Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
LUKE
I don’t know why, but as I’m sitting at my desk working on a report, Louisa pops into my head. I try to tell myself it’s not because I fancy the ass off her, and it’s certainly not because I’m intrigued by her, it’s just because I’m wondering how far along she is with the task I gave her yesterday. Probably not very far. I would expect a motivated employee to take a few days to get through that lot, but a work shy one, God it could take weeks. The thing is though, despite Enrique’s warning, Louisa seems anything but work shy to me at the moment. She must be a bloody good actress is all I can say, or else she’s appearing motivated at first until she figures she’s out from underneath my radar and then her true colors will show through.
I decide to go and see how far she has gotten and tell her she needs to hurry it up and stop wasting company time. I feel a bit harsh for doing it, but I promised Enrique that I would whip her into shape, and I’m hardly going to do that if I just believe she’s actually working out ok and just ignore her, and if she doesn’t leave here better than she was when she started, I won’t have Enrique’s favor when I need him to vote with me.
I save my work and close down the report and then I leave my office and head along to the storage room. I reach it and open the door. I don’t know what I’m expecting exactly. A mess definitely. Maybe I will even catch Louisa sitting around messing about on her cell phone instead of working. The last thing I expect is what I actually see.
The mess is gone. A stack of empty boxes stands neatly in one corner and the rest of the paper work is boxed and all of the boxes are on the shelves. Louisa turns to see who has come in.
“I just need to finish up the labels and stick them on the boxes and then I’m done,” she says. “I’m sorry it took a while, but it really was in quite a state.”
“No, no, it’s fine. You’ve done well here,” I say. Spoiled brat or not, she has more than exceeded the expectations I would have had for someone I knew that would just come in and get on with the task, let alone for her, and there’s no way I can berate her for this without making myself look like an idiot or a bully, neither of which are a good look. I think on my feet, and I know exactly what I can do to get her bratty side to come out. “When you’ve finished your labelling, come along to my office. I have another task for you.”
Louisa nods her head.
“Ok,” she says, “I won’t be long”, and she goes back to her labels.
I leave the storage room and close the door gently behind me. There’s a board meeting this afternoon, and I need someone to go out and get some groceries and prepare snacks for the table, and also, to serve drinks throughout the meeting. I know Louisa will absolutely hate doing that from what Enrique has told me about her.
It’s one thing being forced to do manual labor that you believe you’re too good for behind closed doors, but being told she has to publicly wait on people is another matter entirely. That will get her spoiled side raging, and she will likely throw a bitch fit. And then when she does, I can start showing her how the real world works, and how in business, you are a nobody until you have proved yourself, with or without your father’s name.
I go back to my office, planning on finishing up the report I was working on while I wait for Louisa. Once I get back into my office and sit down, it occurs to me that sending Louisa off to buy the groceries might backfire on me. She might spend completely over budget, or she might come back with inappropriate things, and it will be a reflection on me. Even though I’m not the one who will have made the mistake, I am the one who hands out the tasks, and someone is bound to question why I had an intern take charge of this rather than Donna who has actually been trained for the role and does it as part of her job, although the two are actually unrelated.
I think for a moment and then I start making a shopping list consisting of the kinds of things Donna usually serves – seafood, vegetable crudites and dips, charcuterie board ingredients, nice cakes and fresh cream eclairs, that kind of thing. I read back over the list, confident the spread will be of good enough quality and that the ingredients shouldn’t cost more than one hundred dollars. I finally go back to the report and wait for Louisa to come to me. I wish I could make her come in other ways, but I push that thought firmly from my mind before it can take hold. There’s no way I am getting myself involved with Enrique’s daughter. No way at all.