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The laughter that followed made me shrink to something so small I wanted to run out of the room and fly back to California. But I knew that it wasn’t an option. It would mean proving my father right, that I was helpless in the real world.
“Is that a joke, Jellybean?”
“It’s not, sir,” I shrugged. “I’m not from here. I’m from California. In California, I have a car I could take anywhere I needed to go. I moved here two months ago, and I still didn’t know how to navigate my way around the city.”
I didn’t tell him about the bus because I knew it would only make me a laughingstock.
“Some people don’t know how to cook, some people don’t know how to drive. Some people don’t know how to swim. I just happened not to know my way around yet. But I’m learning. If you finished reading my résumé, you would’ve known that I’m a fast learner.”
Clair was now hiding her laugh behind her hand, and even Susana’s interest was piqued at our little banter.
I knew I wasn’t getting this job, and that was okay. It wasn’t the end of the world. But the last thing I wanted was another man humiliating and belittling me.
“I appreciate your honesty, Ms. St. James—”
“You want my full honesty, Mr. Parker?”
“By all means.”
“I’m an aspiring employee here, but that’s just it. I was late, and I’ll take accountability for it. But I didn’t mean to disrespect these people. I believe that my reason was valid. I have no power over any of you. You could’ve just struck my name off your list. You could’ve started without me. But you couldn’t because you were late, as well, and they couldn’t start without you.”
I could tell that Matthew was taken aback by the fact that I was accusing him of being late as well, but he didn’t interrupt me. So I went on.
“And you can all think what you want about my tardiness, but at the end of that day, again, I’m just an employee. If you don’t hire me, I’ll get on with my life. Your tardiness, however, sir, speaks volumes. You’re the boss, and you let your employees wait for you when you should’ve set an example and lived up to what we’ve heard about this hotel. We were all lined up here, and you were still busy with your phone.”
We stared at each other for a moment, and I anticipated him yelling at me, or kicking my ass out of the room. Or snapping at Clair, who was now red with laughter behind me, eyeing me with deep admiration and surprise.
“Is that all, Ms. St. James?”
“Off the top of my head, yes, sir.”
“Very good. Please return to your seat.”
What? That was it? No consequences? No yelling?
Clair carried on with the interviews, and this time, Matthew suggested starting alphabetically. He asked all the questions while Clair and Susana asked follow-ups.
Matthew's calmness with my rebuttal should’ve made me relax. The fact that he hadn’t looked at me again should’ve proven that I had successfully made my point. But if anything, it made me even more uncomfortable because I could sense the screws turning in his head.
He was cooking something up. And he was planning something diabolical for me. I just hoped the interviewees were good enough for them not to consider me after the stunt I had just pulled.
Otherwise, Matthew Parker was going to be the death of me.
Chapter three
Matthew
“You shouldn’t have hired her,” Clair complained nonchalantly as she lounged in my office chair, smoking her watermelon-scented vape. I didn’t mind the smell because I had had vices in the past, but I didn’t encourage her to smoke inside my office.
“You shouldn't have put her name in the top fifteen,” I answered.
Yes, due to whatever weird pull the universe Hadid brought to bear on me, I had agreed to hire Reagan St. James to work for my hotel, even though I knew that she hadn’t lifted a finger in her life to clean anything and that he was the sister of the person I hated the most.
But there was something about her that I didn’t want to see go. It was perhaps her smart mouth or her attractiveness. Or maybe because I had reason to believe that she was sent here for a reason—to spy on me? To make my life a living hell? I didn’t know.
It just didn’t sit right that Ricardo St. James allowed his daughter to leave home and do housekeeping work of all things.
Why didn’t he find her some kind of job where he could bribe people with his money? Like Hollywood. Her face was beautiful enough to be an influencer or even an actress.
