Flirting with the HR Girl

Chapter 31

The next morning was cloudy and cold. Jennifer woke up with trepidation in her stomach. The date was an obvious source of her stress, but she was also nervous to see Selena and continue lying to her friend. She dressed quickly but lingered over breakfast, although not eating much, trying to make sure that Zack Morris was okay. She was teaching orientation that night, so she didn't have to be in the office right away. She was logging in when Cynthia called.

"Good morning!" Cynthia said, sounding happier than usual over the line. "Do you have a lot of new hires today?"

"Yeah, Ralph has a couple of new hires finally," Jennifer said looking at the half-filled-out paperwork by the shoe manager. She knew she would do the rest of it because she didn't want to deal with hounding him or making Cynthia hound him. That would only lead to him pouting and being obnoxious whenever she saw him. "It should be a busy day and then we have orientation."

"Well, good, I'm coming in this afternoon; one of the managers says they have to talk to me about the policy from yesterday," Cynthia said, and Jennifer wound up a few more cranks. Which manager needed to talk to Cynthia? And what or whom about? She wasn't sure if she should be worried, but it didn't make her feel any better.

"Okay, I will plan on being out of the office this afternoon," Jennifer said, ready to get off the phone. She didn't want Cynthia to hear how nervous she sounded.

"All right. See you then," Cynthia said hanging up and Jennifer sighed with relief, setting the phone back in its cradle. She stared straight ahead for a moment wondering who would have reached out to Cynthia. Who would tattle on Jennifer? There was a brief knock at the door before Todd barged into her office.

"Hey, how are the openings this morning?" Todd said looking like he couldn't care less about the openings. The only time he cared about openings was when it was hurting his sales. So, for him to show up and pretend to have an interest made Jennifer immediately suspicious.

"We still have one at home, one in shoes, and two in men's," Jennifer said specifically not saying any manager's name. She didn't want to give Todd a chance to bring Austin up. She looked up at him and waited for his concerned response.

"Two in men's? Thought it was three; did Austin hire someone?" The store manager sounded surprised.

"No, staffing decided that he didn't need that extra opening," Jennifer said, feeling protective of Austin and wishing that she could say that he had hired someone. She had completely forgotten to ask him how his interview went the other day. Once again, she was feeling very self-absorbed.

"Well, that's bullshit," Todd said crossing his arms and looking even more annoyed that he didn't know what was going on in his own store. "I'll call Toby and tell him that's bullshit, too. Tell Austin that he will need to fill that third position."

Telling Todd to tell Austin himself was on the tip of Jennifer's tongue when she realized that would be highly unprofessional. She was still the HR assistant and he was still the store manager. Regardless of how childish and annoying he acted.

"Okay, when I see him, I will," Jennifer said vaguely, trying not to sound interested.

"And when will you be seeing him?" Todd said wiggling his eyebrows.

"Whenever he needs my HR help," Jennifer said trying to pretend she didn't know what he meant.

"Oh, that's what you're calling it now," Todd said with a wink.

"No, that's what it is," Jennifer said starting to get flustered. "Austin and I are just friends. You and Cynthia have both asked me to help him with the hiring process. That's all I'm doing."

"If that's all you're doing and you're just friends, then there's no harm in us going out tonight," Todd said with a mischievous grin. Jennifer could see how girls could fall for him. His confident swagger along with a gaze that pretended to adore anyone but himself were a dangerous combination. If she hated herself a little bit more, she might have found herself falling for him. But as it was, he was a huge pain in her ass.

"No, I can't," Jennifer said wishing he would just leave her and Austin out of whatever he was up to. Although, that would leave Selena alone with him and Jennifer wasn't sure if that was a good idea either.

"Come on, why not?" Todd was never willing to take no for an answer on the first try. It was part of what made him the best salesman west of the Mississippi. Or so he thought.

"I'm teaching orientation tonight." Jennifer was relieved to have a valid excuse.

"We'll go out after that," Todd said forever willing to sacrifice sleep for a good time.

"I really can't," Jennifer said trying to think of something to get him to go away. "Maybe some other time."

"I'll hold you to that," Todd said looking affable again. "And if there truly is nothing going on with you and Austin, you'll enjoy seeing him then."

"Nothing going on with her and Austin," Selena said coming into the room.

Jennifer had never been so happy to see her friend in her life. Selena was much better at managing Todd. Jennifer sagged with relief.

"Selena, nice of you to show up for work," Todd said but smiled.

"I'm closing," Selena said rolling her eyes at him. "And I can't go out tonight either, because I have my boys."

"All right, I can see y'all are no fun," Todd said throwing up his hands. "Luckily, I have my boy, Austin, that won't let me down and we will hit the town."

Todd flashed one last big grin and was gone.

"Where do you think they will go without us?" Jennifer asked knowing she didn't really want to know the answer.

"The titty bar," Selena said with a shrug. "I gotta clock in. I just came down 'cause I heard Todd bothering you."

"Thank you." Jennifer put her head on the desk. Juggling all these stories was already getting exhausting. Maybe she should just give up and go back to being antisocial.