The Space Between

Chapter 2: Patrick

What was that? What the actual hell was that?

A long curtain of dark, wavy hair caught my eye through the conference room windows. I stared after it, half expecting to develop X-ray vision to see through brick walls, half hating myself for noticing it in the first place.

Shannon leaned against the door and squealed, "She is freaking awesome!"

Andy was nothing like the other candidates with their nervous tics, obvious immaturity, and shortage of authentic interest in this type of work.

She radiated cool confidence. Her gestures were measured and meaningful, her speech deliberate.

How she could sit there while I hit her with impossible scenarios and answer as if she expected the goddamn questions, cool as a fucking cucumber, was beyond me. I dug in with increasingly outlandish questions—problems I was trying to bend my brain around—with the perverted hope I'd break that cool.

Didn't happen, and I couldn't explain why I was determined to shake her. See her ruffled. Get her flustered.

I scrubbed my hand over my face, a feeble attempt at slowing my galloping heart rate. Nothing prepared me for Andy. I knew I'd be interviewing one of the most accomplished and focused candidates to apply for our fledgling apprenticeship, but I didn't anticipate an unflappable spine of steel enthralled by my work.

It got even more interesting when she wouldn't let me shut her down. She wanted to learn from me. She was demanding it. I knew it was inappropriate but the moment those words passed her lips I started drowning in fantasies far filthier than anything my mind had ever produced.

Oh, yes. I could teach her plenty.

My head and my dick wrestled for control in ways I'd never before experienced when Andy told me she wasn't finished. But noticing attractive women never fucked with my mind. Was this it?  Was my sanity on its way out?

People didn't usually take me on, yet I had the distinct impression Andy would provoke the shit out of me with her poignant commentary and patronizingly dismissive "hm." I could see her sitting back and allowing me a tiny smile while I went ballistic over that "hm."

I barely noticed Shan's babbling.

"…perfect for you. She's taking her licensing boards in June but if this works out, we could bring her on long term to build your capacity. She said she's in town the rest of the week. I say we get her back this afternoon and make an offer."

No. Hell no. Not with her maddeningly unfazed responses to my brutal questions. Not with her steady gazes and precise expressions. Not with those dark eyes that were altogether too wise, too perceptive for her age. Andy needed to take her eyes and that smile far away from this office. Mentoring her was out of the question.

"No. She's like a…a feral cat, Shan."

"What?" She dropped into a seat across the conference table, her face twisted in irritated confusion. I loved Shannon in full-on Black Widow ass-kicking mode unless she was aiming her Avengers-style wrath at me.

"All that hair and her voice. She seemed annoying." Both of those things were very real problems. I'd never seen so much hair in my life. Thick, dark, uncontrollably curling. It was mythical. Odysseus would have had something to say about that hair.

"You're annoying. This whole process is annoying. I want to find a freaking apprentice for you and move on with my life. Is that so hard? We're talking about six months, Patrick. I don't see why you can't handle working with someone like Andy for six months. We've been searching since November. It's time to nut up, man."