He sighed. “Sure. Of course.”
So the two employees got in their own car and Red and Nicole took Red’s car into the city.
Red was staring straight ahead at the road. Nicole felt completely distant from him, and frustrated that he’d pulled away from her once again. “I really like Marcie,” she said, as they approached Route 84.
“The wedding planner from Syracuse,” he said, doubtfully.
“Yes, she’s from Syracuse. That doesn’t mean she’s a total rube. I think you’d like her. She’s hysterically funny.”
“What about the planner I told you about? The one who does all the celebrity weddings?”
Nicole tried to find room in her mind for that possibility. “I could talk to her, I guess.”
“Don’t do me any favors. I was just thinking it might be best to go with a known quantity. I mean, other than your mom recommending her—what do you really know about her ability to do the job?”
“I’m just going off my gut instinct.”
He glanced sideways at her. “She’s going to be dealing with one of the most important days of our lives, so I hope your instincts are on target.”
“You keep saying you trust me, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like you do.”
“I do, I’m just giving my input. Like you keep asking me to.”
“So,” Nicole asked, “does that mean you want me to use this celebrity wedding planner?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“I like Marcie.”
“Then we’ll use Marcie. Absolutely.”
She sighed. “I feel like we’re not on the same page lately.”
Red glanced at her again. “Well, I’m super busy and now you’re getting busy with wedding stuff. Things are going to probably feel a little weird for awhile.”
“And we haven’t been close lately.”
“Every relationship has its ups and downs.”
“I don’t want to become one of those couples.”
He smiled a little. “One of what couples?”
“One of those couples that says every relationship has its ups and downs, and you know it means they’re sick of one another. And they’re probably always in a down cycle but they pretend that its just the natural way of things.”
Red didn’t say anything for a long time. When he did, his voice was low and somber. “I don’t want to be one of those couples either. I love you. What can I do?”
She sighed with relief. “You can support me about our wedding.”
He put his hand on her leg and rubbed it. She felt a thrill as she always felt when he touched her, and Nicole realized all it took was a simple look or touch for her to know that he still cared and that they were fine. “I support you one hundred thousand percent and I always will,” he said. “I’m sorry if I’ve made you feel anything different.”
They arrived at the office and went inside. Nicole hadn’t seen the place in a few days and was surprised at all of the changes. There was office furniture, for one thing. Nice office furniture. There were some paintings on the walls and photographs.
“It feels like a real office now,” she said.
“Let’s go in the conference room,” Red replied, waving at one of his employees.
“When do we bring in the cubicles?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No. I don’t want cubicles anymore. I don’t care if they’re efficient. People hate them and I won’t use them.”
“But what if you need the space for more workers?”
“Shit, I’ll let the employees vote on it. If they want to keep their offices and do a little more work, or if they want to start having cubicles and more coworkers to lighten the load. My bet is they choose to keep their own offices and do more work.”
They walked into the conference room and sat down together on one side of the table. “I just realized,” she said. “I’ve never been on the other side of an interview before. I’ve only been the interviewee.”
Red laughed and leaned in for a quick kiss. “First time for everything, huh?”
“I’m nervous now. My palms are sweating.”
“Relax and watch. You can focus on getting an impression of the person while I ask the questions.”
He passed her the resumes of the people coming in for interviews that afternoon. There were five people, all with great qualifications (way better than hers), and Nicole thought she’d have hired any one of them in a pinch. At least, based on their resumes.
When they actually came in to interview, it was a bit of a different story.
Nicole was surprised to find that she could tell almost instantly that someone wouldn’t be a good fit working for Red. One guy was twitchy and nervous, and his lips were white and pasty like he’d just eaten a box of chalk.
Then there was a woman who had an impressive resume, but when Red quizzed her on what she’d done previously, she seemed bizarrely clueless—as if she’d made up her entire work history.