Chapter 12
Chapter
Twelve
LUKE
I have spent the afternoon debating Louisa’s request for a more challenging role next week. In truth, I would have handed her over to the web development team on the first day of her internship and let the team leader there assess her capabilities and assign her work if she had been any normal intern. But because of Enrique’s warnings, I haven’t done that; instead, I have kept her with me so I could keep an eye on her. She hasn’t shown any of the negative qualities Enrique had told me to expect, and for that, I think she does deserve a chance at going and doing something IT related. But at the same time, I’m left wondering if she is just acting like she’s a hard worker until I drop my guard a little bit and send her somewhere where I won’t be her direct line supervisor.
I really am not sure what to do for the best, and it doesn’t help that anytime I come down more on the side of giving her the chance she has asked for – a move I greatly respect for the record – and probably deserves, I then begin considering the fact I won’t get to see much, if anything, of her. I know deep down that I can’t let myself decide Louisa’s fate based on that though. It isn’t right for the company, for Louisa, or for Enrique’s pocket. But it’s still not easy. Every time I think I know what I’m going to do, I consider something I hadn’t thought of. Finally, it gets to the point where I’m annoying myself going back and forth on this. I have never been indecisive like this, especially not over what really should be a simple decision. In that moment, I decide on my best course of action.
I decide to have Mel call Karl to come to my office so I can discuss it with him. If I am going to let Louisa loose on a real project, it will be something in the web development area because she said that was where her expertise lay, and I trust her to know her own abilities. Karl is the supervisor in charge of that team, and I want to know what he thinks about taking Louisa over there and having her lend a hand, with the obvious caveat that if she stirs up trouble or refuses to do her work, to send her straight back to me.
I pick up my desk phone receiver and call through to Mel’s office.
“What’s up?” she says in the way of greeting. She obviously knows it’s an internal call or I’m sure she wouldn’t make that her greeting.
“It’s Luke,” I say. “Can you find Karl from web development and have him come to my office please?”
“Sure,” Mel says. “Anything else?”
“I’d love a coffee,” I tell her.
“Should I ask Louisa to make it?” Mel asks, confused because I told her at the start of this thing to always have Louisa make the coffee.
“No,” I say. “I’d actually like you to make it and make her one too while you’re at it. She drinks caramel macchiato.”
“OK,” Mel says.
The part about the coffee is just a last minute thing that came to me while I was on the call to Mel. I want Louisa to know that I do value her both as an employee and as a person, even if it turns out that now isn’t the right time for her to take on more complicated jobs. I think she’ll like the fact that I remembered her coffee order. I tell myself I don’t care about shit like that, but the truth is, I do care. And I want her to be happy about it.
When there’s a knock on my door after a few minutes have gone by, instead of calling come in I get up and open the door. I want to be able to hear Louisa’s reaction when she gets her drink, and if Mel asks why I’m opening the door, I’ll tell her I just figured I’d help her because her hands are full. I’m greeted by Mel with three steaming mugs of coffee. I smile at her and take mine from her.
“Thanks,” I say.
I watch her walk to her office. She presumably off loads her coffee because she comes back out after a few seconds with only one cup in her hand. She approaches Louisa’s door and smiles.
“I brought you a cup of coffee,” she says.
“Oh. Thank you,” I hear Louisa say. “But isn’t making the coffee my job?”
“As an intern I guess so, but you’re acting as Rachel at the moment and while she does make the majority of the drinks, I sometimes make them.”
“Luke said I had to make his coffee for the foreseeable future,” Louisa says. “I hope he isn’t angry about this, thinking I’m trying to get out of making it.”
Mel shakes her head.
“He won’t. In fact, it was him who told me your coffee order,” Mel says.
I can imagine the smile on Louisa’s face as she says ‘oh ok’ back to Mel. Mel goes back to her own office, and I go back into mine and close the door. I think Louisa did indeed appreciate my gesture. I tell myself I don’t much care one way or the other, but I know it’s a lie because of course I do care, and I’m pleased that she is happy.
Not long later, Karl comes to my office. After I tell him to sit down and we exchange a few pleasantries, I get right down to business.
“Work is beginning on the new app on Monday. Correct?” I say.
Karl nods his head.
“Yes,” he says. “We have done all of the brainstorming, and we already know how we want it to look, what it will be able to do, how the interface is laid out for consumers. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”
“Just,” I say, laughing at Karl’s nonchalance. “That’s like a three week job.”
“It’ll be closer to five weeks with Diane missing,” Karl says.
“That’s actually why I called you up here,” I say. “I have an intern who is wanting something more challenging to do and her speciality is web development. Do you think you could find a use for her, or will she just get under your feet? Be honest because I don’t want anything derailing this or slowing it down further.”
“I’m sure I could find work for her. And I’m not just saying that. Being short staffed is really making this too slow and at the minute, I don’t think we will meet the deadline,” Karl says. “An extra pair of hands might just turn things around for us.”
“In the interest of full disclosure, and this goes no further than between us two, the intern in question is Enrique Sanchez’s daughter. He’s on our board of directors and he asked me to take his daughter, Louisa, on as an intern as a favor to him as he finds her lazy and uncooperative. I have to say I haven’t seen that side of her. She has always been attentive and gets on with any work she is given. The task I gave her on Monday, realistically, I would have expected it to take a good few days and she had it finished by Tuesday morning. But if it turns out she’s just putting on a show for me as her boss, I want you to know you have every right to give her an ass kicking, and if that doesn’t work and she’s not pulling her weight, feel free to let me know and I’ll pull her straight off the project,” I say.
“Got it,” Karl says. “So, I’ll be getting her on Monday then?”
I nod.
“Unless a different day is better for you?” I say.
“No, Monday is ideal because I can brief the whole team, her included, on what we’re going to be starting,” Karl says. “It means everyone knows the same information and I don’t have to go over it twice.”
“That’s great. Thank you, Karl. And don’t forget, if she becomes a problem, I want to know about it,” I reiterate.
Karl nods his agreement and then he leaves my office, and I pick up my phone again and call along to Mel. She answers the call.
“Mel, it’s Luke. Can you tell Louisa I want to see her please. It’s not urgent, her work is more of a priority. She can pop in any time before she leaves for the day and it will be fine,” I say.
“No problem,” Mel says and cuts me off.
I roll my eyes and smile to myself. It’s a good job Mel is the best personal assistant I’ve ever had and that she doesn’t do shit like that with potential advertisers, just with me. A few hours pass and then Louisa is back in my office and sitting down, having informed me that Mel said I wanted to see her.
“On Monday, the web development team is starting a new project. They will be working on a new app,” I say. “They are a team member down and it’s going to make things hard for them. I realize I could replace Diane who has left, but these posts require a special sort of person, and I hate to just take the first person who comes along because it often makes things harder for the rest of the team than just being short staffed would. I would like to be able to take the time to find someone for the role who will fit in with the team and be a good match.”
Louisa nods her head.
“That makes sense,” she says. “Do you want me to go on Monster and other sites like that and find potential candidates for you?”
“Would you consider that a more suitable role for someone with your degree than say, working the reception desk?” I ask.
“Not really,” Louisa admits. “But as you said, a good intern does whatever they are asked to do without moaning.”
I smile and she smiles back.
“God, I can be a right dick, can’t I?” I say.
She looks shocked for a moment and then she laughs and nods her head.
“A bit,” she says.
When the laughter has died down, I get to the point.
“I don’t want you messing around with resumes and that stuff. That’s what HR is for. Well amongst other things. No, I have spoken to Karl, the supervisor in that department, and we have decided to give you a chance on the team,” I say.
Louisa’s jaw drops and for a moment, she just sits there, frozen. She blinks and closes her mouth.
“Are you being serious?” she says.
“Deadly serious,” I tell her.
She makes a squeaking sound and throws her head back and laughs. She sits back up and tries to stop the laughter. She is mostly successful, but she can’t quite stop her smile. I smile back at her.
“I take it that means you’re happy then?” I say and she nods her head.
“Yes. More than I can explain. Thank you so much. I won’t let you down, I promise,” she says.
“Please don’t,” I say. “Because I have made it clear to Karl that he is your boss for the duration of your time on his team and if you drag your feet or don’t perform, he’s not going to put up with it.”
“I wouldn’t expect him to,” Louisa says. “So, on Monay do I come up here first or just go straight to the web development team?”
“You can go straight to the team. Karl is expecting you,” I say.
“Perfect. Thank you again,” Louisa says on her way out.
She closes the door behind herself, and I smile. I can tell by her reaction how happy and proud of herself she is, and I love that for her, I really do. And I tell myself that I am not in the least bit bothered that I probably won’t see her again for the duration of her internship unless she does let me down, and I genuinely don’t think she will do that.