“Oh, okay.”
So we had coffee in the room but I had to go out to Costa any time he liked? I didn’t mind the lunch run, but surely I couldn’t keep disappearing away from my desk to stand in queues for hot drinks?
“Is there anything else you want me to do today?”
He looked down his nose at the carpet. “If you could just sort through the piles you currently have all over the floor so we can get cleaned up in here, and then give me a shout and we’ll go through them together and talk about how we can work together. What I expect, etc.”
“Okay. I’ll tidy and then go out for your lunch. Then we can discuss office systems and schedules.”
“Thank you.”
With that he turned and walked straight into his office. I’d expected him to be much more abrupt than he had been. Don’t get me wrong, he was hardly the friendliest man I’d ever met, but if he kept business-like, I could live with that.
I worked on the things that had been left on the desk so that I ended up with a pile of actionable post and a pile of manuscripts. I then started on the emails and began opening and reading them, deleting what was clearly unimportant and studying the folders that my predecessors had set up as [email protected]. There were hundreds of emails that went back months. I groaned. Looked like I needed to learn about publishing fast. At least my induction had given me some background into what was required of me as a PA and what Jude did. I would certainly be hitting the ground running. I decided I’d grab my new boss’ lunch for him, get my own and get ready for a busy afternoon. I just needed to make a quick call to Lena first.
It was the guy serving me in the coffee shop who pointed out the paint splat on my top. A splash of bright purple. I’d gone all morning, walking around on my first day with a paint splattered top and no one had pointed it out. I didn’t have time to get a new one right now, I’d just have to hope it was washable. I told the guy behind the counter I was just popping to the ladies and I’d be back for my order.
All I ended up with was a wet top. And I couldn’t dry it very well with the Dyson hand dryer. Giving up as the order would be ready, I opened my blouse and folded it over so you could no longer see the paint splat. It meant seeing a hint of cleavage but nothing that looked inappropriate. It was better than looking like I couldn’t be bothered to find a clean shirt on my first new day of employment.
When I came back to the office, I put the box I’d brought back with me on the desk and knocked on Jude’s door.
“Come in.”
I walked through and over to his desk. Jude kept his eyes on his computer and not at me, which would have been fine if I’d not tripped on a chair leg as I went past. His wrapped sandwich sailed through the air and landed on his lap.
His head shot towards me in shock. In my panic I leaped for the sandwich knowing that the greasy residue of the wrapper would leak out if there for any length of time, but Jude had got there first, so instead my hands met his groin.
I shot away from him fast.
“Oh my god, I am so sorry. I just—”
“Look, Pippa.” He said coolly. “I thought my mum would have explained about my requirements for an assistant. This…” He pointed to my lowered blouse, “and this fake tripping to get to my groin. Been there, seen it, done it; and lived to regret it. So, if you’re trying to land a rich man, you need to go somewhere else, because I’m not interested.”
My face flushed a deep red; I could feel it scorching my cheeks. I ran from his office, out of the door, and out of the building. He’d thought I was hitting on him. How much more embarrassing could this get? What did I do? I needed this job. I bought myself a bottle of water and went straight in New Look. The first thing I’d do was buy a new blouse.
With a new blouse purchased and changed into—one with a very high neckline I might point out—I sat in the cafeteria back at Davenports. A couple of the other PA’s who I’d been introduced to on my induction tour of the commissioning floor beckoned me over.
“How’s it going so far?”
“Fine.” I lied. “I’m just trying to get settled and work out what I’m supposed to be doing.”
“You’ll get there. It’s a balance between thinking for them, while at the same time not stepping on their toes.”
“Oh simple then.” I laughed.
Chatting with the others helped me to calm down, so by the time I went back to the office, I was ready to apologise. Firstly, I unpacked the box I’d brought back from the coffee shop and got it set up. It needed to be passed by Health and Safety, so I gave the department a ring and told them it was an emergency. The guy laughed and said he’d be there within a half hour.
Then with a deep breath, I knocked on the door of Jude’s office.
“Come in.”
I walked through.
“Oh.” He looked up. “You’re still here?”
“Where else would I be?”
“Well, I thought when your seduction plan failed, you’d have left.” Dismissing me, he started tapping at his keyboard.
“Just a second.” I said and returned to my own office where I got the offending blouse out. Walking back in, I held it up.
“This is my blouse. As you can see, I have paint on it. I didn’t know it was there until a guy at the coffee shop pointed it out. It wouldn’t wash out, and so then I ended up with a wet top. I tried to cover it up by rolling it over. Then because I’m nervous as it’s my first day, I tripped and so we had the sandwich debacle. I didn’t want you getting grease on your trousers.”
His eyes were back on mine and his lips hinted at a bemused grin.
“I’m aware that I have embarrassed myself enormously on my first day, but I can assure you that I most definitely do not want in your pants. I’m here to work and to gain experience in office work, so I can climb the corporate ladder. Now can we please start again because I need this job.”
He threw the blouse back at me. “My mother says you’ll be a great assistant. We’ll see. I’ve told her I don’t want office assistants who want my money and I hear your protests, but the fact remains your hand has been on my cock within the first day of you being here. I think it would probably be better if you did leave, don’t you? My mum will understand. She’s right that I need an assistant, but I think I should try an older one again.”
I gritted my teeth.
“I’m going nowhere.”
He arched a brow. “Is that so?”
My eyes narrowed and my hands balled into fists. “You betcha. Your mum has hired me to do a job, and that’s what I’m going to do, whether you like it or not. Someone needs to take you down off that pedestal you’ve put yourself on; cos, babe, if I’d wanted to feel your dick, I’d have been rubbing your forehead.”
Jude sat back in his seat. “Well, my assistant seems to have changed a little from the meek, ‘yes, sir, no, sir’ feebleness I met earlier.”
“I was trying to be polite. I hadn’t realized you were such a twat.”
“But you knew I was. I’m sure my dear mum warned you.”
“Okay, I hadn’t realized you had a First Class Honours Degree in Twatism.”
“Now watch your language. I could have you fired for that.” He said in a condescending tone.
I cocked a hip and crossed my arms over my chest. “You sure about that? Who has the most sway at this firm? You or your mother?”
That made his smug face fall a little, but he recovered quickly.
“So, first of all, Assistant. I’d like another coffee please. If you could toddle off down to Costa again. I’ll need one on the hour, every hour. And if you could bring in your iPad when you bring me the first, we need to go through my diary.”
I saluted him and walked out, to find the Health and Safety guy putting his electrical testing equipment away.
“All done.” He said pointing to the coffee machine. “I’d have liked to try it out, but I have an emergency that’s come through.”
“I’ll have to ow
e you one.” I told him and he smiled and left.
And I smiled a great big fat smile, as I took a Costa pod out of the packet and picked up Jude’s coffee cup from the trash. The one he’d left on my desk that morning. I knocked off a few bits of dirt. That was about twenty minutes I reckoned I’d earned myself there. I made myself a coffee and opened a packet of triple chocolate chip cookies. Jude wasn’t getting one. And he wasn’t getting one over on me either.
6
JUDE
I really had had the best of intentions. To give my new assistant a fighting chance. And then I’d walked into the office and seen her.
Was my mother having a laugh?
The body of a goddess encased in a slim black pencil skirt and a pale grey blouse. Her dark hair was glossy and shone under the artificial lights, falling in soft waves down her back. Then she’d turned around and I’d seen it. The Bambi eyes women got when they looked at me. She checked me out and I knew then that she couldn’t stay. I dropped my coffee cup on the clean desk hoping it would annoy her and then after introducing myself I sent her on an errand for coffee. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved a Costa, but when I was at the office I drank whatever was put in front of me. But Pippa wasn’t to know that. When my hand had met hers, my cock had stirred in response. This was not a good thing. I’d done the assistant thing—literally—I wouldn’t be going there again ever.
And I had noticed there was something on her blouse. I’d thought it was ink. I still didn’t understand why she’d rolled her blouse down later. She could have dried a wet blouse. That and the whole tripping thing seemed so contrived. Looked like my mum had been wrong in her judgement. I mean this was only someone she’d met in the hairdressers after all. The problem with my mum was she was taking her charity work a little too far.
And then colour me surprised when Pippa returned after running out of the office wearing a new blouse. Nice try, but I decided on a second attempt to embarrass her out of here, culminating in the meek kitten showing me she actually had claws.
Well she could hiss a bit, but I was still going to chase her off.
There was no room for pussy here in my office.
A knock came to the door. It had been twenty minutes since I’d sent her for coffee. She walked in and deposited it on my desk. For a moment I wondered if she’d spit in it or poisoned it and I must have worn my suspicion on my face.
“Do you want me to take a drink of it first?”
“No. It’s fine.”
“I’m not going to poison a boss I want to keep working for. Kind of defeats the object if you’re not alive.”
“Right, well take a seat and let’s get to work.”
I would have ordinarily let a new person settle in and not given them much work but answering the phone on their first day. But for the next fifty-five minutes I went through my entire emails and gave her action points for many of them. She’d have work for days. She didn’t pass any comments other than polite enquiries when she wasn’t clear on something.
As it got near the hour, I sent her out to get me a further drink. She smiled and picked up the coffee cup off my desk. “I’ll clear this one for you too.”
Twenty minutes later she appeared with another drink for me and still had a smile on her face and she still looked fresh as a daisy.
“If you can begin to bring in the piles of manuscripts and post, I’ll let you know what needs doing with everything.”
This kept on until the end of the day. I’d give her a heap of work to do and then send her out on the hour for coffee.
At five pm, I grabbed my coat and went to leave the office.
“Oh, Jude. Before you go, I have some letters for you to sign.” She said, revealing a signing book that looked quite full. “If you could sign them now with them being so very urgent.” She stood and grabbed her own coat. “And also, I just sent you through around twenty emails that I need more information on. If you could possibly do them now, so I can get straight on with them in the morning.” She handed me a printout. “Only this is your diary for tomorrow, and you need to have dealt with those before then. You’re in meetings a lot of the afternoon.” She handed me a couple of files and a manuscript. “And it looks like you’ll need to have read all these. Hope you didn’t have any plans for the evening.”
I took the papers off her, my jaw setting taut.
Relax Jude, relax. I told myself but my mind was whirring. How had she got this done? I’d sent her to the coffee shop all afternoon. She’d had no time to do anything. I’d been planning to come out here and tell her she needed to get on and quicken her pace, put some stress on her.
“Oh, so I’m off now, but if you need another drink.” She pointed over at the coffee machine. “Pods are in the container next to it.”
The bitch.
“Enjoy and have a lovely evening. Hope you don’t have to stay behind too long.” I was greeted by a fake saccharine smile as she walked out.
I wanted to grab her, bend her over the desk and fuck her disobedience out of her.
I needed her gone.
Time to think about a new plan.
After I’d done all this goddamn work.
7
PIPPA
Take that you complete and utter dickhead. I smirked as I left the office. I knew he’d have it in for me tomorrow, would turn up the heat, but that was tomorrow and right now I was off home to a lovely home cooked meal as soon as I’d collected Liberty from after-school club.
My phone beeped in my bag as I walked towards Tottenham Court Road Tube station. Lifting it from my bag I stood still and clicked on it.
Zak: How did your first day go? I missed you like crazy here. Have a hot date with the new girl though ;)
Me: Are you kidding me? Her first day? Marvin will kill you if you break her heart and scare her off.
Zak: Joking!! She looks about twelve. I like ‘em with experience.
Me: You’re such a slut! Anyway, my day was… interesting.
My phone then started ringing.
“Tell me everything. I’ve had to talk about holidays and the weather all day.”
I got him up to speed with the events of the day.
“You touched his dick? How come you never touched mine in the whole history of working at Paradise? I made you get me a sandwich loads of times. Even asked if you wanted to share my footlong.”
“It was an accident! Anyway, God only knows what tomorrow is going to be like. He’ll be gunning for me now.”
“Why? All you’ve done is your job.”
“Yeah, but my execution of it meant he had to stay behind.”
“Boo hoo. My heart bleeds for the son of the billionaire.”
“Pardon. Did you just say his father is a billionaire?”
“You didn’t know that?”
“No, I’ve not had any interest in knowing people’s net worth. Like with everyone who came to the salon, I just categorised them all as rich.”
“My dear naïve friend. Davenport’s Publishing has offices around the globe. They signed Allegra Gabriella; you know, the writer of the film due to come out next year, To Kill for Me?”
“Whoa. I guess tonight I’d better do some research on the company I’m now working for.”
“Might not be a bad idea, seeing as Jude signed Allegra and she could pop into the office at any given moment.”
I gasped. “Are you shitting me? I loved that book.”
“You were working with celebs at Paradise, now you’ll no doubt be seeing some more at your new job. Anyway, let’s think about how you can get one over on Jude again.”
“I’m just going to ask if we can start afresh.”
A guffaw came down the phone, almost deafening me.
“That is not going to happen. I suggest you do this instead, just in case.”
He gave me some suggestions.
“You’re a wicked, wicked man, and that’s why I love you. Are we meeting Friday night as usual?”
“No can d
o. I have a hot date. How about I meet you Saturday? I’ll come to Jamie’s football practice.”
“Oh he’ll be over the moon at Uncle Zak being there to cheer him on. You’re on. I’ll supply the hot drinks.”
“And can I have some hot sandwich action?”
“Sod off.” I said and ended the call.
8
PIPPA
Walking through the office door on my second day, my desk was piled high with manuscripts, letters, and notes from Jude. There wasn’t a spare bit of the white desk showing. He must have stayed late last night going through every bit of paper that had ever crossed his desk.
Ignoring it all for the moment apart from my cursory glance, I switched on the laptop and made myself a coffee.
A few minutes later Jude walked in.
“Morning, Pippa.” He said brightly, a smug smile on his face. “I don’t know if you’ve had time to check your emails yet, but I’ve quite a few urgent matters that need attending to today.”
I lifted my coffee cup up. “Just waiting for my laptop to open up properly, then starting as I mean to go on. Powering up via my coffee and then I’m on it, Boss.”
I watched his smile slip a bit. Yep, you weren’t expecting me to be happy about all the work. Well, I’m going to be so fucking happy it’s going to get right on your nerves, mate.
“I’m so glad we’re on the same wavelength workwise, Jude. I’d heard you were, well, a tad disorganized and, well, some said lazy; but I’m not seeing that at all. I’ll get as much done as I can. You say there are a lot of urgents so I’ll try and prioritize, but with me being new, if you need something doing fast, just give me a heads up and I’ll get straight onto it, okay?” I didn’t give him time to answer. “Now, you go and sit down and I’ll bring you your drink. Then, how do you want us to do this? Do I come to you for a morning briefing, or shall I just crack on?”
“Erm, well I think it’s best I just leave you to it. Thank you for the offer of a drink. I’ll take you up on that and then just knock on the door if there’s anything you’re not sure about and need some more direction on.”
Then There Was You: A Single Parent Collection Page 123