I glanced at my watch. Less than ten minutes since Abby had walked out of there. I paused, deliberating. There were other people whom I had arranged interviews with. Maybe there was someone else in there with more experience and lower aspirations. Someone who was better suited to being my advisor.
But there was a part of me that knew the only reason I was really looking for excuses not to hire Abby was that I wanted to put my hands all over her body. Couldn’t do that if I was her boss. That would be the tabloid story of the century just waiting to happen. It wasn’t right for me to not offer her the job just because I wasn’t sure that I could stop myself from wanting her.
I stood up. “I’ll tell her,” I told Erin. I strode hurriedly out of the office and rushed down to the sidewalk, hoping that Abby hadn’t driven there for her interview, in which case she would have already disappeared.
She might have disappeared even on foot, I realized as I stood on the sidewalk out in front of the building, the same place where just last week I had been photographed with my arms around two of my employees. Everyone had taken that surprisingly well. Another display of their trust in me: they hadn’t even suspected that anything might have happened between me and the two women. Or maybe it was just that they knew their coworkers well enough to know they hadn’t gone home with me.
I suddenly spotted Abby moving through the other pedestrians to my right, and I hurried to catch up with her, glad that my legs were so much longer than hers. She didn’t appear to be in any hurry, either, merely meandering down the sidewalk as though she had the rest of the day to kill. And maybe she did.
I caught her arm, pulling her to a stop. “Hey,” I said.
Abby looked up at me in surprise that quickly turned to suspicion. “Hey,” she said back at me, her tone carefully level as though she wasn’t happy to see me but was trying to hide that from me.
“I’d like to offer you the job,” I told her.
“You would?” Abby asked, sounding shocked.
I nodded at her. “Like I said at the start of the interview, you weren’t the first person who came to my office today,” I told her. “But you definitely blew all the other candidates out of the water. I can tell that you can confidently navigate the business world. And I like someone who doesn’t settle for less.”
Abby was looking more and more surprised as I continued talking.
“It would be a trial position, to see how we work together,” I added. “But if things go well, we’d hire you on for good.”
“A trial position,” Abby said, as though trying the words out in her mouth. She slowly nodded. “All right,” she said.
“Can you start tomorrow?” I found myself asking. I didn’t want to give her time to reconsider or to interview with anyone else. I had learned long ago that the more time you gave a person between the interview and their start date, the more chance they had to shop around for better offers.
Abby nodded again. “Sure thing, tomorrow,” she said. “I’ll be there.”
“Perfect,” I said. I gave her a serious look. “It’s going to be a busy day, and I’ll need you to have your head in the game. But if all goes well, I’ll take you out for drinks after work and we can talk about your ambitions, with the company and otherwise.”
Abby stared at me for a long moment and then gave me a sly smile. “Do you take all your new hires out for drinks?” she asked, and I knew exactly what she was implying. But it wasn’t like that, despite whatever kinds of stories the tabloids liked to spin about me.
My serious look didn’t falter as I nodded. “I do, actually.”
I could tell that Abby didn’t really believe me, and I began to wonder whether I?
??d done the right thing in hiring her on. Maybe I really should have found a man to fill the advisor position. Maybe Abby wanted something different from what I had thought. But I had always prided myself in my ability to read people, and she really didn’t strike me as someone who was just interested in this position because she wanted to sleep with me.
Then again, maybe she didn’t just want to sleep with me. It could be that half of her really wanted the job and the other half of her really wanted to sleep with me. But she’d quickly learn that that wasn’t the way that things were done around McGregor Enterprises. Once she got to know all the others in the office, she’d realize that I was telling the truth about the drinks thing. And realize that I didn’t mix my personal and professional life.
“Eight a.m. tomorrow,” I told her. “Meet me in my office.”
Abby sketched a loose salute that was somehow a mix between accepting of my authority and mocking. “I’ll be there, sir,” she said. I watched her turn and slip away down the sidewalk, wondering what I had just done. Abby would never be the kind of woman who would bend over backward to please me; I could tell that already. As much as I liked the fact that she was willing to stand up for what she believed in, I had to wonder if we were ever going to be able to compromise or if she and I were doomed to always be at odds.
Things could get messy if the latter proved to be true.
But anyway, it was a probationary hire, until I saw if things worked between us. If not, I could fire her and restart the interview process. Better just wait and see how things went with her before I started jumping to any conclusions.
Chapter 8
Abby
I COULDN’T HELP THE butterflies in my stomach as I rode up the elevator to McGregor Enterprises on Thursday morning. I didn’t know what had possessed me to accept McGregor’s job offer the previous day, but he had seemed so earnest in his praise of me. It made me wonder if I had read the whole situation wrong. Maybe he really was looking for an advisor. Maybe I had just read too much into the way his eyes lingered on my body. Maybe he wasn’t as terrible as the media made him out to seem.
Whatever it was, I was in this now. No backing out. I had told him that I would be there by eight this morning, and damned if I was going to be late.
I checked my reflection in the elevator mirror as I was whisked slowly up to the top floor of the office building. I had taken special care for my outfit and makeup that morning. More so than I usually did, that was for sure. I felt powerful in my silky green blouse and fitted black slacks.