Page 13 of Part of Me
As I reach my new desk, I place my bag on the floor and take a seat. I look at the mountain of paperwork that is placed to one side, and I feel grateful that this will distract me for most of the day. I have no idea if Deana is in work yet, and I don’t check either. She knows my starting time, so she knows when I will be here.
I open the diary that is placed to the left of the desk, and I familiarise myself with Deana’s workload for the remainder of the week. I see that she has a couple of meetings, but apart from that her schedule is pretty clear. I am about to take a look at the mountain of paperwork when Deana’s office door opens.
A woman walks out, and I freeze. The woman smiles at me as she passes by, but I can’t bring myself to do anything. It’s the woman that Luke was talking to last night in the shop doorway. I watch her as she heads to the lifts and waits for one to arrive. I feel myself start to shake as anger sweeps through my body. What the fuck is this woman doing here? Who the hell is she?
“Charlie?”
My head snaps to the side at the sound of Deana’s voice. She is frowning at me, and I wonder how long she has been stood there.
“Are you okay? You look like you have seen a ghost,” she says as she looks to the woman, who is still waiting for the lift.
“Uh…” I feel myself getting tongue-tied, but I need to pull myself together. This is my first day as Deana’s PA and I will not let my emotions fuck this up for me. “I’m fine. Just, um, familiarising myself with a few things.”
I am aware that this is a pathetic excuse, but it is the best I can come up with. If Deana thinks that I am lying, she doesn’t show it.
“Okay. As you can see, Leyla left a lot of paperwork unfinished,” Deana says as she points to the pile of papers on my desk. “If you could get as much done as possible today, that would be great. Also, I have no meetings until later, so can you make sure that I am not disturbed unless it is an absolute emergency.”
“Sure,” I reply as I try to focus my mind on my job.
“Great.” Deana heads back to her office and closes the door behind her.
I look back to the lifts, but the woman has gone. I take another look at Deana’s diary and see that there was no meeting scheduled for this morning in there––no clue as to who that woman is.
I hear my phone go off in my handbag, and normally, I wouldn’t entertain looking at my personal phone in work time, but on this occasion, I will make an exception. I reach for my handbag which is by my feet, and I pull my phone out. I can see that Luke has sent me a message and my heart aches a little as I read his name. With a sigh, I open the message.
Morning, gorgeous. Why didn’t you wake me
before you left for work this morning? I
wanted to wish you good luck, but seeing
as you were already gone when I woke up,
I guess I’m just going to have to say it on here.
Good luck, babe. You are going to be amazing.
I love you. Luke xxxxx
I slump back in my chair as my eyes fixate on the words ‘I love you.’ Do you Luke? Do you really love me? The doubt being cast in my mind is concerning. I have never had doubt before when it comes to Luke, so this is a whole new feeling entirely. I close my eyes, take in a deep breath, and then I type out a text message. Only, it’s not to Luke.
Tori, I need to speak to you. Are
you free later? Char x x x
I send the message and put my phone back in my bag. I need to try and concentrate on work, and I need to distract myself from thoughts of the woman that walked out of Deana’s office not so long ago. I turn my attention to the pile of papers that Deana wants me to look through and I start to work my way through it.
* * *
It takes me until lunch time to get a quarter of the way through the pile. Leyla really didn’t keep up with anything important, and I have made numerous phone calls in relation to Deana’s work schedule. Any nerves that I had at the start of the day have evaporated, seeing as I have been chucked headfirst into this new role. It is only when Maggie approaches my desk that I realise that I need to take a break.
“How’s the first day going?” Maggie asks me as she comes to a stop in front of my desk.
“It’s going okay, but Leyla left a shit ton of work unfinished,” I reply with a sigh.
“Yeah, well, she was always bloody useless.”
“You’re not kidding,” I retort. Maggie gives a chuckle.
