Employed by the Boss (Managing the Bosses 7)

“Come in,” he called.

The door swung open to admit a woman that Mark definitely shouldn't be staring at in the way that he was. She was a job applicant. But she was also gorgeous. Her blonde hair was tied back in a high tail, and she was wearing clothes tailored close to her trim frame. It was obvious from her tan that she spent a lot of time outdoors.

Mark coughed, trying to clear the sudden tightness from his throat. “Erica,” he said, rising to offer his hand to her. “How nice to meet you.”

She offered him a wide smile and took the hand he held out, shaking it in a firm grip. “And you, Mr. Reid. Thank you for taking the time to interview me.”

“Oh,” Mark said. “Of course. Your application looks great, so why don't you have a seat and we'll get right down to it?”

She sat, and Mark sat, too, looking across the table at her.

“So,” he said, “tell me a little about why you'd like to work at my country club.”

“I liked the specs you had up for it. I haven't been out there in a while, but I remember the golf course. It's a good one.”

“We're hoping that we can make it even better,” Mark said. “Which is where you would come in. I need someone to play the course. See what needs to be changed about it and how we can make it better. We also need help setting up the dr

iving range. And if you like it with us, we’re looking for instructors as well, once the club house is built and the land is open. Would you have any interest in that position?”

“Absolutely,” she said, smiling at him again. “I love teaching, actually. As you may have seen on my résumé, I've taken on students before and they've all been very satisfied with what I have to offer as a teacher.”

Mark had, in fact, seen those testimonials. It was one of the reasons he had decided to interview Erica in the first place. “I've looked through them. They're all glowing.” He sat back a little in his chair, trying to look more relaxed than he actually felt with a woman who looked like her sitting across from him. “It's why I think you might be such a good fit at the club.” He tapped a finger against the paper that was sitting on the table, thoughtful, and then leaned forward again. “How would you deal with dissatisfied guests?”

“Well,” she said, smiling. “I've never really had many of those, but on the rare occasion that someone does get all up in a huff, I try to diffuse the situation as nicely as possible. People don't usually want to actually fight. They just want someone to give them what they want. I can't always do that, but I can try to talk them around to an option that I can provide.”

That was definitely true. Mark had been through his own share of run-ins with people who were insistent on getting what they wanted, regardless of whether the place they wanted it from actually had the ability to give it to them or not. Of course, once he opened the country club, there’d be no one to defer blame to. If someone insisted on talking to the highest authority, that authority would be him. Which meant he wanted people as capable of dealing with issues like that themselves as possible. He was going to have enough to oversee without upset customers constantly insisting on his time.

With any luck, they’d have fewer of those than other places, but he didn’t pretend that they weren’t going to get any at all. Everyone had to deal with people who were unhappy with service every once and awhile, no matter how good their product was.

“What I’d like to do,” Mark said, making a decision that he hadn’t exactly planned to when he’d started interviewing, “is take you out to the site and let you look around. See what you have to say. And then we can go from there. Does that work for you?”

“That sounds like a great plan,” Erica said. “I’m all for it. Do you want to do it today, or later on?”

“Are you free for any longer this afternoon?” Mark asked.

“I cleared my schedule up until evening to make sure that I’d have enough time for the interview and not have to rush off anywhere. So if you want to go out there this afternoon, I’m fine with that.”

“You’re my last scheduled interview today,” Mark said.

He stood and she stood with him, heading out of the little café and onto the sidewalk together.

“We could carpool,” Mark suggested. “Pick up your car when we get back.”

Erica gave him a look that he wasn’t sure didn’t see right through him, and Mark wondered if she was going to turn him down on the offer after all. She didn’t seem like the kind of woman who would appreciate her future boss hitting on her. But after a moment the look relaxed into a smile.

“Sure. Why not save gas?”

Mark resisted the urge to indulge in a victorious fist pump. “My car’s right here,” he said instead, leading her over to it and opening the door for her. “It’s a bit of a drive, so we can talk on the way.”

He slid in on his own side and started the car, handing her a folder from his briefcase before pulling out into traffic. “Those are the plans for the country club,” he said. “They’ve already started construction on the house, and we’re hoping that it will be done by the middle of the summer. I’d like to be able to open this season.”

“Do you intend to closing during the winter?” Erica asked, flipping through blueprints and course schematics.

“Not at all. The golf course itself won’t really be much use under a foot of snow, but the club house can stay open. That should keep revenue coming in for the parts of the year that the outdoor activities won’t work. I was thinking about maybe offering some cross-country skiing trails, or snow mobiles. There’s some wooded land along the edges of the course that we could run trails through. Keep people coming back for more than golf.”

“It’s always a good idea to have a few backup options in addition to your main source of entertainment. Another idea might be an indoor driving range if there’s room.” Erica said. “These plans for the course look good.”

“My brother helped design them,” Mark said, glancing at her briefly before he turned his attention back to the road. “We’re both pretty avid golfers. But we’re not pros, so we thought it was better to bring in someone who really knew what they were talking about.”