Jack POV
Going into his building, Jack was deep in thought, Ben Archibald proved to be a conundrum, such an elusive fellow indeed, why is he always out and why hasn't anybody seen him, is he hiding something?
He knows that he has to find out. But one thing he realized with this meeting. Leia Clark is an even bigger enigma than her absentee boss and his instant attraction to her is something to ponder about. She is a beautiful, intelligent, talented woman and she can definitely hold her own. She wasn't the daddy's little girl he heard of in the grapevine. And he really wasn't surprised that he was attracted to her, beautiful, smart with a hot body to boot, who wouldn't, although it's still a toss up if he will pursue her in that way. He realized then that he didn't know if she had a boyfriend or perhaps husband. He will find out soon enough he thought.
He is amiss why she wasn't hired in his firm, a question his HR manager needs to answer. He is almost certain that Ben Architecture will not be where it is today without her. His curiosity is piqued now by both her boss and her. And if there's one thing about Jack is that he always, always satisfies his curiosity.
Getting to his office, he asked his secretary to call Gerald Hoss, his HR manager into his office. "Melisa, get Gerald Hoss here now." His secretary nodded and lifted the phone. After a little while, Melisa rang and told him that Gerald has arrived and told her to let him in.
"Yes sir. You called for me?" Gerald asks as he enters the office.
"Yes, Jack said getting directly to the point. "Do you know Leia Clark?"
Gerald nodded, "yes sir, I know of her."
"Of her, hmmm… Jack started. "Good," Jack continued, "Now, I want to know why she wasn't hired by our firm?"
"Ah sir…" Gerald answered flustered. He clearly didn't know what to say.
Jack was looking at him intently.
"You see, sir," Gerald started.
"No, I don't see," Jack said matter-of-factly. "Explain to me why a top notch architect that applied to this firm wasn't hired and I want the truth please," he prodded.
"Sir, it's just that when she applied, we didn't know what she was capable of, what her talents are" Gerald explained. "We didn't know if she was any good, at all." he tried to reason.
"Oh, didn't know her talents?" Jack sounded surprised. "She was fresh out of college, did her transcript show failing grades? Was her sample work that bad? Or did you even take a look at her sample works?" Jack asked.
"Yes sir, we did take a look sir," Gerald said, really flustered this time.
"Hmmm… and it wasn't any good?" Jack asked again, hoping to hear that the reason she wasn't hired was because she wasn't any good and that perhaps, it was Ben Archibald who trained her to become good enough.
Gerald was quite hesitant to answer
"Truth only," Jack warned looking straight into Gerald.
"Actually she did submit very good samples but…" he trailed off.
"But?"
"Ah, sir. Shall we just say that," he continued. "Her reputation precedes her."
"Reputation?"
"Ah yes, sir, as you well know she is the bastard daughter of Carlson Clark and it is well known that Madame Clark is just tolerating her, so we… I didn't think that hiring her was a good idea… you do know that the Madame has quite a large social clout, we didn't want to get into her bad side."
"I see," Jack nodded slowly. "I didn't realize that our hiring process was based on what can get on Martina's bad side," he said. "I didn't know that Martina joined our company, when did this happen?"
"No sir she didn't, it's just…" Gerald trailed off again.
Jack was nodding and asked again, "Have our hiring protocols changed and it's now based on what the latest gossip and social standing is now?"
"Ahm, no sir," he stuttered. "Oh, it's not like that, ahm, it's just that, I… " he trailed off, clearly at a loss on how to explain himself.
"I never thought I'd see that day, that you babble like a fool Gerald," Jack started, then shook his head and said "okay, never mind," Jack began again. "That's all water under the bridge now. Even if I fire you, it's all lost, Ms. Clark is with another firm now and I think she's not leaving there anytime soon."
Gerald was afraid of what was to come next.
"So, I will let this mishap go for now but don't you dare do that again." He warned. "We hire based on skills, talent, confidence and all that important stuff. We look at their portfolio and CV, grades from College if needed, not the news, never the gossip. We listen to how they handle themselves during their interview and not to the grapevine. I don't have anything against Martina but keep this in mind, I don't give a shit about what Martina thinks, she is not part of this company and she never will be and she doesn't have a say on anything that goes on here, do you understand?"
"Yes sir," Gerald promised. "It won't happen again. I'm really sorry sir."
"If I lose another top notch worker because you prefer to consider things other than what is really important, you might find yourself knocking at Martina's door for a job, got it?"
Gerald nodded and Jack inclined his head and motioned for him to get out. Gerald heaved a sigh of relief and quickly ran out the door, afraid that his boss might change his mind.
Alone in his office now. Jack closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair and recalled Leia's face in his mind. She was really very beautiful. It would have been easier if she were just a rival, he could easily set that aside and pursue her, but as Carlson's daughter, albeit illegitimate, he wasn't sure how to deal with that. She was younger than he was, but heaven knows he's been with girls much younger than her. She's a knot he is not sure he wants to untie. Although the bulge in his pants is shouting for him to go and untie, his mind is still not sure. For now, all he is free to do is to fantasize about what he will do to her if and when he gets her. Now he will play the waiting game and see what tomorrow brings. He heaved a big sigh.
He buzzed his secretary. "I will rest for a while, Melisa," he said, "hold all my calls for an hour," without waiting for his secretary's reply, he turned off his intercom, flipped the lock switch for the door under his table. Closed his eyes and thought about the very beautiful lady he just had lunch with.