by Beth Rinyu
“Please make sure you call your father as soon as you get done. I was on the phone with him for over an hour last night. He’s so excited about you starting this job.”
I bet he is. “Will do!” I forced a smile and took one last sip of my coffee.
“Cute dress!” Aunt Kate remarked as I stood up.
“Isn’t it, though? I got it on my shopping spree the other day.” She walked me to the door, and I fluffed out my long brown hair as I glanced in the entryway mirror. I reached into my purse for my lipstick and applied my signature red color. After all I had to look my best, even when I got the axe on my employment. “Wish me luck!”
“Oh, you won’t need luck. I’m sure you’ll win everyone over with your sparkling personality.”
“Oh, you’re so cynical, Aunt Kate?”
“I’m not being cynical. I happen to think my niece could be a very nice girl…when she wants to be.”
“You got that right.” I laughed and gave her a peck on the cheek before heading on my way.
I walked outside into the oppressive heat to find my aunt’s driver waiting for me, fortunately with the air conditioner running when I got in the car. I gave him the address, and we were on our way. How I wanted to call Emma and tell her about my plan to get fired, but then I remembered the time difference. Everyone in my world back home was still sleeping. It was just as well anyway, with the way she’d been acting lately. She would’ve probably told me I was being ridiculous. We pulled up to the midtown office building and my stomach flopped. Was I actually nervous? No. I couldn’t care less about this job.
I walked inside and got into the elevator.
“Hold that!” someone shouted just as the doors were about to close.
I hit the button, the doors re-opened, and my deep brown eyes collided with his mysterious green ones. His phone was glued to his ear, and he nodded in appreciation, carrying on with his conversation.
“That’s just the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of,” he grumbled with a slight Southern drawl to his words.
I couldn’t help but noticing he wasn’t bad to look at: tall, dark hair, and that’s where it ended. Even though he carried himself in a way that screamed prominence, the suit he was wearing didn’t. That’s when any thoughts of getting to know this stranger better ceased. If he couldn’t afford an expensive suit—he wasn’t for me.
“Yeah, I’m on my way in.” He hung up the phone with an annoyed huff. The elevator door opened at the ninth floor, and I was surprised when he took a step forward before stopping and allowing me to get off in front of him.
“Thanks,” I whispered.
He looked me over as if he was seeing me for the very first time as we stepped off the elevator and into the lobby. I raised an eyebrow to break up the awkwardness before he finally snapped out of it with a massive eye roll, a shake of his head, and a frustrated breath.
That was just rude. I was used to having guys check me out in a flirtatious manner, but never in the boorish way he just had. He’s lucky he walked off when he did because I was so ready to call him out on his behavior. But of course, what did I except from a man wearing such a cheap suit? I trudged forward toward the receptionist’s desk, trying to put the encounter from my mind, but for some reason it bothered me big-time. The nerve of him!
“Hi, can I help you?” the receptionist asked.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” I apologized when I realized I was daydreaming. “I’m Rose Perkins. I’m supposed to be meeting with Henry Andrews.”
“Oh...okay.” She was clearly flustered. “Just have a seat and someone will be right with you.”
I sat down and watched her frantically run in the back. As I looked around at the ultra-modern waiting area, the thought did cross my mind that this didn’t seem like a bad place to work if I needed a job, and I certainly didn’t. I just needed my father to come to his senses and realize how ridiculous he was being.
“Ms. Perkins, follow me,” the receptionist announced as she reappeared from behind the glass doors.
I stood up and followed her back into a conference room. “Mr. Andrews will be right in.”
“Thanks.” I gave her an uneasy smile as I took a seat.
“Cute shoes,” she remarked when she reached the door.
“Oh, thanks!” I replied, this time sporting a full-fledged grin. Finally, someone was speaking a language I knew well.
I went over my plan in my head. I was going to play clueless to everything he asked. There’s no way, he’d want to hire me when he saw I had no skills whatsoever. I was going to pour it on thick and play the dumb brunette who couldn’t even get a coffee order right. I sighed heavily, wishing he’d just come in so I could get this over with. I had so many other things I needed to get done today—like going back to Bloomingdales and purchasing that adorable purse I should’ve gotten the other day when I had first seen it.
The door creaked open, and I lifted my head to find none other than the rude, cheap-suit wearing man I’d encountered in the elevator. Just my luck.
“Hi, Rose, I’m Alex Andrews.” He seemed annoyed by my presence, but still reached for my hand to shake it, and I could tell he sensed my hesitation to give it to him. Finally relenting, I offered it to him.
“I’m a little confused. I thought I was going to be meeting with Henry Andrews, the owner of the company.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but you got me—his nephew, and not the owner of the company. Do you have a problem with that?”
I met his scowl with the same intensity. “Does it make a difference if I do?” I snapped.
He leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head. “You can always wait and meet with the owner of the company…” He stretched out his arm and glanced at his watch. “When he gets done with his meeting…in about two hours. It makes me no nevermind. I have plenty of other things I could be doing right now.”
This guy was a total dick, not to mention he was foiling my plan. There was no way in hell I could play dumb now. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of thinking that of me.
“So, you’ll basically be a fill-in wherever you’re needed, answering phones, filing, and stuff like that.”
“Excuse me, I wasn’t told this was going to be a secretary job.”
“No, it’s not.” He lifted his head and glared at me. “A secretary or administrative assistant in this company requires much more experience than what you have. So, think of it more as a secretary in training.” A wry smile spread across his face.
I pulled in my bottom lip to halt myself from speaking my thoughts. How much I wanted to smack away his smugness. “Well, if you bothered to look at my résumé, you would see I have a master’s degree in business, and I was led here under the pretense I’d be putting that to use, not filing papers.” My blood was boiling as I waited for his reply.
“Oh, I’m sorry, is filing papers beneath you?”
“No…I didn’t say that, but I’m not going to settle on a job I’m clearly over-qualified for!” I snapped.
“Are you?” he challenged.
“Yes, I am. I didn’t work like a dog for six years in school just to push papers around. A trained monkey could do that.”
He took a piece of paper from the pile that was on the table and handed it to me. “File this,” he requested.
“What?”
“Did I not speak English? File this,” he repeated.
I paced my breaths, willing myself not to lash out at him. He wasn’t going to get the best of me.
“Guess all that schooling didn’t train you as well as those monkeys.”
I narrowed my eyes and pursed my lips, unable to deal with his insults anymore. I stood up and flung my purse over my shoulder. “You are a complete and utter—”
“Ah, Miss Perkins!” An older gentleman entered the conference room, stopping me from the pounding I was just about to give to Mr. Cheap Suit. “I’m Henry Andrews.” He rushed over to shake my hand. “I see you already met
my nephew.”
“I have, and I was just leaving.”
“Oh, why is that?” He glanced at his nephew, obviously sensing the tension that loomed.
“I, umm…just don’t think this job is what I was looking for.” My eyes bore into his obnoxious nephew, who refused to look away first.
“Now, Miss Perkins, I’m sure we can do something to have you become part of our team, after all, your father is a very good friend of mine.”
“Oh, well, I really appreciate your kindness, Mr. Andrews.”
What the hell was I doing? I had the perfect excuse to walk out of here. Not even my father would fault me for standing up to the horrible nephew’s behavior. But when I saw his nephew shaking his head over his uncle’s kindheartedness, I just couldn’t help myself. He clearly didn’t want me working here for some reason, which made me in turn want to work there just to piss him off.
I sat back down when the older Mr. Andrews motioned to the chair. “So, Miss Perkins, what is it you wanted to do with our company?”
“Please call me Rose.” I smiled.
“Uncle Henry, I already explained the position we have available to Rose and—”
“That’s Miss Perkins to you,” I interrupted.
His uncle tried unsuccessfully to hide his chuckle before continuing. “Alex, I think Miss Perkins…I mean, Rose had something a little different in mind than the position we have available.”
I smiled over the frazzled state his nephew seemed to be in.
“Oh, so you’re going to create a position just for her? That’s not fair, when there are other people who’ve worked here longer and would love to be considered for a promotion.”
“That may be, but Rose has the education, and—”
“You’re friends with her father, so that automatically qualifies her for the job,” his nephew cut him off.
“Alex, you’re being rude to Rose. This is my company, and I will hire who I want.” His uncle rushed to my defense.
His nephew stood up and pushed in his chair. “You’re right. This is your company, far be it for me to have an opinion. I just don’t think Miss Perkins’ demeanor is a good fit for this company. But what do I know? Now, if I’m no longer needed here, I have work to do.”
“That’s fine.” His uncle dismissed him, and he made his exit without saying another word.
What the hell was his problem? My demeanor? If his uncle wasn’t so nice I’d give him a taste of my demeanor. He didn’t even know me, and he had already formed a low opinion of me?
“Please forgive my nephew’s behavior. He gets passionate over certain things and feels the need to express himself, no matter how inappropriate.”
“It’s fine. But please tell me I won’t be working for him.”
“Oh, no.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t want World War Three on my hands,” he mumbled under his breath and cleared his throat. “You’d report to me,” he said much louder and clearer.
I expelled a relieved breath. “Good to know.”
“So, I’m not really sure if your father told you about our company.”
“A little.” It amazed me how less than a half hour ago, I couldn’t care less about this job. Now here I was, wanting to learn everything there was to know about it. How quickly my encounter with the wretched nephew changed my outlook on everything. I now wanted this position, even though I wasn’t quite sure of what I’d be doing. I was planning on doing my best at it. After all, I owed it to the older Mr. Andrews for the kindness he had shown me. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to stick it to his nephew at the same time.
“Up until now, we really catered to the male demographic with our magazine, Him. We focus on sports, business matters, men’s health, and stuff like that, but I wanted to expand our readership to women. What I eventually want to do is have the print magazine called, Her. So, I’m going to test the waters with an online version of it. You know, where we could focus on recipes for the working mom, a weekly fashion article, and articles women like to read, and I’d like for you to oversee it. Oh, and I want to offer an advice column where people can write in to seek advice and vent about their problems anonymously.”
“Oh, I’d love to give fashion advice.”
“It wouldn’t be just fashion advice you’d be giving, it would be all types of things.”
My eyes widened. “Oh, wow! I’m flattered that you’d even consider me for such a thing, but even I know my limits and, trust me, fashion advice is the only guidance I’d feel comfortable giving.”
“Have a little more faith in yourself than that. You’re a young girl who has the world at her feet. Give it a try and if you feel like you’re getting in over your head, we can discuss it then.”
I let out an uneasy sigh. I was fairly comfortable with all the other duties he described, but what did I know about relationship advice? I hadn’t even ever been in love, but Mr. Andrews must have seen something in me for him to offer me such a monumental duty.
“If you think I can really pull it off, then I guess I’ll give it a try.”
“Fantastic! I know you’ll make a great addition to our team.”
“I hope so.” I cringed just thinking about one of the members on that team who already made up his mind that I was the enemy.
“Let me take you around and introduce you to everyone, then I’ll show you where your office will be.”
“Okay, sounds good.”
We stood up and made our way to the exit. “And if you can think of a catchy name for the advice column, feel free to suggest away.”
I stopped dead in my tracks and smiled widely. “Oh, Mr. Andrews, I think I have the perfect name for it. One even your nephew will like.”
“What’s that?”
“Miss Demeanor.”
Chapter 4
___________________
Alex
WHAT THE HELL WAS my uncle thinking? There were plenty of other women who worked for the company more qualified than little Miss Fashion Plate who felt she was entitled to the job just because her father had money and connections. Unfortunately, I knew her type all too well and I was still dealing with the aftermath of her kind. She looked down on everyone who had less than her, and she would suck up to any man she thought had money just to maintain her lavish lifestyle.
Although I could appreciate what her father was doing by making her earn her own way, I seriously doubted he was going to achieve the outcome he’d hoped for her. Girls like her didn’t change. If anything, they just got worse. The way she looked me over in the elevator, eyeing me up while mentally calculating my financial status, and then the way she spoke about herself and her college education like everyone else was beneath her. She never worked for anything in her life, and I’m sure even that college degree she gloated about was handed to her easier than it was to most others. She knew nothing about the struggles everyday people went through or what it was like to sacrifice for others. That fancy college education didn’t mean shit when it came to real life.
My blood boiled, remembering the way she swung her long dark hair to one side then batted her eyelashes over her big brown eyes when I first sat down, trying her hardest to get me to fall into that same trap most of the men in her presence more than likely fell victim to. Little did she know, I was so on to her and wasn’t like those other men who only cared about a pretty face and getting laid. I saw her for what she was deep down inside, and I despised it. Her looks were her only redeeming quality. Other than that, she was a shallow, self-centered bitch I wanted nothing at all to do with.
My uncle was right about one thing. This was his company, so he could employ who he wanted, which meant she was his problem now. Since he felt the need to hire her just because he felt he owed it to her father, then he could be the one to deal with her and his disgruntled staff after they got a load of the princess who bypassed them all for a promotion. I wanted nothing to do with it when the shit hit the fan and all his employees were in an upheaval. I had eno
ugh on my plate, dealing with it in my personal life, I sure as hell wasn’t going to deal with it at work. Nope, little Miss Attitude was my uncle’s problem, and instead of telling him “I told you so,” I’d sit back and watch, taking great satisfaction when she failed miserably.
Chapter 5
___________________
Rose
AS EXPECTED, I WASN’T exactly welcomed with open arms by my new coworkers. They viewed me as the enemy—the new girl coming in from nowhere and filling a position that was meant for one of them. Their feelings were more than likely fueled by the younger Mr. Andrews, no doubt. I saw the way all the women would check me out from head to toe each morning and then turn to each other and whisper once I passed by. They were obviously jealous of my keen fashion sense and my extensive wardrobe. I, in turn, took my aunt’s advice of killing them with kindness by returning their sneers with a smile. I was clueless when it came to things that came second nature to the rest of the staff, like the copier, the fax machine, and even the high-tech coffee maker. Of course, no one was willing to help me out. Instead, they seemed to relish in my daily struggles with these god-awful machines.
“Guess that expensive college education didn’t include how to use a copier either.”
I looked up at the loathsome nephew as I sat on the floor with the copier open, trying to clear the jam I’d created. Instead of answering him back, I ignored him and continued with my mission.
“Move out of the way. I’ll fix it,” he barked.
“No, it’s fine. I got it!” I began to question if I’d performed my daily ritual of putting on deodorant when my armpits dampened with sweat, knowing he was standing over me, willing me to relent to his offer. I pulled the lever and turned the roller, hoping the paper would expel itself, to no avail. “Damn it,” I whispered.
He bent down next to me and I tried not to notice just how good he smelled. He may not have had expensive taste in his choice of clothes, but he certainly did in his choice of cologne. I sucked in the woodsy fragrance emitting from him, hoping he didn’t notice. “Can you give me some room?” He looked my way, catching me mid-sniff.
