all the family crap go for now.”
“Hmm?” I stood and headed back behind my desk, my mind already spinning with my tasks for the day. “Hey, have you seen Ella?” I needed to check in with the PA Saint and I shared for an updated list of tasks. Extra things seemed to accrue overnight.
“Ella’s already on your schedule for the day.”
I looked up, and Saint’s stare became meaningful.
“Interviews, interviews, and more interviews.” He grinned. “It’s intern day, remember?”
“Well, shit.” I hadn’t remembered. “Are you sure that’s today?” I didn’t have time to interview wet-behind-the-ears lawyer wannabes. They were all so earnest and by the book. A shudder passed through me at the thought of sitting in a room across from law school students still bright-eyed with a keen sense of social justice and responsibility.
“Hey, now. We need these guys, and I don’t want you scaring any of them off with your scowl.” He wagged a mock stern finger in my direction, and I made a conscious effort to relax.
“Sure thing, man. I’ll pull it together.” I flashed a bright grin, and Saint paused on his way out the door.
“Just for the record, that’s equally as scary as your bad mood.”
I chuckled. “I’ll meet you in the conference room.”
He closed my office door behind him, giving me the illusion of privacy, and I looked out into the hall. Man, we’d come so far since we started, and intern season always provoked such fierce competition, and law students actually fought over the intern positions at Caldwell & Holton these days. A surge of pride swelled through me at the thought. In fact, this year was the first time we could offer a small wage to our interns, so competition would be even more fierce.
Okay. Saint had been right. Time to get my game face on and be the big boss and successful lawyer those potential interns needed to see. I needed to scare them and inspire them all at the same time, which was usually a challenge I enjoyed. I stood from my chair and grabbed my jacket.
Interview day. Bring it on.
“Hey.” I stepped into the conference room and shut the door behind me, noting that all the blinds were already in place.
Saint was already there, sitting at one of the twin seats at the head of the massive table. He had a pile of files on the dark oak surface in front of him. “We agreed it helps weed out some of the weaklings if we interview here, right?”
I laughed and looked around the intimidating space. “What, you want to sit them at this end of the table?” I indicated the seats closest to the door and farthest from Saint. “Like unwanted guests at a banquet?”
He shrugged and fanned the files in front of himself. “Looking at the amount of applications this year, we need some way to get rid of a few right off the bat.”
“Let me see if I can help with some of that weeding out for now.” I strode toward him, suddenly all business, before taking my seat beside him. “Let me take a look at those things. They can’t all be great.”
“We haven’t got time to look through them now. Let’s make a start and we’ll just look as we go.”
I frowned. This didn’t exactly fit with my preferred way of doing things.
“Chill out—you’re still in control. Let’s invite the first one in.”
I glanced toward the files. “I’d still rather—”
“The sooner we start, the sooner it’s done.”
Saint had a compelling argument. “Okay, then. We’ll do it your way.”
“It never fails.” He grinned and headed to the door. Flashing me a quick thumbs-up, he opened it and stuck his head into the hall. “Ella, can you send our first interviewee up?”
Moments later, a small blonde woman passed the windows on her way toward the open door, and Saint held his arm out, gesturing her inside. She glanced nervously at me, and I indicated a space down the table to my right where we’d left a notepad and company branded pens, and she sat down. I wasn’t actually heartless enough to seat them quite so far away as Saint would.
“Good morning,” I said, and the interviews began.
“Time for a break.” Saint checked his watch before leaning back and taking a sip of his water.
“Let me check the rest of the resumés before we continue?” I reached for the stack. “I’m not sure we should have seen all of those last candidates.”
“That’s a little…unkind. A couple of them stood