Page 73 of The Calendar of New Beginnings
She’d suspected that tension going into the interview. “I don’t want to be caught in the middle. I’m not eager for a lose-lose situation here, especially since it involves me relocating back to Dare Valley.”
Chase added another lime to his water. “I can’t promise easy waters every time, but Evan and I always figure out an agreement in the end. I don’t expect you to be a party to that.”
“If I were offered the job,” she said, looking him squarely in the eye, “I’d want there to be an agreement upfront about that.”
“There are always scenarios we can’t foresee,” Chase said, waving his hand. “Look at me. I’m sitting in Dare Valley, talking with you about a job at a new invention institute. Trust me, even though Evan’s like a brother to me, I didn’t see this coming. But we adapt. Evanisa genius and a visionary, don’t get me wrong. But he sometimes needs people to help him think through his plans in terms of practicality and budget.”
“Visionaries aren’t always the best managers,” she said, thinking back to one of her first bosses, who could rally a board of directors but lacked the strategic ability to lead the company into a new market.
“I also won’t be here 24/7,” Chase said. “I need someone who has a good head on her shoulders who can handle such issues on an ongoing basis.”
“You need someone who will keep the ship running, keep you informed, and keep the institute’s burgeoning reputation intact.”
“Exactly,” he said as another knock sounded on the door. “Your espresso, I presume. Enter.”
The server came in carrying her coffee. Chef T had certainly had a hand in making it—he knew her preferences, and there was a small jar of honey with a silver spoon on the saucer instead of brown sugar.
“You take your espresso with honey?” Chase asked. “That’s very Italian of you.”
She raised her brows. “What can I say? When it comes to some things, the Italians know best.” She refrained from mentioning the fine cut of his suit, but the unbidden thought prompted another issue they hadn’t discussed. “Beyond the ethics protocol and training, I hope you plan on including sexual harassment protocols and training. I’m not sure how many female inventors will be selected, but it’s important to make sure inventors with less than ideal people skills understand the law.”
She added her honey to her espresso and took a sip. Heaven.
“That’s serious human resource talk,” Chase said, “but I like it. Evan didn’t have good people skills in the beginning either, but he’s grown up. I expect we’ll be dealing with some inventors who have them and others who don’t.Inventors run a wide swath, I’ve discovered. And as for female applicants, I can say from our experience with Quid-Atch that there’s not near enough of them involved. Our R&D team is composed of mostly men since they still dominate the math, science, and engineering fields.”
“Unlike human resources, which boasts nearly all female employees,” she said, making a face. “Hopefully more balance will be achieved over time.”
“Agreed,” Chase said. “Let’s order some lunch. I have some questions to ask you about your background.”
As Moira looked into the shrewd eyes of Quid-Atch’s chief financial officer, she knew she had a ways to go before she convinced him she was the best candidate for the job.
But she had no doubt she would.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Lucy’s first photo shoot happily landed on the day when she’d awoken to discover the vision in her right eye marginally improved. It had only taken a couple weeks, thank God. When she closed her left one, she was able to make out the painter’s signature in the corner of the fake Monet hanging on the wall in her bedroom in Merry Cottage. Her doctor’s words about psychosomatic changes echoed in her ears, but she decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
She’d immediately grabbed her phone from her bedside. Her mom had already sent her a text. Shocker.
Are you sure I can’t come for the photo shoot? I promise I won’t be in the way.
Lucy thought about screaming her frustration into a pillow, but decided not to waste the energy.
Mom, we talked about this. I’m working with the volunteers individually. People do better with less distractions. Talk to you later. Love you.
She hoped that would satisfy her for the moment. That woman was like a dog with a bone when it came to thecalendar. And her hounding hadn’t stopped just because Lucy had agreed to do things her way.
Well, she wasn’t going to let her mom dim her happiness over the improvement in her vision, so she texted the one person she knew would be thrilled. Well, he was the only one who knew, besides Tanner, who was basically a vault, but…
Hey, Andy Cakes! My vision suddenly seems marginally better. I can make out some finer details. Stay tuned. Oh, and thanks for a wonderful time last night. Dinner out with you and Danny was wonderful. Have a great morning.
Clutching her phone to her chest, she focused on the scarves on the brass footboard. She still couldn’t make out the differences between the two red ones, she discovered, when she closed her good eye, or the deeper mustard yellow from the sunshine scarf next to it.
She’d focus on the progress. That’s what she wanted, after all.
Certainly there had been progress in her relationship with Andy. They’d fallen into the dating thing pretty easily over the past couple of weeks, thrilling their families. They’d had years of experience talking, hanging out, and laughing together, so that aspect of their relationship felt as natural as breathing.
Then there was the new joy of watching each other while thinking of getting the other person naked—or so Lucy liked to joke to herself. And the touching and kissing? The man had skills there, and if it ever got awkward, like it did the first time he took her bra off last week, they knew how to defuse the weirdness with laughter. Both of them had busted up laughing at her joke about him finally making it to second base. But then they’d quickly discovered second base wasn’t going to satisfy them.
