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11
Itooka taxi to the restaurant where I was meeting Gabriella and Alex, because I wasn’t sure on where it was. I was nervous. I stood outside the door, trying hard not to wipe my sweaty palms on my trousers. I took a deep breath and entered. I was met by the maître d’ and asked if I had abooking.
“I’m meeting Gabriella Collinsworth,” Isaid.
“Ah, we are expecting you, please, followme.”
I was led through the restaurant to a table set in an alcove. Gabriella stood, and as she did I saw Alex. I was expecting an elderly gentleman, considering she’d told me he wanted to leave. I guess I’d translated that as retire. I wasn’t expecting the man, who stood to greet me, to be not much older than Mackenzie. Nor was I expecting him to be as charming. He took my hand and raised it to his lips. He planted a gentle kiss to the back of myhand.
“Lauren, it’s good to finally meet you,” he said, in a very upper class Englishaccent.
“You too, thank you for taking the time to meet withme.”
He pulled a chair out for me to sit. Before I’d gotten myself comfortable, a waiter was beside me with iced water, pouring aglass.
“Would you prefer wine?” Alexasked.
“No, water is fine for me, thank you.” Not that I would normally drink wine during a ‘work’ meeting, but I noticed both Gabriella and Alex had soft drinksonly.
A waiter placed menus on the table that we ignoredinitially.
“So, Lauren, tell me a little about yourself,” Alexasked.
I guessed the ‘interview’ had started. I gave details of my work life, the companies I’d worked for while at college, and what I did. He would occasionally interrupt to ask me to expand on something I’dsaid.
We paused so the hovering waiter could takeorders.
“Now tell me about you,” Alexsaid.
On that, I wasstumped.
“Erm, I’m currently going through a divorce, but I can assure you that doesn’t affect the quality of my work,” Isaid.
Gabriella placed her hand on myarm.
“You’ve no need to justify that,” she said. Once again, I was reminded how kind shewas.
I thought for a moment. I had no hobbies; I had nothing to talk about. I bought myself some time by taking a sip of mydrink.
“I’ve spent the past ten years immersing myself in my job, Alex. I was on board from day one. I made it a priority to give my all to Jerry while he was building up thebusiness.”
“Andnow?”
“And now, I guess, I’m up for a newchallenge.”
“And you can balance home life with work life?” he asked. I thought it an odd question atfirst.
“Yes, I believe Ican.”
“We don’t want someone who works all the hours and burns out. We’re looking for someone to be with us long term, Lauren. It’s important that you have a home life, free time,” hesaid.
I simply nodded. I didn’t feel burnedout.
“People that have a varied home life, we find, produce the best work. As an organisation, we think it’s important to socialise, to bond over a bottle of wine or our annualBBQ.”
It all sounded very ‘American’ but then, I guessed itwas.
“Tell me a little about what would be expected of me,” I said, diverting the conversation away fromme.
