Flirting with the HR Girl

Chapter 10

 "Hey," Austin said, lingering in the doorway. He looked almost shy for the first time since she'd met him. Maybe it was because they had scheduled alone time and had no one to carry on around them with no threat of interruption. Or maybe it was because he felt guilty for flirting down on the floor with Destiny. But what would he have to feel guilty about? Jennifer had no claim to him. Hell, she prayed he didn't even know she liked him. She'd known him for barely twenty-four hours. She couldn't tell by the look on his face what he was feeling but she motioned for him to come in and sit down. As he did, he asked, "Are you too busy to help me?"

"Absolutely not," Jennifer said, perhaps a little too eagerly. She minimized her window on the computer. She didn't know how much he shared with Todd, but she didn't need his cousin to know what she was working on. She wanted to stay out of this store manager versus HR manager fight. She turned around in her chair and reached into a file cabinet behind her. She pulled out everything in the new hire packet that she had created for the store. Before she was the HR assistant, the papers were in different locations and had not been updated in years. One of her favorite things to do was to organize, so she went to work and made packets for the managers. Then they had no excuse for not having every single piece of paper they needed. She laid one of the packets in front of Austin, across the desk from her, holding a highlighter to circle the important things. "This is a new hire packet, and this is what you will need when you find someone you want to hire."

"How will I find someone to hire?" he asked looking embarrassed.

"Are you a new manager?" Jennifer asked suddenly feeling better that she had been in her role for two years and finally felt like she knew what she was doing.

"Yes, I was the assistant manager in Nashville, but I didn't do any hiring," said Austin leaning back in his chair a little bit, he seemed to relax. She let him go on. "I was mostly in charge of getting sales up and that's what I was good at."

"Well, you'll be good at getting new people too. You just have to look for someone like you, who loves to sell," she said with more confidence than when she was new to her position. Starting at a smaller Peterson store in the office, her only qualifications were two and a half years of college and that she could create an excel spreadsheet. Her predecessor was long gone like Austin's, and she had to figure everything out on her own. Her flighty store manager wasn't much help. The woman wanted Jennifer to figure things out and leave her alone to freak out about doing her own job, for which she seemed entirely unqualified. "I screen the applications before I send them to you. You just have to look them over and call to set up interviews."

"I have to call them myself?" Austin was now looking terrified.

"Well, yes, you are the manager," Jennifer said thinking of all the people she had to call daily working for Peterson's. Any anxiety over the phone was long gone but those first calls were hard. She may be able to help him more than she originally thought. "Most of the time you will just get voicemail because they don't want to talk to anyone anyway. It's a wonder we find anyone to talk to the customers in person."

She finished with a laugh and was happy to see Austin's mouth turn up a little bit. He had the best smile. The kind that could blow a bad day out of the water. It was oddly endearing to see someone so confident look anything but.

"If you like someone in an interview, I can help you offer them a job, and get them onboarded," she explained trying to make the process sound as simple as it should be. "So why don't you tell me what you're looking for in an employee and I'll see what applications I can send you."

"Um." He sat back looking thoughtful. "I don't know."

"Well, what makes a good salesperson?" She prodded gently. She didn't want to sound like a know-it-all or a nag. She honestly didn't know either. All she knew, was that great salespeople had something she certainly did not.

"I guess I never really thought about it," he said beginning to look uncomfortable again.

"What motivates you to get good sales?" she asked genuinely interested.

"I really don't know," he said shifting in his chair. "I guess I don't think of it as selling. I just think of it as talking to someone. Telling them about a product that I think might fit their needs."

"Huh," she said thinking aloud.

"What?" he said looking up at her. "Is that lame?"

"No!" she said realizing that she was leaning over the desk. When he was speaking, she was drawn in by his words. It didn't surprise her that his sales were so high. "I just never thought about it that way. But then I get so nervous at the idea of talking to people I don't know that I can't imagine enjoying talking to them."

"That's how I feel about the phone," he said with an easy laugh. "I don't know why but in person seems so much easier."

Because you're gorgeous. Oh, crap, did she say that out loud? She felt her cheeks warming as she tried to think of something to say.

"Between the two of us, there may be a fully functioning adult," she said but immediately worried that it might offend him. "Not that there's something wrong with you. Just me."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with you," he said looking confident again. "You might be the most normal person I've met since I started in retail."

"I'll take that as a compliment," she said thinking of the crazy cast of characters she had met in the last few years.

"You should," he said flashing his perfect smile.

His giving that look to Destiny downstairs swam through her brain. She took a breath. One hot guy was nice to her, and she found herself a total mess.

"Anyway, I'll email you some candidates that have retail experience," she said rolling her chair back as if to get out of his orbit.

"And I will call them," he said with a heavy sigh. "Unless you want to?"

"Ha! No," she said quickly, not trusting herself to turn him down. "You just have to ask them to come in for an interview. They will be happy to hear from you. And if they're not, don't hire them."

"Sage advice," he said but did not move to go.

She was used to people hanging out in her office because they didn't want to go back to the floor. She knew this wasn't the case with him but needed him to go now. Before she found herself volunteering to do everything for him.

"I'm happy to help," she said sounding fake even though she meant it. She was basically pleading for him to leave her alone. She stacked the papers for him and slid them across the desk. "Just let me know if you have any questions."

"Okay," he said, and she could have sworn he was disappointed. "Thank you for all your help."

"No problem," she said sounding a lot cooler than she felt. "Anytime."

"I'll see you tonight, then," he said taking the papers and standing up.

"Tonight?" she said her mind drawing a blank. She was sure she would have remembered if he had asked her out. Maybe Todd had made Chilis plans with Selena, and no one had told her. "I have orientation tonight."

"I know," he said stopping in the doorway. "Todd wants me to go."

"Oh," was all she said at the thought of him witnessing her dorky guess the history of Peterson's game as an icebreaker. New hire training was one of the only times that she felt confident speaking in front of other people. But that was because they didn't know if she made a mistake. Austin would know. Her heart already started to thump at the thought of him listening to every word. "Then, I'll see you tonight."

"Can't wait," he said and was gone.

She collapsed into her chair, horrified at the thought of him coming that night. So much for trying to stay away from him. He wasn't a new associate; why would Todd send him? Probably to spy on her sexual harassment training. She would be touching on it more than she used to, but she did cover it in the past and his old buddy, Mike, really had no excuse. Although, she knew it wasn't covered before she was in the store and some of Mike's new hires may have reported him after hearing her talk about it. She hoped that Todd didn't know that. So far Cynthia had protected her and said the policy had always been shared as long as she had been there.