Page 27 of Indiscretion

“How much time off will I get?”

“You’ll earn one-and-a-half vacation days each month. It comes out to eighteen days a year.”

“Can I advance them?”

“That’s not currently part of the vacation policy, but I guess I would consider it on a case-by-case basis.”

“Okay, good. Because I might need a week or two this summer if my band gets some gigs.”

“Your…band?”

The guy nodded. “I play in a heavy-metal group. Our gigs are mostly on weekends now, but there might be some Fridays I need to cut out early to make it to a show.”

“Uh-huh.”

“If I could work remotely on Mondays, too, that would be great. Sometimes the weekends are rough, and I need the extra day to recover.” He held up a hand. “But don’t worry. I work hard when my head is in the game.”

“And how often is that?”

“I try my hardest.”

“Great.” I sighed.

This was my tenth interview this week. Sadly, it wasn’t even my worst one. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought someone was punking me. The guy yesterday showed up with hismother. Then proceeded to ask if I had anything for her tonibble onwhile we did our interview. The dude was dead serious.

I went through the motions with this guy who wanted a part-time job with full-time pay until he could score a record deal, but I zoned out during most of his responses. By the time he left, I was ready to call it a day. Unfortunately, I had one more interview left at five o’clock—a guy Lily used to work with.

At four forty-five, the office door creaked open, but I was on the phone with a client, so I pressed mute and yelled that I’d be out in a few minutes. Two more calls came in while I was finishing up, and I had to let them go to voicemail. Meanwhile another client was ringing my cell nonstop. If this last person was halfway decent, which I was banking he would be since he came on referral from Lily, I was going to hire him—at least on a trial basis, just to have some help with the damn phones. At a minimum, I needed a receptionist.

I sprayed some hand sanitizer on my hands and walked into the lobby with my head down, texting the client that I’d get back to him in a little while. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting.”

But I stopped short when a woman’s voice answered. And it was not just any woman’s voice… “Naomi?”

She smiled and stood from the couch that had been delivered only yesterday. “Hi, Dawson. How are you?”

“Umm…confused. What are you doing here?”

Her forehead wrinkled. “I’m here for the interview.”

“For the interview? Ben said Lily had someone she thought would be a good fit, a guyshe used to work with.”

“Oh.” Her smile wilted. “I’m not sure what happened. Lily told me to come at five. I thought you knew I was coming.”

Could I have gotten that wrong? I didn’t think so. Ben had been in court all day yesterday and today, but he’d texted last night and asked if I’d hired any of the people who came in to interview for the paralegal job. When I said no, he wrote back that he had the perfect guy for me. I didn’t ask any questions other thanhow soon can he come in? At least I thought he’d said perfectguy.I dug my phone out of my pocket and scrolled back. Sure enough, that’s what he’d written.

I turned my phone to show Naomi. “He said guy.”

“Do you…” She thumbed over her shoulder. “Want me to leave?”

“No, but…”

She straightened her spine. “Good. Because as far as I know, Title Seven still prohibits discrimination in hiring based on gender.”

She got the section of the law right, which already made her a better candidate than anyone else I’d interviewed. But…

“You should see your face right now.” Naomi laughed. “I’m joking. But I did think you knew it was me who was coming.”

Her smile made me feel better than I had in days. That alone should’ve been a red flag. Yet I couldn’t very well not do the interview now—not with the federal and state laws involved. At least that’s what I told myself as I waved for her to follow me into my office.

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