He ended by gesturing toward the stairs leading to his private quarters. “And that’s where I sleep. Any questions?”
Katie just regarded him with wide eyes. “No. Not yet anyway. Thank you for the opportunity. Sorry that your family sort of forced you into hiring me.”
“No one forces me to do anything.”
“Oh, of course not. I didn't mean to imply anything.”
Now she looked uncomfortable again. He cursed his inability to read social situations the way his brothers did. He'd been trying to put her at ease and now she looked even more upset than before.
?
“So, you don’t have any questions?"
Katie glanced over at all the weird things on the tables and the chemicals lining the walls. She’d followed quietly as Bennett showed her the different areas of what he called "The Laboratory" and wished the whole time for a pad of paper and a pencil to take notes. Not that it would really help in the end since she only understood about half of what he was saying.
Honestly, she had so many questions that it would probably take him all day to answer them all but the whole reason she was here was to make his life easier, right?
"Just one. What time do you normally eat lunch?"
He looked surprised but gestured toward the refrigerator on the back wall. She'd already made note of the fact that there was a full kitchen because if she was going to work here, coffee was a priority.
"I order out a few times a week and then just eat the leftovers whenever. Sometimes my mom comes by and brings me food also. I think she worries about me."
"I'm sure she does. That's what moms do. Plus I'm sure she wants to help. She's crazy proud of you."
Bennett seemed momentarily startled by that statement but then he gave a little shake of his head before motioning to the office.
“You can fill out the employment paperwork and then get started.”
Katie walked ahead of him into the office and sat in one of the old wooden chairs in front of the desk. Considering how high-tech and modern the rest of the building was, it seemed strangely incongruous to find such old furniture in his office.
“These chairs are cool. Are they antiques?”
Bennett shrugged and then peered at the chairs. “I’m not sure. My father brought them over when I said I needed furniture.”
“Oh. I just thought it was interesting that they look so much older than everything else.”
“I suppose they are. But they’re adequate to their purpose.”
Katie laughed nervously. “Adequate. Yes, they are.”
She read over each sheet as it was placed before her and signed in the appropriate places. Bennett then placed the papers in a manila envelope and set it on top of his desk before walking over to the bookshelf. He picked up the tablet on the shelf and held it out to her.
“The project notes for the development of our current soil additive have all been loaded on here. You have access to the shared folder that holds all of my current formulations and the resulting yields for the following year’s crops. Familiarize yourself with those so you’ll be able to assist when I’m ready to start testing the next phase.”
Katie nodded even as her heart rate increased. She took a deep breath, hoping she didn’t look as overwhelmed as she felt. What did she know about chemical formulas? It all looked like another language to her and she could only hope he didn’t ask her to do anything more than hand him things.
“Thank you again for this opportunity.”
He inclined his head and then motioned for her to follow him out to the main workspace. Katie slid onto the same stool she’d sat on before and placed the tablet carefully on the metal table. They had a tablet at home that her boys shared but she hadn’t spent too muc
h time on it. So her first order of business would be to make sure she knew how to use it properly. Her prior experience using a tablet wasn’t going to help her much here, not unless Bennett wanted her to help him play Angry Birds.
“While you’re reading, I’m going to review my most recent test results and make notes on what I would like to change.”
Katie smiled, determined to put on a brave face. The whole reason Bennett had hired her was to appease his sister-in-law so she didn’t want him to regret it. She might not have any experience but one thing she was great at was figuring out how to be helpful and she’d never had a problem working hard.
“You don’t need to worry about me, Mr. Alexander.”