1
She blinks slowly up at me through lenses so thick they make my eyes hurt just looking at them. I fight to hold on to my temper. Carol is the only assistant who will put up with me. I cannot lose my shit on her. "Natalie hasn't called today, she sent an email. I forwarded you the email."
I count to three. "I know that. Ten minutes ago, I asked you to call Natalie and once she is on the line to put her through to me. Did you call her?"
Her double blink tells me the answer. I go back to my office before I start yelling. Sonofabitch. Natalie is hiding from me. She has been hiding from me for two fucking days.
My phone is in my hand when it beeps before Carol comes through the intercom. "Natalie is here to see you. Are you available?"
I don't bother counting as I snarl, "Yes, damn it."
Natalie knocks lightly as she opens the door. She is timid, clenching files in her hand tight enough they are bending. "I have four candidates, sir. One of them, I know is everything you're looking for."
I put my hand out for them. "Top file is Alexandra Clark, she prefers to be called Alexa. She's been the personal assistant for the vice-president of Miller Investments for over five years. She worked her way up starting as a temp in the mailroom eight years ago after earning a business degree from the University of Illinois in Chicago.
“Alexa is very happily married, for only two years. So they are still in the honeymoon period. Her husband works in IT for a small start-up, he works a lot and doesn't mind her working her own long hours. Alexa is intelligent, hardworking, and has exceptional organizational skills. The references I've called love her.”
Looking through her file, I am impressed with the determination that propelled her from the mailroom. A marriage certificate is the last thing in the file, Natalie is exceptionally thorough with this one. Felix Maine, she kept her last name. Interesting. Until I see a picture of her badge clipped to the file. She is young. Her eyes defiant, her chin is up, yet there’s a vulnerability to her she can’t hide. She has a heart-shaped face, a small chin with rounded cheeks. Her large blue eyes are a surprise considering her mousy brown hair. Too bad, she was perfect until I saw her picture.
"How old is she?"
"Thirty-one."
The vulnerability is real. I dismiss her. She’s too soft to endure my temper and demanding nature. Before the first week was over, I would have her in tears. I shake my head, putting her at the bottom. “Next."
Natalie is staring at me in surprise, “Sir—”
I shake my head. I do not explain my decisions. “Next.”
Her mouth thin, she nods. "Her name is Katherine White, a graduate of Duke. At fifty-seven with a long career as a secretary to a CFA, she knows her stuff. For seven years she ran the office on her own."
Her file is boring. "What do her references say?"
Natalie sighs, I look up. She looks tired, excellent. I want proof she is working her ass off on this. Today she is in full makeup. Usually, she doesn’t bother. Her hair is in the thin braids she gets every few months. I prefer her hair natural and would like to say so. However, one thing I have learned is to never have an opinion on a woman's hair.
Her eyes do not meet mine.
Fuck.
"She can be seen as rough but—"
She goes to the bottom of the pile. "Next."
I open the file as Natalie starts talking. “Anna Temple, a graduate of Barnard—"
“Jesus, Natalie. Class of nineteen sixty-four? How is she not already dead?” I fling the file at her in annoyance. Then open the next one.
She thinks I miss her flipping me off, I see it. I choose to let it go. "Harry Blaine he's a recent grad of Wharton for his masters, undergraduate from Northwestern. He's been interning over at the commodities building. He has positive remarks from pretty much everyone."
Scanning the file, he has a weak showing in math. How the fuck can you go into the financial industry with a weak showing in math? Then I see it on his transcript. A notation so small if you blink you’ll miss it. It means his professor thinks one of his papers was plagiarized only could not verify it, so the student redid it with a reduced grade.
I flick the file off my desk. “This is bullshit, Natalie.”
She flinches as I raise my voice, frustration rising within me.
“None of these people are what I’m looking for.”
“Sir, with the extremely lawsuit vulnerable demand you set to have either a woman who was happily married or over the age of fifty or a man who wasn’t gay, Alexa Clark is exactly what you are looking for. Ms. Clark is not going to strip and lay across your desk. I’ve never met someone as happily married as she is. Her experience and references are better than the last six candidates. Frankly, if you don’t at least interview her, then I’m giving notice now to save us both time.” Normally soft brown eyes are hard as they meet mine.
Fuck. I pull out the woman’s file again. Were it not for the bullshit I have been going through with the other personal assistants since Victoria retired Alexa Clark would be my number one pick without hesitation. “Fine. Get her in here today.”
“Yes, sir.” Her relief is clear as she walks out.
I keep the woman’s file open in front of me. A quick call to Diego Valdez, the head of the only security company I trust, ends with his promise to have me everything on Alexandra Clark by the end of the day. Reading off everything he asks for, I find myself staring at the small picture at the back of the file. She is pretty enough, if unmemorable.
Seeing the way she was forced to keep waitressing while she worked at Miller Investments until three years ago angers me. She has been underpaid for years, her yearly pay is less than the quarterly bonus her boss gets. If I hire her, she’ll be making ninety thousand a year as my personal assistant, a forty percent increase in her pay, not including the bonuses I pay out quarterly.
I value my employees and make sure they know it. The salaries from top to bottom in my company are at a rate of thirty percent higher than any other financial firm in the industry. I believe in my people sharing in what they helped make possible.
Diego will get me facts, I want more. I make another call. “Leo, Ria was just telling me a few days ago I needed to invite you over for dinner again. Can we pretend I called you and you’re calling me back now?”
Shaking my head, I stifle a chuckle at the pleading. I never thought there would
come a day when the Dragon of Chicago would be concerned about upsetting the small slip of a woman he is married to. It wasn’t even as if Ria would throw a fit. I have never heard her raise her voice in the six years I have known her since she and Drake were married. While I have seen her angry, it’s rare. She is sweet-natured and calm yet at the same time bold enough to handle Drake, which is why she is one of the few women I genuinely like and respect.
“Tell Ria whatever makes you happy. Even though I’m sure she knows when you’re lying.”
“Yeah, every time. She’s got me down. When can you come over?”
I look through my calendar, “This week, I’m busy. Does next Friday work for you?
“Yeah, Christina has a violin recital that night, but it’s at six. After that, she’s going over to a friend’s house for a sleepover. Since Christina is going to a sleepover, Griffin has to go to one as well. I know you’ll be disappointed not to have the twins there. You’ll come over at eight and dinner at eight thirty?”
“That’s fine. They have managed to grow on me, it will be an oddly quiet evening. Now that you have saved your ass from getting chewed out I need some information.”
Even with his retirement from the financial industry Drake maintained strong connections within the world he grew up in. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather having owned and run one of the most prestigious boutique brokerage firms in Chicago. With his easy charm, he was well-liked and respected by those he knew as well as those he did not. For me, people tend to get nervous and clam up out of fear. I prefer the fear over being liked, so I do nothing to change it. I have come to depend on Drake’s ability to collect information.
“What’s up?”
“Do you know anything about Michael Lynch and or Alexa Clark over at Miller Investments? I know Miller isn’t the best place for employees, I’ve gotten several of their people all the way up to the top applying with me in the past. I’m looking at Alexa Clark as a new personal assistant.”