The Alpha boss and the PA

The job hunt

Alissa POV

Looking for a job wasn’t the problem. Getting a job was the problem. It’s possible that I was still feeling a bit sorry for myself and that I hadn’t presented myself in the best possible way. I had had 2 interviews so far and they had been… problematic.

The first one went really well at first. I think. It was for a PA position for this woman who owned a fashion house. It was perfect really. No male boss to fall in love with, beautiful clothes to look at. I may or may not have even dreamt about how I would get discovered as a new supermodel and fly all over the world in a private jet while the paparazzi tried to take pictures of me and my super hot and famous boyfriend. A girl can dream, right?

Reality caught up with me quickly though. As I said, the first half of the interview went really well. The girl interviewing me, Marsha, and I were getting along splendidly. I was saying all the right things and I was really being quite charming, if I do say so myself. But then the conversation had turned to my resume. As these things do. Marsha had informed me that it was great that I had worked for Pallmore advertising, because the fashion house and Pallmore did a lot of work together. Something about catalogues and promoting things or something. I had only heard half of what she was saying about that, because I had to focus really hard on not crying. Daisy had strictly forbidden me to cry on the job interview. She had told me potential employers don’t like that sort of thing. As if I needed to  be told that. I was a professional. I wasn’t going to cry on a job interview.

But then Marsha went into gossip mode and started to talk about how hot the CEO of Pallmore was. Paul Pallmore was his name. Son of the founder. Did I know him? Of course I knew him. And I knew darned well how hot the friggin CEO of Pallmore was, since I had been in a serious, committed relationship with him for a whole year. But still… I held it together like the professional that I am. I nodded, smiled, said something vague and did not cry. The crying came when Marsha, still in full-on gossip mode, informed me to be careful around this Paul guy if I ran into him at work events. She had heard it on good authority that he was a complete womanizer. Apparently some girl working at the fashion house had had a short fling with him about six months ago and he had just tossed her aside like it had been nothing and had moved on to the next willing victim. Which wasn’t hard according to Marsha, since there were plenty of woman throwing themselves at him.

Six months ago… that was right in the middle of my relationship with the bastard. So not only had he never taken the relationship seriously, he had also cheated on me throughout the whole thing? And I had to find out at a job interview? I mean honestly… who can blame me for turning on the waterworks after hearing THAT…?

So yeah I got a bit overwhelmed with emotions and just basically made a run for it. Needless to say I did not get the job. Also needless to say I did not tell Daisy what had happened. I had explained my red puffy eyes to her by saying that I hadn’t gotten the job and that I felt really disappointed about it and had had a bit of a cry over it. No… I wasn’t sure why they didn’t want me. Perhaps they were looking for someone with a bit more experience? She believed me. Thank God.

The second job interview I am not proud of. I mean, that one was really on me. It was the day after the whole ‘he-cheated-on-you-throughout-your-relationship’ revelation and aside from being sad I had also started to finally get really, really angry at Paul for everything he had put me through. Healthy emotions I’d say, but I may have misdirected my anger a little bit. I probably should have taken up some boxing classes to vent, or gone for a 10km run or something, but instead I went on my second job interview.

The interview was with a man that owned a chain of restaurants. He was starting to expand his business and he felt he needed somebody to help him out with certain things. So he had put out an ad for a PA. Unfortunately for the both of us I came across the ad and went on an interview with him. I don’t remember what he did or said that set me off, but it was probably nothing much. Poor man. I had started to rant at him that all men were the same. That all they wanted was a pretty, young  thing who worked for them so they could manipulate them and use them for their own selfish needs. That I was nothing more than a tool to be used and tossed aside when no longer interesting. That I had had enough of men just taking what they wanted without any regards for the lives they destroyed in the process. I can still see his shocked face while I was going off at him.

This interview also ended with me storming out, but this time in a huff of completely misdirected anger. I did send an e-mail to profusely apologize after I had calmed down and realized what I had done. But I think it comes as a surprise to absolutely no one that I did not get the job. He sent me a very polite e-mail back thanking me for my apology but informing me that he did not see us working together in the future. Which was honestly more than I deserved.

So after these disasters I had taken a break from job-hunting to focus on catching up on my Spanish soap operas and pizza-binging. Not for long, I swear, but I had to process everything that had happened. Because if I kept showing up at interviews crying and shouting, then I might develop a bit of a reputation. I just wanted to get my head on straight first. Great plan, right?

I felt it was, until Daisy and I had an influx of bills coming in and the bottom of my savings was reached. I started to scroll through the jobsites again and even bought a newspaper to see if that might have something, but I found nothing suitable. It was actually Daisy who found my next opportunity. She had gone to her favorite coffee place and had checked out the flyer board there. On it was a flyer saying that the CEO of Wolff inc. was looking for a temporary PA.

It seemed like a weird system to get your job listing out, but whatever. I had googled the company and hadn’t found much. They were into construction or something. It all seemed a little shady. Maybe they were the mob… Either way, I couldn’t afford to be all that picky anymore. So here I was on a sunny Tuesday in my best interview outfit, on my way to this interview, ready to get myself a job!