Page 15 of Toy Shop

I swivel to give him a quick hug and kiss his shaved cheek. “You’re the best.”

“No, you are.” With a head gesture, he says, “Stop stalling. I don’t want to hear any more from you until we close, ’kay?”

“Okay.” I grin, rushing to the high stool.

The first order of business is to read about the company. I can’t recite the short description they gave of the company in the classifieds. It’d tip them off that I’m not interested, and I am.

My goal is to memorize the history of this solar energy provider, how they branched out all across the country, their goals, and ethics. On top of that, in case I bump into management in the halls on my way to the interview, I make a point to go over the Team section on the website and know them by face.

SunInUS’s website loads up on my phone’s browser. The cadmium green and tangerine yellow brand colors splash on my screen, the font choices and smiling faces giving the appearance of a decent, positive company. Gosh, I hope they are.

I continue to their About Us page, my brain ready to absorb the information.

The idea for SunInUS evolved in the summer of 2001 in the basement of CEO and founder Alistair Cromwell’s childhood home…

Hold up. Hold the fucking phone. Alistair? The unassuming, casual, smoldering man I thought was a manager of a bar?

Nuh-uh, nope.

My pulse rises, the panic Rhodes subdued making a swift and terrifying comeback. I ignore the rest of the flowery history, going straight to the Leadership page, praying there’s another Alistair Cromwell in Seattle.

A girl can dream.

And her dreams can fail.

Because oh my fucking God, that’s him. I had the most random sexual encounter with one of the wealthiest men in the US, and I was wondering why he hasn’t called me. A man of his stature probably has women lining up to fuck him. I was just dumb enough to think he’d go through the effort of locating me.

I cannot, under any circumstance, work for him. We’ll be bound to cross paths, if not at the office, then at company functions.

No.

No, no, no.

It hurts to lose this enormous opportunity, a job that sounded interesting with pay that could help me and my aspirations ride happily together toward the sunset.

Sadly, I have no other choice.

A sinking feeling grips me and lead fills in my lungs as I reply to the HR recruiter’s email, informing him I have to cancel the interview.

CHAPTER SIX

Alistair

I rejected her cancelation the instant David from HR emailed it to me. No fucking way I’m letting her, or any other young, brilliant mind slip away without hearing me out first.

Never happened, won’t start now.

Obviously, in the role of the CEO, I care about the bottom line. I built this company from scratch. I got into alternative energy sources in college when I saw how bad the pollution problem was becoming. I constructed and patented new solar technology… which has made me a shit ton of money.

We’re in charge of installing them nationwide, providing electricity to forty-nine of the states and even that is due to not wanting to be called a monopoly and allowing the government to regulate us.

But above that, it’s my chief business and baby. And the people in it matter. I want to know who they are when HR is about to approve or deny someone’s application. Some would call it micromanaging. I call it caring.

Another thing I asked David from HR to update me about is candidates who withdraw their applications. None have, except the day I received the email Nola Vickers had.

No doubt this clever girl has done her research on us and the owner of SunInUS, albeit a little late to the game. There’s no other explanation for her to drop such a great opportunity the night before.

I’m not conceited about what a great company I run. I’m honest. According to the last ten polls of the best places to work in Seattle, we’re continuously named up there in the top five. We’re a well-rounded, ethical company that pays substantially over the median market salary and offers endless opportunities to climb the corporate ladder.

---