Chapter 13
She was awfully quiet. I mean, I didn”t expect her to be performing a song in the middle of my conversation, but she was so still beside me that it was almost as though no one was there. Multiple times I had been so tempted to turn to look at her, but ultimately, and till the end of the meeting, I had ignored her. Eventually, the meeting had come to an end, and even though it had clearly been a waste of my time to come over, my presence had been received as respect, and so in the end, I”d managed to convince him to go with one of our junior partners for the copyright infringement case on behalf of a niece of his. I turned around then to leave, and she came with me.
I hoped she had been taking notes, as this was one thing to criticize her about. Perhaps I could have been kind enough to remind her of it, but this wasn”t what this was about, was it? In the car, though, and unable to stand the silence and the defeat on her face, I had no choice but to speak to her.
“Did you get the details of all that was discussed as well as the junior partner that you”re supposed to transfer the copyright case to?”
Just as I had expected, she stared at me as though she couldn’t understand a single word I was saying, but then, to my surprise, she nodded.
“Yes, sir, I did.”
I wanted to contest this. I was starving and needed some lunch in me before returning to bully her. Plus, there was a meeting with Gary’s contractor at two, so I had to also be ready ahead of it.
“We’ll stop for some lunch,” I replied, and she nodded. Once again, and of course, she wasn”t even aware of what she had done wrong.
“You didn’t ask what I usually have,” I said, and once again, she turned to me with that same expression of shock. And then, to my surprise, she uttered the words that the other three before her hadn’t uttered. They had been fired ultimately, and this was what had led to their dismissal, but Hannah right here resigned.
“I don’t think this is the right place for me,” she said. “Thank you for the opportunity, but my job is to make your life easier, and I am most definitely not doing that in any way, so I think it is best that I save both our time and just end it here. Thank you for the opportunity. You can let me out anywhere here.”
I listened to her words, and what more than anything surprised me was just how sad I felt at hearing them. It made me realize that a part of me had expected her to fight. In short, I had been looking forward to it, but she had thrown in the towel so easily, and it hadn’t even been five hours since she had started work. This was what I wanted, however, it had to be the most difficult resignation that I had ever accepted. Once again, it was what I wanted, and so there were not going to be any attempts on my part to stop her. But I did, however, have one more request prior to completely letting her go.
“Let’s have lunch,” I said to her when Raul finally pulled up in front of Jade’s Fin in Manhattan. She got out with me, but to my surprise, she suddenly stopped just before the entrance, looking extremely uncomfortable and almost even scared.
“Uh... I… I think I should head back to the office and tell Human Resources about my resignation. This way, they can find someone to replace me very quickly. I know just how busy you are, plus you have a meeting at two that hasn’t been arranged yet, so I really don”t want to be more of a bother.”
I frowned at the information she had just given to me.
“My meeting at two hasn’t been arranged yet?” I asked in surprise, and she gave me a terrified, sad look.
“Yeah. I heard you have a guy for the investigation, but I couldn’t reach him. I didn’t have his information, and I didn’t have George”s information either to contact him to ask.”
I turned fully then; all of this sounded ridiculous to me.
“If you didn’t have George’s information, why didn’t you just go search for him to ask him? You found him before, didn’t you?”
She stared at me, and I wondered what her response to this was going to be. However, she didn”t have one. Instead, she lowered her head and annoyed, I headed into the restaurant on my own. I was immensely disappointed that she wouldn’t be joining me, but that was for the best. It was good that things were ending this way, so before I could do anything to complicate it, I settled down and focused on ordering my favorite of the best wagyu, medium rare, and roasted potatoes. It was simple, yet they presented it in the most luxurious way. Regardless, a few bites in, and I was already deeply appreciative of the silence I had chosen and the secretary I had just said goodbye to.
Suddenly, however, I looked up, and there was someone approaching. I frowned, wondering why she was heading over after she had refused my invitation earlier, so I waited, and soon enough, she arrived and stood before me.
“I’m sorry to be bothering you again,” she said. “But most of the difficulty I’m having is that, unfortunately, I’m not as familiar as I’d like to be with being a legal secretary. I would like to do the best I can to learn as quickly as possible, and then I’d like to apply to your firm. I know that you will not want me as your secretary anymore, but I’m just back here to ask if there will even be a chance?”
At her words, I shook my head, somewhat disappointed because I had expected her to be much more resilient than this.
“You performed horrendously in your current task,” I said. “Yet you’re back asking for the chance to be able to come back?”
At this, she didn’t say a word. She stared at me, and then she turned around to leave. Before she got to the door, however, and to my surprise, she stopped and turned back around to head toward me.
“I wasn’t given a chance,” she said to me. “All I want to know before I leave is if that was on purpose or not?”
I watched her, and then I set my fork down.
“How exactly did you think you weren’t given the chance? You aren’t even qualified for this role, yet you were employed above other candidates with years of experience.”
“Why?” she asked, and I had to admit that I was taken aback. Her question was immensely valid, however, I couldn’t quite tell her the truth, could I? I watched her, however, and given that she had already quit, I went ahead and said what I could.
”Gloria pitied you,” I said. ”She liked the way you didn’t rat out your boss even though you were clearly being harassed, and since she hadn’t been able to help you yesterday, she decided to extend that help today.”
She stared at me, and then her gaze faltered. Shaking my head, I returned to my meal. However, she wasn’t done.
”I understand that she wants to help me, but if that was the case, then why wasn’t I given the chance to succeed?”
I was getting irritated then. Maybe it was because she was right, maybe it was because I had finally gotten rid of a potential problem, and I really wanted to continue on with my lunch and life.
”You keep going on about not being given the chance to succeed, but what are you talking about? You were given instructions that you couldn’t follow?—”
”A bird doesn”t learn to fly in one day,” she cut me off.
My eyes narrowed and my gaze darkened at her.
”You applied for a position that you weren’t qualified for. If you knew you needed time to learn the ropes, then you should have given yourself that rather than applying for it, getting accepted, and then complaining that you weren’t given the chance to succeed.”
She nodded at my words, and to my surprise, she agreed with me.
”You’re right,” she replied. ”So rather than quitting, can I ask for an extra day to learn the ropes?”
”You think you can learn how to be a legal secretary, not to talk of being my legal secretary, in one day?”
”No, but I can find someone who can guide me,” she said. ”I’ll find someone who can guide me, and as a result, you won’t feel the pain or bear the consequences in any way for my incompetence.”
I stopped at her words, and I had to admit that I was tempted and somewhat impressed that she was indeed fighting like I had expected. It made me realize now that perhaps I hadn’t just liked her from the very beginning simply because she was pretty.
I decided then to confront her about this.
”Yesterday,” I said. ”You were very clearly uncomfortable with the client that you were meeting with, the man I assume is your boss?”
”Yes, he is,” she replied.
”Well, if you were uncomfortable, then why did you tolerate it? I understand that afterward you searched for a new job, and I suspect you were already doing so, but why tolerate it for even one second?”
She stared at me, and then she responded.
”Money,” she replied, and my eyebrows raised.
”Money?” I asked.
”Yes,” she replied. ”From all the jobs I applied to before I got that position, that was the one with the highest pay. So far, I had been indeed searching for something else to replace it, but everything else was lower.”
”Is money worth your discomfort in such a way?” I asked, and she shook her head, and then she nodded.
”Yes and no. What you saw yesterday isn’t an everyday occurrence, and not all the clients behave that way. And my boss, well, my previous boss, though he turned a blind eye to a lot of things, would have reacted if the man went further than flirting. So, with this, I got to know the clients that behaved like assholes and prepared myself mentally to deal with it.”
”You didn’t seem as though you were dealing well with what I saw yesterday,” I said, and she replied.
”That particular client was getting bolder and bolder. At first, when we began working with him, he held back, but as time went on and he realized that he wasn’t really getting criticized, he became more and more intrusive, and that was why I felt uncomfortable. The other clients mostly just used their words, but this was almost unbearable.”
”Hmm,” I nodded. ”So why are you trying to insist that you don’t lose your job with me? Money as well?” I asked.
She nodded, and for a moment, I was almost amused.
”How honest of you.”
”There’s no point in lying now,” she said. ”I need the money, but I also take my work incredibly seriously and don”t ever want my bosses to bear the consequence of my inadequacy. Which is why, although I quit just a few minutes ago, I’m back here asking for another chance.”
”You do have quite the way with words,” I said, however none of this was needed. The conversation was positive, but it still didn’t change the underlying problem, which was that she was too goddamn attractive for my own good.