“It’s good to have diversity.”
“You care about that?”
“Yes.” No more women… Dammit.
“Okay…” He keeps flipping. “Here’s one. Alex Whitehead… unappealing last name, but he’s a homeboy—got his MBA at Owen. Not Arab, sorry. At least not that I can tell…”
“Give me that.” He leans forward, and I take it, quickly scanning the sheet. “How did I miss this?”
“See, I’m good for something.”
Reaching out I tap the button on my phone. Sandra’s voice rings through the line. “What’s up?”
“Hey, get me this Alex Whitehead in for an interview. As soon as possible. Work it into my schedule.”
“On it.”
We disconnect, and I think about what he said. “Don’t do that. You’re good for a lot of things.”
“A lot of things that fuck up your life.” He’s back to flipping pages, and I study him a moment.
Marley is more than a fuck up. The thing with Renée, well, I’ve gone over how that situation broke down in my mind so many times, I can’t do it anymore. I was inexperienced at being a CEO, I thought you could handle an office the way you handle a group of Marines…
Renée didn’t argue with me. Hell, she barely spoke. I asked her what she wanted, how much money it would take, and she wilted like a flower.
Then Marley went off the rails. At least for now, it seems he’s cut back on the partying. If only he’ll stay on the wagon. Nobody falls off quite as spectacularly as my friend.
He grumbles at me. “Whoever we get has to be better than Buckingham.”
“Who hired that guy?”
“You.” He looks at me, and I lean back in my chair with a groan.
“He took a job with Braden.” I wonder how long he was courting them behind my back. Jobs like that don’t just appear overnight.
“Good thing we locked down Hastings and Key.” He slaps another résumé to the side. “I can’t imagine that bastard holding the purse strings on us.”
Stephen Hastings is no walk in the park. At least he’ll let us run our business.
A knock on my door draws my attention. I look up to see Sandra standing there with a puzzled expression.
“What’s up?”
“First, Alex Whitehead is a woman.”
I cut my eyes at Marley, and he only shrugs. “It’s a gender-neutral name.”
My gaze returns to Sandra. “And…?”
“She’d like to withdraw her application. She said she was unaware of the ‘toxic work environment’ when she submitted her résumé for consideration.”
Sandra does little air quotes, and now I’m really frowning. “What the hell?”
“Problem solved.” Marley slaps another résumé down on the side table.
More like brand-new fucking problem. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” She crosses her arms. “It’s not like we have a lot of turnover. Yes, Taron just left, and you fired Jerry, but—”