AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Yes, Gwen.
Her slender throat moves slightly as she gulps. “You don’t want me to—I mean, I can’t really… I’m not qualified to…”
Her voice is barely above a whisper now. She’s still blushing. She lifts those oceanic, blue-green eyes and stares at me with so much fear that I start to feel like a bad guy.
I remind myself that I’m not a villain.
I’m driven. I have high standards. But I’m not evil.
I point to the phone. “Could you pick that up?”
She wrings her hands, then tucks a strand of kinked hair behind her ear. The phone goes to voicemail.
Another item… dropped chaotically.
This day is getting messy.
I hate messes.
My eyes rove over the desk before me, which is a total disaster. Stacks of papers clutter one end. The wire rack of file folders is off-kilter, and the tabs look worn and jagged. A crumb-covered napkin serves as a plate for not one but three donuts, and multiple mugs are scattered about, too.
Then, there are the vases of flowers and picture frames—too many to count. It sets my teeth on edge to see how close the water-filled vases are to the important-looking paperwork.
I feel like I’m going to break out in hives just looking at all the chaos.
So, I look down at my wristwatch. An icon tells me I’m due in my office in five minutes to take a call.
“I’m really sorry,” Gwen frets.
Don’t be sorry. Just be a good employee.
I expect my employees to work as hard as I do. Is that too much to ask?
My blood boils with the impulse to walk. I like to be on the move, and I’ve already spent too long standing here.
My leg muscles burn from the presses I did earlier today. Yep, that’s lactic acid building up. I need to get moving.
“The next time that phone rings, please answer it,” I say.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she murmurs, with a worried look at her computer.
There are stickers around the computer’s edge and so many Post-it notes I feel dizzy just looking at them.
She won’t meet my eye as she goes on. “I mean, Mandy—er—Amanda, I mean—she had experience working as an assistant. I wouldn’t know how to jump in and sort through everything she was in the middle of. It might be better to wait and get someone more qualified.”
“Waiting is not one of my strategies,” I tell her.
If I “waited” for things to happen, I would not be where I am today.
I shake my head. “I heard you handle that incoming call regarding plane tickets, and you did well. Answer just like that, and you’ll be fine.”
“I’m sorry to be like this—I really am,” she protests. “I want to help. I really do. I want to be a team player. It’s just that I have a lot of work to do with my shipping and customer care duties. I couldn’t possibly add on all this other stuff.”
She gestures to the phone. “I mean, Mandy—um, Amanda—was running errands for you and everything, right? She’s supposed to mail that bathing suit to Vanessa today.”
“You know about Vanessa?”
It pleases me to hear how much this timid, polite woman already knows about the tasks Amanda was juggling. “That’s good. Perfect. You’re already stepping into her shoes.”
