“My interest has always been in law,” I told him. “I got my degree as a paralegal with the thought of going to law school, but I wasn’t in the best financial situation, so I had to put it off while I worked and saved up.”
“But why PR?”
I looked down at my hands for a second. “The answer isn’t a great one,” I said with a smile.
“Tell me anyway,” Zach encouraged.
I stifled a laugh. “I needed money,” I said. “It was a job where my skills as a paralegal would at least get used sometimes, and I could pay my rent and save a little money.”
“Why not continue it?” he asked. “I’m sure Tinsley offered you a position in her new company.”
“That is true,” I agreed, nodding. “She did. I would have been able to work my way up into doing PR on my own. I could have eventually been her partner. She was training me well... but I wanted law school, so I applied to Loyola Law, and I got in.” He whistled, suitably impressed, and I grinned, proud of myself. I couldn’t not be. “Now, I just need to be able to pay for it, and I’m tryingvery hardto not need student loans.”
Zach leveled a look at me. His smile had faded around the edges, and I almost liked his serious face better. He looked more natural, honestly. “Do you think you can balance a full-time paralegal job with law school?”
“I have no idea,” I said, not sure where the honesty was coming from. In any other interview, I would have been falling all over myself to assure him that I could do a good job. But his eyes were sharp, taking all of me in, and I couldn’t bring myself to make promises that I wouldn’t be able to keep. “I’m a great multitasker, and I’m used to working crazy hours. You’d be amazed at the odd times you get called in to clean up scandals.”
Zach chuckled. “I’m sure.” He was quiet for a moment and then asked, “What’s the most challenging situation you’ve ever faced? Not the most scandalous, mind you, but the most personally challenging?”
It was a good question, and I wish I had an answer that didn’t immediately make me think of all the NDAs that I had signed over the last year. “I think the most personally challenging thing that I’ve faced was keeping secrets for people,” I said. A line formed between Zach’s eyebrows, and I had to rush on to say, “Not because I want to gossip! But because sometimes, the PR team would have to sweep things under the rug that I wasn’t comfortable with.”
“Don’t you think that would be a challenge working at a law office as well?”
“Of course,” I said, “but I would hope that this office has more integrity than the Hollywood execs I was working for.”
“Most people think that lawyers have no integrity.”
“I thought that was politicians,” I countered.
Zach looked impressed. “You’re clever,” he said. “That’s good for a place like this.” He gestured at the closed door. “We’re busy all the time. You’ll be bouncing around between the partners, helping where you’re needed.”
“That won’t be a problem for me,” I assured him. “At the executive office, while I was Tinsley’s assistant, I basically went wherever I was needed on a daily basis.”
Zach made anotherhmmsound, and for the next twenty minutes, he lobbed questions at me and I answered as best I could. It was the strangest interview I had ever attended. I had nevernotbeen nervous before or felt so at ease while answering questions.
As the interview came to a close, Zach closed the file folder that he’d been looking through. “Well, I think Jake has great instincts,” he said. “You seem like you’d be a good fit here.”
“Really?” I asked and tried not to sound incredulous.
“You don’t believe me?”
I didn’t, but I didn’t want to tell him that. “That just seemed... too easy,” I said. “I know Jake must have talked me up, and I don’t want to get the job just because—”
“He didn’t,” Zach interrupted. “Jake handed me your folder and told me the bare minimum about you.”
“He didn’t tell you to hire me?”
Zach scoffed. “We’reassociates,” he said. “Jake isn’t my boss. I don’t answer to him.” He held up a stack of similar folders. “I have a bunch of candidates here who aren’t nearly as qualified as you to do this job... and if I don’t have to interview anyone else, I’d rather not. So, what do you say?”
It didn’t take me more than ten seconds to come to a decision, but I waited at least thirty before I nodded. “I say, when can I start?”
4
THOMAS
If I thought Alex Beechum was beautiful when I first met her three days ago, looking up at the building with such naked apprehension on her face, meeting her again only doubled that impression. She was wearing a modest black dress with a jewel-toned suit jacket. It was appropriate for work, and she had no business looking as pretty as she did. “Alex,” Zach said, “this is Thomas Porter. He’s another associate here.”
She held out her hand. “We’ve met,” she said, smiling when I put my hand in hers again.God, but her skin is soft.