Leanne laughed. “Maybe,” she said, her eyes gleaming.
She grabbed a copy of the paper as we passed it on our way to a table in the corner. “What’s going on in the world today?” she murmured, spreading the paper out where we both could see it. She snorted. “Daniel McGregor’s up to no good again.”
I shook my head. “Not surprising,” I said, staring down at the image of the man with his arms flung around two attractive women as he walked down some Chicago street. “Wonder where he picked these ones up.”
Leanne groaned. “You’re not going to lecture me again about how they should know better than to be caught with someone like him, are you?” she asked.
“That was one time, Leanne,” I said, laughing. I paused. “But they really should know better. Everyone knows that Daniel McGregor is a playboy. They should hold themselves to a higher standard.”
Leanne rolled her eyes. “Cut the crap,” she said. “You and I both know that if someone as hot as Daniel McGregor wanted to take you home with him, you’d go. Hell, I love your brother, but I probably entertain the idea too!”
I giggled, looking down at the picture of the man in question. The newsprint didn’t do his strong features justice, but I had seen other pictures before and was able to fill in the details that the low quality of this picture obscured. The man was tall and strong, with broad shoulders that made him look more like a football player or a UFC fighter than a businessman. His black hair was longer on the top and slicked carefully back, not a strand out of place, and even though you couldn’t tell it from this picture, his eyes were an icy glacier blue that I imagined could pierce through a person’s layers as easily as a fish could cut through water.
But I wasn’t the kind of woman to moon over celebrities, and Leanne knew that. There was that one picture of Daniel in one of the tabloids that Leanne had left at my place. He’d been shirtless, his abs and strong arms on full display. So what if that image had popped into my head once or twice while I worked myself over into bliss? I didn’t have a thing for him. And even if he ever showed interest in me, well. I was better than that. I didn’t need a one-night stand with someone like him.
Leanne shook her head, grin still firmly in place. She flipped through the paper aimlessly. “So how’s life anyway?” she asked, mercifully changing the subject away from sexy celebrities.
I shrugged. “Same as last week, I guess,” I told her. “I’m kind of disappointed, honestly. I thought for sure I was going to get the job that I interviewed for on Friday, but I talked to the hiring manager this mornin
g and she said, get this, they decided to go with someone younger for the position.”
“What!” Leanne said in shock. “She didn’t actually say it like that, did she? Like, implying that you were too old to work for them?”
“She did,” I said grimly. I shook my head and took a sip of my drink. “I guess they’re looking for someone with less experience, same as everyone else. And someone more impressionable maybe.” I paused. “Maybe that’s why I’m having such a hard time finding work, though. Everyone’s looking for someone younger than me.”
Leanne gave me a look. “You’re only twenty-eight,” she reminded me. “It’s not like you’re over the hill.”
“Yeah, but the business world changes so much every year. There’s probably a huge difference between what these kids are learning in school and what I learned before I graduated.”
“Nah,” Leanne said, shaking her head. “Like I said before, I’m sure the perfect job is out there. You’re just going to have to be patient until you find it.” She suddenly jabbed her finger at something in the paper. “What about this one?”
I turned the paper toward me so I could read it better. Then, I giggled. “Leanne!” I said, even as I read through the rest of the ad. It seemed that none other than Daniel McGregor was looking to hire a new financial advisor.
“Come on, it would be perfect for you,” Leanne said innocently.
I shook my head. “You’re just hoping that I’ll find myself in the middle of some awkward office romance,” I said. “Not going to happen. The last thing I need is to never get another job in this industry because I got caught sleeping with the boss in a position like this.”
“So you admit that you would like to sleep with him,” Leanne said triumphantly.
I rolled my eyes but didn’t respond to that.
I wondered what it would be like, working for McGregor. Oh, I knew all about his reputation. He was in the tabloids and the papers and splashed all over the online gossip columns so frequently that it would have been impossible to not know who he was. Half the women in this city wanted to marry him. The other half wanted to sleep with him.
But somehow, he managed to continue to do his work and grow his company in ways that his father had never been able to. I had studied some of his business decisions in my final year of school, and I had quickly come to think of him as brilliant. Some of the things he did didn’t seem to make any sense whatsoever...only then, things would turn out in his favor and you’d suddenly realize the plan he’d had all along.
A job as his advisor, helping him make all those crazy plans? That would honestly be a dream come true. That sort of a job would challenge me in ways that none of my previous positions had been able to do. And not only that, but I was sure I could rock that job like nobody’s business.
The trouble was, it would be working under Daniel McGregor. I thought back to what I had said to Leanne before, about the women who went home with a man like him. In the business world, you were very much judged on who you associated with. Did I want to spend the rest of my life being judged on my association with McGregor? Hell no. He might have incredible business sense, but it was too often overshadowed by his personal dramas.
But it would be such an interesting position. I kept circling back around to that. And besides, it wasn’t like I had any other real prospects at the moment. I was beginning to feel disheartened at my inability to land a position. Not only that, but I’d been out of work for long enough that I was beginning to go a bit crazy not having any real schedule or anything important I needed to do with my time.
Maybe I should give this opportunity a chance. At least go through the interview process and see if someone like Daniel McGregor would even hire me.
I doubted he would. There were rumors that although he kept around all the guys his father had hired into the company, the latest newcomers to his company were all attractive enough to have been models in another lifetime. Me with my curves, I knew I didn’t fit that bill. If he was looking for eye candy, I wasn’t the person he’d choose.
I didn’t agree with the idea of doing business that way, besides. McGregor and I couldn’t possibly have enough common ground that I would fare well as an advisor for him.
“Are you going to at least apply?” Leanne asked.