Gilbert woke up early the next morning and his trusted chauffeur John Miller, drove him to his posh office at New York's Union Square. It was a luxurious 22 story, 160,000 sq-ft building spanning two towers adjoined together at the street level with a common reception area. The building offered a sky lounge, a fitness center, and high-tech event & conference centers. While one tower hosted Jaxon's office and the designing team, the other included Gilbert's office on the tenth floor. The other floors had a technology training center and incubator, co-working spaces for all the teams - marketing, HR, PR, Finance and Admin, a state-of-the-art event space, and a street level food court at the backside. The huge glass automatic entrance doors slid open as Gilbert walked into the spacious reception area. He saw that it was manned by only by the Admin department men. "Where are the receptionists?" He asked with concern.

"Good morning sir. Both Christine and David have resigned on the same day, sir. They couldn't serve a notice period, so we had to release them," said Derek Powells, from the Admin Department.

"So what about their replacements?" Asked Gilbert with a frown. One week he was away and everything was in a mess.

"Sir, Peterson is conducting the interviews today. It should start in ten minutes at his office," said Derek. Gilbert nodded and walked towards the elevator. Gavin Peterson was the HR head of JC Group Inc. and very good at his work. He had full faith that Peterson would induct the very best so he didn't need to bother about the interview much. He strode into the personal elevator which only Jaxon and he used. Pressing the button to go to the tenth floor, he waited but in a split second the elevator doors were stopped from closing. What the f*ck! He swore in his head.

To his utter surprise a blonde young woman rushed inside, looking completely flustered as she fixed her cascading hair up in a bun. "Sorry," she said with a fake, polite smile, glancing in his direction, seeing him gape at her. She pressed the button to the ninth floor and stood acutely aware of his gaze upon her. She didn't look more than twenty-one but what caught his attention was her deliciously hot figure clad in a black pencil skirt and a white satin top, buttoned up till her neck, clinging to her figure like a second skin. There was no skin displayed as her clothing was very conservative yet there was something about her that made him, unable to look away. There was not a single stroke of makeup on her face but her creamy complexion and deep pink lips stood out drawing him towards her. In others words, she was gorgeous but she didn't seem to know it as she fidgeted nervously with her handbag.

"Is there something on my face?" She asked him nervously. "Or am I inappropriately dressed for the interview?" She asked worriedly. Gilbert was amused. She was asking him that, standing in his personal elevator? Didn't she know who he was?

"No, why do you ask?" He asked in his deep, rich,  masculine voice.

"You're staring at me. Isn't it a bad thing to stare?" She asked him with a glare.

Gilbert wanted to laugh out aloud but couldn't. He was the big boss after all. He had to maintain his professional image at office. "No, when you are using someone's personal elevator," he answered calmly. Her eyes widened as she looked around at the elevator.

"Oh, this is yours? I didn't know, sorry. You see I was getting late for my interview and this one looked empty enough. So I just dashed in. The other one was like a matchbox, you know. I couldn't squeeze in even if I wanted to. And ugh, this hair. I shouldn't have washed it today, it's turned so silky that it's slipping out every minute. Oh, I shouldn't have said that to you," she said, covering her mouth. Gilbert glanced at her silky hair, it looked so soft that he wanted to run his fingers through it. He was very amused by this young beauty who was very entertaining indeed.

"So, what's your name?" He asked with interest.

"Why should I tell you my name? Just because you have a private elevator and look important enough doesn't mean you can impress me, mister, " she said and Gilbert's eyes widened with disbelief. Did she really say that? That too to him, the scowling boss whom the whole office was scared of? They nicknamed him, 'Grumpy Gilbert' and he never bothered with it. It was true, he was grumpy and professional at work. He only laughed with his friends and family. The elevator doors slid open and she walked out with her head held high in the air like a queen. His eyes were drawn towards her hot butt that swayed deliciously as she went towards Peterson's office, her hair slipping slowly out of the bun.

Jealousy shot through his body thinking of how Peterson was lucky to be interviewing her. He was sure that the thirty-year old sworn bachelor, Peterson would surely fall for her! No, that can't happen. This was his company and he had the right to take her interview. The elevator stopped on his floor and the doors slid open. He walked out and dumped his laptop bag in his office chamber and went through his schedule for the day. Thankfully he didn't have any meeting in the morning, so he could be present at the interview. 

With his heart beating wildly in his chest with excitement, he went towards the ninth floor. As he approached the lobby of the HR Department, his eyes widened with surprise. There was a crowd of about three hundred people that filled the entire lobby. Why hadn't Peterson shortlisted them first? This would take a week! His eyes scanned the entire place but that blonde beauty was no where to be found. If only he knew her name. He strode into Peterson's office and saw that he had started the interview. A female candidate with ample cleavage sat before him and the poor man couldn't look up to interview her.  Peterson looked at him with relief, standing up.

"Good morning sir. I've just started with the first candidate," he said, offering him his seat.

Gilbert nodded. "Morning Peterson. There's a huge queue. If we take personal interviews, we'd never complete it today. Let's prepare a questionnaire and ask them to solve.  Then we'll shortlist the ones who get through," suggested Gilbert. Peterson smiled with relief.

"Shall I make the questionnaire, then, sir?" He asked, relaxing a little.

"Yes, go ahead," he said. Then glancing at the candidate who had popped another button on her blouse open seeing him, he said,"You may leave. We want appropriately dressed, hard-working employees here," he ordered. The woman pouted.

"But sir," she started whining.

"Out, I said," yelled Gilbert, his booming baritone voice caused an echo all around and everyone shuddered. The woman ran out sobbing. There was a pin drop silence outside at the lobby. Peterson's PA, Finn announced the questionnaire preliminary interview and a few candidates escaped already. The rest were escorted to the conference center which could accommodate nearly 300 people. Questionnaires were handed out to be answered and they were given half an hour to fill it up. Finn sat at the deck to accept the filled up forms. Gilbert sat at the audio visual room with it's head, Ed and monitored the event.

Gilbert hadn't located  her yet and was feeling extremely restless and frustrated by now. After fifteen minutes the candidates started handing Finn the questionnaires and it was then that he saw her. As she handed hers to Finn, Gilbert sat up to attention.

"Ed, could you zoom in on that questionnaire that woman just submitted?" He asked Ed.

"Yes, sir, " said Ed and zoomed into the form submitted by the woman, kept right on top. Gilbert read her name,

Jacqueline Drewitt

He smiled and thanked Ed for his help. Ed grinned knowingly but didn't utter a single word. Got you Jacqueline. I will scan your questionnaire myself!  He thought walking towards Peterson's office to check her questionnaire. The candidates waited at the conference room for the names of the selected candidates to be announced for the second round. Gilbert sorted through the questionnaire submitted and chose Jacqueline's as well as 150 others so as not to arouse Peterson's suspicions.

"You check the rest," he told Peterson and shoved the rest towards him. "We'll chose fifty only," he instructed. So after an hour, fifty candidates were announced of course Jacqueline's name was included while the rest left dissatisfied.

Out of the fifty, it was decided that Peterson would interview twenty candidates, the Administrative head, Alex Morgan would interview another twenty while Gilbert himself would interview ten. He selected the candidates who he wished to interview taking care to include Jacqueline in his list and strode off to his own office with an instruction to Finn to send them up.

"Now you will tell me your name, won't you Ms Drewitt?" He chuckled to himself as he waited excitedly.