"When will you ever learn?"
"She said she didn't want to make things worse. She was sorry she had been so unprofessional and that she had to decline."
"Great. End of a sad and clumsy story."
"So I upped the ante."
"Oh crap. What did you do? Tell Sebastian."
"I offered to pay for her mother's medical bills if she would have dinner with me."
"Whoa, didn't see that one coming. Was it a wild guess on your part? A stab in the dark kind of thing?"
"That was some of the personal stuff she told me. Her mother is being evicted from a nursing home and she needs $10,000 by the end of the month. On Drummond Airlines flight attendant salary, she'd need ten years to put that much together."
"There are other jobs out there if you're qualified."
"So I offered to pay it."
"And did she make you a member of the Melanie Hutchinson Mile High Club?"
"Are you kidding me? I thought she was going to throw me out of the plane. I'm lucky she didn't set the Air Marshal on me."
"I'm not surprised. What a sap. I keep telling you that you don't need to ask, you need to take. Why can't you get it into your head that people like us don't have to play by the rules that other people do?"
"I know you don't believe that Sebastian, so come on. Stop pretending to be the arrogant rich kid and give me some advice here. There's no one I trust in the whole world more than you."
Sebastian sighed.
"It's true, Big Brother. That's one thing that'll never change. Now you have to trust me on this one. Just let this Mildred--"
"Melanie."
"Melanie Huddersfield."
"Melanie Hutchinson."
"Yeah, on LA to Cincinnati--"
"Columbus. What the hell is wrong with you today?"
"With me? It's you who's about to throw away $10 billion on a fling with a flight attendant. Take my advice and forget about it."
Alex gave a long, resigned sigh.
"Okay, little bro. I guess you're right. I'll see you tomorrow in the executive lounge. Maybe Tahiti will help get this off my mind."
"You betcha. Those island beauties will cure anything that ails you."
"Why don't you swing by later and stay over at my place? We can have a few beers and get into vacation mode."
"Sounds good, little bro. I'll see you about 8:00 or so."
"It's a date." He laughed.
Alex put his phone down and opened the folder on his lap. The file inside was marked with the Drummond Corporation logo, Human Resources Department. He opened the file and looked at the digital picture of Melanie Hutchinson printed on the upper-left corner of the resume.