Executive Sweet (A Sample)

"Yes, from Olin no less! A pretty good school. Are you some kind of genius? It says here that you were also college valedictorian."

She had even been high school valedictorian and president of the debate team, but she didn't bother mentioning it. And anyway, Kay was no longer sure she knew the subject of this morning's debate. "I'm pretty good at school. I'm sure you'll find that I'm just as good at work."

"Yes, I certainly hope so." He picked up a few other pieces of paper. "By the way, you also have great recommendations. Your professors have some very nice things to say about you."

Kay wished it were that simple. Unfortunately, some of those professors were thinking about more than her academic record. It took extra effort to be smart and attractive, because people often stopped at attractive and ignored smart. This was Kay's lot; just one more thing that she had to deal with-sometimes by being extra sharp, other times by being extra smooth.

Why did Dan Avery care so much about her academics? The articles about him said nothing about smart women. In every picture of Dan, women were laughing, dancing, and drinking-never doing anything intellectual. It just didn't add up. Kay ventured a guess. "So is this a special welcoming session for good students?"

"No. I'm afraid it's a bit more than that. Your contracts professor, Paul Ryerson, is a good friend of mine and he told me that you were coming to work here. Paul said two things about you that made me want to meet you in person. First, he said that you were one of his best students ever. This is high praise coming from Paul. Second, and I hope you don't think this is inappropriate, he said that you were one of his most beautiful students ever. He's right about that."

And there it was. After such a promising start, Dan Avery had shown his true nature. It looked like another one of those situations where her accomplishments would get overlooked because some man couldn't get beyond his libido. Kay frowned slightly and looked directly into Dan's eyes. "Yes sir, I hear that a lot. I can't tell where this is going though. Is this about my academics or my looks? You seem to be flipping between the two. I don't have to tell you about your reputation as a ladies man, but perhaps I should mention that I have no interest in being one of those ladies." Well, maybe some interest, but not on my first day of work. Dan spoke calmly. "I understand, and let me assure you that this is not a pick-up." He held up his hands in a sign of surrender. "Look, I can see that this is a bit threatening so let's back up for a second before you slap a sexual-harassment lawsuit on me." He picked up a document from his desk and tossed it to her. "Tell me, what is this?"