Page 20 of Art of Love
From what I remembered from our little encounter, she spoke of having no money. But hey, that was a subjective matter, I supposed.
“How are the kids?” Jia continued. That was when Carla’s face lit up, and she started talking about her two sons, both under five, who apparently were sweet and adorable but adventurous like her husband.
She brought her phone over to Jia and started showing her pictures. I had to clear my throat when it got beyond ridiculous. It was twenty past nine, and all they’d done was talk. I hadn’t even gotten to say good morning back to Carla.
Jia stole the show.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, Hunter. Women and kids are a dangerous subject. We could talk for hours. Forgive me, I have to say too that we all missed Jia.”
“And I missed you guys like crazy too.” Jia raised her hands, brought them to her lips, and blew a kiss at Carla.
Wow, I knew what she was doing.
I knew exactly what she was doing. She was purposely trying to make me feel out of place and uncomfortable.
“Awww,” Carla cooed, then she looked from me to Jia, must have seen the peeved expression on my face, and straightened. “Let’s get to business. I presume you got to know each other yesterday.”
Jia and I both answered. She said ‘no’ and I said ‘yes.’ Then we looked at each other.
Carla laughed. “Okay, let’s briefly introduce ourselves now. I know this is a weird situation, but to be successful and even get past the first round, you have to work together. Jia, as you know, there is a strong sense of team work here. For this mission, so to speak, you guys are a team, and you’ll be given merit in this regard too.”
“So, we’ll be judged based on that?” I had to ask because no way could I see Jia here wanting to work with me.
“Yes, a hundred percent yes. The reason for that is simple. We need to see how adaptable you are. There is one job, but John changes like the wind. He could love your work so much that he decides to keep you on as part of the company. That is why the internship is for three years and why we have such stringent requirements prior to application. We don’t do short-term placements because it upsets group dynamics and throws us out of sync. We also start our minimum age requirement for the placement at twenty-five because we believe it takes a certain level of maturity to work efficiently as a team.”
Well, considering Miss Jia was acting like a child, I hoped she was listening.
“What do we need to do?” Jia asked, folding her arms under her breasts.
“A lot, but let’s get to that after we do our brief intro. How about you start, Hunter? John’s really buzzing about your work. I can’t wait to see the ideas you come up with.”
Jia stiffened when she heard that.
I knew John’s buzz was the very thing I had going for me.
“Thank you.” I gave her a curt nod. “So, in terms of intro, I’m a former criminal defense lawyer. I worked for Silvermans.”
Carla’s eyes widened. “Wow. Silvermans.”
Again, Jia appeared uncomfortable. I’d never shared that with her either the other night.
“Yeah. In England, my family runs their own law firm. I guess I was the odd one out, or more like the one who decided he wanted something different.”
“I saw your application piece. That’s not the work of someone who just decided on a career change.” Carla chuckled. “I had the privilege of doing a placement at Central St. Martin in England. Your work reminded me of something by one of the top professors who was a big artist in the sixties. Do you know Peter Belmont?”
The woman knew her stuff. I nodded and smiled.
“Peter Belmont was my grandfather, on my mother’s side.”
Now her jaw dropped, and Jia turned to look at me, regarding me with a sharper stare.
“Oh my God!” Carla gasped bringing her hands up to her cheeks.
“Yeah. I guess I was his protégé.”
“You can certainly say that again. Your work was just like his, but with your own flair.”
“We both liked trying to mix techniques.” I glanced at Jia and didn’t miss the look of admiration in her eyes.
