Page 9 of Audacity

‘Camille St John,’ she says, offering her hand. She’s tall and well-dressed, but somehow austere-looking, with her slicked-back dark hair and black suit. She pronounces her surname in that inexplicably contracted way we Brits traditionally do:Sinjun.

I step forward and shake the hand she’s extending, feeling a flush of relief that she, like this entire setup, looks professional to a fault and not in the slightest bit seedy. There is absolutely nothing about Camille St John or these lavishly appointed, perfectly situated offices that screambrothel.

Just like Anton promised me, this is a classy outfit without the merest suspicion of sex in the air.

Once my flat white has been procured and we’ve seated ourselves at the small round conference table at one end of the room, Camille clicks on a small remote control, rendering the glass windows completely opaque. It’s the first reminder that what we’re about to discuss is of a delicate nature.

‘Thank you for filling out the questionnaire,’ she says.

‘Of course.’

The questionnaire was… comprehensive. It covered not only my and my business’ professional needs, but my personal needs, too. My car-crash of a sexual history, with its gaping hole. My appetites. My kinks. My expectations of what a Seraph executiveassistant could provide. But apparently, I got the abridged version, coming to the agency as I was as a personal friend of Anton’s.

I get it, obviously. This is serious stuff, not to be messed with. Still, it’s unsettling to know that this stranger knows as much about my sex life as I knew about that of my more communicative parishioners, once upon a time.

‘You have an EA currently, I understand?’ she asks, glancing up from her laptop.

‘Yes, but she’s transitioning out. She’s been my father’s EA for years, and she’s decided to take the opportunity to cut back on her workload, so she’ll be his PA for this next phase.’ I stifle a smile. Dad’s ancient EA, Gladys, is pretty much the antithesis of everything I hope to get from my Seraph EA. If a dinosaur could also be a dragon, you’d have Gladys. I’ve tried to make it work for a good nine months now, but really she’s a glorified PA, better suited to booking plane tickets than trying her hand at anything remotely strategic.

‘Understood. And can I ask if you see this as a transition opportunity for Rath Mor, too?’

Rath Mór. Great Success.My father dropped thefadaover theobut retained the rest of the phrase to encapsulate the Midas touch that he and my grandfather have had over the decades.

‘Most definitely.’ I cross my legs. ‘My father’s way of doing business was old school. Our entire estate management system needs an urgent overhaul, not to mention the hundreds of projects we need to get off the ground.’ Projects that keep me awake at night (when I’m not passed out in a sex club, that is). Archive digitisation and sustainability initiatives and real-time occupancy rate tracking and centralised databases and maintenance predictions and upgraded procurement systems.

The vastness, the complexity, of what needs to be done hovers at the edge of my consciousness day and night, singeing my brain with its impossible, overwhelming immensity.

She nods briskly, as though what I’ve said is something she can easily accommodate. ‘One of the main advantages of hiring your EA through Seraph is that they all have MBAs from the top schools. These women aren’t just there to book flights—the kinds of projects you’ve described are their jam. Some of the work they do is more akin to what you can expect from a COO or a chief of staff, and if you have those positions in-house, you can absolutely have your EA work with them, too, if that’s what you want. In fact, we find that many of our clients end up hiring PAs or other assistants to take some of the more administrative work off their EAs’ hands so they can make optimal use of them.’

She’s talking purely about her EAs’ day jobs, but I can’t help a small frisson at the unintentional reminder that there will be other ways in which I’ll want to optimise my EA’s time.

‘That sounds amazing. My father employed some great people, but I’ll want to build my own team, too.’

‘Of course you will.’

I’m already drawn to her unflappable air of competence. If nothing else, I bet any of the women on her books can whip Rath Mor into shape with ease.

‘If I were to ask you,’ she says next, ‘on a scale of one to ten, how confident you feel running this business you’ve inherited as things stand today, what would you say?’

‘Six,’ I say after a small hesitation. ‘I have a business degree, but it’s very rusty. I’ve really only been dealing with parish finances for the past few years. The only reason that number’s not lower is because I obviously still have the team my dad built, so to some extent the business can trundle on like it’s been doing while I take stock. And I have my dad and my brother around, too, if I really need help. It’s a family business. I’ve grown uparound it, so it’s familiar to me at a high level, but getting to grips with the nuts and bolts of it is a different ballgame.’

After probably twenty more minutes of working through my business needs, my character and my preferred working methods in broad brushstrokes, Camille taps a nail on the polished walnut of the table and gives me a little smile.

‘So, I understand you’re particularly interested in interviewing Athena Davenport?’

I instantly feel self-conscious, like I’m some slimy fuck who’s trying to backchannel his way into a woman’s knickers.

‘Well, I mean—I don’t know her at all, personally. It’s just that she came very highly… recommended by Anton. And by Max Hunter.’ My voice sounds strangled even to me. It’s unbelievably weird to be sitting here, opposite a total stranger, discussing in polite, professional terms my interest in hiring a woman who we’re both painfully aware will be paid to suck my dick in between setting up charitable foundations and automating reporting systems.

It seems Camille can read my discomfort, and a part of me hopes it furthers my case if I don’t come across as some slick sexual predator.

‘Athena is a very special woman,’ she tells me now. ‘She really is. She’s one of the most articulate, intellectually nimble and generally competent human beings I’ve had the privilege of working with. And she’s always interested in getting to know new sectors, so what I sense feels like a bit of a mess from where you’re sitting, if that’s not an overstep, would be a dream come true for her.’

I let out a breath. ‘You had me at competent,’ I joke lamely. ‘Is she… available?’

‘She’s employed currently, but I understand Mr Wolff put a call in to her himself, and she’s happy to meet with you.’

Good. That’s good.

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