01

If Cameron Holmes wasn’t so good at his job, I would’ve fired him months ago.

I still remember the day I interviewed him. Julia, the head of HR, had passed me his résumé before the interview and told me he was the most impressive candidate by far. She had already vetted several applications for the role of my executive assistant and had created a shortlist of the top five.

Cameron was number one on her list. He was also the only male.

I read through his résumé, which, as Julia said, was outstanding, with lots of internship experience, skills, and fantastic references. He’d earned a master’s in marketing from a prestigious university and had recently graduated, so I estimated he’d be about twenty-two or twenty-three. I imagined someone nerdy, scrawny, and shy.

The man who walked into the interview was none of those things. He walked in like he was the CEO, like he was the one interviewing me. He was tall—six foot three, I’d guess—with broad shoulders and dark blond hair. His light blue tie matched his eyes.

He was so unlike what I imagined that when he offered his hand for a handshake, I stared at it for a few seconds, my mind blank. After I quickly gathered myself and shook his hand, a jolt of electricity surged through me. I told myself this was a good thing. I didn’t want an assistant who was shy, scared of me, or got flustered easily. My assistant would represent me and Firth Marketing. I needed someone polite but assertive. Kind but strong.

The first thing I asked him was his age. He wasn’t twenty-two or twenty-three, but rather twenty-six, two years younger than me. There was a three-year gap between his undergrad and master’s, which he explained by saying he’d been overseas. When I asked what he’d been doing, he blinked once at me, calmly, and said he’d been looking after a relative.

It was a perfectly reasonable question for me to ask about the gap, but his answer, the way he answered it, made me feel like I’d stumbled. I felt unsteady for the rest of the interview. Maybe it was his eyes. Maybe it was the size of him.

After the interview finished, I fought the urge to write him off immediately. Sure, his résumé was impressive, andhe answered every question with ease, pitching a smile here and there that was effortlessly charming. But it was hard to breathe around him, and I knew it would be dangerous to work with someone who made me feel so… tense.

Unfortunately, no other candidate measured up to him, and so the answer was clear. He had to be my executive assistant. Julia offered him the job that week.

I wished I could say that things had changed now that two years had passed since the interview, but I was still too weak. Even now, the sight of him still made my stomach flip.

Today, Cameron was waiting for me outside of the bank building, leaning casually against the car. He was dressed, as always, in a simple navy blue suit, white shirt, and light blue tie. His hair was slightly windswept, but he still looked handsome. I let myself stare at him for a moment, then stepped through the revolving door. Gray clouds rolled overhead, and a wave of city noise washed over me. Car honks. People talking. My name being spoken.

“Alison,” he said, straightening up. “How was the meeting?”

“Fine,” I said, as he opened the car door for me. As I moved past him to get into the car, I could’ve sworn I felt a ghost of a touch on my back, but maybe that was just my imagination. I crawled inside and patted the chauffeur’s arm in greeting before taking a seat. “Back to the office,please, Mr. Anderson.”

“Yes, Ms. Firth,” he said, shooting me a smile in the rearview mirror. He looked like a kind grandfather, with deep smile lines and neatly combed white hair. He’d called me Ms. Firth since I first hired him, despite my protestations that it made me sound about a hundred years old, and calling me Alison was perfectly fine.

As the car zoomed off, Cameron fixed me with a look. “Now, how was the meeting? Don’t tell me it was just ‘fine.’”

A sly smile broke across my lips. “I might’ve convinced them to purchase our largest commercial package.”

Cameron grinned and nodded, not looking the least bit surprised. “If anyone is going to make bank commercials interesting, it’ll be you.”

Luckily, the commercials had to be more informative than fascinating, but I always gave every single project my own little flair.

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