Page 356 of 5+Us Makes Seven

“I’ll always tell you those things because you’re my son and I’ll always worry about you.”

Right. I was talking to the wall here. “Sure. Okay, now I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, Bryce. Love you.”

“Love you too, Mom.”

I returned to the conference room and mumbled my apology as I took my seat, deciding to put my new idea into motion right now.

“Say, is there anything of interest near Denver?”

Tommy and George glanced at each other, their eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “Hm, not that I know of,” Tommy replied. “Have you heard about anything, George?”

George took off his glasses, shaking his head. “No. Nothing recently. Why?”

“That’s my hometown, so I thought to search for something in or around it.”

“Actually, there is,” Daniel piped up, standing and pulling a packet from the stack of papers. “A local hospital is going up for sale an hour from there. It’s in your price range, and it’s a decent location. Not as good as some of the others but…”

“Great. Then I’ll go and see it.”

We concluded our meeting a couple of minutes later, which left me enough time to go back to my office and prepare for the interview for my new personal assistant.

My last one quit randomly, leaving me with a pile of work I wasn’t able to deal with on my own. She had chosen the worst time to leave, and I barely had time these days to set up the interviews and find someone to replace her.

I was hoping to meet the appropriate candidate today because anything else would result in skipping another event with my family, and I was sure my mother wouldn’t forgive that a second time.

The knocks on my door pulled me out of my thoughts, right before my secretary brought the first guy in.

“Good afternoon, sir,” he said.

My eyes skimmed over his dull attire, wondering how on earth he thought his dark green tweed suit was even remotely good-looking. It screamed “incompetent” to me.

“Good afternoon, Mr.?”

“Thompson. I’m Jacob Thompson.”

“It’s nice to meet you Mr. Thompson. I’m Dr. Bryce Evander.” We shook hands. I didn’t fail to notice how feeble his grip was.

“Please, take a seat.” I motioned at the chair across from me.

He sat down and put his briefcase next to him on the floor.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that our interview was a waste of time. His answers were short, vague, and so dull that I almost yawned a few times. He had majored in a field that had nothing to do with business administration, and he didn’t seem eager at all.

“Why did you apply for this position?”

He shrugged his shoulders, which ticked me off, but my face remained blank. What the hell was that reaction for?

“You don’t know?” I tried extracting anything from him.

He shrugged his shoulders again before he looked around my office, as in the search of an answer. I was seconds away from losing my patience with him.

“Well, I wanted to try something new. I love challenges.”

“So you’re saying you applied for this position because you want to challenge yourself with something new?”

“Yes.”

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