“I didn’t fuck the girl, if that’s what you think,” Rees said.
“Rees, seriously,” Jack said. “As your lawyer, and your friend, you got to shut the fuck up.”
But Rees ignored him. I felt my heart beat rapidly, and I tried to understand what he was doing. I didn’t need to hear any of this—although he clearly wanted me to know for a reason. Italian pop stars with politician husbands were the thing of a movie or a soap opera, not something that ever protruded into my life, not matter how far removed. And yet here I was, nodding along like it made total sense.
“Giana and I were friends,” Rees said. “The rumors that we were seen together are all true, of course. I visited Italy, and I spent time with her while I was there. But we never kissed, never slept together. Although I assure you, she would have, if I wanted it.”
“That’s presumptuous,” I said, and immediately regretted it. He raised an eyebrow, like I’d cursed in church or something.
“I don’t think it is,” he said. “I’m good at reading people, and there’s no doubt in my mind that she would’ve slept with me.”
“I’m sure you think so, but not all women worship at the altar of rich men,” I said, and inwardly I was like, what the hell is wrong with me? I was trying to get a job, not trying to scold him for a being a dick. And yet keeping my mouth shut wasn’t exactly one of my skills.
But it didn’t seem to matter. If anything, he smiled a little, and his lips parted—those full, pretty lips—showing off straight, white teeth.
Jack, for his part, was sweating. “I think that’s enough detail,” he said. “We have a lot of girls to interview.”
“No, we don’t,” Rees said. “I want to hire you, Millie.”
I let out a surprised laugh. It was a scoffing sound, and tore form my throat like a train. I wished I hadn’t done it, because Jack rubbed his face, again, like he couldn’t believe any of this shit, and he was right. All of this was unbelievable.n
I more or less insulted Rees a second ago, and now he wanted to hire me. I’d been on job interviews before, and I was pretty sure that’s not how they were supposed to go
“There are plenty of other girls,” Jack said. “If we could just—“
Rees held up a hand. “Millie, do you want this job?”
“I need a job,” I said, which was passive, I’ll admit, but the truth at least. I wasn’t sure what I wanted from Rees Court anymore. I tapped my fingers nervously on the black arm rest of my chair while Rees watched me, clearly contemplating something. The silence was heavy, and I felt like I was watching my entire life unfold in front of my eyes.
“I’m running a SPAC,” Rees said finally, and some of the tension released from the room. “Do you know what that is?”
“No, I don’t,” I admitted, although I hated to tell him that I didn’t know something. I got the sense that he prized intelligence and knowledge, and besides, I didn’t want to see the smug look on his face as he explained.
But, of course, he looked smug anyway. “Don’t feel bad,” Rees said. “It’s a strange financial situation. They’re very in vogue right now.”
“SPAC stands for special purpose acquisition company,” Jack said. “Which I know probably doesn’t tell you much.”
“Imagine it this way,” Rees said, “SPACs are basically blank checks, companies with no purpose other than to raise money. Once enough money is raised, whoever runs the SPAC goes in search of another company to buy. If that acquisition is successful, the SPAC merges with that purchased property, and everyone that invested gets a ton of money in return. If not, well.” He made a gesture, rubbing his hands together, then spreading them apart like casting dirt into the wind.
“So people just give you money?” I asked, trying to imagine the type of person that would trust Rees Court with some unspecified amount of cash to do with whatever he wanted, and actually didn’t find it all too hard to picture. He was a wunderkind, after all, and rich people loved that kind of thing, and tended to have spare money to throw at a project like this.
“More or less,” Rees said, glancing at Jack.
“We have to raise the money,” Jack specified. “Go out and find investors. We’ll go public, have a big IPO, sell stock to raise even more. Then once we have a big pot of money, we’ll go buy a company, and hopefully get rich.”
“Sounds crazy,” I said. “People actually do this?”
“Absolutely,” Rees said. “Now, we need to gather new investors. Rich people with a lot of spare dollars lying around in foreign bank accounts that don’t mind risk, and are willing to trust me. But because of this Italian pop star situation, many of my original investors have been pulling out.”
He watched me carefully as I sat back in my chair and chewed on my cheek. I could see where this was going, and I didn’t like it, not even a little bit. He had an image problem, and he wanted to hire a young, pretty, female assistant. And now he was tying those two things together in a very subtle way, and I really hoped he wasn’t going where I thought he was going.
“I’m hoping that this position you’re looking to fill doesn’t have anything to do with rehabilitating your imagine,” I said.
He raised his eyebrows and looked at Jack. “She’s quick,” Rees said.
“Too quick,” Jack said, and leaned forward on his elbows like he’d just run a marathon and gotten his ass kicked.
“I’m not sure what you think this is supposed to be, but I don’t think I’m interested,” I said, pushing the chair back from the table. It was one thing, working as
