Page 13 of Help Wanted

“Fine. Okay. It’s going to sound ridiculous, but she did remind me of Courtney, who may have broken my heart.” His face was hot. Why was his office so fucking hot? It was the end of February for Christ’s sake. “And forgive me if I don’t want to walk into my office every day and be reminded of that feeling. It’s too painful.”

Sidney did a great job of keeping the laughter in. She even looked compassionate.

“I’m sorry,” was all she managed to get out.

“So you see why I might be uncomfortable working with her.”

Sidney tilted her head to the side while she thought it over.

“Nope. Sorry. That’s not going to cut it. She’s qualified. She’s available to start immediately, and she’s very pleasant. If there’s a problem it would be on you, not her. Why should she be punished because you used to be in love with a girl who looks like her?”

“I wasn’t in love with her,” he corrected quickly. He was so in love with her. He used to pretend his pillow—never mind.

“Are you sure about that? Because most people don’t have this kind of issue over a ten-year-old crush.”

“She makes me feel like an awkward teenager again.”

“Again, your problem, not hers.” Drat. It was time for a compromise or else she wouldn’t stop until he’d caved. He couldn’t cave on this.

“She was only the first interview. Let’s see who else comes in, and if we don’t find anyone better, I’ll reevaluate on Thursday when I get back.”

“Fair enough.” She smiled and left his office without another argument.

“Damn it.” She’d agreed too easily. Somehow he’d made a fatal error.

* * *

“Really? No one else? Not one other person?” Zane asked his sister after finishing the second interview on Thursday afternoon.

“Nope. Sorry.”

He should have known no one better would apply. His sister had made up her mind, which meant the most perfect candidate could have come in and offered to work for free, and Sidney would have passed the person over just so Zane would be miserable.

The only other interviews she’d set up were one with an eighty-year-old woman who didn’t like to fly and a girl out of high school who’d kept checking her phone the whole time.

He wasn’t surprised to come in on Friday morning to find Kenley’s application back on his desk with a sticky note that said:

Hire this girl or you’ll be sorry. She’s perfect and she’s not Courtney.

The truth was, he couldn’t argue.

Kenley was perfect for the job. She had a degree in business, had years of experience and stellar recommendations, with the exception of her last boss who said she was unethical and incompetent. When Zane had asked the woman why it had taken her six years to figure that out, the woman hung up on him.

Unable to put it off any longer, he took a deep breath and picked up the phone to call the woman—who would be a constant reminder of his past inadequacies—to ask if she would work for him.

Never, when he was a dorky kid back in school, would he have expected basic social hierarchies to shift so he would be in the position of power over one of the elite.

Long live the king. And God save his heart.

* * *

Kenley pounded on the punching bag even after her hands hurt. She had taped a photo of Ruth at the top of the bag so she could pretend she was beating up her old boss.

Ironically it was a picture of her and her husband taken at the New Year’s party. She decided it was only fitting since both of them needed a good smack upside the head.

“He’s not even good-looking,” she yelled as she punched the bag over and over. “You’ve ruined my life!”

During her rant and assault on an inanimate object her phone rang. When she didn’t recognize the number, her heart started pounding for a new reason. Was someone calling for an interview? After the disaster with Zane two weeks ago, she’d put out about a million résumés. She only needed one to get her in the door.