7. LARRY
7
LARRY
I look at the space where Mr Carter… Kyle… whatever I’m supposed to call him was just a few seconds ago. The office around me buzzes, people still in meetings, still arranging the next thing, still on calls, and something about me being here has set him on edge.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s awkward as hell, and I was going to bring it up after Maria left this morning, but it seemed like he didn’t want me to so… so I was just going to let it go. There’s no way it can happen again, we’re working together for goodness’ sake. He’s my boss. It sounds like an HR nightmare.
But him leaving like that… I shake my head.
It wasn’t anything more than a quick fuck. I didn’t even know his name until I realised I was working under him—as it very much were. It was a rebound, nothing more. I need to make sure he knows that, otherwise working here’s going to be really uncomfortable and I really need the money. I’ve just started putting my life back together, it can’t fall apart now, not because of a guy. Not again.
“Oh, well, look who it is.” A voice pulls my attention and I turn to see that the desk opposite mine has someone sitting at it. It’s been empty all day. I was starting to think no one sat there and that I was pretty much alone in this corner of the office. “You doing okay there?”
“Um… fine,” I say. “Just… a little overwhelmed. First day and all that.”
He nods knowingly and gets out of his seat, moving around to my side of the desk. He’s handsome—a boyish face, soft features, short hair styled into a little quiff. Like Clark Kent without the beefy muscles.
“I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced,” he says. “I’ve been in meetings all morning with Taylor, otherwise I would have done this part already. I made you that folder.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s Peter,” he says. “Peter Howe.” I shake his hand, and apparently my face gives away that his name matches the one on the door. “Yes, the very same,” he adds. “It’s kind of a long story.”
“You’ll have to tell me sometime,” I say. “I’m Lawrence Miller. Larry, to my friends.”
“Nice to meet you, Larry,” he says. “Do you want to maybe grab a coffee? Or lunch? Take a break from all this?”
I heave out a breath. “That sounds great. Mr Carter has just popped out for lunch.”
“Then it’s perfect timing from me,” he says. “Come on.”
We head out of the building first, popping to a nearby cafe and grabbing a sandwich and some coffee.
“The coffee in the building isn’t the best,” Peter says. “It’ll get you by if you just need a caffeine boost, but you need to come to Jolts to get the real stuff. And they have a loyalty card too. Tenth one is free. These are on me, though.”
He then takes me down to the refectory, a little seating area in the basement of the building. There are a few other people down here in their businesswear, some sitting in little groups chatting over lunch, others sitting alone and reading books or checking their phones. There are even some squirrelling away on their laptops, working through their lunch hour. Each to their own.
“So,” Peter says, sitting opposite me and unwrapping his sandwich. “Tell me how your first day’s going. It’s a lot to take in, but once you get the hang of it, it’s honestly a breeze. And Kyle is great, isn’t he?”
I hesitate. And apparently that’s all I need to do to tell Peter exactly how I’m feeling right now.
“Okay, so we’re not too crazy about Kyle.”
“No, no, that’s not it at all,” I say. The last thing I want to do is go around badmouthing my boss. Not on the first day, and certainly not to someone whose name is on the building. What am I doing? “He’s just a little… standoffish,” I add. “It’s all new and I’m not used to him yet.”
Peter nods, taking a quick sip of his coffee. “You’ve just painted the perfect picture of Kyle,” he says. “I’ve known him for a little while, and he very much keeps himself to himself. I was his assistant along with my brother’s for a while, did he tell you that?” I shake my head. “Okay, so he likes things to be done a certain way, and until he’s sure you can do that he’ll keep his guard up. It’s just the way he is. I am so sure it’s not about you.”
I can think of one very specific way that it is about me, but I’m not about to tell Peter about it. No way. Not if I want to keep my job.
“I just want to do a good job,” I say. “I’ve just moved back here after my entire life fell apart and… I’m really trying to get myself back on track here. And the first part of doing that will be not getting fired by my boss.”
“He’s not going to fire you, you’ve only been here for a matter of hours,” Peter says. “Take it steady, one day at a time. He can be pretty hard to read at the best of times, that’s what makes him a good lawyer, but once he gets comfortable around you he’ll loosen up.”
I take a sip of my coffee and mull over Peter’s words. I guess it could be a combination of the nerves from meeting someone new and what happened this morning. That probably isn’t helping things.
I change the subject with Peter, finding out a little bit more about him and how the place runs. Kyle wasn’t kidding, he really does have the run of the place, but I guess that’s what happens when your name is on the outside of the building.
He tells me the best places to get lunch, the best times to take it, gives me tips on the nicest meeting rooms, and how to make sure refreshments arrive promptly for meetings—all the things I need to do to make sure I impress as an assistant.
“Thanks, Peter,” I say as we make our way back to our desks. “I guess I just need to give it a little bit of time.”
“No problem,” Peter replies, clapping me on the shoulder. “And if you need me, I am literally at the desk next to yours. I’m happy to help.”
I go back to my desk and continue with the last few bits of onboarding I need to do until Kyle comes back from his lunch break.
“Good lunch?” I ask.
“Fine,” he replies. He keeps it short, heading straight back into his office and all but slamming the door. I try my best not to read into it.
He appears a short while later, laptop under his arm. “You ready?”
“For?”
“Meeting,” he says—short, curt, like I should know this, which I probably should.
I check the calendar quickly. It’s a meeting with a couple of other lawyers in the firm, and I’m the one taking the minutes. I grab my laptop, grab my notebook, and follow him.
We go to Helvetica, one of the nicer rooms according to Peter, and I take a seat next to Kyle, taking minutes furiously as the meeting unfolds. I have taken minutes before, that’s second nature to me, but it’s rare to take minutes for something you don’t actually know lots about.
There are so many action points at the end of each section that I can feel it starting to overwhelm my brain. I mark each one in red so it’s obvious on the minutes sheet, and put initials by them so we know who has to action them. Every now and again Kyle leans over and says, “You got that?” or something similar, like he doesn’t think I can keep up.
There’s only so many times I can say, “Yes, got it” or “I’m fine” before it loses all meaning.
“Get those minutes finalised and sent over to me before EOP,” he says, heading back towards his office. “I’ll go through and approve them, and then you can send them around to everyone who was in that meeting and their assistants. Probably best that Taylor gets a copy too, and Peter.” He looks over at Peter’s desk. “Good day, Peter?”
“Very good, sir,” he says. “How’s the new recruit?”
“New,” Kyle replies before heading back into his office.
I feel myself deflate.
“What’s up?” Peter says.
“Hardly a glowing review,” I reply.
“You’ll get there, just keep at it.”
I go back to my desk and get the minutes finalised as quickly as possible, trying to look like I’m on top of things. I send them to Kyle, and he comes back with more notes than I was expecting, a lot of them silly mistakes, errors that I absolutely would have picked up on if it didn’t feel like he was breathing down my neck.
Get it together, Larry. What are you doing?
I finish them up and send them back to him, getting a short, “Good. Send them out” message in response. He’s not happy. He’s not happy at all, and it’s enough to drive me absolutely nuts.
I take my phone out and open my message chain with Rosemary.
Hey babes, I’m going to need a major debrief after work. I think I’ve already fucked this.
I stare at the screen, waiting for the familiar three dots to tell me she’s typing back… but nothing. She’s at work, of course she’s not going to reply straight away. In the same way that I shouldn’t be messaging her to begin with.
The door to Kyle’s office opens and I practically jump out of my skin.
“I’m leaving early,” Kyle says. “I’ll be reachable via email on and off, but broadly I’m out for the day. See you tomorrow.”
He doesn’t wait for me to respond, instead saying goodbye to Peter and heading out, and I can’t help but feel like my time here is already limited.
Maybe it’ll all be okay, and Kyle just needs time to get used to me and this new situation. It is a new relationship after all, and he’d seen me naked this morning which… I don’t know… that makes things awkward, of course it does. Fuck’s sake. How have I been here for less than a day and I’m already fucking everything up?
When I finally finish, I get a congratulations off Peter as I get ready to head out, and then the same from Maria as I leave. I could be good here. I could make friends here, if only I could win Kyle over. I just need to win him over. Maybe tomorrow I should just address it? I don’t know.
I make my way back to my apartment, immediately feeling a little more comfortable as I step inside. This is my sanctuary. This is the beginning of the rest of my life and I have to believe that. This will be fine. It has to be fine.
I toss my keys onto the counter and sink into the couch. The silence is oppressive, a stark contrast to the swirling whirlwind of my thoughts. I grab my phone again, scrolling aimlessly through social media, hoping for some distraction.
My phone buzzes. A response from Rosemary waiting for me.
ROSEMARY
Hey, all done at the bookshop. What’s up?
I sigh. How much of this can I put into a text?
Remember the guy I hooked up with this morning?
Bloody hell, two meetings in one day? You dark horse.
Not quite. He’s my boss.
Is that a sex thing?
ROSEMARY!
Not kink shaming. Is that like a thing for you?
No! I got to the office this morning and I’m his assistant! He’s my boss. I didn’t know.
My phone rings and I answer immediately.
“You slept with your boss?”
“Not slept with,” I say. “We did other stuff.”
“Larry!”
“I didn’t know he was my boss.”
“How did you not know?”
“I’m sorry, do you ask for a CV before you take your clothes off?”
“Had you not met him?”
“No,” I say. “I did my interview with Mr Howe, the guy who runs the firm, and then with HR. I never met him until today.”
“Fucking hell.”
“Exactly.”
“So… I take it today was really bloody awkward.”
“Understatement of the century,” I say, telling her everything that happened today—how short he was with me, how the second he clocked it was me he was entirely uninterested.
“I’m going to say something bold here,” Rosemary says.
“What?”
“You may be overthinking this.”
“Hanging up now.”
“Seriously, Larry,” Rosemary says. “It was probably a really unexpected thing for him to be faced with this morning. Of course he’s going to freak out a little. Wouldn’t you?”
“I did. I just hid it.”
“Exactly,” she says. “Take it as it comes. Go into tomorrow with the intention of showing him you’re the best assistant possible.”
“Do we need to talk about it?” I ask.
“What do you mean?”
“Do we need to talk about the hookup?” I ask.
Rosemary considers this for a moment.
“I’d say not,” she says. “He seems to want to pretend it didn’t happen so…hot as it was, it might be best for you to do the same.”
“Alright,” I say. “Tell me about your day. I need the distraction.”
Rosemary tells me all about what happened to her at the bookshop—some particularly annoying customers who made her life a living hell—and it actually ends up calming me down to hear about someone else’s problems so at least I’m not thinking of my own.
When we hang up, I feel a little bit lighter, like maybe everything isn’t crashing and burning around me. I can’t control how Kyle is reacting to this, but I can control how I react to it. I just need to be the assistant I know I can be, and show him that I’ll be good for this job. I can do that. I can make that work.
Everything will be fine. I’m sure of it.