Page 54 of What's the time, Mr. Wolfe
She told me she lived in a basement apartment, shared it with her brother who also worked at the company. It seemed they could only afford the apartment in London if they shared. The more she talked, the more I liked her. She asked me a few questions about my life, and I found it hard to respond. I gave only the basics. She didn’t give the usual,oh I’m so sorry,that always infuriated me. She simply nodded and listened.
“We ought to get back,” I said, noticing we’d been sitting for a half an hour.
We had one hour for lunch break, but I didn’t feel I could sit outside for that length of time. We wandered in and went our separate ways. I travelled up in the lift on my own. I was smiling when I returned to my desk. There was a note left informing me that I had emails to address. I didn’t recognise the writing, obviously. I turned on the laptop. I saw a notification that I had emails and I clicked on it. I was immediately taken to the company’s internal email server.
Good morning, Ruby. Please take note of your company email address.
It wasn’t signed by anyone, and I assumed it was automated. It was followed by one from Mike that detailed my course with start dates.
A third was from HR, wanting a stack of personal information that I replied with.
I sat back, smiling. I had a company email address! Maybe at some point, I’d get business cards as well.
I had a look through the computer. There was a bespoke client programme that needed a password I didn’t have. I assumed that would be something Mike would tell me if I needed to know.
I went back to my drawing board and sketched. By the time I noticed people leaving, I had half the downstairs done. Amelia wandered over.
“Wow, Ruby. That’s fantastic,” she said. “I wish I could draw as well as that.”
“Erm, thank you. I don’t know if it’s what you wanted or not,” I said, feeling uncomfortable taking the compliment.
“It’s exactly what I wanted. I hadn’t thought about that bathroom concept. That will set us apart from other clubs. And the medical room!”
I explained that, although there would be some loss of space from the dancing area, the DJ booth could be made a little smaller and some of the booths lost. I hadn’t realised, however, that the booths made a ton of money. They had to be booked in advance at a minimum of two-hundred and fifty pounds per person, plus a minimum bar spend.
I agreed to work on replacing them somewhere else.
“I think Mike wants you. I’m off now, so I’ll see you tomorrow. It’s great to have you here, Ruby,” she said, and smiled warmly at me.
I closed the laptop and headed over to Mike’s office. I knocked and waited for him to call me in. When he did, I opened the door and then came to a halt. Sebastian was sitting with Mike. I hadn’t noticed him come onto the floor at all.
“Hi, you wanted to see me?” I asked.
“Yes, take a seat,” he said. Sebastian said nothing but lounged on a sofa against the wall.
I looked at him and then immediately back at Mike.
“How was your first day?” he asked.
“Great. I like working with Amelia. We agreed to split the club, I’d do downstairs.”
“Was there a reason for that choice?” I heard. I looked over to Sebastian who smirked at me.
“Yes, I felt she’d have better knowledge of upstairs than I would,” I answered sternly. He had said he didn’t care who knew about him and her, after all.
He chuckled. “Right answer.”
I turned back to Mike. “I replied to the email from HR, and I noticed a client programme. Is that something I need access to?”
Mike slid over a small booklet. “Company rule book, and all the passwords you need. You’re right, all the clients are on there. You need to input a name and project number; the client will come up and it’s important that anything you do is noted on there. We charge by the hour or part of. So if you take a call, note it down.”
I nodded. “Who is the client for the club project?”
“I am,” Sebastian replied.
“Is your name and project number in the system?”
“Of course. So be sure to add what you’ve done today.”
