Page 36 of Getting Down to Business

“Please come in. Sorry for making you wait.”

“No problem.” See? I’m accommodating. Please don’t fire me.

“Have a seat.” He gestured to the chairs in front of his desk. “I’ve asked you to come up today for an impromptu interview. I have your employee file so I know the basics, but I wanted to discuss the possibility of moving you up to an account manager position.”

She pressed her lips together to keep her mouth from falling open or shouting her excitement. She couldn’t believe this was finally happening. She’d put her name in for job after job, and hadn’t gotten a minute with the CEO. Now here she was interviewing for…

For a job she hadn’t even known was open. She checked the job listing every day. Nothing had been posted for an account manager. She hadn’t put in for the position. Why would he be considering her?

She hoped the answer was that they’d noticed how many times she’d applied in the past and decided to save time, but she doubted that was the case.

“The first issue would be to make sure you have a desire to make a change or an interest in the account manager position.” Ah ha. They would have known she was interested in making a change if they had reviewed her previous inquires. “I see you’re qualified, and I spoke to your supervisor to get her input.”

“She suggested me for the job?” Alyssa was blown away. The woman wasn’t nearly as awful as the manager before her, but Liss never got the feeling Millicent would want to help her get ahead. Especially since Alyssa was doing so much of her work.

“No.” He flipped through the papers in front of him to find the answer. “It was Grayson Hollinger.”

“Oh.” She swallowed, letting that information soak in. “Yes, I do have a desire to move up in the company. I’m very interested in hearing more about the account manager position.”

“Good. It’s always nice to be able to hire from within when we have the opportunity.” She wondered if they’d only taken on this strategy because they had run out of family members.

They went on with the interview. He asked questions and she knocked them out of the park despite not having had the chance to prepare. It was probably better this way. An ambush interview meant there was no time to worry or panic about the appointment. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about Grayson’s involvement.

Her mind was too busy acing the interview to spend brain power on her reaction to his interfering. She’d decide later.

“Well, I think that’s all I need. We’ll be making our decision and letting everyone know by next Wednesday. Thank you for your time.”

“Thank you for speaking with me.” They shook hands and once she was in the elevator heading back down to her floor, her knees began trembling. She was thankful for the delayed reaction.

She was useless the rest of the afternoon. She found herself staring off into space imagining what it would be like to have this new job. Not to mention the extra money.

When it was time to go, she sent Grayson a text:

Heading out. See you at MacGregor’s.

Right behind you.

She waited for him outside the pub, still cycling through an endless array of emotions. When he walked up with the big smile she picked the first emotion and went with it.

“What have you done?” she snapped, knocking the smile right off his face.

* * * *

Grayson stared at her, stunned. “What do you mean?” he asked, feeling like he was being led into a trap.

“I had an interview today with Martin Hasher for a position I didn’t even know was available.”

“Really? That’s great. I hope you get it.”

“So I can work with you? It’s not enough that we live together, now we must spend every second of the workday together as well?”

“We wouldn’t be working together, Liss. I might occasionally have questions and need to see some of your reports, but for the most part, I don’t interact with account managers.” Was she angry that he’d tried to help? “They asked us if we knew anyone internally who would be good for the position. I gave them your name. If you’re not interested, you can pass. I know you’ve been trying to move up so I thought I’d throw your name in the ring.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want you to get your hopes up. Randy Tabor is notorious for hiring his friends and family members. If he went that route, I didn’t want you to be disappointed. I wasn’t sure he’d even give Martin your name.”

She twisted her lips to the side and nodded.