Page 82 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

the end of the day, I was a bit tired and I was far more interested
in going out that night than talking to the final candidate, so I just
went through the motions.
‘Tell me a bit about yourself, what have you done before?’
As she started talking, I realised to my surprise that I was quite
intrigued by her. She wasn’t like most Asian girls I’d met. She had
dressed fairly soberly for the interview – something I would soon
find out was pretty unusual – but her personality was really feisty,
and I was really quite taken aback by her confidence because most
Asian girls I knew were more demure. I became quite intrigued by
her, in part because I’d never been out with an Asian girl before.
She was very attractive, slim, bright, well educated – I could see
from her CV that she’d got a distinction from the London College
of Fashion – but she’d taken a job as a designer that wasn’t
working out and now she was wondering if she should be doing
something else.
It was a bit unfair on her because I got to ask all the questions,
and because I did it for a living I was very good at fishing for
information. I’d seen how my sisters had been raised, so I knew
there were cultural protocols to be observed, but I didn’t want to
seem crass and come right out and say ‘Are you allowed to date?’
So I started asking fairly plausible questions that appeared to be
about the job but that had a double meaning for me.
‘One of the things I thought might be worth bearing in mind is a
lot of the clients can’t see us during the day, so sometimes we have to
see clients in the evenings. Does that cause you any problems at all?’
‘Absolutely not, I’m pretty relaxed about that.’
That was exactly what I wanted to hear.
‘And sometimes we have conferences in other cities and we have
to stay the night. Are you comfortable with those issues?’
‘Very comfortable.’
She was giving as good as she got, and there was a bit of fire
about her. I had never met a girl like her and I just wanted to know

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