Samson wondered if the outfit she had been wearing today was any indicator. Truthfully, he hadn’t remembered her at all until she mentioned that Christmas dinner. Now he had images in his mind of a girl wearing her curly blonde hair in pigtails, and pajamas with smiling cartoon sushi on them. There was no possibility that the girl had been dressed like that for Christmas dinner, so he must have seen her in Lana’s room at some point. But the girl he remember was far from the woman who had spoken to him so sharply less than an hour ago. The girl he remembered had been very young, a bit mousy, and seemed to tremble whenever he was near. No wonder he didn’t recognize her.
“Did she lay you out?” Lana asked with a smirk.
“Pardon?” Samson dabbed the sides of his mouth. “No, she did not. We just spoke for a few minutes. I forgot she used to spend time with you at the manor.”
Lana waved her fork around impishly. “You’re looking awfully thoughtful.”
“I am simply...” Samson folded his napkin as he chose his words. “...considering whether she would be a good fit for the company that we just acquired here. You should have her send in her resume.”
“Really? Looking to go another round?”
“I told you, nothing happened.”
“Then April went easy on you.”
Oh, right—her name was April. “Good. I need more people with some guts at Jones & Ramirez.”
“How long will you be staying?”
“As long as it takes to rebuild the infrastructure of the company. They’ve been running it like a buddy firm; not keeping up with paperwork and making handshake deals and the like. But our larger problem is a lack of innovation,” Samson sighed. “Location-wise, it was a good acquisition, but normally when I take over a company, I prefer their work to be more ambitious.”
“You’ll get that. April won an award for her senior project.”
“Excellent. Send her over as soon as you can get her to put on real pants.”
“Oh, wow. Do not say that in front of her!”
“She called me out for getting drunk and bailing on Christmas dinner that one time. I think she can handle it.”
Lana’s eyes lit up in delight.
***
It was over a week before Samson spotted April again, although he had her resume in his hand sooner. April Marie Lucas: Twenty years old, graduated from high school early with an academic scholarship despite working at coffee shop and an art studio for much of the time. Double major at Parsons, interned for a reputable firm during her schooling. Her resume wasn’t exhaustive, but it wasn’t the kind he might throw out of the pile, either. It was a resume that spoke to a lack of opportunities and a fight around every corner to get what she had.
Additionally, he liked what he saw in her senior project. Samson had ordered his secretary to find it for him, and while there were practical limitations that would have made the project a no-go from a business standpoint, he appreciated the creativity it took to transform a regular office building into a work of art. Moreover, every line of that plan had a practical function.
April intended for the building to both welcome workers and clients and draw the best productivity from them. Samson was more of a businessman than a creative, but he could see the potential in the work she had done.
When April entered the building for her interview, security alerted Samson and he opened the live feed on his computer. She was wearing a sharp pencil skirt that matched her suit jacket and a sleek blouse that looked like a print of an abstract painting. Her hair had been straightened and it swung primly around her shoulders. Try as she might, she would never look like a stiff businesswoman; she bore more of a resemblance to a model who had wandered away from her painter.
She never need know that he’d watched her initial interview with his hiring manager, Joan, before having his assistant, Babette, fetch her notes and tell April to wait for him outside of his office.
The interview was interesting. At first there was no glimmer of the feisty girl who had teased him—until Joan tried to ask personal questions.
“I’d prefer to take some time to get more information about your firm here. I know Samson Bennett’s overall conglomerate involves firms including real estate, architecture, and interior design, so basically the sales end and the design end. Where does Jones & Ramirez fall in the scheme of things? And what kind of projects are your top priority right now?”
Samson liked that flicker of temper and how she turned the conversation around to interview Joan about the company. It showed an employee who was mature, who knew what she wanted. As the conversation had progressed, it was clear that Joan didn’t like it quite so much, especially since April kept doing it. Her passive demeanor from before had disappeared, and she had followed each answer with another question or comment.