“I have it from here, thank you,” I said, and opened the door, stepping in front of her and entering Ken Dolan’s office.
He looked up from his desk, not so much with surprise as with confusion.
“I guess I’ll be right outside as usual,” Michele said from behind me, and closed the door.
Ken Dolan rose slowly. He was easily six feet two or three, with a compact, athletic build. He wore a light blue sports jacket, a white shirt with an opened collar, no tie, and dark blue slacks. His dark complexion highlighted his clear sea-blue eyes. There were strands of light gray in his stylishly cut light brown hair.
Some men simply radiated authority, I thought. They look as if they should run companies or be U.S. senators. Maybe because I could see and feel it so easily in Daddy, I could recognize it when I saw it in ordinary men. Ken Dolan was one of those men, and yet there was nothing hard or unpleasant in the face he was showing me at the moment. If anything, he now looked somewhat amused.
He came around his desk and, still smiling, offered me his hand. “Come, sit,” he said, indicating the dark brown leather settee on his right. “I hate sitting behind that desk when I interview someone for any position here. Makes me feel like a school principal or something.”
I sat, and he sat beside me but leaned back.
“Tell me about yourself,” he began. “My aunt filled me in on your unfortunate family situation.”
“She’s very kind,” I said.
“She’s got good instincts when it comes to people, especially strangers. What is it she saw so quickly in you?”
“Determination to succeed,” I said without hesitation. His eyes told me he liked that reply. “Except for getting my father to realize he’s making a mistake, I’ve never failed at anything I’ve attempted to do.”
“Does that include computer skills?”
“It’s in our DNA these days,” I replied. “We had an excellent program at school.”
“My current secretary, who you see is desperate to get relief, has developed an amazing sixth sense when it comes to what I want and need done. I’m looking for someone with initiative, someone I don’t have to tell when something has to be done and, after a short period, what else has to be done. She’s got her work, and I have mine.”
I looked around his office. There were plaques on the walls from the Quincy Chamber of Commerce and plaques congratulating the Dolan Plumbing Supply Company for years of service and exceptional sales. I also saw plaques from organizations showing appreciation for charitable contributions. A variety of framed pictures with Ken Dolan and who I imagined to be state and maybe federal dignitaries were there, along with a picture of who I assumed to be
his son, Liam, and his daughter, Julia. There was a separate framed photograph of Julia in a graduation robe and another of her in what looked like a nurse’s uniform.
“I don’t judge people on how young or old they are per se, but I do find that young people your age generally don’t know how to answer the phone properly,” Ken Dolan said. “Nor take a message correctly, when it comes to that. All of this texting and electronic media are damaging the basic but important communication we need, especially in a business that depends on customers feeling properly addressed.”
“I suppose it’s how you’re brought up, too,” I said. “My mother set a good example for me when it came to people-to-people relations. I’m probably as frustrated by some of the careless and sloppy talk we get on the phone these days as you are. I’m not Miss Perfect, but I think I know when to put my own interest on hold and service the priorities of other people. It’s a matter of self-survival, anyway, isn’t it?”
He stared at me a moment and then smiled. “Self-survival?”
“I’ve had to fend for myself more than most lately, Mr. Dolan. You tend to grow up faster when that happens. My age and my appearance are somewhat deceptive, but then again, there will be women who come in here looking for this position who will be older and might even appear to be responsible and mature but who will be just as deceptive.”
His mouth opened a little, and then he laughed, holding his smile. “I’m beginning to understand what my aunt saw.”
I shrugged. “I won’t make any claims about myself. Your aunt would surely say the proof is in the pudding, anyway.”
He nodded. “You read her right. I like it when I meet someone, young or old, who has some good perception.”
“Survival,” I emphasized. “When you don’t have much of a safety net, you had better be right about people you meet the first time.”
“You’re a very pretty girl, Lorelei. Do you see that as an advantage or a disadvantage?”
“Depends. With men, it’s usually an advantage. Most women see me as a threat,” I said, and his eyes brightened.
“You don’t sound conceited, but you don’t back away from a compliment, either.”
I shrugged. “What is true is true, Mr. Dolan. Why put on false humility? Besides, I don’t want to tell you that you’re wrong the first time I’ve met you.”
He laughed so hard I thought he would have a pain in his stomach. “Where do you come from again?”
“I’m from California, but we lived in other places.”