Fated to My Alpha Boss

#Chapter 6: Surprise Assignment

I was uncomfortable. I could feel the eyes of Charles' assistants on my back as I gestured and talked about the departments.

Equally awkward were the stares of colleagues that quickly dropped when we neared and then came back as soon as I'd looked the other direction. I tried to point out as many people as I could, forcing them to look up and smile. Some waved or dipped their heads deferentially to the new boss.

I knew they were all wondering the same thing that I was.

What the heck was I doing there?

The penthouse was reserved for upper management and Charles had his own smaller conference room. The assistant's desks sat out in the open floor in front of his office, a barrier of gatekeepers.

I'd never been up this high in the building before, and the view of the city below was vast and dizzying. I put my box down on my empty desk and followed them into the glass-walled conference room.

Jessica and Amy stood on either side of Charles as he sat at the head of the dark, polished wood table.

"Go ahead, Amy," Charles said, opening a folder. He gestured for me to sit next to him.

Jessica and Amy looked at each other and I hesitated.

"Please, Elena. Sit here next to me."

"Should I take notes?"

He shrugged. "If you'd like."

I got out my notebook and sat next to him.

Amy spoke into her phone. "Marketing heads, please."

Within moments, the three heads of the marketing department came in and sat. Charles proceeded to have us all introduce ourselves to them.

"And I'm Elena."

"From comics?" One of them frowned at me.

Charles looked at me expectantly.

"Yes, but I've been promoted. I'm one of the new assistants. And by new, I mean like two hours."

They all smiled, raised their eyebrows and looked impressed, then began to focus on Charles's directions.

It helped me to take notes, to take my mind off the ridiculousness of the situation. Each meeting lasted about thirty minutes, and then a new department brought in the managers and I had to introduce myself all over again.

Amy and Jessica moved around the room, handed out papers, were generally busy, but I felt silly sitting there, pretending to be doing a job.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted. It had been an emotional roller coaster. What was worse, I wasn't sure what the next day held.

*

It started with whispers I could hear as I walked through the lobby toward the coffee cart that sat next to the guard's desk. People eyed me and turned to each other, some not bothering to whisper.

"Wasn't she a journalist?"

"Not even that. In comics."

"How'd she get that assistant job?"

"There's got to be only one way, right?

I felt my face grow red, and I abruptly moved out of line and took the elevator before I said something rude.

When the doors opened to the penthouse, however, Charles's vetiver smell wafted through the doors, and I saw he'd just walked past as I exited. It instantly relaxed me, and I smiled as he turned to look.

"Good morning, Elena," he said, pausing for me to catch up. "Ready for your first full day?"

"Yes?" I said. "I think so."

He smiled, pausing in front of Amy and Jessica's desks where they were just sitting down themselves.

"These ladies will help you out. I'll see you in a bit."

He went into the office and shut the door leaving me with Amy, who smiled, and Jessica, who didn't. I sat down and looked at my computer.

"Let's get you set up," Amy said, wheeling her rolling chair toward me. Her pine scent freshened my mind and made me feel more alert.

"Your password should be the same, and you have the same login place. See? Just there. You'll just have access to more. Ah, yes, I see IT already got you set up with the admin portal. See it there?"

She helped me get into the private network that only managers and Charles could access, and I saw new emails from HR pop up with directions for my new position.

"What can I help you with?" I said to them both as Amy returned to her desk. "I'm totally in the dark as to what I need to do."

"What do you think?" Amy asked Jessica. "Should we have her start calling the TV networks about the latest launches?"

Jessica frowned. "Don't you think she needs to know a little more background and learn how we view things before she goes representing us?"

"You have a point, but Elena's actually been here longer than any of us."

Jessica scoffed. She stood up and walked over to my desk. She looked down at me with obvious distaste.

"How about you start with this." She put a large binder on my desk with a thud. "Check them with the files on the drive, and if they're correct, we'll need copies."

"Physical copies?"

"Yes."

"Of electronic files we already have?"

"See?" Jessica said, sneering over at Amy. "She doesn't know anything."

Amy nodded. "Charles likes hard copies for meetings. It keeps people off their devices and focused."

I nodded and took the binder. "Great. I'm on it."

By the third, binder, however, I was beginning to feel like my eyes were crossing. This wasn't exactly the journalistic career I'd talked myself into pursuing over the last few days when I was sure I'd be fired.

"Lunch!" Amy said cheerfully after hanging up on a conference call with someone in another country. She was speaking a language to them that I wasn't familiar with, and I was both impressed and intimidated. "Charles always eats alone. He says it clears his head, so we go out or take walks. Whatever we want for an hour."

She pulled a pair of sneakers out from a gym bag and began to swap her heels for them.

The door opened and Charles's handsome head looked out.

"Elena," he said. "Can I grab you?"

"Sure."

Jessica and Amy looked at me in surprise, then continued what they were doing. I walked into the large office, pausing to take in the floor to ceiling view out the windows.

There was a knock at the door and a delivery man came in, handing me two bags. Charles took the bill, signed it, and motioned for me to sit on the couch.

There were beautiful, gourmet steak sandwiches and hot fries in the bag. Charles smiled at my obvious enthusiasm.

"So, tell me about your time here," he said, taking a bite of his sandwich.

I wanted so badly to each my sandwich, but felt self-conscious. I popped a fry instead.

"Today, you mean?" I asked.

"No, over the years, so I can get an idea of how it goes with the employees here."

I relaxed. This wasn't so odd. He was looking for information.

With that in mind, I found I was able to eat and we had a nice discussion, talking about the culture and personalities in the various departments.

"And today?" he said, wiping his hands a final time. "How's it been for you?"

"I'd like to do more. I feel so useless, not knowing much yet."

He shook his head, dismissing my concern. "It's your first day. Just keep asking Jessica and Amy."

I hesitated.

"And this is also one of your duties. Lunch with me."

"Every day?

"If that's okay with you?

"Oh gosh, of course." I smiled, trying to cover my flustered feelings. "Is there any journalism projects you think you'll need?"

He looked puzzled. "Not really, but you never know."

*

I left his office full of a good lunch but discouraged and confused. He didn't seem to want any skill I had, unless you counted eating a gigantic sandwich in record time.

Jessica and Amy weren't back, so I picked up a binder and went to the copy room. After a few minutes of copying Amy came in, going over to the cupboards and rooting through look for paper clips.

"So, lunch, eh?" she said, not looking at me.

"Was that weird?"

"A little."

"I'm confused. I don't have any reason to be in this job. Obviously, I'm grateful, but I feel like I'm more of a pest for you that anything else."

"Found them," Amy said, pulling down a box of paperclips. She looked at me seriously. "You did know him in the past, though, right? That's important."

"We barely talked. It was high school. It's not like we were even friends."

Amy looked puzzled and put a hand on her hip. "That's weird. There wasn't another Elena Laurentia in your high school, right?"

I shook my head. "I was the only one that I knew of."

Amy smiled. "You must have made quite an impression. My father was a police officer in this city, so Charles once asked me if I have ways to check if someone called Elena Laurentia still lives here in the city.”

He tried to find me? I wondered.

Could he have been thinking about me all these years?