CHAPTER EIGHT
Miss Javits knocked once with those huge horseshoe-looking knockers and then opened the double doors.
Two men were seated in front of the desk, a woman was standing beside the desk, and a man, whom Toya assumed was the namesake of the house/business, was seated behind the desk with his back turned to everybody as he appeared to be talking on the phone and looking out of the large window behind his desk.
None of them so much as glanced their way when they walked in.
But she wasn’t even looking at them anyway.
She was looking beyond them, at the man behind the desk.
And that was when he turned around and tossed his cellphone onto his desk.
As soon as Toya saw him, she knew it was him.
It was that mess of a man from the bathroom.
What was he doing behind that desk? She thought they were going to see the big boss, Mr. Carrington himself.
Then she froze. Could that man from the bathroom be .
. . She couldn’t even bring herself to say it.
She called him a mess. She combed his hair!
She told him to be better. And he was the big boss?
She felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz when she realized what she was up against: “Lions, and tigers, and bears. Oh my!”
Without acknowledging their presence at all, she looked as Grayson tossed his phone aside and began continuing a conversation he apparently was having with the two executive-looking men seated in front of him before they arrived.
“If we can contain the damage to two million dollars,” Grayson was saying, “then I’ll be a happy man.
But not a dime over,” he added as Dena realized he hadn’t even noticed the ladies.
“Excuse me, sir,” Dena said to Grayson as if she didn’t want him to discuss anything personal in front of guests, “but Miss Javits is here with the new members of your household staff.”
Toya could tell that the man was a bit irritated to be interrupted like that, but he did at least look over at them.
But when he did, she could feel every single one of the ladies tense up.
None of them, Toya included, was accustomed to being in a room with a man who would be happy to pay damages of two million dollars.
But the way he was sitting there in his white dress shirt and blue suspenders, his thick biceps straining the fabric of his shirt, a blue suit coat flapped over his highbacked chair, he had the look of a man who was a boss.
But he still looked a mess to Toya. And drained and exhausted. He had beautiful hair, thick, rich hair, but even after she’d just combed it, it was a mess once again. As if he had a bad habit of ruffling it.
When Grayson continued to talk to his executives instead of speak to them, Dena stepped in. “Good afternoon Lois,” she said as they walked toward the desk.
“Good afternoon,” Lois said. “This is Miss Dena Allen, Mr. Carrington’s chief-of-staff,” she said to the ladies. “Mr. Carrington,” she added as she turned her full attention to him. She waited until he stopped talking and looked at her, as if she carried some weight herself in that household.
He finally gave her his attention.
“We’re here because, as your house manager, it’s my job to introduce you to any new person or persons who will be working in your home.
These, sir, are our new hires. These seven,” she said, motioning to Toya and the other ladies, “will be working in housekeeping. This young lady here,” she said, “will be in clerical. And this young lady,” she added as she looked at the woman who benefited from the theft, “will be answering the phones until Paige returns.”
“Very good,” Dena said, although the comments were directed at Grayson. But he said nothing. Because he realized she was in that group. That firecracker from the bathroom. His entire focus was on Toya.
Which wasn’t lost on Toya.
“Welcome ladies,” Dena said seemingly on behalf of Grayson. “I’m sure you will enjoy your new jobs immensely.”
“That’s my job,” Toya blurted out.
Everybody looked at her. Especially Grayson. “Excuse me?” said Dena.
Miss Javits was enraged, but she managed to contain herself. “It’s nothing,” said Lois. “It’s nothing at all.”
But Grayson wasn’t about to sweep it under a rug. “What did you mean?” he asked Toya.
At first it was as if the room stood still.
One of the two men seated in front of Grayson’s desk even turned to see her too.
Toya was so nervous she could hardly bear it, but she held her ground.
“I was hired to answer the phones, but Miss Javits took my job and gave it to the white girl and put me, instead, in housekeeping where that white girl is supposed to work.”
Grayson was confused. “Miss Javits, what is this?”
“It’s nothing sir,” Miss Javits replied.
But Toya refused to be silent. “The temp agency that sent me over here said I was coming to be the receptionist. She,” Toya added as she motioned toward the girl who benefited from the theft, “was hired to work in housekeeping. But Miss Javits switched it around and gave my assignment to her, and her assignment to me.”
“And you don’t know why?” asked Grayson. “Is that it?”
Oh, I know why alright, Toya wanted to say, and the blacks and the Hispanics wanted her to say it, but she read the room.
The man behind that desk didn’t strike her as the kind of man who would care what the reason was.
He just wanted them gone. He had bigger fish to fry than her.
Like two million dollars’ worth of fish.
“Yes sir, that’s it,” she answered his question.
Grayson then looked at his house manager. “What’s this all about, Lois?”
“What Lois is saying,” Dena decided to say for the house manager, “is that a temp agency can assign all they want, but she has the final word. It’s her job to select the best fit for what we’re doing here.”
“What makes that young lady,” Grayson asked as he motioned toward the theft-benefiter, “a better fit than this young lady?” Grayson motioned toward Toya.
Miss Javits didn’t know what to say. So he took the question directly to the theft-benefiter. “Were you hired to work in housekeeping or to answer the phones?”
Toya looked at the young lady. She was hesitant to give up the theft, but she answered honestly. “Housekeeping, sir.”
“Have you ever held a job where you had the responsibility of answering phones?”
Again, she hesitated. “No sir,” she said honestly. She seemed even more nervous than Toya was.
Then Grayson looked at Toya, which was the one person in that room he couldn’t keep his eyes off of. “What about you Miss Morgan?”
Everybody was surprised that he knew her name. Everybody except for Toya.
But he continued his question. “Have you ever held a job where it was your duty to answer the phones?”
Toya nodded. “Yes sir, I have. I was the lead clerk in an accounting firm for thirteen years where we rotated answering the phones.”
Javits frowned. “There was no mention of any thirteen-year clerk position on your résumé.”
Toya realized she had overspoke. She knew she could never mention that job ever. She was fortunate to have been working parttime at night for many years as a security guard to help make ends meet, and that was the job she used on her résumé. She simply stared, instead, at Grayson.
And Grayson was staring at her as if he was taking the measure of the woman. And then he made a decision. “Miss Morgan answers the phones,” he said.
“But sir,” said Miss Javits, “I was going to train the other young lady to be able to--”
“Do I have time to be bothered by this nonsense?” he angrily asked Miss Javits. “Get the hell out of my office! I have work to do!”
Although Toya was stunned by his outburst, Miss Javits nor Dena nor the two executives appeared to be stunned at all. Miss Javits began to hurry the ladies out.
Then he looked at the two men in front of him. “We’ll continue this meeting tomorrow gentlemen,” he said. “I’m too beat.”
They began leaving too.
But then Grayson noticed something. “Where are you going?” he said.
Everybody turned to look at him. Miss Javits was confused. “Sir, you just told us to leave--”
“Not you. Not them. Her,” Grayson said, motioning toward Toya.
“You’ll answer phones at that table.” He motioned toward the conference table.
“But the rest of you out. Lois, make sure to get her set up with headphones by tomorrow to erase the background noise, and so that my conversations won’t be overheard when she’s answering the phones. ”
“Yes sir,” Javits said even as she and Dena were exchanging glances.
Neither one of them liked it. But what could they do about it?
Javits and the rest of the ladies, including the former theft-benefiter, and the two executives all left the office.
Dena knew his admonition to leave his office never included her.
Toya, however, was the only other person left in that office as Grayson and Dena began discussing his itinerary for the next few weeks.
She heard them mention that he was leaving town tomorrow but she wasn’t about to just stand there dipping all into their business.
With no direction, she made her way to the conference table and sat on the opposite side of the table, the side where she was facing the boss’s desk, and where the phone was located.
But when Grayson and Dena finished their conversation, Toya asked a question. “What do I say, sir?” she asked him.
Dena couldn’t believe she was bothering him. But Grayson looked at her. “Excuse me?”
“When the phone rings. Do I say Mr. Carrington’s residence, or do I say Thank you for calling Carington Capital?”
“The latter,” he said.
“And if they ask to speak to you?”
Dena couldn’t believe it. “What’s wrong with you?” she snapped at Toya. She was known as Grayson’s blocker and she was playing that role in the moment. “Will you stop disturbing Mr. Carrington? Miss Javits will answer those questions for you. She’s your immediate supervisor.”