Falling for the Boss

Falling For The Boss
             
             
Elizabeth Lennox

Chapter 1

The air conditioner whirred quietly but it didn’t ease the tension in the room or cool off Victoria
Anderson’s
tense
nerves.  She was terrified and hoped the
dragon
woman sitting in front of her didn’t see
her anxiety
.

The dragon lady continued,
“You understand that this is a one year commitment, correct?”
She was actually
the head of human relations, Margie Peterman
,
but she seemed extremely protective of her boss’s schedule and requirements
. 
“Mr. Attracelli is very firm about the commitment
,
to the point of requiring a contract stating that you will remain on the team for one full year.
 
Despite the numerous tests and interviews, w
e’ve had a run of bad luck with recent personnel leaving before the year is over.  It puts his team in a difficult position and they aren’t able to meet their
tight
deadlines.
”

Victoria
’s hands clenched together in nervousness. 
“I understand,” she said in a voice she hoped sounded confident.  A wisp of honey blond hair floated down the side of her face, having escaped the tight chignon she’d put it in this morning.  
She casually pushed it back off her face, not even aware of the action as Margie looked down through
Victoria
’s resume and test scores again, looking for something else to question
Victoria
about. 

The chair
Victoria
was sitting on should have been comfortable, but because she was so nervous, the Chippendale chair and highly polished conference table seemed too forbidding to allow
any possible
comfort.  She perched herself on the edge of the chair
with her back ramrod straight and her hands neatly folded on her lap
, not able to relax even slightly. 

Victoria
surreptitiously
wiped her hands on her black, wool suit
skirt
, hoping the interviewer didn’t notice her slight hesitation. 
She wasn’t afraid of the long hours, the travel or the demanding boss. 
She already had that without the excitement of visiting different cities and foreign countries which this job offered. 
There was nothing holding her
in
Washington
,
D.C.
any longer
now that Laci, her younger
sister
,
would graduate from
law school
in a few months
.  This would be
Victoria
’s
last fling before
settling down and marrying Barry
Lawson, the man she had been dating for over a year now
. 
Once she’d “sowed her wild oats” as she was now thinking of this
job opportunity
, she’d feel comfortable settling down and raising children with her husband and knowing that she wasn’t missing out on anything. 

“And you understand the demands of the job?  The travel needs, the long hours?”
Margie asked, her sharp, grey eyes watching
Victoria
’s expression over the edge of her bifocal glasses. 

“
Yes,
I understand
,”
Victoria
repeated, nodding her head for emphasis.  “
I’m eager to see different parts of the country,”
Victoria
explained
, leaning forward slightly.  The traveling part of the job was what had caught her interest immediately. 
“I’ve lived in the
Washington
,
D.C.
area almost my entire life.  But as much as I like this area, I love traveling even more.”

Margie looked over the
serene
young woman sitting primly in front of her.  The
strikingly lovely
woman was
petite
with
beautiful blond
hair pulled
back
at the nape of her neck
and soft, green eyes
. 
The black suit and
crisp,
white silk shirt she wore was
professional looking but in no way enhanced her
feminine
shape.  Margie considered that a good sign since the days would be long and hard. 
There was no time for primping and high maintenance females. 

It was
a good thing
that
this
candidate had a long term boyfriend.  Margie had seen enough females throwing themselves at
her boss,
Thomas
Attracelli
.  He didn’t need someone on his personal staff getting romantic ideas. 
That would throw the whole team into a mass of inefficiency and chaos. 

The only doubt
Margie had about Victoria Anderson
was the woman’s timidity.  She definitely had the skills and the experience for the job. 

Margie sat up a little straighter.  She had considered all the applicants and the woman sitting in front of her had the best resume
and interviewed extremely well
.  What’s more, from several
tests,
phone conversations and interviews over the past two weeks, Margie suspected
her personality
would fit in with the team easily
, although her nervousness right now belied that impression
. 

Chalking that up to interview jitters, Margie decided to go with her gut instincts and recommend hiring
Victoria
over the other five candidates interviewed so far.  Mentally nodding her head, she moved on. 
“I know this is your fourth interview but this really is the final one.  You’ll be meeting Thomas Attracelli
, the lead on the team,
who will make the final decision.”
  Margie looked at her watch and frowned.  “He should be here any minute,” she explained. 

Victoria
desperately wan
ted this position
more than any of the others she had interviewed for
over the past two months
.  But more desperately, she wanted out of her current
situation
. 
Victoria
already had three job offers but was waiting to find out if she would be hired for this one, the most interesting
and challenging
from what she had learned so far. 

Victoria
tried to hide her sense of excitement but the idea of traveling to so many cities and countries, working on so many different projects had drawn her out of her
job
inertia initially. 
Over the past year,
Victoria
routinely reviewed the classified
section of the newspaper
, searching for job opportunities that seemed interesting. 
She’d seen the job offer
for this position
in the paper and had thought it was too good to be true. 

“Who else is on his staff?”
Victoria
asked, eager to learn more about the job
, praying that she would be selected over the other candidates
.  

Margie
smiled, glad to have something to
talk
about
while they waited for
her
delinquent boss
to arrive.  He had been scheduled to meet with this applicant fifteen minutes ago but he had yet to show up or call to let Margie know when, or even if, he would arrive
. 

Leaning back in her chair,
Margie
set her pen down on her yellow notepad and relaxed for the next few moments. 
“
Mr.
Atracelli travels with two
other staff members
.  Mike is
the operations manager a
nd there’s also
Bob
, who is a human relations developer.”

“What is a human relations developer?”
Victoria
asked, not wanting to appear ignorant, but curious about the title. 

Margie
laughed slightly
, appreciating the woman’s twinkling eyes showing her sense of humor.  “It sounds like a made up, politically correct title, doesn’t it? 
I can assure you that ‘human relations developer’ is a perfect
description of
what this man can do. 
Bob goes into the
ATI
offices and assesses the morale of the place.  He has a knack for building up the
spirits
of a group and creating a sense of unity. 
He works with the supervisors and mentors them on ways to increase or improve morale.  He believes, and has shown, that an energetic and team oriented office staff produces much higher results statistically than a segregated and, what some offices consider, normal environment. 
I’ve seen him work and it’s a pretty great talent.  But then, Mr. Attracelli only hires extremely talented people, like you,” Margie smiled
conspiratorially
.

Victoria
returned the smile and was grateful for the vote of confidence.  She looked at her watch
again
.  “I think I might need to reschedule the interview
with Mr. Attracelli
.  I really need to get back to work,” she said, about to rise. 
“I’m sorry, I only have one hour for lunch and my current boss is very particular.”

She and Marg
ie had been waiting for almost
fifteen minutes
for
the illustrious Thomas Attracelli
to arrive for the interview and
Victoria
would be
late getting back to her job
if things didn’t start moving soon
. 
Victoria
was only able to take an hour for lunch, and that hour was
almost
over
.  She didn’t want to be fired if she wasn’t going to get this job so she was extremely nervous about the time. 

Margie leaned forward in her seat again.  She didn’t want to lose this candidate just because Thomas was being inconsiderate of her time. 
“If you’ll give Thomas just a few more minutes, I’m sure he’ll be along soon,” Margie said. 

Victoria
understood Margie was trying to finalize the interviews.  She looked at her watch again and decided to wait five more minutes before leaving. 
Depending on how long the interview with this mysterious Mr. Attracelli took, she hoped t
hat would still give her time to grab a sandwich at the deli in her building on the way back to her office. 

Suddenly, t
he hairs on the back of
Victoria
’s neck stood up, and she was instantly alert for some reason. 
T
he air seemed to crackle an instant before the door
to the lobby
swung open.  She could only see his tall frame, broad shoulders
and
his black hair but
Victoria
knew this was
the sexiest
and most dynamic
man
she
had ever laid eyes on.  It was as if a hurricane had just come through the room, then disappeared behind a set of double doors. 

Once the storm was over,
Victoria
looked around her and was a little shocked that the room was still as orderly as it had been a moment before the man had entered, then just as quickly left. 

Victoria
suspected that Margie felt the same way in so far as the hurricane was concerned because her eyes just stared at the partially opened doors as if a bull had just gone through them.  Turning back to
Victoria
, Margie raised her eyebrows, obviously astounded by what had just happened.  Shaking her head,
Margie picked up
Victoria
’s file and stood up.  “I’ll be right back,” Margie said and
crossed the room to disappear
behind the doors.  She didn’t close them all the way so
Victoria
was able to hear their conversation.