Her first thought was that he looked even better in real life, he looked dazzling like a movie star and she was almost struck dumb by his good looks until she felt the girl's eyes on her.
Her face hardened when she remembered that she had been left outside for that long because he had been entertaining a woman in his office and she doubted very much that they had been having a meeting that had anything to do with work.
"Bye Levi." The woman in the tiny skirt said and leaned close to the man she had come out with and placed a kiss on his cheek that was so long it might as well have been a French kiss.
Lyse turned away so she did not have to keep looking at the couple, she told herself that it was not her business what he did with women in his office and the heavy feeling in her chest could not be jealousy.
It was anger over the fact that he had kept her waiting, it seemed that her future boss was a very indisciplined man which should not have been surprising since magazines called him a playboy or man in this case since he was clearly anything but a boy.
"You must be Lyse." He said and when Lyse raised her head it was to see that the girl in the mini skirt had left and Mr Van Doren was staring at her.
She stood up and cleared her throat. "Yes, I am Lyse."
"Come with me." He said and turned away back into the office and Lyse gritted her teeth and clenched her fists before following him.
She wished that she could give him a stern talking to, it was inappropriate that seemed to have adopted a careless attitude with her, he did not even apologize for making her wait as long as she had.
She wished she did not need this arsehole's job and she could just turn around and leave but unfortunately she had to see this through.
After he lowered himself into the seat behind the desk, he pointed to the seat opposite him and she sat down while he studied her as if waiting for something and she shifted nervously in her seat and tried not to scowl.
'What does he want now!'
"I am told that you were just let go of your prior employment." He said with a raised eyebrow and she nodded then cleared her throat.
"That is right Mr Van Doren, I am very surprised to have gotten reached out to from your company."
Levi straightened in his seat, "er yes, someone called on your behalf but they asked me not to tell you who."
Lyse frowned at his words as she wondered who could have called this man on her behalf then her face tightened as her thoughts zeroed in on one person.
There was only one person who would do that and that was Brandon, she had absolutely no desire to be burdened by a favor from him and she started to stand up.
"I am sorry but if Brandon asked you to give me this job then I have no other choice than to turn down your offer—"
"Brandon?" Levi asked with a raised eyebrow.
'So she thinks that Brandon was the one who asked me to get her a job, but why would she think that after what he did to her?'
"That was not the person that called me." He said and when she looked doubtful he added, "I promise that it was not him."
With that assurance Lyse settled back in her seat.
"I would like you to resume work promptly tomorrow morning, before you go Sandra will give tell you your tasks." Levi said as he dismissed her.
Lyse stood up thinking that that had to be the strangest interview she had ever had. As she reached for the door his voice stopped her.
"I do hope that you have better clothes than that, this is a grown up company not one of those ateliers where you are allowed to wear clothes from last week."
Lyse looked self consciously at her clothes, she had on a pair of loafers, linen pants and a blouse. She knew that she did not look as sophisticated as his blonde bimbos but she did not awful either.
She clenched her teeth then turned around with a bright smile.
"My apologies, I have been out of the corporate space for a little while." She said pleasantly, "when you speak of dressing like a grown up are you referring to the way your friend from earlier looked."
Levi was stunned for a second then he raised an eyebrow at her, "Miss Spade, I learned that you are an excellent designer, put that to some good use will you?"
Then he ignored her, leaving her to seethe at his high handedness.
She opened the door and almost ran into a tall man who had been in the process of opening the door.
"Sorry." She muttered before fleeing the office.
*
"She pretended not to know me." Levi muttered as soon as Chris stepped into his office.
"Or maybe she actually does not know you." Chris countered and Levi glared at him.
"You need to stop thinking that all the women in the world are out to get you." Chris sighed, "you told me yourself that she was dead drunk that night, doesn't it make sense that she blacked out and doesn't remember anything?"
"I find it hard to believe that any woman would spend the night with me and forget me the next morning." Levi retorted and Chris chuckled.
He was amused that his friend was hurt simply because Lyse did not remember him, he felt that it was good for his charismatic friend's ego. Too many women fawned over him and it was good to see him humbled once in a while.
"Maybe you should just tell her that you got married and then get it annulled." Chris reasoned.
"So that she can demand for half of my money? No way!"
"So what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to see what her game plan is, she can't keep pretending for too long." Levi said, determination set in his jaw.