Counting the Days (Counting the Billions 1)

I frowned and then shrugged. “Why not?” I asked, taking a picture of the ad with my phone and making a note to get back to the application that afternoon.

Leanne grinned at me. “If you get to meet Daniel, make sure to take a picture for me,” she said.

I snorted. “Yeah, because that wouldn’t be awkward at all,” I said jokingly. I paused and shrugged. “I doubt I’ll meet him, anyway. Even if I make it through to the interview stage, I’m sure he’s the kind of guy that’ll have someone else handling the interviews for him. While he goes and...” I trailed off and flipped back to page one, gesturing to the image of McGregor with a woman under each arm.

“Just see how it goes,” Leanne said. “That would be so cool if you got to meet him.”

“I’ll see how it goes,” I promised, keeping my negative thoughts to myself. If she wanted to moon after celebrities, then that was her deal. As for me, I was just looking for a decent job.

Chapter 5

Daniel

BY WEDNESDAY, I WAS inundated with applications for people who thought they could replace Gerrard as my financial advisor. There were so many of them who thought they were such hotshots. As though because they had studied business in college, they must know everything about the way that the business world worked. Or there were people who did have experience in the business world but who were just, well, stodgy.

I was looking for someone who knew what they were talking about, but also someone who could be a little innovative in their position. What was the point in having an advisor who wanted to do things by the books? I could advise myself in that, if that was all that I was looking for.

I had brought a couple people in for interviews, but I wasn’t thrilled with any of them. This morning’s interview had been a total dud.

I rubbed at my temples. My lunch break was almost over, and I was already dreading this afternoon’s interviews. Maybe I should just cancel all of them. Send everyone home and declare the whole thing a lost cause. Not for the first time, I wondered if I should have just overlooked the fact that Gerrard was selling information about me to the press. The paparazzi were going to find me with or without his tip-offs. I should have just kept my advisor with me no matter what.

It was a matter of principle, though. I knew that. And I hated that I was even considering hiring him back. At the same time, I wished these dreary interviews were over.

Erin, my assistant, knocked on the door and peeked inside. “Are you ready for the next applicant?” she asked sweetly.

“Send her in,” I sighed.

She gave me an encouraging smile before beckoning to the next candidate. The woman, Kara Michaels according to the resume in front of me, came into the office with a smile on her face. She was dressed to impress in a fitted navy suit and cream-colored blouse with ruffles down the front. I glanced down at the file Erin had put together for me. The woman was thirty years old and honestly was pretty cute, but she dressed like she was twice her age. Sure, it was a business and we didn’t do casual here, not even on Fridays. But she didn’t need to look quite so formal.

“Have a seat.” I sighed, gesturing to the chair across the desk from me.

Her grin didn’t falter as she did just that. “It’s such an honor to meet you, Mr. McGregor,” she gushed. “I have a feeling that you and I will work really well together.”

I chose to ignore her assumption that she was automatically going to get this job. “What makes you say that?” I asked instead.

“We’re just so similar,” she assured me. “I’ve read everything that I can about you, and let me tell you, I would have made all the same decisions that you made for this company. All of them. And having lost my parents as well, in a car accident when I was three, I know what it must have felt like for you to lose your father.”

She prattled on and on and on, and I fought the urge to round the desk and strangle her. To be honest, my anger was mostly held at bay by how incredulous I felt that she would bring up any of those things during a job interview. I glanced over her resume as she continued to talk about how similar she and I both were, even going so far as to mention that she had seen a photo of me in some magazine once, eating a sesame seed bagel, and how those were her favorite bagels too.

Not only that, but: “You’re even hotter in person,” she confessed.

I knew that some people got nervous during interviews, but this was insane. She had pretty decent references on her resume too. How could someone have possibly hired her, when she didn’t seem to know a single thing about interviewing?

“You’re good friends with Greg Anderson?” I finally cut in. He was listed as her first reference, and as well-known as he was in the business world, I would be surprised if he vouched for someone like this. But if he did, if he could give me a valid reason to hire her, maybe I would, just to get the whole interview process over with.

But Kara smiled brightly at me. “Greg’s the best, isn’t he?” she asked, not answering my question.

“How did you come to meet him?” I pressed.

“Well, I haven’t actually,” Kara said. “I mean, I did an interview with someone in his company, and they said that I could contact them anytime.”

“But you didn’t actually work for him,” I said flatly. It wasn’t a question, and I wasn’t going to be calling her “references” to see what, if anything, they had to say about her. I had heard enough. Half the resume was probably made-up, or at least heavily exaggerated. Half these women just wanted to meet me.

I should restrict the interviews to guys, I thought savagely. But I knew that I couldn’t be seen to discriminate against women, or else someone was bound to find out and I would find myself stuck with a stupid lawsuit. I had interviewed a few guys that morning, and none of them had been quick-witted enough to keep up with me, let alone advise

me. Now, I had to interview at least one or two women, even if they were just making shit up so that they could brag to all of their friends that they had been in the same room with me and had a conversation with me.

I stood abruptly. “Unfortunately, the position for my advisor has already been filled, but thank you for your time,” I told Kara, even though it wasn’t true. Maybe I wouldn’t hire anyone. Maybe the position of my advisor no longer existed.