I glanced at Jude. For some reason, he didn’t look pleased.
We both stood, and Henley rose too, nervously grabbing her purse.
“We’ll let you know our decision soon, rejection or not,” Jude said.
I smiled, trying to ease the harshness of his words. “Thank you for meeting with us. It was a pleasure.” I reached to shake her hand, her small soft hand in mine. She briefly met my gaze and something stirred within me.
I watched as Jude shook her hand before she left. Once she was out of sight, I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
Jude shook his head and went to the whiskey jar. “I thought she was going to start crying.”
“What the hell was that?” I snapped.
“What?” he said over his shoulder.
I took off my jacket, feeling uneasy. Part of me felt we had been too hard on her, yet another part of me felt like she knew something. “You ambushed that girl,” I said.
Jude downed the glass and sighed. “I had to know if she could handle the rough job. It’s grueling.”
“Doesn’t mean you have to be. Jesus, her resume showed she has great experience.”
Jude waved his hand dismissively. “People put anything on paper.”
I paused for a moment, unable to argue with him there. “Did you bring her here because of how she looks, by any chance?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Come on.”
Jude shook his head, grinning. “Doesn’t matter what she looks like. We should still see other applicants.”
“Are you going to look through them?”
“I’m tabling this discussion,” he glanced at his watch before slamming his glass on the table, “and leaving early. See you tomorrow.”
I stared after him and then went back over to the table, frowning. Inhaling deeply, I could still smell Henley’s perfume lingering behind.
4
Jude
I swear, I hadn’t been so pissed off in my entire life. I’d had a lot of bad business meetings in the past, that was for sure. But that was…
I couldn’t even put it into words.
I left early for the first time in years and headed to the bar downtown where we had our own private table, closed off from everyone else. The barkeep came by, asking about Maverick since we usually came together. Although I wasn’t mad at him or anything, I hadn’t felt like waiting for him and had needed to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.
We had no good lawyers, and no good applicants. Henley was pretty and all, but I wasn’t feeling her as an employee. On some level, I knew it was because of how distracted I’d be with her around.
My phone went off in the middle of my second martini, but I ignored it, knowing it was Maverick probably wanting to give me some moral speech about using people. Sighing, I finished my second drink. Mad as I was, I knew I couldn’t leave him hanging. So a little while later, I found myself heading back to the office, pretending not to notice everyone’s inquiring stares. I stopped at Maverick’s office. He was at the computer, his face screwed up and his shoulders tensed. Probably worrying himself over nothing, as usual.
“Back from your pick-me-up?” he said, sensing my presence without even looking up.
I scoffed as I made my way to his desk and perched myself on the edge of it. Glancing at his computer, I saw that he was looking at the market again, comparing it to our numbers. Annoyed, I reached over and clicked off the screen. Maverick sneered in protest, finally looking at me.
“You still obsessing over this shit?” I said, flicking the papers he’d laid out in front of him. Everything had to be so planned and organized with him. It was irritating.
“No. Just checking on things.” He arched his brow. “You wanna tell me what was up with you and that interview?”