Alex Reid (Rich & Single #1) by Lexy Timms

a minute, watching as they began gathering up their tools. The work was finished ahead of time, and if they kept on track the apartment would be as well. Alex mentally planned a bonus for them. “Well, gentlemen, I think I’m going to call it a night. Have a safe drive home.”
    “Will do, Mr. Reid. Good night.”
    Alex answered their goodbye waves with another nod and headed back to the main part of the house to finish some work of his own before bed.
     
     
     
     

Chapter 11
     
    “So, Mr. Blake,” Alex said, folding his hands on the desk in front of him and leaning forward just enough to convey interest without sacrificing the upright strength of his posture. “Please tell me about your experience in this field.”
    “Of course, Mr. Reid,” the applicant answered, voice steady in a way that Mrs. Conlon’s hadn’t been. “As I noted in my résumé, I started as a busboy at the Ritz-Carlton, and worked my way up to front desk agent and then concierge. From there, I went on to work as a personal assistant at three upscale businesses over the course of four years.”
    The man sitting across from him hardly looked old enough to be the busboy he’d mentioned in his résumé, let alone a four-year veteran in the field of personal assisting with time as a concierge besides. His résumé said he was twenty-three, which Alex supposed he could believe if Caleb Blake had both a very young face and an extraordinary work ethic. The man’s résumé, however, suggested that perhaps he did not. Good personal assistants were hard to find; they weren’t let go after hardly a year by three consecutive bosses. No one was let go that quickly by three businesses in a row without a very good reason. Alex crossed one leg over the other and tipped his chin down, locking his stare on Mr. Blake’s face. “And you think that résumé qualifies you to work for a company like Reid Enterprises, Mr. Blake?”
    “I think four years’ experience in the field and nearly eighteen months as a concierge at a very busy hotel before that qualifies me well enough for a job as a personal assistant almost anywhere, Mr. Reid.”
    “You mean to tell me that you moved from busboy to concierge over a period of less than two years at a hotel as upscale as the Ritz-Carlton?”
    As upscale as chain hotels ever managed to be, anyway. But even a Super 8 wasn’t going to move someone from service staff to concierge – if they’d had a concierge – over such a small time frame. Alex didn’t believe it.
    The applicant’s brown eyes met his. “I do, sir.”
    Alex huffed a breath out through his nose and sat back in his seat, amused. If nothing else, the guy had balls. It wasn’t the worst qualification for a PA in at a place as fast-paced as Reid Enterprises, or for a boss as demanding as he was going to be. Certainly Mr. Blake was more suited than the timid Mrs. Conlon. His handshake had been confident, even if his suit was a little less than perfectly tailored. Giving him a chance might be worth the headache of his résumé’s accuracy, or lack thereof.
    That was one issue related to hiring that Alex had pawned off on someone else. Ms. Campbell could do background research just as well as he could, if not better.
    “A hypothetical situation, then, Mr. Blake. You’re working on a project for me and it’s on a deadline, which is rapidly approaching. As you’re finishing, you get a phone call from a prospective client who has questions about their portfolio. At the same time, a long-term and well respected client that I have told you to never keep waiting shows up for an interview. What do you do?”
    For a moment, the man’s expression froze. Then he smiled. It was just a little too wide for Alex’s tastes, as though he was hiding something behind it. “Well, Mr. Reid, I would have to take care of the phone call and the client first. The project is important, but live people are more so. I’d refer the prospective client on the phone to one