Page 38 of Austen Persuaded

He rolled his eyes. “I doubt I could stop you.”

I ignored the sarcasm and looked him in the eye. “Why do you so obviously dislike me? You don’t even know me.”

He looked back at me for a long moment before looking away. “Oh, but I do.”

I felt the anger rising, even while telling myself this wasnotthe time to get angry. I had to keep my cool. Ihadto. “I hope you’re not stereotyping me—”

“I’m not … OK, you really don’t remember, do you?” he said, exasperated.

I tilted my head in confusion. “I don’t … have we met?”

He pulled out his phone and swiped across and punched the screen with jerky motions. Then, he shoved it in front of my face so I could see a photo.

“Wait, that’sme!” I squinted. “And … I remember him! We had an awesome time at a friend’s bachelor party, but … why doyouhave this photo?” I looked at him, and his eyebrows were raised. “Wait, don’t tell me that’syou?”

He just stared at me, and the confirmation was in his eyes. I glanced between his face and the photo. Itwashim. The haircuts were very different, and he had a goatee now. “It is you. Hakeem Carter?” I whispered. “Now it all makes sense.”

“What does?” He looked at me accusingly. “That you said youhadto see me again but then never bothered to message me?”

“No, I tried looking you up the next day. I’d typed your name into my phone so I’d remember, but I was probably drunk and got either your first or last name really wrong because I remember not finding anyone on Facebook with a name even close to what I’d written down. Not anyone who looked like you, anyway.”

He eyed me doubtfully.

“I was crushed, actually. I’d had an amazing time that night. I was actually furious that you didn’t try to lookmeup.”

“Well, I … I mean …” he fumbled for words. “Fine, point taken.” He let out a long sigh and buried his head in his hands. When he finally raised his eyes to mine, his face looked a little friendlier. “Let’s leave the past in the past. I shouldn’t have been so petty. I’m sorry. And I’m happily married now anyway, so, yeah.” His mouth curved into the smallest smile.

“Leaving the past in the past sounds like a wonderful idea,” I concurred. Was there any way to salvage this potential job situation? “Listen, about the job thing—”

“Annie, is it OK if I call you that?” When I nodded, he continued, “I truly don’t have the budget to hire anyone right now. I’m sorry. You’re almost making me wish I could.”

I tapped my nails on the table for a moment, my brain sorting quickly through all the ideas swirling around. “What if … maybe you don’t have to pay me.” When he was about to interrupt, I stopped him. “No, hear me out. It could be like an internship. Or an actual internship. Think about it … what do you wish you could hire someone for but can’t get a budgeted position for?”

I sensed he was uncertain about the idea of an internship at all, so I pressed forward. “Who handles media, events, and communications for Bookshop?”

“Uh, that would have to be me or my assistant manager,” he said with a grimace. “What little we have, that is. We have very little time or budget to organize things like that, so very little of it happens. So there wouldn’t be much for you to do there, I’m afraid.”

“But what if I coordinated all of it? I could be, like, your event coordinator intern? Or communication planning intern? Or something like that. If it’s something you think could benefit the business and I handled it and you didn’t have to pay me, it’s a win-win-win.”Well, other than the lack of paycheck.I had to force myself not to bounce up and down with excitement.

His brows were lowered, his expression skeptical. “I don’t know. I can’t imagine it would be that easy. I’d have to talk to corporate HR.”

“Talk to them then.”

He rubbed his trimmed beard for a moment before speaking. “I do believe this kind of stuff would increase sales, have always thought that. But I feel like we’d be exploiting you.”

I beamed. “Don’t you see? It’s a win for me too. Because it lets me gain experience and exposure to this world of books that I’m dying to get into.”

He started nodding slowly. “That’s fair.” A long moment went by, while he seemed deep in thought.

My heart was racing. This was the moment of truth. Would he go for it and give me a chance?

He met my eyes with an almost friendly expression. “Well, you’ve got some good points, actually. I need to think about this a bit and run it by HR. Can I get backto you in a day or two?”

I jumped out of my chair and nearly squealed. “I would hug you if not for all that weirdness of the past!” He sent me a dubious look. “Oh, and also because I’m a professional and you may be my boss, soon.”

He nodded awkwardly then and rose from his chair. “I’ll be in touch, Annie.”

“You won’t regret this, Hakeem.”

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