The Chairman's First Love

Chapter 1: The Interview

Chloe's POV:

"Last question before we end the interview. I'm sorry if this question might make you feel a bit uncomfortable. It's really necessary for us to know about it. Do you have a boyfriend or seeing someone at the moment, Miss Mendoza?" Mr Benedict, one of the managers from the human resource department asked me.

His gaze was intimidating, not stern but not friendly either. He looked at me in the eyes with a plain smile on his face, probably trying to read me in case I'm trying to lie while answering his question just now.

"A boyfriend?" I unconsciously asked in confusion, couldn't grasp the reason why he asked me such a question.

Why would they need to know about my personal matter anyway? I'm just applying for a job, my private matters shouldn't be brought up inside the job interview.

"I'm sorry if we offended you in any way by asking that question. Please answer that question honestly," Mr Matthew, another manager from the same department demanded me to answer the question.

"Well... Not in the moment. No. I don't have a boyfriend," I finally answered, yet it sounded a bit hesitantly.

Mr Benedict jotted down something on the paper in front of him. It was probably some papers regarding my interview. Mr Matthew just smiled at me, a bit wider than the smile that Mr Benedict gave me before. He too took his pen from the table and jotted something on his papers.

"You seemed hesitant to answer the last question. Is there a chance that you are probably having an interest in someone right now that you wish to pursue? Or probably there is someone that pursuing you for a romantic relationship?" Mr Benedict suddenly asked out of the blue. He was indeed being too forward with his mouth. He didn't know how to filter it or rearrange his words to make them sound more pleasant.

I furrowed a bit while looking at him and Mr Matthew happened to see the changes in my gaze. He hit Mr Benedict's shoulder with his pen and gave him a sharp glare to reprimand him silently.

"I'm sorry if my colleague crossed the line," Mr Matthew quickly hindered Mr Benedict from continuing the conversation further. I saw Mr Benedict make a face at him, probably because he felt unsatisfied that he was being stopped from getting information regarding my private matters.

"It's the second one," I spoke calmly.

"Sorry?" Mr Matthew was confused about what I meant.

"You asked me if I have someone that I wanted to pursue or if there is someone that wanted to pursue me. It's the second one," I said confidently, intending to answer Mr Benedict previous question before.

I looked at him with a poker face to show that I didn't feel offended at all by his question. He did cross the line, but it didn't really matter to me. His question before had reminded me of a friend, a doctor to be exact.

Patrick Harisson, an ob-gyn doctor, or the full terms would be an obstetrician and gynaecologist. He was a doctor who treated problems related to women. I came in contact with him about five years ago, when I was in trouble and I had been indebted to him so much that year. He helped me out when my life was falling apart due to certain someone.

Patrick still kept in touch with me until today even though he was quite busy all the time. He made sure to check on me at least once a week, and I didn't know why he still did that. I'm not a kid anymore, but he still treated me like I'm his younger sister. Although he had made it obvious countless times that he considered me more than just a sister. Yet, the things that happened to me before I met him, had caused so much damage to my heart. My past relationship had caused me to not be able to trust men anymore.

My mind came back to reality as I saw Mr Benedict jotted down something on his paper again, with his face full of satisfaction that he managed to gain the information he wanted from me.

"Very well then... Is there anything else you wanted to ask before we end this interview?" Mr Matthew asked me politely.

I was the last candidate so they pretty much wanted to wrap up everything quickly. They didn't ask too much about my qualification and they didn't bother to make any small talk to get to know me better. They just jumped to the important questions and took points from my answers. I guessed it was highly likely that I would fail the interview so I didn't hope much on it and probably that was the reason why I daringly asked them this question that had been bothering my mind.

"Why is it important for you to know whether I'm in a relationship right now? If I'm a married woman, would you reject me right away?"

Both of them looked at me in awe. Was it? Or am I wrong at reading their expressions? They looked at each other, probably thinking whether they should enlighten me or leave me wondering. Mr Benedict took a peek at his watch and sighed a little, then he turned to the left to look at his colleague. Oh, did I forget to mention it? The interview was only conducted by the two of them. They had interviewed more than thirty candidates before me. So I could only imagine how irritated they must feel when I, being the last candidate, suddenly asked a question at the end of the interview.

Mr Matthew was still stuck with his friendly character with a smile on his face. He took a deep breath and prepared himself to answer my query.

"Miss Mendoza, as you can see... the job opening that we offer is not just a secretary position, but also a personal assistant position. They were two different positions but pretty much have the same job scopes. That is why we merged the positions into one only. You might notice the salary that our company offered was quite high compared to other companies. That was because the salary is for two positions," Mr Matthew explained, but he didn't really answer my question.

"Being a secretary means that you will work from nine to five like regular working hours for all the staff inside this company. But being a personal assistant, you won't have a specific working hour. That means if the one that employs you call you at night, during the weekends or during the holiday, you must come, regardless of what time it is even though it is not your working hours. That's the difference between the two positions. If he needs to attend dinner or lunch meetings, going on business trips, you must follow him. As you can see, you must be with him almost all the time if he requires you," Mr Benedict took a turn to further explain to me.

"He?" I asked deliberately. So, the one that needed to be served was a man.

What was wrong with these two? They still weren't answering my question. Or was it that I'm not that quick-witted to understand what they meant? I guessed the clueless look on my face must have made them feel a bit frustrated as they both suddenly sighed at the same time.

"Yes. It's a he. You see... being his secretary and personal assistant will require you to spend most of your time with him. So it's not really convenient if you are in a relationship as it might create a conflict of interest. There are chances that your partner might misunderstand you and accuse you of having an affair with your employer. We don't want some random man to come into our company and attack our employees due to some misunderstanding. Especially when the one who was hiring a secretary and personal assistant right now is not just a regular employee but a higher-up inside our organization," Mr Benedict continued to explain, this time with a stern voice.

So that's why. Patrick? Coming randomly to the company to attack my boss? That was out of the question. Patrick was a decent man, from an affluent family, very noble in character and not really someone who fancies being in a fight or argument. He was a soft-spoken man and a considerate person. He rarely made random assumptions or jumped to conclusions. He was the kind of man who loved to listen to other people's problems and be understanding.

I chuckled a bit as my mind suddenly imagined Patrick attacking my boss. As if I would be accepted for the job. I'm getting ahead too much. I should come back to reality now.

"Miss Mendoza, do you understand what we had explained to you just now? Is it clear to you now? Or do we need to repeat them again?" Mr Benedict asked mockingly.