By that afternoon, Hank had been able to shake off the worst of his depression over no longer having his job with Intelligence. Surprisingly, it had been Jay who had helped him with that. After getting the confrontation about his behaviour out of the way, Jay had taken Hank out for breakfast. Conversation had flowed naturally between them, to the point that Hank had enjoyed himself.
On the afternoon's agenda were two job interviews for the receptionist position at Voight Detective Services. Then, in the evening there was dinner with Erin and Jay at Kalinda's apartment.
The previous day she had been happy to inform him that her friends had given her a dining table and chairs, and that she had been able to re-arrange her place to fit it in. Hank had resisted the temptation to make a joke about how a woman who supposedly loved hosting had managed to rent a furnished apartment without noticing it didn't have a dining table. Still, she had a dining table now, and a night of good company and good food beckoned, possibly with good sex afterwards.
Still with no office to work out of, Hank and Erin were having to conduct interviews in coffee shops. They were in one now, waiting for their first interviewee to arrive. They had shown up early so that Hank had some time read the resume, although they had ended up in conversation for a while instead while enjoying their coffee.
"Alexa Bliss," he read when he finally started scanning over the document. "Thirty-two. Mother of one. She's got receptionist experience with several companies. Currently working two part time jobs, one as a receptionist and one as a bartender. Adding bartender in is remarkably honest of her. Don't think I'd have done that."
Erin looked at him, a slightly irritated expression on my face. "Hank, there's nothing wrong with working as a bartender."
"Of course not. That wasn't what I was trying to say at all. My point was if I was applying for a receptionist position, I wouldn't put part time bartender at the top of my resume."
"Should I turn around and leave? Save us all the trouble?" a woman asked.
Hank looked up, instantly feeling bad. There was a smartly-dressed pretty young blonde standing in front of him. She was five feet tall if she was lucky, and there was a downcast look on her face. This had to be Alexa Bliss, and she had heard the last part of what he had been saying to Erin.
"Well done, Hank," Erin scolded him. She stood up and offered her hand to Alexa. "I'm Erin. Please ignore him, he was being a moron. I'm so sorry you overheard that. Please, sit down and join us."
"Is there any point?" Alexa looked Hank in the eyes. "I put part time bartender on my resume because I'm an honest person, and that's what I'm currently doing for work. If you want to know why, it's because the company I used to work for went bankrupt while I was on maternity leave. That meant my salary stopped coming. My son is six months old. I've been working for two months now, because if I wasn't my partner and I would lose our house, even though he's also working two jobs. We're struggling like we've never struggled in our lives to make ends meet. We're on our asses, but we're fighting to keep our family afloat, so if you want to sit there and judge me, you can go fuck yourself."
With that, and with angry tears in her eyes, Alexa turned to leave. In that moment, Hank made a decision.
"The job's yours if you want it. Three month trial period. Trial period goes well, full time employment. Forty hours a week."
Erin looked at Hank, obviously wondering what he was doing. But she chose not to step in.
Alexa turned around and came back to the table. "I'm not taking your job because you feel sorry for me."
"I don't feel sorry for you," Hank said evenly. "Frankly, your family situation is not my concern. I'm offering you the job because I admire your work ethic, and I admire the way you just chewed my ass out when I deserved it. You're the kind of person I want to employ. So, do you want the job or not?"
Alexa had a good poker face. "What would you be paying?"
He gave her an hourly rate. "That would be for the trial period. We'll look at upping that when, if, you progress from there."
"Alright, I'll take the job. When do you need me to start?"
The conversation still had a confrontational air about it even though they had now made an agreement. Hank liked that. "Don't know yet. With the next couple of weeks for sure. We're waiting on the lease on our office space to go through, plus some other paperwork. Your number is on your resume. I'll call you."
"Fine." Alexa reserved a smile for Erin, who she hadn't clashed with. "Nice to meet you, Erin."
"You too," Erin said.
With that, Alexa left. Hank turned to Erin, finding her already looking at him.
"What the hell was that, Hank? I can tell you've not done many job interviews before."
He pointed after Alexa. "That was the person I've been waiting for. My kind of employee, not some characterless drone with a cheap pin striped suit and air between her ears. You disagree with my decision?"
Erin couldn't keep a straight face, much as she tried. "I didn't say that."
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Ahead of the dinner with Erin and Jay, Hank had gone over to Kalinda's place early, in part to help her prepare if needed, but mostly because he wanted to spend some time with her before the other guests arrived.
When Kalinda greeted him at the door, she wasn't wearing the most attractive outfit Hank had ever seen her in: a simple white t-shirt, blue jeans, a black apron and black nitrile gloves that had already been put to use.
"Hello, you," Kalinda said warmly before showing off her hands. "I'm preparing the chilli, so I won't touch you."
Hank could already smell the chilli and other curry ingredients before he stepped into the apartment. "Don't touch, but you can kiss me."
"I can."
And so they did, sharing several passionate kisses before Kalinda insisted on getting back to the food prep. Hank stood with her in the kitchen while she worked, withstanding the fairly strong chilli in the air. The consensus had been that the guests would like a hot curry, so a hot curry was what they were going to get. While she worked, Hank told her about his day, and about the decidedly less than conventional job interview. He was totally honest about what he had said to upset Alexa Bliss, figuring that being honest with a partner at all times was the best way to build a strong relationship.
"I hope you learned something from that, Hank. Don't judge people," Kalinda said, and she left it at that. They moved on to talking about Kalinda's first day under the new boss of Intelligence. Hank listened as she told him about Raquel Gonzalez, unaware that he had already met her. He was pleased to learn that overall the day had gone positively, in Kalinda's opinion. He wanted nothing more than continued success for those he had been forced to leave behind at Intelligence.
Eventually, Kalinda had the curry simmering, allowing her to leave it for a while.
"Right, time to get changed into something a bit nicer," she said, peeling off the gloves and dropping them into the trash.
Hank didn't let her leave the kitchen, instead moving up close to her, standing face to face. He reached up and let her hair down, which by now he knew he was permitted to do. He found the way it always tumbled loose around her shoulders absolutely delightful.
"Wear your hair down for me, please."
"Just this once, since you made the request so politely."
She was being overly wordy again, well aware of the effect it had on him, and it worked its magic now too. "You turn me on so much."
"Easy, tiger. We've got a meal to get through. And I need to go and change. Grab a beer and relax."
When she was gone, Hank took a beer out of the fridge. He was about to open it, but he thought better of that and put it back. He had a better idea. After waiting in the kitchen for a couple of minutes, he went through to Kalinda's bedroom, where he found her in the process of changing, currently only wearing some sexy black underwear.
"Wow. Stunning," he said as he walked in.
"Hank! I said have a beer and relax!" she chastised him, assuming he had come to try and get some sex. But he hadn't. In fact he was there because he was a little concerned that she might think he wanted it a bit too often, as if that was all he saw in her.
"I know you did," he said, walking over to her. She allowed him to embrace her. "But I wanted to come in here and tell you something I should have said when I arrived, which is that I love you, and I appreciate you inviting Erin and Jay into your home. Actually, I appreciate everything you do for me. Felt that needed to be said." He could see on her face how much that meant to her.
"Oh, bless you. That's so sweet of you. I love you too. And of course I'm going to let Erin into my life, she's your daughter. That means Jay's in it too if they're together. Now give me a kiss, and you can zip my dress up for me once I've put it on."
Hank was happy to oblige on both counts.
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A/N: Hank hired a receptionist thanks a decidedly unconventional job interview. Do you his choice will work out?
Next time, Erin and Jay will be joining Hank and Kalinda for dinner. Will everyone enjoy their first 'family' occasion?