by S L Lewis
I had to get off the train!
As soon as the train pulled into my station, I jumped off and ran to the exit as quick as my legs would take me, I needed the air otherwise I would throw up.
Walking into the huge glass building made feel uneasy and very nervous.
I imagined everyone that worked here was super human; the women would all be stick thin even though they managed to produce three children, have a perfect husband, who had a high powered job; they would have a nanny who would look after there three posh offspring in their country home as a city dwelling would not be good enough for the family. The men would all be in suits that would cost the same amount as 6 months worth of my salary, they would wear sexy, expensive aftershave that was not over powering and they would walk around with authority and supremacy. They would not mingle with the workers beneath them as they would have assistants to do that for them.
How accurate I was about the females but surprisingly wrong about the men. ‘Could I enjoy working here?’ I thought to myself as I puffed and panted to the huge glass doors, for a sexy looking businessman to hold it open for me and give me a smile.
‘If these are the perks to the job forget health care and life insurance! I’d just be happy being near him all day!’ That thought quickly left my head as I went to the receptionist desk to announce I was here for my first day of work.
Why is it that if your new to a company or if you don’t look powerful enough to be one of the directors, receptionists always look at you like your something they have scraped off their shoe and talk to you with that annoying, whining tone?
I asked myself this as I was greeted by John the receptionist and his “side kick” or colleague, Lucy.
They were both dressed in black suits and looked very smart and groomed but nowhere near the standards of the other, more affluent employees. I seemed to have interrupted a very important conversation about their affairs at the weekend as I stood there for a few minutes, then sick of waiting for them to stop ignoring me, I said, ‘hello, I’m here to see Ann Lough.’
‘And your name is?’ John retorted in the campest tone I’ve heard in a while. ‘My name is Nita Patel and it’s my first day today.’ I saw a sly smile between the two of them and Lucy replied, ‘oh good for you, I’ll just call her to see if she’s available. Why don’t you just take a seat over there and she’ll be down in a few minutes.’
As I sat down waiting for her to make the call, I saw she continued talking about the eventful weekend and this started to make my blood boil.
I could have reminded them about me after 5 minutes of waiting but I thought of a craftier technique. I remembered that Ann had given me her office telephone number in case I got lost, so I gave her a call.
I turned away out of sight, so they couldn’t see me talking on the phone and I dialled the number, after three rings she answered, ‘Ann Lough.’ ‘Hello Ann, it’s Nita. I’m having a few problems at reception as I’ve been here now for the past 15 minutes (yes I lied but they were really annoying me) and I’m just wondering if you have been notified to my presence yet?’ I asked in the posh telephone accent we all do when we’re phoning someone important. ‘No I haven’t and I shall be down in a few moments,’ she answered in an icy tone which made me think she was about to rain the pain on tweeddle dumb and tweeddle dumber!
Just as Lucy was about to pick up the phone, Ann came out of the lifts with a thunderous look on her face and approached the reception desk. The pair looked nervous and stopped their conversation.
Ann turned and greeted me and asked me to approach the desk, it felt like a court room drama, there was so much tension in the air. ‘Could you tell me how long you have been waiting here for me?’ she asked. ‘Roughly about 15 minutes,’ I continued in my posh accent, ‘and can one of you tell me why a new employee has been waiting this long?’ she enquired.
There was silence and a flush of embarrassment came across both of their faces, ‘I trust this will not happen again as if it does then we will need to think about employing two new people who know how to do this job quickly and effectively. Consider this a warning and it will be mentioned to your superior, do you understand?’ They both nodded to show understanding of the caution.
I walked away feeling great but didn’t look back as I thought I’d won this round and didn’t want to spoil the feeling.
There was the usual small talk in the glass lift then a flourish of busy talk, facts and figures and fast walking which filled the lift as the doors opened onto the accounts floor.
‘Welcome to the accounts department. This is where you will work and Daniel will give you a full tour of the building later on this afternoon as you will communicate closely with the shares department, Research and possibly Human Resources,’ Ann proudly announced.
I could see it was going to be an eventful day already so I settled into the meet and greet of my new colleagues, got acquainted to my neat but modest wooden Ikea looking desk, which was outside a gargantuan, eminent, glass office and proceeded to the buildings restaurant to make the first of the days moaning calls to Anya. ‘I seriously don’t think I can do this,’ I whined as soon as she answered the phone. ‘Daaarling, you need to give it a chance. You have only been there for a few hours!’ she said in a tired voice. ‘My boss is a tyrant and everyone in the office looks like they want to kill themselves at any second. I can’t work in this place. I’m going to tell them it’s not for me at the end of the day!’
For a second I thought she got tired of my moaning and hung up on me, as she’s done that before, which is funny afterwards but not at the time when you’re talking to yourself for about 10 minutes, in public, before you realise and have to make up a fake end to the conversation so people don’t think your weird!
‘Honey, give it a week and I bet it’ll get better and if not then I could always refer some of my clients to you but I would start you with Hassan, better to start small first!’ Anya purred as we both burst out laughing at the thought of me trying to do her job.
As I looked at my watch I realised it was time to go back and do the courteous nods and polite laughs at the office humour and settle into the boredom of people telling me about how to do the job to my best ability.
I got into the lift and as soon as I reached the accounts floor, Ann was waiting for me with a determined look on her face. ‘Oh god, she’s about to eat me alive!’ I thought as I smiled and approached her. ‘Good, you’re back on time. I like punctuality. You will fit in well here if you continue with this. Ok, follow me; it’s now time to meet Mr. Maguire.’
My ears slightly perked up but judging by the men I have already seen in the office they went back down. We approached the giant glass office in front of my desk and I was told to wait outside whilst she made sure it was acceptable to enter. ‘Oh my gosh! Was he some kind of king who needed everyone to be announced this way,’ I thought to myself as she popped her head back out and gave the green light to enter.
The office was very masculine, with floor to ceiling sparkling clean windows, fancy exotic flowers (that looked like they were changed everyday! Not like the roses I had from last month that my dad bought me to try to cheer me up!), financial newspapers in fancy holders at the side of a dark brown expensive leather sofa (which looked more expensive than all the items in our flat!) and a huge mahogany desk with an ultra modern, sleek laptop, telephone and a neat pile of paper work to the right hand side and a very sexy looking young man behind it. ‘Good morning Miss Patel. How are we this morning?’ His voice was like harps being played softly in my head and I would have continued to gaze into his beautiful emerald eyes but I was rudely interrupted by the Sergeant Major. ‘Nita, Mr. Maguire asked you a question,’ she said in a head teacher tone like her students were not performing well and needed the cane.
After a much needed gasp for air, I tried to be as professional as I could. ‘Hello, I’m having a productive morning so far. It seems like a very good company to work for,’ I lied but at that moment
I felt that everything I said on the phone to Anya had no significance now I am working for this hunk of Irish rock!
He smiled as Ann continued to praise him and his work but his secret gazes completely melted me. I felt like I was going dizzy at one point and had to look away as he continued to inspect my very being. I tried to snap out of it so I could listen to the ending part of Ann’s narrative but unfortunately only heard her say, ‘and Nita you will need to be aware of Mr. Maguire’s role in the department as you will be working very close to him.’ I flushed red at the thought of being very close to this alluring stallion of a man and wondered if it was just me feeling this immense attraction? Of course, it was just me feeling like this!
‘This man must have thousands of girls throwing themselves at him! Why would he give me a second look?’ This thought crept into my mind and brought me back to reality and back to my normal skin colour!
As I nodded and smiled, I couldn’t wait to leave his office. I felt a little bruised at my final thought but, as if he knew what I was thinking, he announced, ‘we’ve done a good job recruiting this one Ann, I look forward to breaking her into all the ways of AG Cathal.’ I looked back with a tinge of hope and received a naughty wink and mischievous smile. ‘Oh my, now I know that I’m not imagining that he could be interested! I would love to be broken in by him right now,’ I thought as I blushed and immediately shut the door.
As I tried to drag myself back into work mode I completely forgot that his office was complete glass and as Ann introduced me to Daniel, who was my tour guide and computer whiz, I couldn’t help but take a second look, only to see him leaning back on his chair, gazing at me with a naughty smile on his face which gave me an idea as to what he was thinking.
Before my mind could drift onto me running into his office and straddling him on that chair right now, I was unkindly ripped back into reality with usernames, passwords and programs I would need access to before the week was out.
I took notes, did menial tasks for the ones who couldn’t be bothered to do them themselves and mingled with the team around me with small talk and getting to know the office gossip. So far, I have found out that Daniel has tried it on with all the ladies in the department, without much success. Ann was single and was a dinosaur in her previous life and there was mixed opinions about Angus. ‘I thought he was so gorgeous when I first started to work here but then I realised what a male, chauvinist pig he was,’ Deborah proclaimed as though she had some history with him. ‘I think he’s ok. Not bad eye candy for the office and the sexiest accent I’ve heard so far.
He could ask me to do anything with that accent and I doubt I’d be saying no!’ Leah swooned, to which everyone started laughing.
Leah was the funny one in my new section but she was a gossip. If you needed to know who was sleeping with whom, who got promoted but didn’t want anyone to know or who was having an affair with a younger woman, she was the lady to go to.
She had been working in the accounts department for a year and already had two office romances herself; none of which was with my own personal Fergus McNessa. ‘I wish his healing hands were on me right now,’ my mind wandered again!
I was happy when it hit 5.30pm and it was time to go. ‘Oh I’m glad I found you before you went home. I hope you have enjoyed today but I will need you to be in the office tomorrow at 8.30am as we have a meeting with Mr. Maguire and the rest of the management team. Please be on time. Good evening.’ Ann stated as she followed me to the lift making sure I was not able to run away. ‘I can’t believe I will have to get up an extra hour earlier! This meeting better be worth it! Actually, of course it’ll be worth it, Angus will be there!’ I dreamed as I nodded to her request and bid her a good evening.
I arrived back at the flat an hour later and before I reached the door I knew we had company. Gabrielle’s fake laughter meant there were men there and I heard bottle corks flying across the room so I knew Amelia was at home. I opened the door with a heavy heart knowing I would have to have an action plan to make it to my bedroom in one piece. ‘Hey, Neets. How was your first day at work? Neets works in stocks you know!’ Amelia drunkenly announced.
Before I could answer her, Gabrielle decided to finish off the job description. ‘No she works in the accounts department at a stockbroker’s,’ she said with a bitchy smile. ‘I actually had a good day. It’s really interesting and the people are really nice,’ I replied whilst I got my own half drunk bottle of wine from the fridge and rooted for a clean glass. ‘I bet the people are really nice!’ Amelia chuckled, ‘have you met Angus yet?’ she continued. ‘How did she know Angus? I couldn’t see him at a fashion show or at any of her regular bars or clubs! Oh god, I hope she hasn’t slept with him or knows someone who has.’ I got anxious at the thought but tried to retain my nerves, ‘yep, I met him today. He seems quite nice. How do you know him?’ I asked the question not wanting to know the answer.
Gabrielle distracted her attention for a minute with her over the top flirting with one of the two men who seemed to be enjoying our apartment entertainment. ‘Probably some guys from a bar or work,’ I thought as I was also sidetracked with the giggles and playful leg and arm touching. ‘I met him whilst his wife was sat next to me at a fashion show in Milan. Typical leggy blonde, with no fashion sense but had access to his wallet so a designer’s dream!’ she said then braking down into fits of giggles as the man sat next to her encouraged her to drink more wine.
I couldn’t believe he was married! Well actually I could, I just didn’t want to believe it. He did flirt with me though, or was it my imagination? Was he one of those married guys who is really committed to his wife but enjoys a little teasing and playful banter once in a while?
Before I could let any more questions enter my mind, I needed more information and decided to probe Amelia before it was too late. ‘Oh, I didn’t know he was married. How long has he been married for? All the ladies in the office seem to love him.’
The man who was more interested in her seemed very annoyed as I continued the conversation, guiding her attention away from him, but I didn’t care, I needed answers and fast, my heart was on the line here…and yes I realise I have only met him today but unfortunately I believe in love at first sight and you couldn’t mistake that chemistry, we could have started the great fire of London again if we didn’t have Ann acting as a major fire extinguisher!
Amelia put down her glass of wine and drunkenly turned to address me. With a slur in her words she replied, ‘he’s been married for about 3 years I tink but just cos he’s married doesn’t mean he doesn’t fuck around. He’s a real dog. He’s cheated on her loooooads of times and she knows it cos she had the pics to prove it but he’s her ATM so she’s staying there. Plus they have 2 kiddies. Anyway, come join us. Celebrate your first day with us Neeets,’ then she went back to entertain her wounded friend and I declined and retreated to my bedroom.
I felt too upset to try to socialise with the inebriated group so I recoiled to my pyjamas, got into bed, turned on the TV and preceded to down half a bottle of wine complimentary sobs included. I didn’t realise the time when I heard Anya knocking on my door. ‘What time is it?’ I slurred as she entered the mess I called my bedroom. ‘It’s just midnight. Amelia told me she mentioned Angus and his situation. I knew you’d like him. Here’ she gave me another bottle of red and proclaimed, ‘this one is for the real emergency though.’ ‘What could be more of an emergency than knowing my heart was broken and now going to work was not going to be all happiness and harps playing but dog crap and banging migraines ringing throughout my head all day.’ I knew I could only think this as if I said it, I would get ripped to pieces by the hard heart, ice queen herself, Anya!
Anya doesn’t believe in love. When asked why she has never been in a committed relationship, she replied, with her strong Russian, superior accent, ‘I don’t believe in everlasting love. It is a myth. You get used to a person and accept their habits and ways because you don’t vont the loneliness this so
ciety says you will have if you don’t have someone in your life. I have everything I vont from men now. Money, no hassle over my time and sex when I vont it…what more can a woman vont!’
Anya settled into my bed and we spoke a little but ultimately she knew I just needed the company of someone strong who would stop me from wanting to cry, so she stayed with me until I fell asleep.
I always liked that about Anya; she appeared an ice queen but was always there for me in her own way when I needed her and I was thankful to her for that night because I woke up with a slight headache but more composure than I would have had if I was left to drink more wine and cry.
**********
I had to be at the office earlier this morning so I woke up at 6am and started my routine. ‘Even if my heart was broken, it doesn’t mean I have to look as rough as a pop idol after one too many alcopops,’ I contemplated as I blasted the hair dryer after nearly 15 minutes in a beautiful, hot power-shower.
