I glanced across the items on my desk.More contracts.A few graphic design items I needed to review and sign off on.Keaton’s contract to be filed with HR.I leafed through it.Had he remembered to fill out his contact details…?
Everything seemed to be filled in.Disappointment slumped through me.I had no reason to call him back in here.
What a stupid thing to be disappointed about.
Perhaps I was going to fire Ace after all.Hiring a secretary who distracted me during meetings was bad enough.Being distracted when he wasn’t even in the room was even worse.
I pressed the buzzer on my intercom.
“Keaton?”
“Yes, sir?”
“You can go home.”
“Are you sure?”he asked breathlessly.“Ace told me I have to stay until you go home, and you’re still here – it’s not even five yet.”He sounded worried.Maybe he thought I was trying to fire him.
“It’s your first day,” I told him.“Go home.Be prepared tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir!”came back over the intercom.I sat back in my chair.
Good.Now maybe I would be able to get some work done.
But it was no use.Every thump outside the door told me a story.Keaton getting his things together.Keaton banging his knee on a desk drawer and yelping.Keaton leaving.
Keaton walking down the hall.My imagination carried on unbidden.Keaton getting into his car.Keaton driving home.
I buried my head in my hands.
What kind of hellish secretary had Ace stuck me with?
Keaton
I closed the door, locked it, and found myself slumping against it.I barely even had the energy to go forward into the apartment.
“Keat?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” I called back.Within a few seconds, my sister’s smiling face appeared around the corner.
“So?How was it?”she asked, practically dragging me by the wrist into our small kitchen.I threw my work bag down on top of the circular table that only just fitted our space – I was constantly walking into it in the dark – and dropped into one of the chairs.
“Exhausting, humiliating, and awful,” I told her.I covered my face with my hands.
“Oh, no!”she exclaimed, her hands slowing down in their search for whatever she wanted from the cupboards.She sank into the chair opposite me.“What happened?”
“Where do I even start?”I asked.“I’m pretty sure I was only hired because I was the last available candidate.The boss didn’t even show up to the interview, and the agent who did said he’d sent everyone else home.Then they wanted me to start right away and I didn’t even have time to prepare.”
I glanced up to see a sympathetic pout on Clara’s face.“Poor Keat.You didn’t get to make a color-coded schedule oranything.”
I knew she was teasing me a little bit – but she wasright.“No, I didn’t!And I didn’t have time to grill Fernando on details of the office.They wanted me to make a coffee with this horrible, expensive, professional-barista-type machine and I couldn’t figure out how it worked!I made a mess everywhere!”
Clara winced.“It can’t have been that bad.”
“You don’t think so?”I eyed her savagely.“After I gave him the coffee, my new boss asked me if I had somewhere else to be.Then hesent me home.”
“Ooh.”Clara made an even bigger wince.“Okay.Maybe it was that bad.”
“And you haven’t even heard the best part.”I rolled my eyes.“You know late last year when I went to that job fair, and there was a rude asshole who told me to fuck off?”
