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She scampers off the bed, snatching up her iPad and glaring at me as I swat at her ass. “Hey!”
I grin at her and shove off the bed. “See you in there. I’ll let Christine know that you’ll be sitting in. Ten o’clock.”
Ani nods and disappears as I attach my watch and shove my phone, wallet, and keys into my pockets.
“Bye Ani,” I call down the hallway and her voice returns faintly, assuring me she won’t be late.
Christine is waiting for me, her phone in her hand as she runs through my schedule with her usual military precision. Her face looks even more foreboding today, and my eyes glance at the calendar. Fuck.
“Shouldn’t you be on leave?”
“There’s a board meeting today,” she replies tightly, her eyes dropping back to her phone.
“Christine, it’s the nineteenth.”
“I know.” Shit, if her voice gets any icier my desk will be covered with frost.
“Once the board meeting is over, I want you out of here. And don’t come back for a week.”
I’m met with a hostile glare, but her shoulders slump slightly and she nods. “I don’t have the paid leave to cover that, Mr. Brooks Westerhaven.”
Fuck that. She needs the time off. I shake my head at her. “You’ll be paid. I’ll speak to HR myself.”
She nods, her voice wavering slightly as she thanks me and reminds me of the shit I need to look through for the board meeting today. When she gets back to her desk, I hear her blow her nose. Dropping into my chair, I reach for my iPad, pulling up the reports to go over. Christine used to be the life of the party around here. Always the one organizing drinks for the other assistants. Then her daughter got hit by a cab. Christine took time off to grieve, but she insisted on coming back to work. She’s as efficient as ever, but she’s hard now. I get it. But I always make sure that she takes paid leave around the anniversary –which is fucking today. I’ve been so caught up in my shit that I forgot this year.
Pulling up my phone, I arrange to have an enormous bouquet and a pamper hamper delivered to her home address this afternoon. I call HR and make sure that her leave starts this afternoon, is fully paid, and doesn’t come out of her usual leave allocation.
With that task sorted, I read through the reports for this board meeting. It’s bound to get fiery. It usually does when we have competing acquisitions on the horizon. They’ll all be vying for their pet projects to take precedence. Hell, sometimes Uncle Bill ups and video calls in, just to disrupt the meeting. I need to know the numbers on all this shit so I can mediate any arguments that might erupt.
Anica
To say that I’m nervous is an understatement. I’m terrified. I spent extra time getting my sleek bun perfect. Not a single flyaway hair in sight. And my makeup is flawless. I’m dressed in my nicest work clothes and my best shoes. I clutch my iPad to my chest as I make my way to David’s office. Christine is there, looking more ferocious than ever. She doesn’t say a word to me, nodding stiffly, and escorting me to the meeting room.
The meeting hasn’t started, thank goodness. I made sure that I was at Christine’s desk at a quarter to ten. I didn’t want to be walking in late and disrupting them. I step into the gorgeous meeting room, with its wall of stunning views of the city and the highly polished wooden table that is so shiny it reflects the rest of the room. David is over by the window, deep in conversation with two women who look to be in their forties and a gentleman who might be almost sixty.
David’s eyes meet mine and he smiles, but he doesn’t move across the room, continuing his conversation. Christine reappears, pointing to a chair in the corner of the room.
“You’ll sit there,” she tells me stiffly, handing me a takeaway coffee from my favorite coffee stall.
“Th-thank you.”
She offers me a tight smile and moves to the table, pouring out water for everyone. I perch on the edge of my seat, keeping my knees pressed tightly together, my iPad clutched against my chest like a shield as I sip my delicious coffee. Christine got my order perfect. She can’t have been told how I take my coffee from David, because he doesn’t know about my coffee cart obsession. He only knows how I take my coffee at home. I wonder how she knew.
Finally, two last people come into the room, and everyone moves to take their seats. I’ve been placed furthest away from the door, so I’m looking down the table at David. It’s the perfect vantage point for observing him. But I suppose, since that’s the whole point of my being here, he would have asked Christine to put me somewhere like this.
Everyone takes their seats except David. He stands behind his chair, his hand resting lightly on the back of it. Christine is back. There’s a phone style speaker thing in the center of the table, and she hits a button and melts out of the room, closing the door behind her. Oh. The meeting must be recorded. For their minutes or whatever.
“Before we start, I’d just like to introduce everyone to Anica Kasan.” David gestures in my direction and I manage not to squeak when eleven sets of eyes turn in my direction. “Ms. Kasan has been brought in from Haven Enterprises to revamp the design, logo, and look of Haven Properties. She will be sitting in on the meeting today to get a feel for how we conduct ourselves.”
A ghost of a smile flits across David’s lips. “So, please, don’t feel the need to alter your input just because she’s here.”
There’s some laughter and everyone goes back to ignoring me. David’s eyes linger for a moment, but he opens their meeting, declaring himself chair of the meeting and listing off who is here, including me – I’m by invitation – declaring a “quorum” and listing out the order of the meeting from his iPad. He takes his seat, reiterates the first point and they’re off.
Mostly, it’s kind of boring. There’s a lot of talk about numbers and figures and project updates from various people brought in, and then – out of freakingnowhere– the first shouted argument kicks off.
One woman wants some European project to take precedence, but one man insists Asia is more important in the current climate and they’re arguing fiercely, their voices rising. My eyes are wide as I watch them. Out of the corner of my eye,David is smirking in my direction. He clears his throat, calling the meeting to order.
It doesn’t really work. They both turn on him, yelling and demanding he decide about which project is more important. David doesn’t even blink as raised voices are directed at him. I’d be cowering in my chair by now, but his face is completely impassive. In a calm, low voice that he’s used all meeting so far, he pulls something up on his iPad and runs through the merits of both projects, asks some questions of both the yelling parties. Another party interjects with some facts and before I know what’s going on, everyone is placated, and the meeting moves on.
