Page 10 of It's Only Make Believe

I save my work and close down the report and then I leave my office and head along to the storage room. I reach it and open the door. I don’t know what I’m expecting exactly. A mess definitely. Maybe I will even catch Louisa sitting around messing about on her cell phone instead of working. The last thing I expect is what I actually see.

The mess is gone. A stack of empty boxes stands neatly in one corner and the rest of the paper work is boxed and all of the boxes are on the shelves. Louisa turns to see who has come in.

“I just need to finish up the labels and stick them on the boxes and then I’m done,” she says. “I’m sorry it took a while, but it really was in quite a state.”

“No, no, it’s fine. You’ve done well here,” I say. Spoiled brat or not, she has more than exceeded the expectations I would have had for someone I knew that would just come in and get on with the task, let alone for her, and there’s no way I can berate her for this without making myself look like an idiot or a bully, neither of which are a good look. I think on my feet, and I know exactly what I can do to get her bratty side to come out. “When you’ve finished your labelling, come along to my office. I have another task for you.”

Louisa nods her head.

“Ok,” she says, “I won’t be long”, and she goes back to her labels.

I leave the storage room and close the door gently behind me. There’s a board meeting this afternoon, and I need someone to go out and get some groceries and prepare snacks for the table, and also, to serve drinks throughout the meeting. I know Louisa will absolutely hate doing that from what Enrique has told me about her.

It’s one thing being forced to do manual labor that you believe you’re too good for behind closed doors, but being told she has to publicly wait on people is another matter entirely. That will get her spoiled side raging, and she will likely throw a bitch fit. And then when she does, I can start showing her how the real world works, and how in business, you are a nobody until you have proved yourself, with or without your father’s name.

I go back to my office, planning on finishing up the report I was working on while I wait for Louisa. Once I get back into my office and sit down, it occurs to me that sending Louisa off to buy the groceries might backfire on me. She might spend completely over budget, or she might come back with inappropriate things, and it will be a reflection on me. Even though I’m not the one who will have made the mistake, I am the one who hands out the tasks, and someone is bound to question why I had an intern take charge of this rather than Donna who has actually been trained for the role and does it as part of her job, although the two are actually unrelated.

I think for a moment and then I start making a shopping list consisting of the kinds of things Donna usually serves – seafood, vegetable crudites and dips, charcuterie board ingredients, nice cakes and fresh cream eclairs, that kind of thing. I read back over the list, confident the spread will be of good enough quality and that the ingredients shouldn’t cost more than one hundred dollars. I finally go back to the report and wait for Louisa to come to me. I wish I could make her come in other ways, but I push that thought firmly from my mind before it can take hold. There’s no way I am getting myself involved with Enrique’s daughter. No way at all.

Chapter

Seven

TIA

Istand at the head of the table in the conference room, the one where the board meeting is to be held. I look over the buffet I have put together and I smile. I’m quite pleased with it if I’m being honest. Luke gave me a shopping list and told me to get everything on it and not to go over one hundred dollars. It’s clear Luke has never had to shop on a budget before, because I got everything on the list and a few extra things I thought would help to make the buffet look more upmarket, and I only spent seventy-three dollars and fifty-five cents. Luke seemed surprised when I gave him the receipt and change when I came back, but I thought he actually looked pleased too.

Now the buffet is done, all I have left to do is greet the board members as they arrive and take their drinks orders and serve them. That’s definitely the easy part compared to the catering side, and I’m not worried at all about it.

I greet the first few arrivals and take their drinks orders. I make and serve the drinks without any mishaps, and I’m settlinginto the greeter role nicely when the next person appears, and I greet them and take their drink order too. I fall into a routine and the task gets done quickly and efficiently, even if I do say so myself.

Everyone is here now except for Luke and one board member, and I fully relax. I already know Luke’s drink order, so I have literally one more order to do and I have already heard a few comments about the food looking nice.

I’m hanging around in the doorway to the meeting room waiting for the last board member to arrive. The meeting is due to start in five minutes and I know Luke won’t turn up until the last minute so he can just dive straight into it if his performance in yesterday’s meeting is anything to go by. I hear a woman’s voice, and I realize she’s speaking into a cell phone. I can’t see her, but it’s obvious because she speaks and then pauses. I figure she’s the last board member and I continue to wait for her to appear.

“I told you I’d be late home tonight,” the woman says. “I’m at Sold.” Pause. “For the board meeting.” Pause. “Yeah, no shit.” Pause. “I’m sitting in for my dad, remember? Apparently, there’s a few votes he thinks are too important for his vote not to be counted, so I’m just here to vote on his behalf.”

It hits me then who the woman on the cell phone must be. Sophia Sanchez. Louisa’s older sister. She is here to sit in for Enrique. That’s it. That’s my cover blown. It’s not like I can just wander off and hide. Might that be better though? I can tell Luke I miscounted, and I thought everyone was here. No, don’t give up so easily, I think to myself. Think. Come on. Think. He’ll never buy that because even if I counted the board members wrong, I would know he wasn’t here.

Sophia is saying her goodbyes on her call when the perfect idea comes to me and when I’m confident that she has ended the call, I step around the corner to meet her.

“Tia,” she says, beaming when she sees me. “It’s so good to see you.”

Thankfully, she’s alone, and I smile back at her.

“It’s really good to see you too,” I say. “But I need to ask you a favor. I know it probably won’t make a difference, but I’m doing an internship here and I don’t want Luke, my boss, to know I know Enrique in case he starts treating me differently. Can you just like pretend you don’t know me in there?”

“Oh, sure if that’s what you want,” Sophia says. “If it will make you feel better, of course I will. But you don’t have to worry. Between us, Luke is harder on Louisa because my dad told him she needs a bit of a reality check when it comes to work. I’m sure he wouldn’t start being harder on you.”

“I don’t know,” I say. “He gets us mixed up all the time anyway. It’s got to the point where I answer to Louisa and Louisa answers to Tia. It’s easier than to keep telling him.”

“That’s comical,” Sophia laughs. “You two couldn’t be any more different from each other to look at if you tried to be.”

I laugh along with her and then I hear footsteps coming along the corridor.

“What can I get you to drink?” I say, hoping Sophia has heard the footsteps too and plays along.

“A black coffee, no sugar please,” she says, and she tips me a wink and goes into the meeting room.

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