Those people would be wrong.
If those people happened to work for me and copped an attitude, they would also be fired. Immediately and with no remorse.
Which explained why we were bringing four new assistants in on one of the worst possible days for it.
But damn if it didn’t feel good to see the look on the former assistants’ faces when I dropped them all at once.
I paid my employees fairly. Hell, I paid them generously. The swings got nearly double minimum wage as it was, so when the last four grouped together and tried to demand raises, I got a little pissed.
One yelling match later, I was down to zero assistants. Had it been anyone else in the company, I might have granted them the raise they asked for. The problem with those four was that they didn’t recognize their place.
Swings are trainable. I didn’t care how much work they did or what they felt like they deserved. They were so damn easy to replace that it was better for my bottom line to get new ones.
Harsh? Perhaps. But everyone had their place. Hopefully, the lesson I taught them would stick with them. Assistants were at the bottom. It’s just the way it was.
“Mr. Wolfe? You’re eleven o’clock is here.”
I pressed the intercom button even as my eyes rolled. If it was already eleven, the new assistants were all here. Which meant I’d likely be spending lunch with my nephew.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
“How’d it go?”
I grunted, the sound making Janice chuckle.
“That bad, huh?”
“It wouldn’t be very professional of me to call a client a snot-nosed piece of shit.”
She laughed loudly and fell in line beside me as I stalked toward the break room.
“The newbies are all present and accounted for.”
Another grunt followed by another chuckle. We rounded a corner and I froze to the spot, cocking my head to the side as I stared at the woman at the end of the hallway.
“Mom—Mom, seriously. It’s fine,” the girl said softly into her cell phone. Even from down the hall, I could hear her exasperation. “I’ll be okay. Everything else is going well so far.”
I had no context to draw from, but I could put the pieces together. I’d never seen her at the office before—and I’d sure as fuck remember her—so she was clearly one of the new swings. Judging by what I heard from her end of the conversation, she apparently already found a complaint about the job. That didn’t bode well for anyone.
I cleared my throat and her neck snapped toward me, her eyes widening in alarm. I slowly approached as she muttered a quick goodbye into the phone, using the moment of her distraction to study her.
Gorgeous. From head to toe, she was total fucking perfection. From the dark hair twisted into a neat bun down to the super modest outfit that covered her petite frame. The closer I got to her, the harder my heart beat. Never before had I felt such an immediate attraction for a woman—at least not one quite this strong. It was alarming for more reasons than one.
The biggest being I had a fairly strict interoffice relationship policy. I didn’t forbid it completely, but it was specifically designed for those higher up in the company so nobody could fuck their way to the top, for lack of better phrasing.
Not once had I regretted the policy. Not until she parted her lips and nervously said, “H-Hello.”
“Mallory, this is Mr. Wolfe. Mallory’s one of our new assistants. The shining star out of the applications, if you ask me,” Janice said with a smile.
“I bet. Is there a problem?” I asked slowly, my eyebrow raising as her face flushed.
“No! Of course not. I’m just getting used to... everything.”
“It’s a lot to take in,” Janice said sympathetically.
My cock jerked slightly and I had to fight myself not to grin. Yes, it was a lot to take in. I wondered if little Mallory could handle it. I was certainly aching to find out.
“I should... get back to work,” she said as she slowly backed away.
“It’s lunch. I doubt anyone’s going to need your services right now.”
Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips and I nearly groaned. She was clearly overwhelmed either by the new atmosphere or me—God, I hoped it was me—and looking for an out.
“I’m going to learn my way around. I, uh... Have a nice lunch.”
As soon as the words escaped her lips, she spun on her heel and took off. I didn’t take my eyes off the spot she had disappeared from until I heard Janice making a tsk-tsk sound with her mouth.
“That girl has a lot of potential, but she’s a bit of a spaz.”
“I like it.”
Ignoring the surprised raise of her eyebrows, I continued into the break room, groaning when I remembered the reason why I was dreading lunch.