Chapter2
Bradley thought as he entered the building where his corporate headquarters was located--in downtown Portland, not far from the Pearl District--that it would be nice to actually meet the woman he’d decided to hire based on a resume and a single phone call. Jake had encouraged him to hire Jessica, saying that of the candidates’ resumes, and of the people he’d spoken to on the phone himself--briefly--Jake thought that Jessica would fit the bill the best, and Bradley’s assessment was very similar.
He had, of course, done a little bit of a background check on the woman he had hired; he’d run her name through Google and through a criminal charge database, things like that. He’d looked over her public social media presence, and overall got the impression that she was--apart from a gap of about a year--a stable, responsible, and ambitious person. It would take some ambition to want to move to the opposite end of the country, and she had taken his questions with composure.
She hadn’t even sounded harried or nervous when she’d answered the phone for the call he’d placed at near-random, just like he had with the rest of the candidates. Whatever else Jessica Easton was, she was able to think on her feet.
Bradley made his way down the hallway from the elevator and towards the closed-off area that represented his office; there was an anteroom where Jessica would sit--where, until the week before, Jake had sat--and an automatically-locking door that could be controlled both from the reception desk and from Bradley’s own desk, to let people into the office itself. His floor was only accessible to people who had a key card; the elevator required the card to even get to the level, and the ground floor receptionist had the only two guest cards.
He turned the corner and saw that Jessica had already arrived. Of course, as part of his background check, Bradley had found pictures of the woman who would be such an involved part of his life for the foreseeable future; he hadn’t been looking so much at whether or not she was attractive, but rather whether she seemed to have a professional look.
But even the pictures hadn’t prepared him entirely for the woman seated at the desk. She was, he thought, maybe half a foot shorter than he was--to judge by the proportion of her that was above the top of the desk--with dark hair confined to a sleek, clean braid, and hazel eyes. She had, he noticed, dressed very professionally, in a blouse and cardigan, and looked almost like a librarian with maybe a little bit of style.
She stood when he came into the anteroom and smiled politely, and Bradley couldn’t help but notice that in spite of the fact that she had obviously dressed to avoid drawing attention to her curves, her breasts were full--he mentally gauged them at possibly a D cup, maybe a double-D--and her hips were slim but rounded. Jessica stepped around her desk and met him halfway, and Bradley’s impression of her improved even more; she’d chosen to wear flats to work--a smart choice--and extending her hand to shake made her look even more sleekly professional, even more on top of things. So far, so good.
“Pleased to meet you,” Jessica said.
“You as well; at least, I’m assuming you’re my new assistant,” Bradley agreed, shaking the woman’s hand.
“I’m assuming you’re my new boss,” Jessica countered, her smile growing a fraction of an inch broader. Bradley laughed.
“If you’ll give me about fifteen, twenty minutes to get settled in, we can go over what I need you to get done today,” Bradley said. Jessica’s grip was strong but not aggressive, her palm was dry, and she maintained eye contact with him as the handshake finished up. Bradley let go of her hand first, and Jessica stepped slightly to the side to let him pass her.
“I was just getting myself set up in the system here, so that works out great,” Jessica said. “Do you want to buzz me when you’re ready for the meeting?” She stepped over closer to her new desk, and Bradley continued on his way to his office door.
“I’ll buzz you, yeah,” Bradley said, finally turning away. He took out his own, personalized key fob out of his pocket and tapped it lightly against the sensor next to the door to unlock it. As he stepped through the door, he spared one last, quick glance at his new assistant. He knew what his friends--other wealthy men in various industries, including some older men who had believed in him when he was younger--would have to say about the woman he’d chosen: that it wasn’t the smartest choice to hire someone so attractive.
Of course, Bradley hadn’t really known the extent of Jessica’s attractiveness when he’d hired her--the pictures had given him a general idea, but there was something different about the woman in person, something much more alluring.
It will be fine, Bradley told himself as he heard the door close and lock behind him automatically. He strode to his desk and took his phone out of his pocket. There were a number of things that needed to be done that day--and he would get to see what Jessica’s mettle really was as an assistant. He’d made a few calls to the employers mentioned in her resume, at random, and had gotten a good idea of her level of competence.
A few of her previous bosses had remarked that she was inconsistent sometimes--calling in sick a little more often than was right for an executive or personal assistant, things like that--but they had also said that she was always easy to get in touch with, even late at night, and that she was the kind of person who would make something happen if it was even remotely possible.
So, as Bradley sat down and waited for his computer to boot up, he made a mental list of the things that he would need to address with Jessica in their first meeting as employer and employee. He had always had a fairly liberal policy with his assistants in regards to attendance; as long as the work got done, and he didn’t have anyone coming into the office, he wasn’t actually all that concerned about having them present in the area outside of his corporate sanctum. After all, much of the tasks that he expected his assistants to accomplish had to be done away from the office anyway.
Bradley felt the urge to call Jessica in as soon as his system had booted up but resisted it on seeing that it had only been about five minutes since he’d stepped into his office himself. He would wait the full twenty minutes, let himself actually settle in, and not give into the temptation to see the beautiful woman to come in, attentive and ready to work. It might be dangerous to keep her around, but Bradley reminded himself that he’d had beautiful assistants before and managed to keep his behavior appropriate. Once he got over the novelty of Jessica’s loveliness, everything would go according to the usual routines, and he would forget to even notice how she looked, apart from the general expectation he had of his assistants looking clean and professional.
Get some work done. Set a timer and don’t call her in until it goes off, if you have to, he told himself, and opened up his email on his computer to occupy his mind for the remainder of the time before he called Jessica in to brief her on the day’s objectives.