SLAVEDRIVER

Chapter 3

REX

I was too old to be doing this s**t. At over 2 millenniums, talking to 20-something’s was a bore. They were like children but with better vocabularies, and for some reason the turn of the century had seen a correlated rise in technology and imbecils. How is it that this resume was littered with spelling errors when there were built in spellchecks on most apps – even a damn cellphone.

“Do you have any office experience, Ms Stone?”

“Like Microsoft Office or this kind of office?” she bit her lip and gave me a suggestive look.

“Both”

“Yes”

That would be a no from me then. Roman would love her but I could tell that she would be a nightmare to work with for everybody else.

“I’m a fast learner.”

“I’m sure you are,” I responded as I set her resume aside and decided to work on my notes for the meeting I had scheduled once I was done with these so-called interviews. “We’ll be in touch,” I said not even looking up and effectively dismissing her.

Looking after my brother had become a chore. But if I didn’t take matters into my own hands. Roman would burn my business to the ground. Technically, it was our business, but he didn’t care much for it. Instead of managing the finances as the CFO, he would rather indulge the other F’s – f*****g and fighting.

Even though we were twins, we looked as different as night and day. Where he was blonde, I had the darker hair. Come to think of it, even our personalities were a stark contrast. I liked to build; he liked to break. I preferred to work with people and form relationships; he preferred to isolate and work alone.

Technically, Roman didn’t need a personal assistant. He was a 2800 year old hybrid who barely slept. What he wanted was a f**k buddy for the office. He preferred them young and dumb. I ensured they were legal and capable of at least the most basic office tasks.

The door opened and Clare popped her head into the office. “Should I send in the next one?” she asked.

“Yes, how many more of them do I still have to entertain?”

She scanned the clipboard doing a mental count before looking up at me. “Five more sir,” she said pushing the oversized glasses back onto her small face.

“Name?”

“Patricia Paulson.”

“Send her through.”

“Right away, sir.”

Clare was a mousy woman, but she was efficient and had never attempted to cross the line with me. I wasn’t letting her go until she decided to quit. Good help was hard to find.

I heard the door close, and the muted steps walk across the carpet before they made their way to the chair across from mine. She had a clean and light scent. Not too sweet and overpowering yet still feminine. I finished writing down a couple of notes for the acquisition we were negotiating before putting that aside to focus on Patricia Paulson’s resume which looked promising albeit she was overqualified – an architect.

Nothing shocks me anymore, but I will admit that I was surprised when I looked up and saw her.

“Patricia Paulson.” It came out as a statement because I never coached anything as a question when I knew the answer. But I needed her to confirm that she was indeed the woman in the resume.

“Yes!” she beamed at me with excitement.

I immediately liked her.

Roman would not.

She was so outside his tastes – a taste he’d developed over the last century. Roman’s candidates were scouted so to speak matching a certain criterion. I couldn’t figure out how she’d gotten here.

I looked through her resume as I tried to gather my thoughts and briefly glanced at her. She was attractive but she was also short and curvy where he liked them tall and lithe. She also happened to be black, and I hadn’t seen him with a woman of colour in over 500 years – s*****y had left a bad taste in his mouth.

I skimmed the other pages. She was more than competent, dressed appropriately yet had some sense of style. I looked up at her and she was still beaming at me with all her teeth. She was friendly, not seductive, which would be great for the office but a turn off for Roman.

“You have an MSc in Architecture and you’re interviewing to be a personal assistant. Why is that?”

“The job market is not open to hiring architects this season and I’m in need of a job that can give me experience. Unlike an MA where the focus would have been solely on design, I chose to focus more on technology and research.”

I wondered if maybe I could try her out. In this market people were selling, and I was looking to increase our real estate portfolio. I could use an architect on board for some of the demolitions I had planned. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted her but what about Roman?

“Where did you learn we were hiring?”

I needed to find out who sent her.

“Excuse me?”

“Did I stutter or are you simply hard of hearing?”

That erased the smile off her face. Was she a plant? I’d settled over a dozen law suits in the past couple of years. She looked more like a lawyer that wanted to take us down than the PA that was going to lend a helping hand.

“I uhm…”

“I hate liars. Don’t lie to me Ms Paulson.”

“My friend, Laura… she sent me the details yesterday.”

“Surname?”

“Vanderbilt.”

I went through my mental rolodex. I had met her a few weeks back at a charity gala. Roman had spent more time with her than I did. If my assumptions were correct, he was trying to get her to interview and instead she passed the opportunity onto her friend. Just my luck.

I needed to get back to hiring people who were actually qualified. People with talent and not the beautiful airheads I’d been employing for my brother’s entertainment. f**k Roman. He needed to reign himself in and separate business from pleasure.

The thought had the corners of my lips lifting in a hint of a smile. He wouldn’t be happy about it but at this point, I didn’t care. I was done trying to accommodate his spoilt appetite. But if he did somehow come around… I’d cross that bridge if we got there.

“When can you start?”

“Excuse me?”

I lifted my eyebrow in question. She really needed to work on that.

“As soon as possible. Right away!” That megawatt smile was back.

“Fantastic. Let me give you a tour.”