The Last Resort Read Online Free PDF Page B

not enough for you?”
    “It’s not that,” I said, shaken by how strange he was being. What had I done wrong?
    “Well? What, then?”
    “ Well ,” I said slowly, trying to sound neutral and unruffled, “I don’t even know what the job entails.”
    “Oh, for goodness’ sake,” he spat, cutting me off, looking at me with hard impatience. Then his face softened a bit, as if he saw that he was being unreasonable. “What were you told?” His voice was quieter now.
    “Um. I met J-Jack Rutherford-West at a gallery opening. On Friday. And—”
    “OK. So you were told nothing.”
    “Um. Basically.”
    He sighed heavily, but not unkindly.
    “You’ll really be Jack’s assistant. Doing whatever he wants. You know, like a personal assistant—typing, filing, making appointments, diary-keeping. That sort of thing.”
    “Oh,” I said, not at all disappointed. That sounded much more manageable to me.
    “I gather you’re in PR. There’ll be some of that too—press releases and so on.”
    “Oh.”
    “Does that meet with your approval?” he said, suddenly sarcastic.
    “Yes,” I said, trying to sound defiant, stung by how horrible he was being. I was starting to come over a bit tearful, but I was damned if I was going to let him see it. All he needed to do was be faintly polite—that was all that was asked from him—so why was he being so unpleasant? It didn’t make sense.
    “OK,” he said, a look of resignation passing over his face, “sign this. You can start tomorrow.”
    I was nonplussed. “What about the interview?” Surely he had to ask me some questions? Did he have some kind of insight into my natural, yet hidden, abilities? Had I just passed a weird test, designed to measure how gutsy and go-getter-ish I was?
    He leaned forward on his forearms, fingers knitted together. “Darling,” he said mock-conspiratorially, “I think you and I both know that’s unnecessary.”
    I couldn’t understand what he meant. I wanted to ask, but it was obvious that I was on thin ice.
    “Um,” I said. “OK.”
    While I signed the contract and he stared distractedly out of the window, I churned the preceding five minutes over and over in my mind. Why was I signing this contract? What was wrong with me? Who was this person? It was like being in a trance. I was still sickened with shock and it seemed impossible to string thoughts together in a coherent way.
    I know what he means, I thought suddenly, feeling then as if I was controlling the pen from far outside my body. He thinks I’m being hired to be bonked. I felt dazed. Surely he didn’t mean it like that? There had to be another explanation.
    Mechanically, I wrote out my bank account numbers, and he checked them and seemed satisfied. And then, just like that, he dismissed me abruptly, nose in his iPhone.
    I was annoyed to find myself wanting another whiff of his fragrance.
    On my way out, the receptionist asked if I was OK. I said yes, and tried to smile. But she just tutted, “You’re alright, sweetheart. He’s prickly at the best of times. That’s just Tam.” So that was his name! We’d not even introduced ourselves. “And not to worry. His brother’s much nicer to work with.”
    “Eh?”
    “Didn’t you know? Jack and Tam are brothers.”
    I must have looked thunderstruck.
    “Well.” She winked, and lowered her voice a little. “Half-brothers.”
    ~
    I was back at the dealership before my lunch hour was up, slack-jawed with shock. “How’d it go?” Sharon looked at me quizzically. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
    I’d spent the ride back deep in thought, clutching my contract in shaking hands. I was stunned. What had just happened? Had I just been given a job that doubled my salary, contract and all, no questions asked? Had all of this actually taken place, or had the space-time continuum been interrupted, and I’d been thrown down a rabbit hole into a parallel universe? “More like I crossed over into the Dark Side for a