Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
TIA
I stand at the head of the table in the conference room, the one where the board meeting is to be held. I look over the buffet I have put together and I smile. I’m quite pleased with it if I’m being honest. Luke gave me a shopping list and told me to get everything on it and not to go over one hundred dollars. It’s clear Luke has never had to shop on a budget before, because I got everything on the list and a few extra things I thought would help to make the buffet look more upmarket, and I only spent seventy-three dollars and fifty-five cents. Luke seemed surprised when I gave him the receipt and change when I came back, but I thought he actually looked pleased too.
Now the buffet is done, all I have left to do is greet the board members as they arrive and take their drinks orders and serve them. That’s definitely the easy part compared to the catering side, and I’m not worried at all about it.
I greet the first few arrivals and take their drinks orders. I make and serve the drinks without any mishaps, and I’m settling into the greeter role nicely when the next person appears, and I greet them and take their drink order too. I fall into a routine and the task gets done quickly and efficiently, even if I do say so myself.
Everyone is here now except for Luke and one board member, and I fully relax. I already know Luke’s drink order, so I have literally one more order to do and I have already heard a few comments about the food looking nice.
I’m hanging around in the doorway to the meeting room waiting for the last board member to arrive. The meeting is due to start in five minutes and I know Luke won’t turn up until the last minute so he can just dive straight into it if his performance in yesterday’s meeting is anything to go by. I hear a woman’s voice, and I realize she’s speaking into a cell phone. I can’t see her, but it’s obvious because she speaks and then pauses. I figure she’s the last board member and I continue to wait for her to appear.
“I told you I’d be late home tonight,” the woman says. “I’m at Sold.” Pause. “For the board meeting.” Pause. “Yeah, no shit.” Pause. “I’m sitting in for my dad, remember? Apparently, there’s a few votes he thinks are too important for his vote not to be counted, so I’m just here to vote on his behalf.”
It hits me then who the woman on the cell phone must be. Sophia Sanchez. Louisa’s older sister. She is here to sit in for Enrique. That’s it. That’s my cover blown. It’s not like I can just wander off and hide. Might that be better though? I can tell Luke I miscounted, and I thought everyone was here. No, don’t give up so easily, I think to myself. Think. Come on. Think. He’ll never buy that because even if I counted the board members wrong, I would know he wasn’t here.
Sophia is saying her goodbyes on her call when the perfect idea comes to me and when I’m confident that she has ended the call, I step around the corner to meet her.
“Tia,” she says, beaming when she sees me. “It’s so good to see you.”
Thankfully, she’s alone, and I smile back at her.
“It’s really good to see you too,” I say. “But I need to ask you a favor. I know it probably won’t make a difference, but I’m doing an internship here and I don’t want Luke, my boss, to know I know Enrique in case he starts treating me differently. Can you just like pretend you don’t know me in there?”
“Oh, sure if that’s what you want,” Sophia says. “If it will make you feel better, of course I will. But you don’t have to worry. Between us, Luke is harder on Louisa because my dad told him she needs a bit of a reality check when it comes to work. I’m sure he wouldn’t start being harder on you.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “He gets us mixed up all the time anyway. It’s got to the point where I answer to Louisa and Louisa answers to Tia. It’s easier than to keep telling him.”
“That’s comical,” Sophia laughs. “You two couldn’t be any more different from each other to look at if you tried to be.”
I laugh along with her and then I hear footsteps coming along the corridor.
“What can I get you to drink?” I say, hoping Sophia has heard the footsteps too and plays along.
“A black coffee, no sugar please,” she says, and she tips me a wink and goes into the meeting room.
I relax a little bit. That’s covered Sophia not calling me Tia in front of Luke and it’s covered me if Luke calls me Lousia in front of Sophia. Now I just have to quickly speak to Luke. I hurry towards him.
“Can I have a quick word?” I say.
“Can’t it wait?” he says, glancing at me with a look of irritation.
“Umm, not really,” I say.
Luke sighs.
“It’ll have to be mega quick. The meeting is starting,” Luke says.
“It’s just, I didn’t realize Sophia was coming to the meeting today or I would have said something sooner,” I say. “My family isn’t big on playing on personal connections at work is all I wanted to tell you. What I mean is, Sophia will act like I’m just another intern rather than her sister. I just wanted to ask you not to make a big deal out of it or draw attention to who I am in there.”
“No, I won’t. I’m not in the habit of introducing the interns to the board members,” Luke says. “Or quizzing the board members on why they aren’t chatting to the interns either.”
“I realize that. I just didn’t want you to think it was weird that Sophia wasn’t speaking to me,” I say.
“I honestly don’t care and likely wouldn’t have noticed, but no, I won’t make a big deal out of it. Now run along and get my coffee,” he says.
I bite my lip and nod and then I hurry away to make his coffee and Sophia’s coffee. This time, I’m not biting my lip to keep from snapping back at Luke. I am biting it to stop myself from smiling. Sophia told me something that has completely changed the way I see Luke’s treatment of me now. He doesn’t hate me or think I’m useless. He thinks I am Louisa, and it sounds like Louisa’s father has basically told Luke she can be a bit lazy and spoiled – his words not mine, but I know what he means to an extent. Luke is just trying to impress Enrique by being mean to me and I can live with that a lot easier than I could live with it when I thought it was actually against me personally.
And over the course of my time here, I might just help Louisa’s father to see her in a whole new light when Luke goes back to him after the internship is done and tells him that actually I’m not lazy or work shy or spoiled, because I am none of those things and I really want a good reference here so as much fun as it might be to act like Luke was expecting Louisa to act, I won’t do it and risk my future career.