Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
TIA
I am once again floored by how good looking this man is. He is at least six feet tall and while some people that tall look gangly, Luke isn’t one of those people. He is toned and perfectly in proportion with himself. He has dark brown hair which he wears short around the sides and a bit longer on the top, and he has the most gorgeous green eyes. He has the classic chiselled cheekbones, and I’m sure that beneath the stubble he sports on his chin, his jawbone will be equally pleasing to the eye. But I don’t fancy him. It’s not an attraction to Luke that makes my palms sweaty and my mouth dry and it’s certainly nothing to do with him that makes my pussy feel damp.
I walk towards the desk and put the cup down in front of him.
“Americano, milk, two sugars,” I say.
“I don’t remember asking for this,” Luke replies.
“I can take it away if you don’t want it,” I say, forcing myself not to sound annoyed.
“No need for that,” Luke says as though he’s the one doing me the favor rather than the other way around. “I’ll drink it.”
Big of you, I think but don’t say.
“I’ve had my tour, and I’m live on all of the systems,” I say. “You said to come back and get my first task when that was done.”
“Sit down,” Luke says.
I’m glad he has finally invited me to sit down. Standing up, I didn’t really know what to do with my hands, but I had a feeling if I had sat down without an invite, Luke would have had something to say about it and I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of that. I sit down, feeling like I have passed some sort of test, and I wait for him to tell him what he wants me to do now.
“Did Mel show you where the storage room is? For the archived paper work?” Luke asks and I nod. “And did she show you the room next to it?”
“We didn’t go inside, but she told me it was for photocopying, shredding and scanning,” I reply. “Oh, and for filing current paper work.”
“Good,” Luke says. “I want you to go into the storage room, which unfortunately has become a bit of a mess in recent years and go through all of the archived paper work. For tax reasons, we have to keep the last seven years’ worth of paper work. The current year’s stuff is either in the photocopy room as you rightly pointed out, or it is still with its relevant department, so you need only worry about last year’s files and then the five years previous to that. The paperwork for those times should all be organized properly and archived in some sort of sensible order. And anything older than that needs to be shredded. Do you have any questions?”
I am tempted to ask him why he thinks it’s the best use of my time to do something like that when I’m a qualified web developer, but I don’t. I know better than to say something like that and get fired on my first day. Louisa would love that one. I know I just have to suck it up and do the useless tasks to prove I am capable of following instructions and then I will get to do something more interesting. Or if not, at least I am being paid for it. If it was an unpaid internship, I would be much angrier than I actually am.
Just suck it up. Think of the wages and think of the reference I say a few times in my head like it’s my new mantra. And maybe it will come to that.
“No,” I reply. “It sounds straightforward enough.”
“There’s a staff meeting at four o’clock that I want you to attend. Other than that meeting, this archiving and shredding is your priority,” Luke says. “Off you go.”
I hate being dismissed like a naughty child, but yet again, I bite my tongue. I don’t know why Luke is seemingly trying to get underneath my skin, but I don’t think he usually acts like this judging by Mel’s reaction to his rude words earlier. I guess his attitude and the shitty task he has given me to do is a kind of hazing. Well, if he wants to see what I’m made of, then I’ll show him it’ll take more than a bit of menial work and a bad attitude to break me.
I see it’s going to be way more than a bit of menial work when I open the door to the storage room; it’s going to be more like a year of menial work. Luke wasn’t kidding when he said it had become a bit of a mess in here. Each wall of the room is lined with shelves and on those shelves are boxes of paper work, files and folders, with loose sheets spilling everywhere and from what I can see at a quick glance, nothing is labelled.
I spend a moment deciding how best to complete the task. I decide to tackle the biggest boxes first and use one of them to store the paper work from the years I need to keep and use another one of them to store the paper work for shredding. Then every time the shredding box gets full, I will drag it next door and do the shredding and then come back and rinse and repeat until all the shredding is done. When everything is shredded that needs to be done, then I’ll work on organizing the rest of the paperwork, the bits we need to keep, by sorting it by year and then by subject and getting it all filed away in some sort of order. Once I have a plan of attack worked out, I feel much better about tackling the task in front of me, although I still think it is going to be a long, difficult and tiring job. Maybe six months job rather than a year or two.
I shrug off any negativity I’m still feeling. I have to do the task whether I like it or not, so I might as well do it to the best of my ability and stop moaning in my head about it. That will only make is seem worse. I drag the first big box to the floor and then the second one, and then I sit down and take the lids off them and empty them both out. I begin scanning over the documents for dates and then sorting them into either the keep and or the shred box depending on what it is.
By the time lunch time comes around, I have my system nailed and I’m getting through the paperwork a lot quicker than I had expected to. While a lot of it is a mess, some of the boxes aren’t as jumbled as others and are nice and easy to get through. I know I will work better on a full stomach than an empty one though, and I take a quick twenty-minute break for lunch where I run out to buy and eat a sandwich, use the ladies’ room and then go back to work with a cup of coffee. The coffee here really is good.
I make sure to keep a watch on the time as I work, conscious of the fact that I have to be at the staff meeting at four o’clock and not wanting to forget about it or be late to it. At three forty five, I finish up my last shredding of the day and return the empty box back to the store room. I figure I probably have time to do a bit more sorting, but the last thing I want to do is to leave it too late and then not be able to find the meeting room or something stupid like that and be late for the meeting in front of everyone. And I have a feeling Luke will call me out on it if I am late in and he will likely do it in front of everyone.
I decide it’s better to seem like I’m there too early than too late and so I walk along to the elevator. I decide for the sake of going down one floor, I’ll take the stairs when I see that the elevator is currently on the first floor – it will likely be quicker. I go through the door marked ‘stairs’ and walk down to the floor below me. I walk along the corridor, looking into the rooms, hoping to find some clue as to where I’m meant to be.
I see a small room with people in it, but the room doesn’t look big enough to hold ten people comfortably, let alone the entire staff and rather than risk disturbing people who might have nothing to do with the meeting, I keep going. Right at the end of the hallway, the floor opens out into a huge space. Rows of chairs have been laid out, all facing towards the front, and I figure this must be where I’m meant to be. Some of the chairs are already occupied, but a lot aren’t yet. I glance at the seated people, and I choose to approach a woman sitting alone in the third row. She looks friendly enough.
“Hi,” I say. “I’m new here. Is this where the staff meeting is being held?”
“Yes,” the woman replies. “You’re new you say?”
I nod, and the woman indicates with a hand for me to sit down next to her. Glad to have someone to talk to until the meeting starts, I sit down gratefully.
“I’m Tracy,” she says. “I work in accounts.”
“Louisa,” I say. “I’m just an intern.”
“How long have you been here?” Tracy asks.
“It’s my first day,” I tell her.
“How are you finding it?” she asks.
Again, I decide to err on the side of caution. Just because she’s nice and chatty doesn’t mean she won’t tell Luke the intern has been moaning about her work.
“I like it so far,” I say. “Everyone I’ve met has been really nice to me.”
“Most everyone here is nice,” she says. “Like anywhere, there are a few people who are a bit standoffish, but for the most part, we all get along just fine. What department are you working in?”
“My field is web development, and I hope to end up working there, but at the moment, I’m doing a task for Luke,” I say.
“Oh. You must be special,” Tracy says with a laugh. “Luke normally doesn’t really have anything to do with the interns.”
I laugh along with her, but I am surprised to hear that. I’m nothing special. But then I remember he thinks I’m a board member’s daughter. It makes sense he might take a special interest in me thinking that, but at the same time, it makes less sense that he would have me doing the crap he has me doing. I can’t figure the man out and I decide to stop even trying.
More and more people are filing in now and the chairs are filling up fast. I spot Mel and Rachel coming in together and I spot Susan coming in with a younger man. Right at four o’clock, Luke appears, and the conversations tail off and everyone pays attention to him without him having to say a word.
He talks about figures and projections and ad campaigns and more. I must admit I kind of tune out. I try to stay engaged, but the stuff he’s talking about doesn’t affect me and I always find that my mind wanders if I’m not interested in what’s being said.
I force myself to tune back in when I catch my attention drifting off. It’s almost five o’clock and Luke is still talking. I can see a lot of the staff are starting to get a bit restless, knowing that the end of the working day is fast approaching. Even though I’m contracted to work from nine am to five pm like everyone else, I make sure I don’t look like I’m eager to leave because I don’t think that is the best impression to give on a first day anywhere, especially not for the person on the lowest rung of the ladder.
“And finally, we have a new member of staff joining us today. Louisa? Where are you? Stand up,” Luke says.
I look around with everyone else. I want to see this new girl because it’s good to know I’m not the only newbie, and it might be good to befriend the other new starter. No one stands up and Luke calls the name again. Tracy gently digs her elbow into my ribs.
“Stand up Louisa,” she whispers.
I feel the blood rush to my face with embarrassment as I get to my feet. I am embarrassed because for a moment there, I genuinely forgot that I’m meant to be Louisa, but I’m confident that anyone who notices my obvious discomfort will think it’s because I have to stand up in front of everyone. In fairness, I probably would have blushed at that anyway so they wouldn’t be entirely wrong.
“Everyone, this is Louisa. Louisa, this is everyone,” Luke says.
I do an awkward little wave while people shout out greetings and welcomes to me. Although it is embarrassing, it’s also kind of nice because of the welcome I receive.
“Louisa is our newest intern,” Luke explains. “Please make her feel welcome here.”
The room starts to clap, and I feel my cheeks reddening once more. I don’t know where to look so I look down at the ground, wanting it to open up and swallow me. Finally, the applause dies out.
“Welcome to Sold, Louisa,” Luke says. “That’s the meeting over. See you all tomorrow.”
He walks back out of the meeting without another word, or a backward glance and I’m relieved that I am no longer the only person on their feet. I say goodbye to Tracy and hurry away. I go back up the stairs because I figure the elevator car will be packed full. I don’t know what to do. Luke made it clear it is home time for everyone, but as an intern, am I expected to stay until I’m dismissed? Or until I finish my task? God, I hope that’s not the case, I’ll be here until midnight next Tuesday.
I come through the door at the top of the stairs, and I see Mel walking along the hallway in front of me. I call out to her, and she stops and turns around. She smiles at me and waits for me to catch up.
“How’s your first day gone?” she says.
“It’s flown by actually,” I say, which is both true and a nice way to avoid having to answer the question based on my menial task. “I’m just wondering what happens now. Do I finish the task Luke has given me before I leave, or do I wait for him to come and dismiss me, or …?”
I tail off at the end, not sure what else to add. Mel shakes her head.
“No, you don’t have to wait for permission to leave. As long as you’ve done your eight hours, you can leave generally speaking. Obviously, there might be times where there is urgent work needed and you will be expected to stay and work over if you are a part of that, but otherwise, you finish at five unless you’re late in or told otherwise,” Mel says.
“Thanks Mel,” I reply.
“No worries,” Mel says. We have reached our respective offices and Mel smiles at me. “Catch you tomorrow. Assuming you’re coming back?”
“Oh, I’m coming back alright. See you tomorrow,” I reply.
I go into my tiny office and retrieve my coat and my purse and then I make my way to the end of the corridor, and this time, I choose to wait for the elevator. The doors open finally, and I step in and turn to see Luke getting in behind me. I hit the ground floor button and look up at him.
“Ground floor?” I say and he nods his head.
“Who told you that you could leave for the day?” he says.
“Umm, Mel,” I reply.
I don’t want to get her in trouble, but it’s true and I figure she is much less likely to catch a pile of shit than I am.
“Oh, right. That’s ok then,” he says, and he looks at me for a moment and then he smiles. “I was joking, Louisa.”
I manage to fake a laugh that sounds reasonably normal, but I don’t think he was joking. I think he just said that to save face when I said Mel said I should leave. I think if I hadn’t have said that he would have had a go at me, maybe even demanded I stay over to finish the shredding and sorting.
He’s definitely one to watch, this man, and he’s easy enough on the eye that I’m more than willing to watch him.