This was the strangest job interview I’d ever been on.
I stood up, shoving the binder deep into my purse, and sprang forward to head out of his office door, not realizing that Rhett had closed the thing behind him.
And of course, just as luck would have it, I ran smack into the clear glass window. I swear to God, I saw stars as I stumbled backward, clutching the now bruised spot in the middle of my forehead.
“I told you to be careful with the doors.”
He’d appeared out of nowhere again, pulling the door open and holding it out of my way so I could walk through, hopefully without damaging another piece of valuable property.
“Thanks,” I replied with a grimace. “You should probably know that I’m not all that big on taking orders.”
“That’s alright,” he shrugged. “I’m not all that big on giving them.”
He glanced up at me from under thick black lashes, smiling boyishly, and I felt my heart freeze up in my chest before it started to pound out a rhythm that sounded suspiciously close to a traditional wedding march.
Dear Lord, Rhett Thompson was hot. Even here, a place where he was completely laid back, without all of the fancy lights and the perfect cameras to make him look like he was flawless, the man looked like an angel that had fallen to earth.
I let my eyes drop down his figure in a move that was so obvious I probably should have been embarrassed, taking note of the flash of a vein just past the end of his sleeve, and the way his muscles bulged underneath his shirt with every breath.
“So, does that sound good to you?”
It was only then that I realized Rhett had been talking to me this entire time, and I hadn’t been listening in the slightest.
Probably not the best thing to do in a job interview.
“I’m sorry?” I replied, trying to look as innocent as possible.
“The salary,” he replied. “Does it sound good to you? If you’re not comfortable with $200k, I can up it even further. Three hundred, maybe?”
“Three hundred grand?” I gasped, certain that I must have misunderstood something major. “You want to pay me three hundred grand to be your accountant?”
“Well, slash assistant slash all-around go-to person, yeah,” he replied. “You’d have to potentially be on the show sometimes, or maybe make an appearance or two as well. But I’m always happy to compensate you extra for those things if you need it.”
“I need to sit down,” I gasped.
I didn’t even make it to a chair. I just sank down right there, plopping on the nicely carpeted floor in the middle of his big office space, trying to force myself to actually breathe. For the first time since I’d stepped into this office, my lack of oxygen was caused by something other than Rhett’s presence, thankfully.
Three hundred grand. I knew I lived in San Francisco, and that to plenty of people here that might be a laughable salary, but to me, it was more money than I’d seen in my entire life. It was an obscene amount, really. And Rhett wanted me to accept it for this job.
I didn’t even want to know why. Whatever his motivations were, they could just stay hidden, for all I cared. All I could focus on was the amazement of it all.
Three hundred grand.
“Is she okay? Are you okay?” A young Latino man came running up to us suddenly, breathing heavily and staring at me with terrified eyes, as if he thought I was going to slump over and die at any second.
Honestly, I almost might have. That sum of money was enough to make anyone have a heart attack.
“I’m fine,” I reassured him. “Just in a little bit of shock.”
I glanced over at Rhett to see him smirking slightly at me, clearly amused by the entire situation. I glared at him, but I couldn’t help but be amused, too. Sometimes, I was a little too dramatic for my own good.
“Okay,” the young man said, stepping back, although he looked like he didn’t quite believe me. “If you need anything, my name’s Javier. I’m Rhett’s assistant.”
Before I could ask him to repeat his job position just so I could make sure I hadn’t misheard him, the kid took off back down the hallway, headed only God knew where. He struck me as one of those people that’s constantly running back and forth.
Slowly, I turned to Rhett, raising an eyebrow in a clear indication for him to explain himself.
“So, yeah, that’s my assistant,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck and trying to hide the ever-growing redness in his cheeks.
“If that’s your assistant, what the heck am I doing here?” I demanded.
“You are… uh…” he stared up at the ceiling as he attempted to find his words, but then he just shrugged and stood up abruptly. “We’ve got that meeting to get to. So, is the salary good for you?”
“Rhett, I have a plane ticket,” I told him, standing, too. “I’m leaving in a week. It’s non-refundable. This is me being spontaneous.”
In a strange way, I felt like Rhett, and I already knew each other. It was like I was explaining this to an old friend, to someone who got me in a way that no one else did.
Which was made even more strange by the fact that Rhett seemed to have absolutely no idea how to deal with his emotions.
“What if you spontaneously decided to let your new boss pay you back for the nonrefundable ticket and then accepted his offer of a three hundred thousand dollar a year job?” He asked with a sly smile.
The outrageous abruptness of it all caused me to laugh so hard I nearly choked on my own spit. Rhett just stood there staring at me, as if he was a little confused as to why I was laughing so hard.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a pretty strange guy?”
Rhett thought about it for a long moment before he shrugged. “A couple of times. But so what? Come on, the meeting’s about to start.”
Once again, he just marched off, headed toward the third office down the hall, and I was left wondering just who this strange man was.
This was a whole new side of him that I was seeing. One that didn’t seem to be so carefully cultivated for the cameras. One that was goofy and awkward and had absolutely no idea how normal, day to day social interactions were supposed to work.
For a moment, I had to truly contemplate whether or not I was going to walk down the hall and follow Rhett to this meeting. It felt like walking into this meeting would be like accepting the job, in a way, and I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted to do.
But then again, I realized this was exactly my problem. My reluctance to make a decision on the fly was the reason I’d booked the plane ticket to Thailand in the first place. I wanted to learn how to be spontaneous, but maybe I didn’t need to go halfway across the world to do it. Maybe the Universe was answering my prayers right then and there.
Because I had a sneaking suspicion that Rhett Thompson was going to force me to be spontaneous, one way or the other.
And on top of that, three hundred grand was a lot of money. I could buy a house in a few years with that kind of money, and really start to make a home for myself.
So, I made a split-second decision and accepted the job, marching down the hall next to all of the realtors' desks and slipping into the meeting.
Rhett was the only one to glance up as I walked through the door, and I didn’t miss the sly smile that twitched at the edges of his lips when he saw me.