Page 49 of Friend Me

Did the entire population of San Francisco read Jamila’s blog? Ugh.

While we rode up, they continued their conversation about user interfaces. I kept my mouth shut and listened. The guy was smart, holding his own with one of the industry’s brightest stars. Hmm.

On the sixth floor, I parked Ben in a conference room and walked Jamila to Cooper’s office. When I knocked and opened the door, his frown of concentration disappeared and a grin broke over his face. A grin he’d never shownme.

“Mila! I didn’t know you were coming in today.”

“I thought I’d surprise you. Check in.”

I closed the door and trudged back to Ben. What did I have to do to make him see me? Smile at me?

But I cleared Jamila out of my head when I sat across the table from Ben. As we traded pleasantries, I scanned through his résumé. I remembered that his credentials had been only so-so: two years as a receptionist and three as an executive assistant at a single company. No college degree. But his cover letter had been stellar.

“So, Ben,” I said, starting the official part of the interview, “tell me why you applied to this position at Synergy.” I sat back and prepared to be snowed about theamazing opportunityandperfect fitas I had been by every other candidate.

“Honestly?” He leaned forward, his palms on the edge of the table and his fingers splayed toward me. His whiskey-brown eyes were wide. “The startup I’d been working for cratered last month. I didn’t even see it coming. My boss said we were fine, and I believed him. Story of my life. Anyway, I sat in a dark room for two weeks eating Häagen-Dazs.” The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Then my sister told me about this position. She works here in accounting, and she knows I’m a total fanboy of Cooper Fallon.”

So that’s how his subpar résumé had gotten through HR’s filter—he was an employee referral. “Really? Tell me what you know about Cooper and why you’re a fan.”

He leaned back in his chair. “Not many people know Cooper was a computer science major. They all assume Jackson was the programming brains and Cooper was the business guy. That’s true, but Cooper helped with the initial product development.” He folded his hands in his lap. “He doesn’t give interviews about his life before college, and he’s active in foundations that support at-risk kids. So I assume he had some trouble growing up. Like me.” He bent toward me slightly. “I want to learn from him. Someday I’d like to help kids, too.”

I nodded at him. He could learn a lot from Cooper. I was starting to like Ben, but he needed to know what he was getting himself into. “He can be…challenging to work with.”

He chuckled. “I know the position’s been vacant for months, since his old admin retired. None of the temps have worked out?”

I grimaced. No need for him to know why. “No. And he’s been too busy to interview for the position until now.”

His gaze was steady, assessing me. “Andhe’snot interviewing me now;youare. Why is that?”

“Oh, he’s been traveling and working on—”

“Excuse my French, but bullshit.” He ran his eyes over me, from my ponytail to my faux leather booties. “I think it’syourfault.”

I cocked my head. “Really.” This guy had known me for all of twenty minutes, and he was going to diagnose my relationship with Cooper. Ha.

“Everyone knows Jackson Jones is a—a bit…distracted. But you’ve been able to pull him together into a contributing executive at the company.”

I’d have loved to take credit for that, but he’d changed for Alicia. “Well, actually, it was—”

He interrupted me. “You let him focus on what’s important. You’re the Wizard of Oz, making the magic happen from behind the curtain. You’retoogood. Cooper sees what Jackson has and wants the same thing.”

I shifted in my chair. This wasn’t supposed to be about me. If only Ben were right and Cooperdidwant me. But I was notgoing there with this too-observant man.

When I didn’t object, Ben continued, “I suspect Cooper isn’t like Jackson. He seems to have it together.”

“He does.” I compressed my lips to avoid babbling about all of Cooper’s good qualities. I didn’t need to sell him.

“Whatdoeshe need?”

I sat back in my chair. Who was interviewing whom? “What doyouthink he needs?”

A slow smile spread over Ben’s face. Like me, he must have liked challenges. “A guy who, in ten years, has grown a company from his dorm room to a Fortune 1000 company. A guy whose cofounder is brilliant but scattered and whose CEO is, from”—he checked that the conference room door was shut—“certain reports, a bit of a…we’ll say, a difficult personality.”

A dick was more like it. But Ben wasat a job interview.

“Yet Cooper Fallon still manages to support various foundations and keeps his company growing every year. He maintains a grueling travel schedule. He needs…”

I leaned forward in my chair.

“He needs someone to protect him from himself. While it’s important to support this company and its employees, he needs someone to keep him from giving away too much of himself. Before he burns out.”

I remembered the dark shadows under his eyes that hadn’t gone away after his return from Asia. Operation Hakuna Matata. I leaned back in my chair. “Exactly.”

“Excuse me for saying it, but you look like you could use someone to do that for you,too.”

I narrowed my eyes at Ben. This man saw too much. I had no doubt we’d hire him; he was exactly what Cooper needed. But I’d have to watch myself around him.

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