Page 68 of Spike

“No, that won’twork.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’mtaking you to lunch or brunch, or whatever when you’re done.”

“I thought yousaid you had to work.”

“My schedule’sflexible.”

I narrowed my eyesand let out a groan. “Flexible my butt. You’re totally here to babysit me.”

“Potato, tomato,either way you’re gonna knock Devlin dead during this interview.”

“Well, I don’t wanther dead, then who will pay me?”

“See? You’vealready got a dark, edgy sense of humor,” he retorted. “You weremadefor a tattoo shop.”

I rolled my eyes.“Do not interfere.”

He raised hishands in surrender. “You won’t even know I’m here.”

I swung my purseover my shoulder and headed inside, finding Devlin at the front desk, thereception phone to her ear. Her face lit up when she saw me and she waved meover. “No, Jim, I told you, I have a client. I get it, but it doesn’t matter,you can’t just throw money at me like that. I don’t bail on my clients. Twomonths and only because I had a cancelation.” She rolled her eyes as shescribbled on a post-it. “Sure. Yep. Otherwise, you’ll need to wait until June.No, I’m not kidding. Take it or wait. Good choice. I’ll see you in two months.Bye.” She hung up and faced me, sitting on the edge of the desk. “Goodmorning.”

“Hi,” I said. “Areyou even open yet?”

“No, but Jimdoesn’t have my cell phone, for very good reason, and I saw his name pop up onthe screen. I figured I’d save you the headache.”

I chuckled. “Ihaven’t even interviewed yet. You don’t know if you’re going to hire me.”

“Oh, I’m hiringyou.” She handed me a stack of paperwork. “Here’s your offer, insuranceinformation, paid time off, etcetera. I just need you to sign it. But I’ll showyou around and give you a rundown of the job first, then you can figure outwhether or not you want it.”

“I’m moreconcerned about if I’m a right fit for you, to be honest. I love being anadmin. I’m just, well, not the most experienced, and I’ve never worked in atattoo shop before.”

“I hire forattitude. The only place I care about skill is with my artists, but in my frontdesk and intern roles, I need people who are friendly and quick to learn, whichI believe you are. The rest will work itself out.” She grinned. “What I reallyneed is someone who isn’t full of crap and won’t take crap, and considering thefact you’re with Spike, I’m pretty sure you’ve got both covered.”

“Are you reallythis cool?” I asked, then grimaced. “Sorry, that was supposed to be my insidevoice.”

Devlin laughed.“Come on, let me show you around.”

For the next hour,Devlin gave me a tour of the shop and with every passing moment, I felt likeshe was showing me my dream job. It was like it had been handpicked for me.

“So, what do youthink?” she asked once we were back at the front desk.

“Everything soundsreally great,” I said.

“Awesome. I wantyou to take the day, look over the paperwork, then let me know what you think.You can start as early as tomorrow, if you like.”

“Wow, okay, that’samazing, thank you.”

“Now, I knowthere’s a certain someone dying to take you to brunch, so I’ll let him dothat,” she said.

I bit my lip. “Ishe going to be a problem if I do take this job?”

“Not even a littlebit.” She scoffed. “Are you kidding me? Ropes is way into all kinds of PDA, andthis”— she pointed to her expanding belly—“happened in my office just after weclosed. As long as you get your work done and keep things professional in frontof clients, I don’t care what you do with your time. Within reason of course.”

I blushed. “Soundsgood.”

She grinned andheaded back behind the curtain as I texted Spike then gathered up thepaperwork.

---