CEO'S Secret Baby: A Standalone Surprise Pregnancy Romance Iona Rose (mobi reader txt) 📖

for the interview, I still didn’t get either of the jobs. This time, I didn’t have a chance to do much research. I got the call to come for the interview just hours ago and there was no negotiation as to the dates.

The woman was extremely inflexible. “This job has to be filled as soon as possible and if you are not interested, then I have other candidates to call,” she informed me coldly.

All I know is the company offers multimedia solutions to other businesses and they have a steady growth. Oh, and the CEO’s name, Ashton Miller, which is nothing, seeing I have applied to be his assistant. It bothered me a bit that his first name is Ashton, because the last Ashton I knew was a real asshole who made my life a living hell, but I’m not going to let the fact he shares a first name with the boy who left a bad taste in my mouth stop me from a plum job like this.

All I really know about him is that he started the company from pretty much nothing and built it into an empire. And he’s a multi-millionaire. I don’t think HR is going to be all that impressed with the extent of my knowledge.

I force myself to concentrate on the positives instead of the negatives. I might not know the company inside out, but I do know the job inside out. I was the personal assistant to the CEO at my last job for two years. So I know a thing or two about keeping everything organized and running smoothly. I’m going to concentrate on talking about that in my interview.

It’s still going to be hard because Wave is one of those companies everyone in tech wants to work for. It’s fast paced, growing steadily, and the benefits that come with

the job are amazing. There is going to be a lot of stiff competition for this job. I’m just hoping the short notice works in my favor. It’s a small straw to clutch, but right now, it’s the only one I’ve got, so I’m taking it and clinging onto it with both hands.

“Ms. Woods?” the secretary in the corner says with an overly bright smile plastered on her face.

“Yes,” I reply with a nervous smile.

“You can go through to your interview now. It’s in conference room D. Down the hall in front of you, right to the end. You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you.”

I start walking down the hallway she pointed to, and I’m relieved to see solid walls along here. The thought of having an interview in full view of the whole office really didn’t fill me with joy. As I walk, reminding myself to walk tall, which isn’t easy when you’re just over five feet tall, I wipe my sweaty palms down my skirt, pretending to smooth out the material.

I reach the end of the hallway and come to a door marked conference room D. I take a deep breath, exhale it out slowly, then I knock on the door.

“Come in,” a man’s voice calls through the door.

I put my game face on. I don’t want to go in there acting like this is my last option before I lose my house, which isn’t far from being true, but the last thing I want is for the interviewer to smell the desperation inside me. I have to act like I am made for the position and give off an air of confidence, even if I don’t really feel it.

I push the door open, slipping on my best corporate smile as I do it. The room is huge and is dominated by a long glass table that could comfortably seat twenty people. Only three people are in the room though. A woman and two men. They are all dressed in suits, as am I, and I start to feel a little more at home. This is my world. It has been since I left school and yes, there will be other candidates for this position, but that doesn’t mean I’m not the best match for the job. It seems my fake it until you make it attitude is really starting to pay off. Already I can see myself working here. I can see myself fitting right in.

The three people stand up as I step into the room as I move towards the table and extend my hand.

The woman reaches out and shakes my hand first. “Sally Atkins, assistant HR manager,” she says with a clipped smile.

“Elena Woods,” I smile back.

I repeat the process with the man in the middle who is David Malone, the HR manager, and Aaron Grey, an assistant HR.

“Take a seat, Elena. By the way, we’re all on a first name basis here,” David says.

The three of them sit together on one side of the table and I sit down opposite David, so I am central to the three of them. I’m outnumbered, but I swallow down my nerves and square my shoulders. There is a glass of water in front of my seat and I pick it up and take a sip. My mouth is dry as a desert.

“Your resume is impressive,” David begins.

“Thank you,” I reply.

David gives me a slight nod and continues, “So you have a degree in business studies from abroad,” he’s reading from my resume.

“Yes, I was sent to study in England. It was a good, enriching experience.”

He looks up. “And you have plenty of experience of working as a personal assistant in this industry, but the start-up you worked for most recently went bust, didn’t it?”

I nod.

“Why do you think that was?”

I decide again to go with honesty. If I try and sugar coat my answer, it could make it look like I don’t see what’s right in front of me. “Well, the CEO was rather short sighted. At first, he loved the company, and he was excited to expand their offerings, but as the market got tougher, that excitement just sort of fizzled