9. James
James
Sitting at my desk, I can’t seem to get a certain brown-haired woman out of my head as I glance at my calendar.
I really need to get my shit together and ask her out, especially now that I know she only lives a couple blocks away from my apartment.
I make a mental note to have Alester look into her, find anything that might be alarming.
I can’t have another Rebecca on my hands, the media would eat me alive, and I’m not sure if I can handle going through it again.
It’s best if Alex doesn’t know the entire extent of what I do for a living.
I almost jump as Ryder comes barreling through the door, too buried in my own thoughts. “What are you still doing in here?” he asks.
“Come on in, again. I’m checking my emails and calendar for the day. Is something on fire?”
He blinks at me and taps the doorway. “Well, you’re ten minutes late to our interviews already, so I’d say something is definitely happening.” His eyes light up. “Oh! Is it that girl…what’s her name again? Did you ask her out? Where are you going? Are you texting? Am I in the wedding?”
“Jesus. Calm down. I don’t even have her number yet.
” I scrub a hand over my face. It’s not like me to forget meetings, but I have been a tad distracted lately.
I look at Ryder who’s watching me as if I grew another head.
“Well, let’s go then. Don’t want to keep…
whoever they are…waiting. We need to fill these vacancies.
” I grab my tablet and make my way around the desk.
Ryder tries to block the doorway, but I reach out and shove him onto the couch.
“Hey! Maybe if you stop going to the gym so much you wouldn’t be able to take me.” He launches back off the couch, gearing up to tackle me, but I sidestep him at the last second. He has to pivot to avoid slamming into the doorframe.
I pinch my eyebrows together. “And why would that be appealing to me? Why don’t you just spend some time bulking up a little?” Ryder isn’t small, just a few inches shorter than me and has more of a lean muscle instead of extra strength training.
“Hmmm.” He takes off to the conference room where Alester is waiting for us to start prepping before the endless interviews start for the day.
I despise interviews, but they need to be completed, and we are all on the same page about finding the right person for each role.
We are looking to expand assistant positions, paralegals, IT, and we need to figure out which companies we want for janitorial and security.
We may hire the last two in-house, but it’s always good to have options.
We look at what they’ve accomplished but we also dig deeper and like to get a feel for their personality.
It’s not a traditional interview, which throws most people, but the right candidate enjoys it.
“You made it,” Alester says. “We have a full day, so we should probably start looking at which roles we will want to fill in the next couple of days or weeks. First, we have more assistants to interview, since they’re the backbone and help the most behind the scenes.
We need at least three more to start I would think, then we can circle back and look for more.
We have ten interviews to get through today for them, so if we like more we can keep them.
” I nod, having already read our plan the night before, but Ryder is rapidly taking notes.
I shake my head at Alester, who smiles before continuing.
“We need a designer-slash-marketing person for our campaigns. We can start brainstorming what posting we want to make for it, or if we want to hunt online ourselves, keep your eyes open for artists that you find interesting. We can talk to legal if we need another person here or just relocate someone from our other branch to cover policies here. Maybe a few scouts for companies or generic job duty that we can send to shmoose when we aren’t available.
” Alester flips rapidly through his notes, trying to quickly cover every barely relevant position, there will be more later when we are more functioning here.
He throws his finger in the air. “Oh! And we have a few IT slots we are interviewing today, almost forgot. Otherwise, this branch will stay pretty small with mostly us and people to assist, until we find the new leadership for this location, if we plan to move back to New York.” His eyes lock onto mine in silent communication.
He doesn’t know if I’m staying here. We briefly talked about the possibility to be closer to our family, but it wasn’t a guarantee. I nod so we can continue with our day.
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll text Stacy and let her know we are ready for the first.” Ryder shoots a text quickly on his phone then flips to a new page on his legal pad.
I’m not sure why he insists on paper while Alester and I switched to digital, but he refuses a tablet every time we offer him one.
Stacy babies him and transfers all of his notes for him after each day and submits it to his main file hub.
He better hope she never retires or he’s screwed. We all are.
The day dragged on with our interviews, but we found the three main people we wanted to fill the secretary slots along with two extra that we may end up offering as well, after we check our plans and financials.
The IT people were easy. A young woman and man fresh out of college and eager to set up a new company.
They both have plans to stay in the city with plenty of hobbies, plus our pay and compensation make it an easy sell for them.
We drafted a list of companies and individuals to go through next week for the other positions.
Then we just need someone for marketing, to help promote our clients and make designs for us and them.
That’s the tricky part, artists are sometimes particular on things they want to make, and we want someone committed but free thinking.
Ryder follows me into my office and plops onto the couch with his notes. “Man, that was exhausting. Do you want to go out with me again? We can do dinner first. Maybe you can invite that hot chick from the other night.” He raises his eyebrows at me suggestively.
“Sure, but I’m not inviting her because one, you’re crazy and two, I don’t have her number like I said.
And we are going to that new brick oven pizza place, none of your weird restaurants.
” I power off my computer and grab my keys from inside the desk.
I stand and put my jacket on. I should probably dig out my bigger coat for the weather coming tonight. An alert dings on my phone .
“Sold, I’ll go get Alester.” I follow behind him as he takes off towards Alester’s office at the end of the hall.
The door is propped open when I get there. Alester faces five computer screens with various programs open on each as his eyes dart back and forth. “Hang on, I’m just finishing translating this search into multiple documents for you both to go through,” Alester says.
Ryder is standing over his shoulder. “This is what your brain looks like before you organize it and send it to me? This shit is confusing. How do you even know what all of those letters and symbols mean?” Ryder scratches the back of his neck.
Alester continues to type as he answers Ryder. I lean against the doorway. “It’s just a different language. The same as all of the finance programs are in a language that you understand, but I couldn’t care less about any of that. We all have our strengths.”
“Right, but money makes sense. This does not.” Ryder starts tapping his foot. “Are you almost done? I’m starving and might start to chew on your arm if you don’t hurry up.”
Alester rolls his eyes but hits a collection of keys that shuts down every computer, one after another. “There. I’ll just do it from home later.”
“Yes! Let’s go!” Ryder runs towards me, so I have to step out of the way.
“You’re a child,” I say.
“Eh, you like it.” He laughs and runs to the elevator. “I’m going to whoop Alester’s ass later in Call of Duty. No working for him.” He jumps in the elevator right as the doors open and tries to get the doors to close on us, but I jog over and shove my hand in the closing door.
“I don’t think so. Not today.” I hold the door for Alester.
“Asshole,” Alester mumbles.
“I’ll get you on Monday, just wait. It will be the stairs for the both of you.”
Thomas is waiting with the SUV when we exit the elevator. I was about to send him a text, but he always just knows somehow. “Thomas, did you put a tracker on me?” I joke.
He smirks. “No, not you. Just the wild one.” Thomas opens the back door, and I slide in. Alester climbs up front, he gets motion sickness and hates having to ride in the backseat. Ryder runs to the other side, not giving Thomas time to close one door before he’s diving into the vehicle.
“You’re extra hyper today,” I comment.
“Just wait until I get my food.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me.
Fuck.
We drape our jackets on the backs of our chairs before we sit down. The temperature is dropping quickly in preparation for this big storm they’re promising. We aren’t getting excited about it, though, because weathermen are notoriously wrong with every winter storm.
The waitress drops off our drink orders shortly after we sit down when Ryder starts hitting on her. Alester and I share a knowing look because this isn’t out of the norm for him. We both tune him out, too used to the act he likes to put on.
Alester grunts and picks up his menu. I chuckle and pull out my phone, wishing I had a text from a certain someone who doesn’t even have my number. Stupid.
“So,” Ryder drags out when the waitress leaves to check on her other tables. “when are you going to ask out Alex, again?” Now he can remember her name.
I ignore Ryder and look at Alester. “Have any new dates coming up?”
He grunts again. “What is both of your obsession with dating all the time? You sound like a couple of teenage girls.” He takes a long drink of his beer .
“Ryder started it,” I grumble, looking for the waitress again so I can order my food.
“He’s not exciting,” Ryder huffs, turning to survey the room when his eyes light up.
“But the fact that Alex and her friends just sat at that back booth is.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me while I try to discreetly glance over my shoulder.
Sure enough, she is in the booth with her two friends from the apartment. Perfect.
“Just leave them alone. They don’t need your wild self in their space.” The waitress notices me looking for her and makes her way over.
“What can I get you?” She pulls out her notepad and pen.
Ryder pounces. “Besides your number? We will take three large pepperoni and sausage pizzas. Oh! And an order of garlic bread.” She laughs at Ryder, scribbles the order, then tears a portion of her page off and hands it to him before walking away.
“Score.” He slips it into his pocket. “So, I’m going to go say hi to Ashlyn, if you’re not going to man up and head over there. ”
“Dude.” Alester levels him with a glare.
Jesus. He starts to stand when I grab him. “Knock it off. I’ll go. You keep your ass here.”
“Ooooh, you’re going! Yes! You can invite them to sit with us if you want. I don’t mind.”
I resist the urge to throttle him. “I don’t think they need any of what you have to offer in their lives. Plus I have to get going soon.”
“Ahh, yes. You can’t just have time off like the rest of us. Always have to hustle.” He takes a drink of his beer.
He tries to lean on Alester, but Alester shoves him away. “You could come back to the office and help me go through more applicants.” Alester raises an eyebrow at him.
“Gross. It’s half-day Friday. Not happening.
” Ryder scoffs and tries to act like his made-up schedule is a thing everywhere.
He gets away with a lot, considering he finds most of the up-and-coming companies before they even think to find a marketing team.
How he does it, we have no clue, but that’s why he can do what he wants.
Most of our profit starts with his boots on the ground, so to speak.
I slide off my seat and make my way to Alex’s booth. I’m not sure why she makes me so nervous. It’s not like I don’t talk to women. I do. She just feels different, I guess. Like it could be more.
Their conversation screeches to a halt when I approach the table, three sets of eyes swinging towards me.
“Sorry to interrupt, ladies.” I turn and Alex’s deep brown gaze locks me in place, like she can see through my soul.
Her hair is piled in a bun on top of her head with tiny hairs escaping.
“Alex, what are you ladies up to?” Smooth, real smooth.
I’d kick myself if it wouldn’t make things more awkward.
Her hand fiddles with her loose strands as she tries to tame them, to no avail. “Just taking a break from girls’ day. What uh… ”
“Oh! You should join us. I see the rest of your crew is here too!” Her friend Ashlynn is craning her neck to look at the guys behind me.
I try to tame my smirk, but it’s no use. The universe is yanking us towards each other and I want nothing more than to launch into Alex’s life, but I have a lot going on right now. It wouldn’t be fair for her.
I watch as panic flashes through Alex’s eyes, but the next moment it’s gone and a shield is up as she forces a smile.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “We would, but we are just getting a quick lunch before we have to go back to work. Next time.”
I don’t need to rush this, she obviously needs more time after everything with her ex, and I need to get my personal life in order. I can wait for her.
“Have a nice evening ladies. I’ll see you soon, Alex.” I wink at her.
Fuck, why did I wink? That’s such a douchy thing to do. Fuck.
Thankfully the food is already at our table when I return, so I proceed to inhale my portion and throw a hundred on the table before bailing for work. I ignore Ryder’s protests as Alester drags him out of the building and away from Alex and her friends.
Thank fuck for him, or Ryder would ruin every possible relationship I could have with his loud mouth and lack of filter.