Page 64 of Very Special Forces

"Do youhave an appointment?" he replied.

"No, buthe asked me to drop by," I said.

"Yourname, please."

"LexiGraves."

"Fabulous." He held up one finger and tapped something behindthe desk with his other hand. "Lexi Graves for you," he said."Shall I send her up? You can go up now."

Icontinued looking at the brochure until the receptionist snappedhis fingers and dropped a visitor’s pass on the desk. "Hello! Youcan go up. Fifth floor. Mr. Maynard will meet you at theelevator."

"Thankyou," I said but the young man was already on the phone again. Igrabbed the pass and clipped it to my blouse pocket then movedaround the desk to the elevators. I traveled up alone to the fifthfloor and when I stepped out, Bryce was waiting for me.

"Lexi,it's great to see you again," Bryce said, shaking my hand warmly."I'm glad you took me up on visiting Fitzgerald and Partners AssetManagement. I'm sure we can find a slot here for you. I'll show youaround and you can let me know what you think of the firm. I'm sureyou'll love it. Hi, Joe," he added to the guy who walked past us.Joe grinned and held up the document he carried.

"We havethe whole fifth floor," Bryce explained, taking us from the lobby,through frosted glass doors and into an open plan office. "This isJean, our receptionist. Jean knows everything about everyone and weall love her." He said this with a wink to Jean who simpered andgiggled in response. "And over there is Natalie, our officemanager. She takes care of all the temps so I'll introduce you twosoon. Here's the application form," he added, taking a slip ofpaper from a tray on the desk near by and handing it tome.

"Howmany temps do you have?" I asked.

"I don'tknow for sure but currently around five, I think. It can vary;depends on how busy we are. There are interns too but I don't thinkthey will interest you."

"Why'sthat?"

"They'reunpaid, for one thing," explained Bryce. "Every summer we take onsix interns who are seeking a career in finance and they get anintensive, hands-on education. It's priceless."

"Finance?"

"Assetmanagement. That's what we do here."

"Ah."

"It'scute that you didn't know. Don't be embarrassed. We don't expectthe temps to understand. The brainy stuff is for us big boys," hesaid without a trace of shame.

I heldback from rolling my eyes but he didn't notice since he wasgreeting two other guys walking past. They made finger gun signs ateach other and laughed.

"It's agreat atmosphere here," Bryce continued as he indicated we shouldleave the open plan area and take the corridor. "Every Friday thefirm puts on a luncheon buffet and opens the in-house bar at five.Temps and interns are always welcome to attend. The big bosses likeeveryone to mingle and it’s a good opportunity to meet everyone ona different plane. Hey, you should mention your bartending skillson your application. It might give you that edge. This is thekitchen. The coffee cart and fruit bowl are for everyone. Can I getyou anything? Cappuccino? Espresso? An apple?"

"No,thanks. This is a very nice kitchen," I said, looking around thebright, open space. Cabinets covered one stretch of wall and tworefrigerators were situated under the counter. The coffee cart hada professional looking machine and stacks of cups with the firm'slogo printed on the side. A long table flanked by benches took upthe other wall and the fruit bowl in the middle was overflowingwith apples, pears, oranges and grapes. There was even a pineappleand I wondered if anyone ever bothered to carve one.

"You'llhave to fetch coffee occasionally but mostly everyone is encouragedto get their own. It's that kind of environment but offering tofetch drinks won't go amiss."

"Noted,"I said.

"Whatyou're wearing is fine," said Bryce. "Us guys like to wear suitsbecause we're client-facing but the ladies in the office don't needto worry about that. A nice skirt or pants and a blouse is fine.Heels are more professional than flats and we expect good grooming,of course."

"Arethere any female asset managers?" I asked.

"Sure.Oh, you mean here? Yes, we have two. One is kind of a ball-bustingman-hater if you know what I mean."

"Notreally."

"Nevergot married or had kids. Obviously hates men. I'll show you wherethe hot desks for the temps are," Bryce said before I could pointout how sexist his comments were. "There's no assigned space butall the computers are linked to the firm's network so it reallydoesn't matter where you sit. How's your typing speed?"

"It'sgood."

"Great.Letters, documents, all that?"

"Not aproblem."

---