Liam was already at the table when she got to the restaurant. The skinny woman in charge of seating led her over to the table. Amy watched as her small hips swung from left to right in the tight-fitting black dress, which she’d obviously deemed appropriate for work. “Here you are.” The woman smiled, pulling out a chair for Amy to take.
“Thank you.” Amy smiled back politely. “It’s good to see you again,” she said over the table to Liam when she’d settled herself comfortably into the chair.
“And you.” Liam gave her a smoldering smile. “You know,” he hesitated, leaning over the table, “I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but it isn’t often I come across a woman with your beauty and your brains combined. You are a very special lady.”
“Oh.” Amy could feel her cheeks starting to blush. “Thanks, I guess.”
“No thanks needed,” Liam brushed her off. “I am only speaking the truth.”
A waiter came over and asked whether they wanted a wine list. Liam refused the list and made an order straight from memory. The waiter seemed mildly impressed and walked off to fetch them the wine that had just been ordered.
“This place is lovely,” Amy broke the silence between them as she glanced around the room. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about this place, but I’ve never had a chance to eat here.”
“Oh, that’s a shame.” Liam’s eyes met hers. “The food here is to die for.”
“I’m sure it is,” Amy agreed with him. She could see other tables with food already on them. It looked and smelled delicious.
“So, I guess we should probably talk about why we’re here,” Liam said, after the waiter had returned and poured two glasses for them.
“Yes,” Amy nodded quickly. She was excited to get started.
“Well, obviously you’re going to be working very closely with me.” He leaned forward again and Amy started to get the impression that he was trying to come on to her. “I’m the one that hired you, so it’s my job to make sure that you fit into the company smoothly.”
“Okay.” She nodded.
“Obviously, at first, you won’t be getting any serious cases. In fact, you will most likely just be doing odd jobs I can’t find the time for.” He stopped and took a drink from his glass. “I’m a busy guy and there are a lot of people counting on me, so it’s going to be your job to make sure that I stay looking good,” he half joked.
Amy nodded again. She wasn’t surprised with the list of activities she’d be expected to do, but she was a little disappointed. She’d been hoping that she’d get more responsibility. She’d already taken on some huge clients when she was in school, so she’d been hoping that they wouldn’t start her off at the very bottom of the ladder.
“I’m sure that won’t be a problem,” she said, smiling tightly, when she realized that Liam was waiting for some kind of response.
“True, true.” He gave her an overly confident look. “I guess looking good is in my nature.”
Amy opened her mouth to speak, but found herself closing it again quickly. She jerked her leg away from the sudden contact that Liam’s hand tried to attempt. “What are you doing?” she snapped at him when he looked confused by her reaction.
“What am I doing?” he asked in outrage.
“You’ve just tried feeling me up.” Amy could feel every person in the tiny restaurant turning to look at them, but she didn’t care.
Liam laughed. “Amy, please,” he kept his voice hushed, “what did you think this was?”
Amy could feel her cheeks starting to burn. She’d been stupid. She’d believed that she’d gotten the job because of her skill set, but she’d been wrong. “I thought this was a serious job offering,” she told him quietly. She wanted to shout at him. She wanted to shove all of her humiliation back in his face, but she couldn’t barely force out more than a whisper. “I didn’t realize this was about you trying to sleep with me.”
“Oh, Amy, come on.” Liam rolled his eyes. “You’re fresh out of school. How could you possibly think that a firm like mine would take you on?”
“You said my resume was impressive,” she tried to defend herself.
“Sure.” Liam nodded. “It was, but that’s not why I hired you.”
“So, what does this mean?” Amy tried to get the situation straight in her head. “I only have the job if I sleep with you?”
Liam shrugged. “I mean, I wouldn’t say that, but sure.”
Amy looked down at the table. Hot, stinging tears started to push their way to the corners of her eyes. She was so stupid. She’d been so stupid. She had been willing to walk away from everything. She’d been willing to turn her back on her entire family. How could Liam do that? How could he build up people’s hopes only to dash them again straight after? It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right.
She thought back to the legal contracts she’d signed. The job was hers. He couldn’t take that away from her, even if he wanted to. “I’m not going to sleep with you,” she told him finally.
“Oh, really?” Liam’s eyebrow cocked. “Well, I guess you don’t want the job after all.” He shrugged.
Amy stood up from the table. She wasn’t going to sit around and eat food with a man like that. “Liam,” she started and the seriousness in her voice forced his attention to remain on her. “I’ve already signed the contracts. There’s nothing you can do. I have the job, and if you ever touch me again, I’ll have you up for harassment.”
*******
Chapter 16
John
His room had dropped into darkness. He hadn’t bothered to turn on the light. He didn’t need to see the room around him. He stayed perfectly still on his bed. He didn’t want to miss the sound of Amy getting back to the house. He had a feeling in his stomach. It was a feeling that was sending cold shivers up his arms and leaving a sickly feeling in the pit of his stomach.
The phone call he’d taken for his dad had left him feeling that way. He knew that Amy was out having a business dinner. She hadn’t mentioned Liam’s name, but the feeling in his stomach led him to believe that it was Liam that she was with. In the hours since she’d gone, he’d considered trying to find out what restaurant she’d gone to. He didn’t like the idea of her being alone with the guy who’d only hired her to get into her pants.
The sound of crunching gravel travelled through his open window. He got up quickly and walked over to see if it was Amy. It was. He could see her light blue dress shimmering against the moonlight as she walked across the driveway and towards the house. He couldn’t see her face. He couldn’t see whether she was happy or sad. He could only see the slow and tired way that she was walking.
He left the window and headed to Amy’s room. He didn’t want to jump on her at the door. He didn’t want to make her feel like she was being ambushed. It took her a frustrating amount of time to get to her room, though. John had to stop himself several times from walking down the remaining stairs to meet her. “Hey,” he said when she finally turned around the corner. “Are you okay?”
It was a dumb question. It was clear from her puffy red eyes and drooped shoulders that she wasn’t okay. He walked forward and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He didn’t push her to tell him what had happened. He just held her. Long minutes stretched past them. He wondered whether he should pull away from the embrace, but he had a voice in the back of his mind telling him that if she wanted the hug to stop, then she would have st
opped it.
“It wasn’t a real job offer,” Amy told him weakly, when she pulled away from the hug. She walked over to her bedroom and pushed open her door. “I thought that they’d hired me because I’m good at what I do. I thought they’d really given me a chance to do something good for the world, but it wasn’t real. None of it was real.”
“I’m so sorry,” John told her weakly.
“What have you got to be sorry about?” she asked him sharply. “It wasn’t you who did this. It wasn’t you who made a fool out of me.”
“So, what are you going to do?” John asked her.
“I don’t know,” she told him honestly. “I signed the contract already, so I’ve got the job. I could go in and force my way into the company.”
“What about Liam?”
“Liam?” Amy’s eyes narrowed. “I never mentioned Liam’s name.”
“Are you sure?” John asked quickly. He could feel the atmosphere in the room starting to turn cold. “I’m pretty sure you did.”
“No,” she shook her head, “I didn’t. So, how do you know that I was with Liam? How do you even know that there is a Liam there?”
“Amy,” John started, but he stopped when he saw the hurt in her eyes.
“Did you have something to do with this? Is that why you tried to talk me out of going? Because you knew what would happen and you were starting to feel guilty?”
“No,” he told her quickly. “It isn’t like that.”
“Then what is it like?” she demanded to know.
“I heard my dad’s cell ringing earlier and I answered it. It was some guy called Sam from Green Corp. He’d called to tell my dad about Liam. Apparently, my father has been trying to keep tabs on what you’re doing. I imagine Sam is the same guy who let him know about the interview in the first place.”
“So, you knew?” The hurt didn’t leave her eyes. “You knew about this and you didn’t tell me? You just let me go to this dinner with no clue?” It was obvious to John that she needed someone to blame. She was angry and he understood that. She’d just had her dream job thrown in her face and everybody other than her had known about it.