Baby For The Mountain Man

“Oh, thank heavens! Roger!” she called my father, who was probably in the living room, where he spent most of his time watching sports. “Guess what? We’re finally going to get to spend some time with Bryce!”

I heard him mutter something inscrutable, equally indifferent about this matter as I was.

“I’ll prepare your favorite dishes,” she continued, “You’ll see.”

“Thanks, Mom. I can’t wait. Now I have to go, okay? I’m in the middle of the meeting, and they are waiting for me.”

“Sure. Just make sure not to overdo it, alright?”

Ruth Evander was something else. She was one of the most cheerful people you could ever meet, her round, chubby face always smiling and warm, so you had to love her, but at the same time she could be such a pain in the neck.

“I’m thirty-four years old, Mom. You don’t have to tell me those things anymore.”

“I’ll always tell you those things because you’re my son and I’ll always worry about you.”

Right. I was talking to the wall here. “Sure. Okay, now I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, Bryce. Love you.”

“Love you too, Mom.”

I returned to the conference room and mumbled my apology as I took my seat, deciding to put my new idea into motion right now.

“Say, is there anything of interest near Denver?”

Tommy and George glanced at each other, their eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “Hm, not that I know of,” Tommy replied. “Have you heard about anything, George?”

George took off his glasses, shaking his head. “No. Nothing recently. Why?”

“That’s my hometown, so I thought to search for something in or around it.”

“Actually, there is,” Daniel piped up, standing and pulling a packet from the stack of papers. “A local hospital is going up for sale an hour from there. It’s in your price range, and it’s a decent location. Not as good as some of the others but…”

“Great. Then I’ll go and see it.”

We concluded our meeting a couple of minutes later, which left me enough time to go back to my office and prepare for the interview for my new personal assistant.

My last one quit randomly, leaving me with a pile of work I wasn’t able to deal with on my own. She had chosen the worst time to leave, and I barely had time these days to set up the interviews and find someone to replace her.

I was hoping to meet the appropriate candidate today because anything else would result in skipping another event with my family, and I was sure my mother wouldn’t forgive that a second time.

The knocks on my door pulled me out of my thoughts, right before my secretary brought the first guy in.

“Good afternoon, sir,” he said.

My eyes skimmed over his dull attire, wondering how on earth he thought his dark green tweed suit was even remotely good-looking. It screamed “incompetent” to me.

“Good afternoon, Mr.?”

“Thompson. I’m Jacob Thompson.”

“It’s nice to meet you Mr. Thompson. I’m Dr. Bryce Evander.” We shook hands. I didn’t fail to notice how feeble his grip was.

“Please, take a seat.” I motioned at the chair across from me.

He sat down and put his briefcase next to him on the floor.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that our interview was a waste of time. His answers were short, vague, and so dull that I almost yawned a few times. He had majored in a field that had nothing to do with business administration, and he didn’t seem eager at all.