Read Online Up on the Rooftop by Kristine Grayson - Free Book Online Page A

just a little. It had been a decade or more since he had had a job interview. There were no chairs on this side of the desk. He felt like he should have a hat in his hands—a supplicant.
    “I’ve got more than a decade in finance,” he said. “I know how to make companies more efficient—”
    “We’re familiar with you American efficiency types,” she said. “You cut staff to the bone, get rid of markets that are underperforming, and while the business makes a profit, the customers are deeply dissatisfied. We are in the customer satisfaction business, not the profit business.”
    He nodded. He wasn’t dressed for this. He didn’t have his resume or any papers with him. All he had were his wits, which, he had to admit, were getting a bit tired on this day.
    “I-I know,” he said. “It’s something I’ve decried for my entire career. I got let go from my finance job when I tried to convince the company that they were hurting the very people they were trying to help. I used statistics and math to show that a long-term view would make them more profitable down the road, and it would bring in more customers, and everyone would be happy, but that didn’t—”
    “Honestly, Mr. Collier, we at Claus & Company don’t care about your Greater World concerns,” the woman said. “What we care about is what you can bring to us.”
    Marshall opened his hands a little. “Normally, ma’am, I research a company before I talk to anyone involved with it. But I’ve been a bit blindsided here. I didn’t know you existed until today—”
    “You knew,” she said in a chiding tone. “Everyone knows about us. Then they ‘grow up’ and ‘lose sight of childish things.’ You were one of those, I suppose.”
    His cheeks flushed. “The real world—what you call the Greater World…?”
    She nodded. That hair moved with her head like it weighed a ton.
    “…it can be a harsh and disillusioning place.” He shrugged. “I let it disillusion me.”
    “And still, you’re here,” she said, picking up that cigarette and tapping an inch of ash off the end. The cigarette got no shorter. “You can’t be entirely disillusioned.”
    “Julka convinced me,” he said, wondering if he should speak her name, wondering if he would get her in trouble. “Only a fool denies what’s in front of him, and she placed it all in front of me.”
    “She’s quite attractive, eh?” the woman asked.
    They knew. They knew everything, and he was dancing around it all like a fool.
    “I like her a lot,” he said. “More than I’ve ever liked anyone. I won’t lie to you, ma’am. The idea of losing the memory of this day, even if I never see her again, is more than I can bear.”
    “So you’re just here to get the girl,” the woman said.
    He shook his head. “You people give others hope. Even if they don’t want it, they brighten up for just one day. They smile for a moment. I’ve learned these last few years that those smiles are important.”
    The woman stared at him and tapped more ash off her cigarette.
    “Yes,” he said. “I’m here because of Julka, because she brought something bright and magical and wonderful into my life. I expect I won’t see her again. I expect you to send me on my way. But please, don’t make me forget her. Those moments—even if they’re fleeting—are the most important thing in life.”
    The woman still stared at him. Didn’t she have any emotions?
    “I have been trying to make up for all I did at my previous work,” he said. “I’ve been doing my best, but I’m flailing around. Being here would give me focus. It would make me remember that there are people behind the numbers. Even when the numbers are impossible.”
    The woman put the cigarette in her mouth and took a drag. He still couldn’t smell the dang thing, which was a good thing; he didn’t like the smell of cigarette smoke. But it was a bit freaky.
    “If you came to work for us,” she said, “you would get benefits. Your