants and shoes, and a nice shirt.
Ethan was dressed similarly, but the cut and style were different.
More modern. Charcoal trousers, black shoes that looked more like sneakers, a light pink and silver striped shirt, the top few buttons undone, the sleeves rolled up showing his forearms that she remembered so clearly as he braced himself on them while he was inside of her.
She cleared her throat and picked up her glass of water, trying not to fidget like she always did around her father. After all those years of working on her inner strength, he still had the ability to knock it down, but she was going to be damned if she’d let him see it.
This job could never work out because of that night with Ethan and talking about this position with her father was only going to cause a fight.
Besides, Ethan wouldn’t want her working for him. Not after she’d ghosted him the next morning.
Lord only knew how many women he’d been with in his life. And it didn’t bear thinking about.
No way would a man like him want one of them sitting across the table in meetings and privy to the most confidential details of his business.
Stay in control, she told herself. “Dad, I’m dressed appropriately for the positions I’m applying for.”
“You need to dress higher than what you’re looking to achieve. That’s how you show grit.”
The server arrived to take their order. She asked for a salad with grilled chicken when what she really wanted was a big, greasy burger. Something to fill the hollow pit that had opened in her stomach the minute this conversation started.
The second she got back to her apartment, she was changing, lacing up her sneakers, and running until her brain stopped replaying this train wreck of a day.
“I’m the least gritty person I know, but I picked up my life and moved here. A city I hadn’t been to in decades. Living on my own for the first time and making all the arrangements and settled in alone. How many people can do that and not ask for help?”
“I would have helped you.”
She didn’t want it. He didn’t get it. She just proved to him she could do it. That she handled a big life change and moved on her own. Yet she still wasn’t strong in his eyes.
“I’m not going to be someone I’m not,” she said calmly.
Hadn’t she done that already?
Look how that turned out.
Keep your identity a secret from a man.
Go to his room for one night of wild, toe-curling sex.
Slip out before dawn and pray you never cross paths again.
Smartest plan ever. Right until she remembered the man was her father’s boss!
“Sad but true. Tell me how the interview went.”
“Which one? I had two of them today.”
Her father hesitated. “Both if you must, but I’m more concerned with the one you had second.”
“First off, just because Blair appeared to like me means nothing. She’s not the one hiring me. And second, I’m your daughter and they might feel it’s a conflict of interest.”
“I don’t work for Ethan,” her father said.
She lifted her eyebrow. “You’ve said before you do. You’ve even complained about it. That he’s younger and does things differently, not ways you agree with.”
Her father straightened his shoulders and prepared to put her in her place. She’d seen it before when she was younger and more recently when he didn’t like to have something pointed out he didn’t agree with.
“I report to Mitchell via Mason. I’ll never report directly to Ethan because I’ll be retired long before he takes over fully. Is Ethan ranked higher than me? Sure. But I report directly to Mason and always have.”
Funny how his tune changed with his own needs.
“It doesn’t matter who you report to,” she said. “My point is, you’re senior management.”
“That’s right, I am. Don’t forget it.”
Like he’d ever let her. “And I don’t want people saying I got a job because of my father.”
Nor did she want to be compared to her father or worry that people were talking about her behind her back as they did him.
There was no way her father was liked at his job. He didn’t seem to keep staff long enough, yet he managed his job for years.
Guess he knew the right asses to kiss, but she’d never voice that.
She’d seen sides of her father that weren’t horrible. Her mother was a wonderful person and Lynda Jones had to see something in Norris for them to even get married.
“People are always going to talk in life,” her father said. “Grow thicker skin.”
She thought her skin was pretty damn tough. It had to be as his daughter.
“That isn’t the point.”
“What is?”
“Ethan is the one who is going to decide. He might want someone more experienced. Someone who doesn’t have a tie to another employee. Someone he can connect with more. Personalities play a role in those positions.”
And not someone who he’d seen naked.
If there was a way to mess up a good thing, she found it. Just by not being honest with who she was when he sat next to her at the bar.
“He needs an assistant, not a best friend. You’re thinking too highly of yourself. You go in, you do your job, complete what he asks or gives you, learn to have it done before he asks and then leave for the day.”
“Please,” she said. “At the end of the day you are still asking your assistants to do things.”
“No,” her father corrected. “I rarely require them to do much once they leave for the day. That is their time. If I email after they are gone, they can take care of it in the morning. I’ve never asked them to stop what they were doing at home to answer me.”
That was news to her. “So when your assistant leaves at five, they are free of work until they come in at eight?”
He shook his head. “No. They come in at seven and some days they leave at seven. It’s when I’m ready to let them leave. They are compensated well for their time.”
“That’s no different,” she said.
“You’re wrong.”
Of course she was because she’d never be right in her father’s eyes.
“How is that? Make me see the difference.”
“Your last job, what were your hours?”
“Eight to four thirty with a thirty-minute lunch.”
“What time did you show up for work?”
“Around seven thirty,” she said.
“And did you work through your lunch? How many days did you work through your lunch and leave on time?”
She let out a breath. “Everyone ate at their desk and worked. Most times I was out before five.”
“Good for you. How much work did you do at home after hours or on the weekend? Did anyone ever text or call you when you left the building or had a day off?”
Her shoulders dropped. “Fine. I often checked email and got texts at night or on the weekends.”
Almost always when she had a day off, and forget about an actual vacation.
“You tell me what is better, working a little longer and then knowing once you were gone it was your time, or feeling as if you were on call twenty-four seven.”
“I’m not sure it’s much different.”
“Maybe not in your eyes. It works for you. Do you think I don’t know I’ve got a reputation for being a hard ass?”
She let out a laugh before she could stop herself. “I’m sure you have it and are fully aware of it. You might even enjoy that.”
Her father cracked a brief grin. “I have my moments. I understand that not everyone wants to work long days. Maybe they’d rather finish up in the comfort of their house.
But I know what it’s like to go home and never turn it off.
That’s what I offer my assistants. Put longer days in and leave without the pressure, or always have to stop and do something.
Blair is on call nonstop, so remember that. ”
“I highly doubt she works around the clock.”
She’d asked that question. Even asked why Blair was leaving and heard that Ethan was bending over backwards to not lose her and give her any flexibility she wanted.
That didn’t scream controlling boss to her.
“Ethan works a lot and if he needs something, he’s come to rely on the fact Blair will give it to him.”
“Are you trying to talk me out of this?” Not that she was even considering it, but her father wasn’t painting Ethan in a favorable light.
“I’m telling you the expectations of working in a bigger city. You’re not going to get a job where you punch a clock and leave and it’s done until your next shift.”
“What gave you the impression I thought that?”
“It’s the reason you keep changing jobs. You’re looking for something better. Right?”
There he was assuming the worst.
“No. I’m looking for what makes me happy.
What gives me the drive to actually want to put more into it.
To get up each day and prove I have what it takes.
Life’s too short to burn out grinding over something you hate.
It’s not about getting up, busting your butt, going home hating every minute, then doing it all again.
There has to be some joy in it. Some happiness built in. ”
“There you go again, being soft and idealistic. I blame your mother for that. She let you think the world works that way, and it’s why you’re still barely treading water at twenty-nine.”
The waiter set down their plates, and Nora stabbed her fork into the lettuce before she said something she couldn’t take back.
Before she screamed at him to just stop.
Stop breaking her down.
Stop twisting every spark she had into something small and foolish.
Maybe try just once to plump her up.
No, not that word. Plump.
That was the word he’d always used when he wanted her to lose weight as a kid. The “gentle” word. The one that cut the deepest.
There was no winning here.
There never had been.
And she didn’t know why she still kept trying.
There was no way they could sit here in silence.
When she finished chewing, she set her fork down and looked him dead in the eye.
“Dad, I’m hardly treading. I’ve got over six figures in my savings and more invested.
I know you think I’m some freeloader who lived off Mom, but you’re wrong.
I’ve worked my ass off to get here.” Her pulse hammered, but she didn’t stop.
Not this time. “I’m not you and you’re not me.
I don’t need your help to land a job. I can do it on my own.
And if I take longer to find what I really want, you should be proud of that.
Proud that I’m still out here doing it without leaning on you. ”
Her father lifted an eyebrow at her. “Is that all?”
Her voice wavered, not from fear, but from years of swallowing words that were finally clawing their way free. And she was damn proud of herself for saying what she had!
“No. Because you know what? You’ve never been there for me before. And I’m the idiot for thinking you’d start now.”
She put her head down and went back to her lunch. Her father could stew there for all she cared, but the next words weren’t coming from her.
Ten minutes passed while they sat there in silence, more strangers than father and daughter, just like her entire existence in his life.
When her phone rang in her purse, she pulled it out, didn’t notice the number, but answered anyway.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Nora, this is Blair Cummings. I was going to send you an email, but thought I’d call quickly. Ethan would like to set up a time for an interview and his schedule is tight. Do you have time tomorrow morning at eight available?”
She looked at her father, saw his hopeful look mixed in with concern. He was worried she might mess up and give him a bad name.
Well, screw him.
This was for her.
If for nothing more than answers. Like why he was willing to give her a chance after what she’d done to him.
“I’d love to. Eight works.”