Where is it. I had it in here lastnight. Aha! I locate my keycard in my purse and card myself in, walking to the elevator. On my way there I run into a rather large person. "Hey, watch it!"
"Sorry, my fault you weren't watching where you were going." I roll my eyes and press the up button, waiting for the elevator. Asshole. Who does he think he is. Running into people and then not saying sorry. The doors open up and I step inside, pressing the button for floor five. It stops on floor 3 and a few people get on, including Tricia, the office gossip.
"Hey Ryann. There's a staff meeting in five minutes. Lee wants me to drag you there personally." I'm known around the building for avoiding staff meetings if at all possible.
"Great. She has a staff meeting like, twice a week. What is it this time?" The door opens at floor five and we get off.
"She's hiring a new boss to help her. Her husband keeps bugging her about a vacation."
"How do you know that?"
"I'm her receptionist, Rye." Good point.
"All right. Tell her I'll be there, I just need to step into my office for a second." Tricia walks off in the direction of Lee's office and I unlock my office door. I sigh as I see all of the unanswered letters on my desk. I'm the newspaper's advice columnist. It took me quite the time to land this job.
I've worked in the building since I was 16, helping where I could, running errands, manual labour stuff. About 5 years ago the advice girl was sick one day and I was the only extra here, so I filled in for her and have been working on the 5th floor ever since. I look up from my cluttered desk as someone, I keep forgetting her name, calls in.
"Ryann, staff meeting, 2 minutes."
"Yep yep, I'll be there." Gosh, does no one trust me to show up on my own or what? Nevermind, dumb question. I had planned on organizing my unanswered letters, but in exactly 30 seconds I'll probably be dragged away by Lee herself. I sigh and exit my office, closing the door behind me. Everyone looks up at me as I enter the staff room.
"Wow Ryann, you're early." Lee looks at her watch. "By 45 seconds."
"Don't get used to it." I hear a few chuckles as I sit down beside Tricia.
"So, the reason you've all been called today. I've decided to take a few weeks off and I've hired a replacement while I'm gone." Tricia nudges me and I grin. "I want you all to treat him with the same respect you treat me. Just because I'm gone doesn't mean you all can slack off." She looks right at me as she says that. I just give her a smile. "Ah, here he is now." We all turn to the door and my jaw drops.
"You!" I blurt this out before I can stop myself.
"Ryann, is there a problem?"
"He almost knocked me down on my way to the elvators." He walks into the room and sits across the table from me.
"As I recall, you weren't watching where you were going and ran into me." I feel my face flush and the people at the table laugh.
"Everyone, this is Dexter Pollard. He will be filling in for me and letting me know what's going on around here. Everyone is to be on their best behaviour. Ryann, that includes you." I roll my eyes, glaring at Dexter while he smiles.
Trish nudges me again and points down to a piece of paper in front of me. I notice that Dexter looks at it too, but Trish's neat little letters are hard enough to read while looking at them properly, so I doubt he'll be able to.
He's cute! You should ask him out.
I stare at her in disbelief. I catch Dexter trying to read it again. I shoot him a look. He just chuckles. Okay, so maybe he's not half bad looking, but come on, he's a jerk, and probably a snob. And he's my new boss, apparently.
You're completely insane.
She just gives a little shrug, a small smile on her lips. Uh oh. Whenever she gets something in her mind, there's no stopping her. Something I've had to learn from experience, unfortunately.
"Ryann?" I look at the door to see my assistant, Sophie. "Gabrielle is on the phone. She needs to talk to you." I look over at Lee and she nods, letting me go. "Line 4." I walk back into my office and sit, grabbing the phone and pressing the blnking button.
"Hello Gabrielle."
"Hi Ryann. I was wondering where Maggie's health card is?" I frown.
"Why, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing to worry about. She fell and hit her head. I called her doctor and he told me to bring her in so he could check her over. He's not worried."
"Uh, it should be in her bag." I hear rustling on the other end.
"It's not here." I look in my wallet. Oops.
"I've got it here. I'll come by and get her."
"No, no don't worry. I can get it on my way there. It's right on the way."
"All right. But call me as soon as you can."
"I will Ryann. Talk to you soon." I hang up and sigh again at the state of my desk. I really should do something about that.
"Ryann? Everything okay?" Sophie is peaking her head in.
"Yep, Maggie fell but she's fine. Gabrielle is going to stop by for her health card." I take it out of my wallet and hand it to Sophie.
"I'll make sure she gets it." She exits my office and I'm left alone again. I decide to organize my letters before answering them. It soon turns out to be a daunting task, so I answer a few letters.
Before I know it Tricia is whisking me away for lunch, while describing her latest obsession with getting me a boyfriend. I sigh. This is going to be a long day.
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