"You're welcome to bring your wife," he adds. "No pressure, of course."
I give Allison a quick hug. "Are you coming with us?" I ask her, even though I highly doubt it.
“No.” She shakes her head, and I smile knowing exactly what she means.
33
Dante
It's late in the afternoon when Jacqueline and I sit out on the back patio, around the pool with my laptop in front of me and her resume pulled up.
She had agreed to help me catch Vasko in the act, but first she needs to get the job. I scroll through her experience, which isn't conveyed very well.
"When you first apply for a job," I say, "you have to make sure that your resume and cover letter match up with the keywords that the job position mentions specifically."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, they don't have people looking at them. It's almost always just a computer doing the initial scan. That's why you never hear back from so many of them.”
“Really?” she asks, surprised.
“After that, it goes to the human resources department and maybe, if you're lucky, you have a few seconds that a real person will glance at both documents to decide whether you're a good fit for the company at all.”
“I had no idea.”
"You see here, all this language about the administrative assistant," I point to the position that Vasko's company has listed with the recruiter, "you want all of that to appear in your paperwork and you want all of that to appear and be very natural. Of course, you can put a whole bunch of keywords at the bottom of the page, but once the person looks at it, they're going to see that and that's gaming the system."
"What about what you're doing now?" Jacqueline asks, leaning back, wearing nothing but a thin sundress.
There's a little bit of sweat on her forehead, her hair is limp and damp from the afternoon swim, and she has gotten at least two shades darker since her arrival here.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Aren't you trying to game the system as well?"
I smile. "I'm just trying to make it more of an even playing field."
She laughs and takes a sip of her lemonade.
I finish mine and pour myself another glass from the pitcher. This one's spiked with vodka, hers isn't.
I've noticed that she's not much of a drinker. She'll nurse the same drink for a few hours, pretending to sip on it but when it comes to actually consuming a lot of alcohol, that's not really her style.
I go through her resume and reword a lot of her experience to match the job announcement. It's simple things like perform clerical duties and experience working for a dynamic growing company in her cover letter.
I add that she has taken charge of a number of different office support administrative duties, including mail merging, pivot tables, and presentation design.
In her resume, I add that she has experience responding to phone inquiries, receiving and attending to visitors, ordering word processors, files, and faxes, as well as supporting diverse projects for other employees.
"You're just copying everything from the job announcement," she points out.
"Have you not had experience doing any of this?" I ask her point blank.
She stares at me. "Of course I have, but it's just a whole bunch of fancy language for being an administrative assistant. Answering calls, dealing with people's bullshit, all that stuff."
"Yes, exactly. But it's the language that matters because it's the language that's going to get you through to the HR department."
Jacqueline smiles and relaxes her feet on the chair opposite from her. She puts one on top of the other, crossing her legs at the ankles.
"How do you know so much about this?"
"That's exactly how it works at my company, so I'm assuming it works the same way at others. Now, once you do get an interview, that's a whole other situation."
"What do you mean? What's Vasko like anyway?" she asks.
"Egomaniacal, self centered, cocky."
“So, like you?" she says, narrowing her eyes.
“Agh, that hurts.” I laugh.
I like this banter back and forth. It relaxes me and makes it feel like we're an actual couple. “So, I wanted to ask you something."
Jacqueline nods and waits.
"I feel kind of silly, but there's really no other way of putting it."
"Go ahead, put it in any which way you want.” She nudges me with her bare feet and I let my eyes go up her leg.
She pulls her legs tighter and I lick my lips.
"What do you think if you were my girlfriend?"
"I think I'd like that," she says with a little sigh.
I can feel her getting a little nervous. She clenches her jaw, holds onto the sides of her wicker chair a little too tightly, and I see the whites of her knuckles.
She then relaxes her grip, reaches over, and kisses me. I kiss her back, pulling her tightly, wrapping my hand around her waist. When I start to slide in between her thighs, she pulls away.
"It's the middle of the day. If we got caught doing it out here at night, imagine how easy it would be for someone to walk in on us now."
"Hey, I'm not saying we have to go all the way," I protest, "let me just get a little feel."
She pulls her legs even tighter, preventing me any entry.
I laugh and find the pool light.
"You're really sexy," she says, sucking on her straw.
I see a little bit of her tongue and it takes a lot of effort to not jump right over there and kiss her.
"You're really sexy, too," I say. "I've been wanting to do that for a while."
"What exactly?"
"Ask you to be my girlfriend."
"That's really cute.” She smiles.
"I'm glad that I could amuse you."
"No, seriously. I appreciate it. I like the certainty."
Jacqueline pauses a little before she says the word certainty and I realize that given the circumstances under which we met and what we've been through, I like the certainty as well.
"Can I lay down some ground rules?" I add.
She nods.
"I don't want to share you with anyone. I know that we met under very different circumstances and you'd think that I should probably be one of those kind of guys, but I just don't want to share you."
"I don't want to share you either," she says, and our lips collide.
She pulls away slightly and looks into my eyes. Her eyelashes are long. And when I look deeper, I see a little bit of a teardrop in one corner. When she pulls away, she acts like it is the breeze that made her eyes water.
"Please don't ever cheat on me," she says. "I was going to The Redemption when I was single, but I don't want to go there with you and I definitely don't want you to go behind my back like ..." She pauses for a little bit. "Lincoln," she adds quietly.
We still haven't really talked about it: Allison hooking up with my brother. Clearly he doesn't want anything further to happen and probably wishes that he hadn't gone there at all, but it still happened and Jacqueline and I know about it.
We know the truth and a part of me feels incredibly guilty about keeping it a secret from Marguerite.
"What's wrong?" Jacqueline says, taking my hand in hers.
I drift away a little bit in my own thoughts.
"I feel bad for her," I say quietly.
I know that we have to be careful in this house, the walls have ears, and the last thing I want to do is have Marguerite find out from us rather than from whom she deserves to know the truth.
"I don't know what to do," I finally come out and say it.
"About what?"
"I don't know what to do about keeping this a secret."
34
Jacqueline
I can see how much this whole thing is weighing on Dante's mind. I know that he has gotten closer to Marguerite recently, and he's upset with Lincoln, not only for working too many hours, but also for betraying her.
I know that if e
veryone keeps their mouth shut, Marguerite will probably never find out, but I don't know if that's right.
On one hand, she's having a child with him. And if he's willing to make amends and put this in his past and actually commit to her, why rattle the cage? Why make it a problem if it’s a one time mistake?
But on the other hand, I'm a firm believer in knowing the truth and all the facts. And if I were her, no matter how much pain it would cause me, I would want to know the truth about my husband and the father of my child.
I'd want to know what a scumbag he is so that I could make a definitive choice as to whether I want to stay with him despite that.
Keeping the secret from Marguerite is not right, but it's also not my place or Dante's place to tell her what happened.
I feel like there is no right or wrong answer, but not telling her makes me feel shitty.
Nevertheless, this weekend we have really connected and become friendly despite the fact that Adele seems to prefer spending time with me. Marguerite is honest, charming, and lovely, and someone that I will be proud to call my friend. Besides she and Lincoln have been together for a long time.
Who knows? Maybe it's something that he has done before and she has accepted from him. You never know what's going on behind closed doors.
"I don't think we should tell Marguerite," Dante says, the smile disappearing from his face being replaced by something more serious.
I nod. "I kind of agree with you."
"I feel guilty," Dante says. "I feel like she should know. But then another part of me feels like this is their marriage and who knows, maybe she already knows."
I smile realizing that he's practically reading my mind. We finished working on my resume and the cover letter with Dante redoing all of it.
"Well, according to this, I'm a perfect fit,” I say, reading it over.
"Are you sure you're okay with going there?"
I nod. "I mean, it’s not like I have a million job offers coming in from anywhere else."
"What about your mom?"
I hesitate. I hadn't thought about that much.
“She's feeling better now and it's not like I'm moving there permanently. How long exactly?”
“Six months, maybe nine. Maybe even a lot sooner. I want this to be as quick and painless as possible.”
I get up from the table to refill my glass. When I return, I sign into my email and send off the cover letter and resume to the address provided.
"Well, this is it," I say. "Now, we just wait."
Dante nods. "If this works, I'm probably going to set you up with a private investigator there."
"Really? Why?"
"Just to run all this stuff by. Somebody who works with corporate espionage."
I sit back in my seat.
"That's exactly what you're doing, you know."
"I am?”
Dante nods.
"You're going undercover to find out what's happening in this company, their systems, possible lies. You're trying to get us inside the system."
"That seems intense,” I say.
"It is. I don't want you to be under any delusion that it's not going to be hard and difficult. And you're going to be wearing a lot of masks. You're going to be this one person there and another who reports to me and possibly writes an article about it."
"What if it's really fraud?" I ask.
"He'll do anything to keep it a secret and you'll have to do whatever it takes to protect yourself. I'll be there. I hope that it doesn't get to that point, but it has before."
"Before?” I ask. "You've done this before?"
"I've done some elements of this before. I've never put anyone on the inside, but I've hired private investigators and their lives got threatened."
"Are you serious?" I ask.
I move to the edge of my chair, perching like a bird.
"I don't want you to be confused about anything. I'm not trying to deceive you or scare you, but this isn't just like a regular job. You're going to possibly uncover a major fraud and people involved with it will do a lot to keep it hidden."
I inhale heavily and then exhale just as slowly. Prior to this conversation, I thought that this position would be something fun, a store leading to possibly a story.
But of course, Dante's right.
It's not just a story. These are people's lives. And when you threaten them and you put them under attack, they might take action.
"You still want to do this?" Dante asks, sitting back in his chair and crossing one leg over his knee.
He's dressed in casual shorts, flip-flops, and a loose fitting button down shirt that's open halfway down to his chest. He looks like a man who's on vacation, wearing his leisure wear.
I think about it for a moment, taking as much time as I need. He's right. This isn't just a hypothetical adventure that I'm going to go on. This is a serious job with serious repercussions mainly for me.
If I crack the story and I get it published and actually discover and uncover what I think we will, my world could change.
I could be the journalist that then gets to investigate anything she wants, and I could get a job at any major magazine or newspaper.
They're not that many celebrity newspeople anymore, but the ones in certain positions know how valuable we are. This could be my ticket to the top, but it can also be something that blows up in my face and if he catches me and he puts the word out there that this is who I am, that I may not be able to get another job with anyone else.
"I'm going to do this," I say, shaking my head with great certainty. I realize the risks but I really want to do this.
"Good.” Dante nods, reaches over, and gives me a kiss.
35
Dante
The following morning, I get a call on my Google phone number from Seattle.
Wow, they took the bait a lot faster than I thought they would.
I walk out of the room and head downstairs, walking on my tiptoes and finally answering on the fourth ring. It's a recruiter from Seattle calling to confirm Jacqueline’s references.
She hasn't had much experience and as much as I had to spruce up her resume, it wasn't going to be nearly enough to land her this position. However, I wasn't sure if she would go along with lying on her resume and so I did it for her.
I added a phone number at the bottom right before she checked it over and sent it. The phone number led to my Google voice name set up with a virtual assistant to take the call representing my New York startup. The assistant kept the recruiter on the line prior to getting me on the phone: me, Jacqueline’s boss.
The recruiter is polite and quickly gets to the point.
"Yes, Jacqueline is a great employee and we're really going to miss her,” I say. “And as much as it pains me to let her go, I have no choice. She goes above and beyond for every task and has worked more than a few late nights trying to meet various deadlines.”
The recruiter wants to know more.
"As you know, the startup world is not light on work,” I elaborate. “She only asked for a raise once even though she probably should have gotten it three times, but she appreciates how tight the money is now. And I know that in the right environment and working for the right person, she will be able to accomplish great things."
I go on and on talking her up.
But I also make sure to mention a few flaws.
One of the reasons why women often stay in administrative positions longer than they should is that they don’t ask for raises often and don’t delegate much, choosing to do a lot of work themselves.
This makes them too valuable in their current positions and other less capable people get to move up. Everyone who has ever worked in any corporate environment, especially one that's full of hustle culture knows this to be the case.
I play this up knowing that that's exactly the type of person that Vasko would choose to be his assistant.
The recruiter finishes our conversation sounding excited, mentioning that she will put
Jacqueline’s application on top of the pile.
“I’m sad to see her go but her mind is set to do something different. She prefers Seattle but she is also applying for positions in San Francisco and San Diego as well.”
I mention this to put a little pressure on the recruiter and when her voice tenses up I know it did its job. I hope it's enough to make her work a little harder to make sure that Jacqueline is the one who gets hired. And if she does get the position, the recruiter stands to make ten to twenty percent of Jacqueline’s annual salary as a finders’ fee.
"Hey, who are you talking to?" Jacqueline asks, walking down the stairs, coming out onto the patio.
I hang up, hesitating and wondering whether I should tell her the truth.
* * *
As soon as I see her there, I decide not to lie.
"That was the recruiter."
"Why was she calling you?" Jacqueline stands in a bathrobe with her hair tied up in a messy bun.
I can see a little bit of her pajamas underneath the silk robe.
"Okay, don't get mad, but I added something to the resume right before you sent it."
“What?" she gasps.
"A reference as your boss. You worked as an administrative assistant at Sunflower, mobile game startup in New York. I'm the CEO."
"You're the CEO of a mobile game startup?" Jacqueline starts to laugh leaning against the doorway.
"I know, silly, right?"
"Why did you do that?"
"You had some experience and I wanted to make sure the resume was as good as possible but the recruiter was excited. They're looking for someone who is experienced and you've got a stellar recommendation."
"Yeah, from my boyfriend.” She smiles, walking over and giving me a kiss.
"So you're okay with this?" I ask, somewhat surprised, pulling away from her.
"Well, I don't know about okay, but if I'm going to go undercover, this is just going to be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lying, right?"
I nod.
"I like the way you think, girl.” I lean in for a kiss.
Dark Redemption Page 15