Chapter 5 Ty

She sits in front of me, my desk and her resume between us.

Her resume said 23, with three years work experience and she received her MBA too- night classes. She was young but a quick learner. Ahead of her peers.

She was an impressive candidate, the sort we look for normally. But all I could think about was her bare legs and thighs under that skirt, and how she was wrapped tight like a Christmas present. And the things I’d like to do to her on this desk.

“I’m sorry about your company. I bet everybody in your office is going crazy right now.”

She blushed, “Actually, most of us are surprisingly happy. The news sort of made sense.”

“Were there rumors?”

“Probably. But HR didn’t call back, neither did bosses and managers. It seemed like they were forgetful.”

“So you’re not going to miss it?”

“No.” She blurted out too fast, but it was honest. She blushed for a second and got a hold of herself. “I’m sorry. This has just been a strange day. I feel terrible for everyone at the company, but I feel good. I wanted to leave for a long time, but was scared.”

“Not scared anymore?”

“Terrified.” She admits. “But excited.” She was nearly swinging her feet in reckless happiness, and it was infectious.

“Do you know what I do?”

“Turnaround consultant.”

“That’s the job title, but ‘consultant’ can mean anything right?”

“When a couple Turnaround consultants came to campus to tell us about their work it was probably the most interesting day in my entire time at school. They were rock stars- if it was possible to call any consultant a rock star. Six months of 16 hour days, then 6 months on a Caribbean island or an apartment in a fashionable neighborhood of Paris- whatever you wanted.”

“That’s a perk, and only if those 16 hour days are successful. If they’re not you find another job.”

“But you are successful. You’re hired to take a failing company, one either in bankruptcy or about to be, about to lose hundreds or thousands of jobs and the families that they support, and you charge obscene fees, but you make the company profitable again. You save the day. Just like a superhero. Not really, but you save a family, a thousand families, from that feeling and that fear of losing a job. You take a failure and turn it into a success, something solid. And you do it before some other firm buys them to sell them off in pieces at a profit.”

“You sound like you have experience with failing companies and the rest of that.”

“Some. My father was laid off and it destroyed him. It was worse for my mother.”

I watched her, fascinated by the changing expressions on that oval face. She showed everything, didn't she? Color swept over her face, white to peach to pink, and those big eyes were revealing too, giving away all her thoughts and feelings. I had never met anyone so transparent, so unprotected, so vulnerable.

She could get hurt. I felt a strange pang at that idea. I wasn't usually so protective; it startled me to feel that way about this girl.

Why had she got under my skin?

I felt a strange stirring inside my chest, as if I had swallowed a bird that was trying to escape.

I must be sick or something. The last thing I need is to get sick.

She kept talking, animated now, “A lot of consultants find ways to make good companies better, to keep them going in the right direction so no turnaround is ever needed. But the emergencies, the disasters, that’s where you come in. You should be assigned to all these small towns losing jobs, mills closing, all those towns.”

“I’m not that good.”

“I bet you are.”

“Well, then my motives aren’t that pure.” No, they definitely aren’t. “I’m about to disappoint you terribly. I can’t offer you a job like that, but I do need a typist tomorrow.”

“I’ll do it. I love the idea of starting small. If I can put you on my resume, I’ll be happy.”

This is Business, not pleasure. I wanted to scream. I’m not even capable of giving her pleasure.

Christ, if I listened to the doctor, I'd be sitting down to take a piss, how the fuck am I going to make this woman scream and shout and purr without hands?

A few days.

A few days and you'll be back to normal.

This was business. For now.

“I can’t say it’ll lead to something else because it shouldn’t, or probably won’t but it’s a job. Maybe overtime too.”

“Anything Boss.”