Chapter One
Emma
I tooka deep breath to steady myself and stared up at the sign on the building that said DeVille Staffing as the traffic raced by on the busy street behind me. It wasn't my first choice to come to the hiring service, but times got tough, and I needed to make money. I didn’t like that either, but I had to face reality and do something.
So much for the life I planned. I got accustomed to living in my beautiful little apartment, and I wasn’t interested in moving in with other people. Not after finally getting the place to myself after my ex-boyfriend Kyle bailed on me. I had to do this or I was about to come to the point of having to move to cheaper place or finding roommates.
Neither one of those was an option.
I'd lived there since I moved to the city with that good-for-nothing ex, the substantial savings account I had acquired from working every night in high school, and a lot of help from my family. I'd been so happy when Kyle finally left since I didn't even like him much but we'd both wanted to move to New York.
He was a Minnesota eight but a New York two, and that was being generous.
I busted my ass through high school and saved up enough to keep me going for a while afterward, but after spending two years making the mistake of trying to keep a guy happy, which hadn't put anything in my bank account, I lost my job a few months ago and now was in danger of losing everything.
Nope. That wasn't going to happen. So that's why after Maddie found such success with this DeVille Staffing place, I figured I should go for it. I didn't expect to find what she found. I just needed a paying job.
Not that I would ever turn up my nose at what Maddie got from her placement. I just didn't have my hopes up. This was about making money and paying my rent. Love had nothing to do with it.
I always figured that getting a job was done the old fashioned way, but not anymore, it seemed. At least not in New York. For three months, I applied to places online and went to businesses in person hoping that I could get a job the same way I had in high school.
With a friendly smile and what my parents called a go-getter attitude.
But I wasn’t back home in small-town Minnesota anymore, first of all. Also, everywhere I went either turned me down, wasn't hiring, or wanted someone with qualifications that no twenty-one-year-old would have unless they'd finished college at the age of fourteen. I was at my wit's end, but something about going to a hiring service felt like giving up to me.
Still, a job was a job and if I did it well, what did it matter who helped me get the job in the first place?
Since deliberating by the door wasn't going to change my circumstances at all, I pushed it open and plastered my best smile on my face as I walked up to the reception desk. "Hello," I said in my most positive voice to the perky woman with big blue eyes that sat looking at me.
"Good afternoon, how may I help you?" she asked in a chipper voice.
She was exceptionally tan and platinum blonde, and her smile showed off teeth so bright she could have gotten a job doing toothpaste commercials. Whoever she was, she could have been a model, so what on earth was she doing as the welcome receptionist at DeVille Staffing?
I set my bag down next to me and pulled out the paperwork I'd been told to print out and bring with me today. Handing it to her as I forced myself to smile even bigger, almost like we were having a competition to see who could smile more, I said, "My name is Emma Cooper, and I have an appointment with Mr. DeVille today at three o'clock."
She extended her gold jewelry clad hand to take the papers and nodded before replying in a soft, almost husky voice, "Okay, I’ll file all of this and Mr. DeVille will be with you in just a moment. If you'll have a seat over there.” She gestured across the room to some nice looking leather seats surrounded by tables with magazines and added, "Do you have any questions before Mr. DeVille sees you?"
"No, no. I’m fine, thank you," I said, smiling wide before I grabbed my bag and went to sit down.
I looked around the office and had to admit that the meager façade offered by the outside of the building did not measure up to what the inside was showing me. Everything was not only pristine but looked classy and expensive. I'd worried I was walking into some dingy New York hiring agency like people had told me horror stories about, but this was nice.
Before long, a large oak door behind where the receptionist was sitting opened, and a tall and lean man in an impeccable dark suit walked out. The receptionist said something to him that I couldn’t hear and the man smiled before looking up and walking over to me as he extended his hand to shake mine.
"Miss Cooper, a pleasure to meet you. What good timing you have. I hope the commute here wasn't a problem. They aren’t calling it the summer of Hell for nothing with all those broken down trains and this heat."
I shook his hand and found myself staring up into his stunning blue eyes fixed on me. "No, it was no problem at all, thank you."
In all honesty, it had been a nightmare getting to his office, and I had been stuck next to some seriously sweaty individuals in too little clothing, but that wasn't something I was about to tell Mr. DeVille. Instead, I continued with something a bit more classic and tasteful. "Please, call me Emma. It's so nice—”
"Well, Emma, let's go into my office and talk about what we can find you. I think I have the perfect position for you."
“Oh?” I said, cocking my head.
Unlike in Maddie’s case, I hadn’t applied for any particular position with DeVille Staffing and had instead just presented my work experience and abilities and hoped they would fit with something Mr. DeVille had available. That he had something he thought would be perfect for me intrigued me while at the same time made me even more nervous about all of this.
He turned his head to smile at the receptionist and beckoned me to come with him. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to respond to what he said and was taken aback by him cutting me off, so I opted for silence. I waited for a moment for him to continue, but he turned his back to me and strode away. Confused by his abruptness, I hurried to follow him to an office across the room.
He took a seat in the plush, black leather office chair behind his wood desk and gestured for me to take a seat in a chair in front of it. The room was sparsely decorated but still exuded the same class that I had found in the waiting area. Everything about the place made me feel like I had made the right choice following Maddie's advice.