4.
Daisy
I tried to focus on what Jonathan was saying, and not think about the fact that I’d just spilled hot coffee all over Ian. So far, my first day wasn’t going that great.
“So,” Jonathan said, “I guess I’ll just start by telling you all the stuff that our previous admin used to do. I don’t think it’s going to be anything new to you.”
“You mean secretary?” I said, smiling. I felt comfortable with Jonathan in a way that I sure as hell didn’t with Ian. Maybe because I’d known him longer, or that I could just tell he was one of those guys that would go out of his way to try to be nice and accommodating, which he was doing right now, and I appreciated.
He made a face. “I can see you’ve been talking to Ian.
He has some . . . outdated ideas about a
few things,” he said. “I think admin
sounds much better. But whatever you want to call it, your main
responsibilities will be to ensure that things in the office are running
smoothly. We employ a lot of people here, most of whom you will never meet.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. They’re out in the field, which could be any number of places. We do
security for recurring events and one-off events, sometimes even for little
things like birthday parties.”
“Birthday parties? Who would need security for a
birthday party?”
Jonathan waved his hand dismissively. “Never mind any of that. They’re the sort
of people you don’t want to get involved with, anyway. Come on; I’ll show you your desk.”
My desk ended up being not too far from Ian’s office, where the door was still
closed.
“So, you’re our first line of defense when it comes to calls,” Jonathan said. “Pun intended. Really, though, you’ll be answering the phones, directing calls, some filing, some computer stuff. You familiar with the Microsoft Suite?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Cool. We have a wide range of clients here, from families to big corporations and everything in between, and we want to make them all feel like they’re the most important client. No one client is more important than another here.”
“Not even a billionaire from Dubai?” He looked at me in confusion. “I overheard Ian talking to someone—Dan, I think his name was—when I came in.”
“Oh, right.” The expression on Jonathan’s face tightened, making me think that he didn’t like this billionaire guy. “He’s not actually a client of ours, but he’ll be visiting somewhere that we do provide security. We do have some clients that . . . well, never mind that. We can discuss that later.”
I was about to ask him what he meant when the phone rang. He reached over and answered.
“Hard Tail Security,” he said. His eyebrows shot up. “Hey! Billy. Thanks for returning my call. Did you have a chance to talk to Seamus? You did. Okay, great. Uh . . .” He shot a glance at me. “Hold on one sec, let me just scoot over into my office. Yeah, thanks.” He pressed the hold button and set the receiver back on the cradle. “Pardon me one sec,” he said. “Important call I’ve got to take. Be right back.”
He hurried off into his office, leaving me there, not totally sure what I should be doing. He hadn’t given me enough of an explanation about anything to really get started . . . other than I was going to be answering the phones. So I checked out my new desk. The desk was an L-shape, with a cream-colored surface. There was a computer, and several letter trays, as well as a cup filled with pens. I sat down in the swivel rolling chair and looked at the phone. It was similar to the one we’d had at Shear Genius, so that made me feel a little less nervous.
It started to ring.
The light for line 1 was still lit up, so that meant Jonathan was still on his call, and wouldn’t, presumably, be answering this call. I glanced toward Ian’s office, where the door was still firmly shut. He’d gone in there after the whole coffee fiasco and hadn’t come out yet, though I did happen to catch sight of his behind when he’d been changing. I’d looked away before I really had a chance to process what I’d seen, and hadn’t said anything to Jonathan about it because he’d been in the middle of speaking.
The phone was still ringing. I leaned forward a little, trying to get a glimpse into Ian’s office to see if he was still in there. Of course he was, because I hadn’t seen him leave, but the most I could see was the corner of his formidable desk.
The phone rang a third time.
What was I waiting for? That’s what I was hired to do here, wasn’t it? Wasn’t that part of my job description? This was probably some sort of test; maybe it was Ian who had called Jonathan, just so they could see what I would do if the phone rang and no one was out here to tell me what to do. I took a deep breath and cleared my throat.
I picked up the phone.
“Hard Tail Security, this is Daisy,” I said.
There was static on the line, like whoever was calling was doing so from a car moving at high speed, with all of the windows rolled down.
“Hello?” I said. “I’m sorry—could you repeat that? I can’t understand you very well. The call is breaking up.”
It was a woman, I could tell that much, and it sounded like she was asking for Ian.
The static died down a bit. “Is Ian there?”
“Um . . .” I looked back toward his door. “He’s not
available at the moment. Could I take your name and number and I’ll have him
give you a call back a little later?”
“No,” she said, and hung up.
I looked at the receiver for a second before I set the phone back down on the cradle. Well, that hadn’t gone as stellar as I had hoped. But, I had answered the call, and not let it keep ringing.
Just then, Ian’s office door opened. He stepped out, wearing a completely different outfit than he had before. Except the shirt—that was the same.
He seemed surprised to see me there. “Oh,” he said. “Where’s Jonathan?”
“He’s in his office. He had to take a call.”
“Did you just answer the phone?”
“I did. I wasn’t sure if you were going to get it or not—”
“I wasn’t. Which is why we hired you.”
“Yes, I know.”
“And how did you answer the phone?”
I looked at him. “How did I answer it? What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I just said. What did you say when you answered the phone?”
“Oh. Well, Jonathan didn’t tell me what to say, but I think I said something
along the lines of, Hello, Hard Tail
Security, this is Daisy.”
He nodded. “That works. You don’t need to identify yourself, though. In fact,
I’d prefer you didn’t.”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ve always done so in the past
because it makes it a little more personable, but I don’t have to keep doing
it.”
“The secretary doesn’t need to get personable with the clients,” he said.
“Unless I decide she does, at which point, I will let you know. What else did
Jonathan go over with you?”
“Um . . . not too much yet. I think he’s going to do more when he gets done
with the phone call. I’m really sorry about spilling the coffee like that, by
the way. Are your pants okay?” I had meant to ask if he was okay, but ended up
saying that instead.
He gave me a funny look. “Uh, yeah, they’re great,” he said. “They were really hoping to go for that antiquated look that only spilled coffee can seem to achieve.”
I smiled; he didn’t. Great. I snuck a glance toward Jonathan’s office, though he showed no signs of reappearing. Ian followed my gaze, a bemused expression on his face.
“The main things we’d like you to do here are answer the phones, make sure the place
stays neat, so that means filing any paperwork, restocking supplies as
necessary, emptying the trash. Jonathan
and I will periodically have a list of things for you to do aside from what I
just mentioned, but I think it’d be good for you to start with the basics.”
“Sure,” I said. “I can definitely handle all of that.”
He nodded. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”