“Miss Cates?” A middle-aged woman with a soft voice appeared. I stood quickly, recognizing her voice from over the phone.
“Yes. Hi.” I smoothed out my skirt and hair, and followed her to the elevators.
“Hi. My name is Martha and I’ll take you to the conference room where you’ll wait for Mr. Hayes and Mr. Phillips,” she explained in the elevator.
“Thank you,” I said. “Were all applicants invited today?” I asked curiously.
“No. Mr. Hayes had only just extended me your information before I called you.” She then looked me up and down and pursed her lips.
I fought to keep my expression neutral. After such short notice, what did they expect? Did they think I would be just sitting around in a suit, waiting on their call with my portfolio in hand?
We reached the top floor and I clutched my purse and folder as we walked down the hall. Cubicles lined one side, while small pods of lounge chairs lined the other. Market numbers were displayed on a huge screen.
At the end of the hall, we stopped at a clear door—the kind you could only see shadows through.
“Wait here,” Martha instructed. I watched her walk away in her gray pant suit and somehow knew I hated her.
Shifting my weight from one foot to the other, I hoped I wouldn’t have to stand for long. My shoes were too small, my feet hurt, and sweat was running my back.
It was half past one before the door swung open. I gave a slight start, thinking I was looking at the company’s advertisement models. One of them, tall with blond hair and blue eyes, wore a welcoming smile. His navy-blue suit looked like a second skin, the tight jacket drawing attention to his muscles. And the other one was the exact definition of dark and handsome. His dark brown hair hung artfully around his brown eyes, which were sharp, just like his jawline. My eyes trailed over his mouth, realizing he was frowning.
“H-hello,” I stammered. “I’m Henley Cates.” I held out my hand, and the friendlier one took it. There was a good five-second delay before the other moved to shake my hand.
“I’m Maverick Phillips,” the friendlier one said. “And this is Jude Hayes. We’re the ‘H and P.’” Maverick smiled warmly again and I relaxed a little bit until I noticed Jude still frowning, looking over me like I was a rare specimen.
“It’s wonderful to meet you both,” I said, nervously clutching my purse strap.
“Same here. Please, come in,” Maverick said, turning around. I could have sworn he shot Jude a look. As I followed them, I wished I’d spent more time getting ready; it would have been worth being late to have makeup, proper hair, and shoes that weren’t broken.
I sat across from them both; they had chosen a table in the corner, so if I moved the wrong way, I would collide with their knees, as they were both so tall.
Jude took off his black suit jacket and leaned across the table. Tattoos peeked on his wrist and my eyes widened before glancing away and looking at Maverick instead. He gave me another warm smile and I handed him my portfolio.
“So, Miss Cates—why do you want to protect our assets?” Jude asked.
3
Maverick
The day got progressively worse as it went along. I started at five as I did every morning to train at my home gym. Having a home gym wasn’t about being pretentious; it was just easier to work out and then get ready for work without a commute in between. It was strictly cardio, so I ran my three miles and had a steam before dressing in one of my usual navy suits.
I had my typical breakfast, consisting of black coffee before I got to the office and an egg and spinach omelet as I read emails. When nine o’clock rolled around, I had my meeting with the support staff that Jude never attended.
Needless to say, my life had become a monotonous routine, or at least that was the case until the sudden shift with Hatchett that I still had no idea how to recover from.
Jude always said I worried too much, but that’s because he never worried about anything. That might have been why we’d been friends and successful business partners for so long. The company was everything to both of us, even if Jude liked to pretend it wasn’t his pride and joy.
In light of the ongoing crisis with Hatchett, I forced Jude to come to the next meeting. Whether he wanted to be there or not, I needed his support because the whole situation was driving me mad. I was even losing sleep, spending far too many hours watching the market as the numbers dropped, rose, held, and then dropped again.
“I don’t know why you’re so worked up about this. It’ll blow over,” Jude said, once we’d dismissed the partners from our meeting.
I paced the conference room, frustrated. The days never used to go like this. Previously, I would show up and work hard before taking off at the end of the day, sometimes with Jude if he wanted to go to the bar we frequented or to meet with women. Some of these women intuitively understood it would never go any further than just sex. Yet, Jude never exactly made these agreement entirely clear, and therefore sometimes had to deal with them not wanting to leave the following morning.
Regardless, on this day, there had been nothing on my mind but the stock with that tech start-up.
“And if it doesn’t?” I snapped. “We end up in the hole, our stock takes a dip, and then it becomes a fucking snowball effect!” I turned and eyed the whiskey, but it was too early for that.
Jude rose and met me on the other side of the conference table. “Chill, Maverick. You’re giving me a headache.”
The room over-looked the city, towering over the rest of the buildings. Jude and I had put hard work into this business, and I’d be damned if I let some weasel pull us out of it.
“Right.” I leaned on the glass as I faced him, finding his permanent smirk in place and his eyes glinting. I could honestly never tell what he was thinking, but the two of us had been friends way too long to not be able to take a good guess. Looking at him, I knew that he’d done something out of the ordinary. I just didn’t know what it was yet.
“Anyway, you’ve got to fix this mood because we have to interview someone for the asset lawyer position at one,” he said.
I glanced at my watch. It was already past one. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
“Martha just told her this morning because I honestly didn’t want to call anyone in until then,” Jude continued.
I arched a brow. “You were around early in the morning?”
He frowned. “Fuck you. Yes, I was. Anyway, this applicant—she graduated a year ago, but had a lot of internship experience. Really, I just want to know why no one else has hired her already. It doesn’t make sense to have that kind of resume and no job.”
“She might not have been actively looking. Who is she?”
“Henley Cates.”
“What does she look like?” I cocked my head and held his gaze, but he met my stare with a killer poker face.
“She might not even come, so don’t worry. She’s already late,” he said.
I couldn’t imagine being late for an interview as big as this. Anyone in or near the industry knew we were the leading company alongside Hatchett. Our resume piles had their own room and even their own email address that we never checked. Our positions were elusive, hard to get, and harder to keep. “Has she known about it for a while?” I asked.
“Well, since this morning when I decided to call her in.”
I paused, shooting him a look. “I’m sorry, but did you just say told someone about an interview just hours before they had to show up?” I almost laughed at the absurdity of it.
Jude shrugged and adjusted his cuff links. “I wanted to see how she did under pressure.” He checked his million-dollar watch. “And, so far, she’s not doing very good.”
I shook my head, thinking about how hard-pressed Jude could be sometimes, which was common knowledge around here. Our employees had learned their way around it a while ago though, so I had to give this new applicant props for even trying to make it under such a ridiculously short notice. I had to admit though, I
didn’t know any of the modern job-search struggles since I’d never had to do it.
“Whatever, man. Where is she?” I asked.
Just then, there was a knock at the door, ending our conversation.
She had arrived.
Jude rounded the desk and looked out the glass window, although nothing was visible but a shadow and a flash of red.
When I finally saw her, I wasn’t at all prepared.
Jesus.
First of all, I could tell she’d been in a rush; I hadn’t seen flats like that on anyone but Martha, and she was forty-seven.
Sitting across from us, the young woman’s gray eyes were wide and helpless, and the red bun on top of her head was falling apart.
This Henley Cates—with her around, I knew I would never get any work done. And neither would Jude, for that matter. He never even interviewed people like this. Yet, here she was, looking like beauty personified. A breath of fresh air.
With her soft wide eyes, full peachy lips, swells of her breasts peeking through her white chiffon top—she was just beautiful. And, from the looks of her resume, smart too. It didn’t take away from anything, but I could tell she was nervous and maybe a little uncomfortable, though I blamed that on Jude and his alluding questions.
“Do you always arrive late to important meetings?” he asked bluntly.
Henley’s cheeks flushed red as she wrung her fingers out from under the clear table. “No, I don’t. I was…” she blinked rapidly and swallowed. “No, I don’t.”
I cleared my throat. “Your work with other investment firms looks bright. What did you learn that you think you could apply here?” I asked.
She blinked a few times. “Well I…I learned a lot of basic skills with business law and corporate law, but I um…” Henley’s voice trailed off and she seemed to draw a blank. Her gaze fleeted to Jude and then quickly back to me, letting me know that he’d probably given her some sort of look. “I got really good at being self-sufficient and could anticipate things no one else saw,” she finished.
“Like what?” Jude pressed, leaning forward across the table, not caring that his proximity made her uncomfortable.
She licked her lips. “Like…if the market was dropping, and I knew the firm could lose money, I would start looking for ways to pull out early,” she said and then fixed her gaze on Jude. “To protect the company’s assets.”
I suppressed a smirk. She was obviously nervous, but also knew what she was talking about.
“Protect them how?” Jude asked.
I wanted to kick him under the table but worried it would be noticeable.
“There are a lot of legal loopholes, especially in start-up investments, for example,” Henley said.
I felt a light bulb go off in my head, and knew Jude did too, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he continued pressing Henley with more questions, getting her more flustered with each one.
“I do want to know, Miss Cates,” Jude said, his voice harsh. “If you would be able to handle the demands of the job; your tardiness certainly wasn’t a very good way to start off.”
I held back a sigh. “How about some water?” I asked, interrupting before Henley answered. I stood and she nodded as I went to retrieve her a glass.
Accepting graciously, she took small sips before setting it down and turning her attention back to Jude. “I don’t usually arrive to anything late. It’s just not something I do…”
I could tell she wanted to say more, but Jude came back at her with more questions. Strangely enough, the more flustered she got, the cuter I found her incessant blushing. She looked like a damned short-cake with that red hair of hers.
The interview went on for a while longer before I finally ended it with one last question.
“Are you currently pursuing any other job options?”
“No,” she answered quickly.
I glanced at Jude. For some reason, he didn’t look pleased.
We both stood, and Henley rose too, nervously grabbing her purse.
“We’ll let you know our decision soon, rejection or not,” Jude said.
I smiled, trying to ease the harshness of his words. “Thank you for meeting with us. It was a pleasure.” I reached to shake her hand, her small soft hand in mine. She briefly met my gaze and something stirred within me.
I watched as Jude shook her hand before she left. Once she was out of sight, I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
Jude shook his head and went to the whiskey jar. “I thought she was going to start crying.”
“What the hell was that?” I snapped.
“What?” he said over his shoulder.
I took off my jacket, feeling uneasy. Part of me felt we had been too hard on her, yet another part of me felt like she knew something. “You ambushed that girl,” I said.
Jude downed the glass and sighed. “I had to know if she could handle the rough job. It’s grueling.”
“Doesn’t mean you have to be. Jesus, her resume showed she has great experience.”
Jude waved his hand dismissively. “People put anything on paper.”
I paused for a moment, unable to argue with him there. “Did you bring her here because of how she looks, by any chance?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Come on.”
Jude shook his head, grinning. “Doesn’t matter what she looks like. We should still see other applicants.”
“Are you going to look through them?”
“I’m tabling this discussion,” he glanced at his watch before slamming his glass on the table, “and leaving early. See you tomorrow.”
I stared after him and then went back over to the table, frowning. Inhaling deeply, I could still smell Henley’s perfume lingering behind.
4
Jude
I swear, I hadn’t been so pissed off in my entire life. I’d had a lot of bad business meetings in the past, that was for sure. But that was…
I couldn’t even put it into words.
I left early for the first time in years and headed to the bar downtown where we had our own private table, closed off from everyone else. The barkeep came by, asking about Maverick since we usually came together. Although I wasn’t mad at him or anything, I hadn’t felt like waiting for him and had needed to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.
We had no good lawyers, and no good applicants. Henley was pretty and all, but I wasn’t feeling her as an employee. On some level, I knew it was because of how distracted I’d be with her around.
My phone went off in the middle of my second martini, but I ignored it, knowing it was Maverick probably wanting to give me some moral speech about using people. Sighing, I finished my second drink. Mad as I was, I knew I couldn’t leave him hanging. So a little while later, I found myself heading back to the office, pretending not to notice everyone’s inquiring stares. I stopped at Maverick’s office. He was at the computer, his face screwed up and his shoulders tensed. Probably worrying himself over nothing, as usual.
“Back from your pick-me-up?” he said, sensing my presence without even looking up.
I scoffed as I made my way to his desk and perched myself on the edge of it. Glancing at his computer, I saw that he was looking at the market again, comparing it to our numbers. Annoyed, I reached over and clicked off the screen. Maverick sneered in protest, finally looking at me.
“You still obsessing over this shit?” I said, flicking the papers he’d laid out in front of him. Everything had to be so planned and organized with him. It was irritating.
“No. Just checking on things.” He arched his brow. “You wanna tell me what was up with you and that interview?”
I averted my gaze. Suddenly, everything was more interesting than this conversation. I undid my jacket and cuff links while Maverick continued staring at me.
“Nothing,” I said after a moment. “I thought she looked like a good candidate.”
“Based on what, her resume or her face?”
“Look, don’t hound me on this,” I said, although I couldn’t help cracking a smile.
“I’m not. But she was a good candidate, so I don’t know why you grilled her like that.”
I rolled my eyes. “I was just asking basic questions.”
“Not really, man. And you were making her uncomfortable. That’s not what we’re about.”
“Seriously, it isn’t that deep, man. I was just…” But my voice trailed off, unable to think up a valid excuse.
“Whatever, dude. She would have been a good choice. I can’t imagine she would want to work for us now though. Maybe—” He stopped abruptly.
When he began ignoring my stare, I gripped his shoulder. “What?” I demanded.
A hint of a smile formed on his lips. “Nothing. I just think you should have gone easier on her, that’s all.”
“I wasn’t being too hard on her,” I said, rolling my eyes. Between the two of us, Maverick was way too nice and easy on people, leaving me to look like the bad guy for being a hard ass.
He stood with a sigh. “Yes, you were. She was a good candidate, to me at least.”
I stood as well. “Yeah. Because you think everyone is a fucking angel, but they’re not. Hell, you’re the reason we’re even in this mess with Hatchett. You trusted him.” It only took a split second for me to regret the statement. I jabbed my finger at his chest, trying to lessen the sting of what I’d just said.
Maverick blinked before nodding and stepping away.
I bit my tongue for a moment, letting the thick air cool before speaking. “You know I didn’t mean that,” I said. “But Henley and her interview were nothing, so just drop it, all right?”
Maverick paced the room for a few seconds and then stopped in front of me. “Fine. Consider it dropped. But Henley may have some other qualities we could use…” He wasn’t usually the one to suggest stuff like that, but obviously, Henley was gorgeous—a fact that wasn’t lost on him. “You have to admit, she is damned sexy,” he added, confirming my thoughts.
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