AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She gave me a look. “Petra was not useless.”
I chuckled, “Please, that girl was a nervous wreck!”
“She almost lodged a complaint against you for sexual harassment!”
“Give me a break, as if that would’ve gone anywhere!”
We were on the ground floor now and I walked out with big strides, making it purposefully harder for Jill keep up with her tight skirt and rather stout frame.
“You did tell her to grow a pair! That could be construed as offensive and inappropriate language!”
“Come on!” I stopped walking and turned to face her.
Jill exhaled slowly. “You know we are busy talking to some big production companies. They are very sensitive to any kind of gender harassment stuff, any whiff of inappropriate behavior and they pull out of the deal!”
I sometimes regretted merging my company with Jill’s organization. The new entity had made me millions, growing the company exponentially but it came with plenty of strings attached. Sometimes I felt like a dog on a leash, being yanked back by my master. Occasionally, it made me want to bite those in charge, other times I wanted to take a shit on their carpet, maybe chew up their metaphoric slippers.
“You picked this one, Evie Gerick,” Jill reminded me. “I preferred the look of the other one, the graduate from Stanford.”
“The statistics major? Wouldn’t have lasted the day.”
I had flipped through the photographs of all the applicants and something about Evie had caught my eye. She was pretty, which was important, obviously, but I wouldn’t have admitted that to Jill. She certainly did not look fragile like Pathetic Petra, who had freaked out when I asked her to fire my personal trainer, saying she couldn’t “crush someone’s soul” like that. This had prompted me telling her to grow some balls, to which she had taken inter-galactic offence.
Something about Evie told me that she could take a bit of heat. Maybe it was the fact that she had two brothers, paid for her studies herself, worked part-time in a restaurant kitchen as a student. Those were high pressure environments, with very sharp knives and boiling water. I figured that she had enough balls for both of us. But I would definitely test her on that.
I had every intention of dropping her in the deep end on the first day.
She surprised me, finding me at the beach the way she had. It showed she had resources, a bit of fire, which I liked. What I didn’t like,was the irritation she showed at having to use a few brain cells. It seemed she had a cushy job in mind when she started working for me.
After the afternoon at the beach, I made her come in early the next morning, then ensured I was out running, giving her time to meet my daughter, Summer, who was the best judge of character I knew. Summer was ten-going-on-thirty, she could see through the bullshit better than anyone, after all, her mother worked in the film industry in LA and Summer had more experience than most at trying to distinguish fairy glitter from facts.
I told Summer to let Evie in and told her she was my new PA, but nothing else.
Summer had been the first to call my previous PA Pathetic Petra, a name that had unfortunately stuck, and seemed very apt in retrospect. I was looking forward to hearing her opinion on Evie. If she hated her, Evie would be out the door faster than the personal trainer who’d tried to teach me to breathe.
When I got back from my run, Evie and Summer were in the kitchen, getting ready for school. Summer’s nanny would pick up her up soon, but I liked that Evie had made Summer a lunch box and had even managed to do her hair. Summer was not the easiest kid in the world, with a father like me, who could blame her? I did take some pride in the fact that she was tough and a tomboy, totally hating anything pink or girly with a passion that disturbed some people.
I overheard part of their conversation.
“My dad took me skydiving once,” said Summer. Little liar, as if I’d do that.
“Oh, yeah?” Evie said, “Did you like it?”
“It was okay,” my little lying daughter said matter-of-factly.
“My dad took me ice skating on the lake when I was six years old and I fell through the ice,” Evie said. “It took him a while to find me, I got pulled into the water.”
“Were you scared?”
“Not so much scared as very, very cold. I hate being cold.”
“Well, it doesn’t get too cold around her,” Summer said and I could tell by her voice that she approved of Evie.
“Glad to hear it,” Evie said.
“You guys getting acquainted?” I asked, coming into the kitchen. Evie was dressed more casually today, in jeans and boots.
“So, what do you think,” I asked Summer. “Will this one stick around?”
