Bridges to burn

I start my first job today, I finally finished my double degree in international law and French. As much as I have wanted to put my translating skills to use, I’m nervous to finally show them off, let alone have my job ride on those skills. I am technically fluent in five languages, but I have yet to test them in a corporate environment. The office I’m going into is the Vidar building in the centre of Sydney city. I’ve lived in Sydney my whole life, but I’ve never had a reason to go in. It’s an import and export company that regularly needs to communicate with overseas CEOs and their managers. This is where I come in. My job is to ensure that all trade is conducted smoothly and that no outsourced translators are used to keep the companies clients and data confidential. I was hired by a man named Mitchell Harris, but he is only an assistant to the real man in charge, Jake Unfrid, a man I haven’t met, but have heard many rumours about. He comes from Scandinavian roots, tall, handsome, but as far as I’ve heard, not the most amicable person. I’ve heard he doesn’t particularly like women in the office, only in the bedroom. So, I’m not looking forward to meeting the sleazy misogynist, but I am looking forward to the pay. They’re paying me well because I have come highly recommended by my University as I have achieved honours and my tutors have all vouched for me with letters of recommendation, and it’s difficult to find someone able to speak five languages, they’re basically paying one person to do the work of five. I pat down my black dress, putting on a gold necklace, an heirloom that my grandmother passed down, saying that it will bring me good luck. I look over myself one more time in the mirror, my blond hair sleeked back into a ponytail and enough makeup to look presentable, but not enough to be overt. I breathe out heavily and smile “okay, let’s go”. The trip into the city is fairly short, I don’t live too far out and the trains are quick. A few blocks of walking and I’m staring up at a tall skyscraper, covered in tinted glass windows with ‘Vidar’ painted in silver writing at the top. I step into a wide foyer, with marble flooring and a receptionist desk near the elevators. I can hear the echo of my high heels on the tiles as I walk to the women dressed in suits behind the desk. ‘Women? I thought he was averse to our kind’ I thought. “Hi, my name is Marie Sterling, I’m here as the new translator, could you help direct me to the floor I’m supposed to be on?” The women all look up at me and the two seated ones look at each other bewildered. The one standing in the middle looks at me with judgemental eyes, “my apologies, I heard we were welcoming a new translator today, but I just didn’t expect such a beautiful woman” she smiles at me, but with a faint look of anger and jealousy in her eyes. “Thank you, you’re very sweet” I wanted her to know that she wasn’t bothering me and I also didn’t want to make enemies with potentially the only women in the building. “Level 59, over there, here is your keypass, you’ll need it to get into the building and to use the elevator” she hands me my employee badge with my name and face planted on it which feels uncomfortable “also, level 60 is the Mr. Unfrid’s office, so make sure not to disturb him unless you are called for” she loses the smile and I realise this must be quite a serious rule. “Understood and thank you…” “Christina” she responds, watching me as I walk towards the elevators. “A woman?” I hear one of the seated women question to the other. I press the elevator and the doors open smoothly, mirrors all around and beautiful wooden rails, there is a lack of music, which makes the ride up feel a little daunting as i had nothing to take my thoughts away from my anxiety building up. The elevator dings as I reach level 59 and I step out to an office with a meeting room and a little kitchenette and surprisingly only one office desk and chair in a separate room. “Is this floor just for me?” I ask looking around at the empty floor. “Mr. Unfrid thought it would be best to not have our new employee disturb the others” a voice came from behind me. I turned quick enough to cause myself whiplash and saw Mr. Harris standing there. “How did you? I didn’t hear you come in” I must have looked frazzled because he laughed and smiled gently. “I tend to walk quietly, and you must have been taking in the view” it’s true, the view was incredible. “So I’m being isolated from other employees because I may be distracting?” I asked looking concerned. “Miss Sterling, there’s a lot of testosterone on the other levels and I honestly think you’d prefer this” he replied. “Ah, so it’s because I’m a woman.” “It’s mostly a matter of confidentiality. You will be speaking with dignitaries and other important distinguished clients from all around the world and we value our clients privacy over everything”. There was no reason for me to keep prodding at this conversation, I already knew that the CEO had an issue with women, and I still accepted the job, at least I have this beautiful office to work in. “I’m looking forward to getting started then, do we have a list of clients for me to call? Or any that will be coming into the office?” “You will be having a meeting later with a real estate tycoon from China looking into investing in importing precious metals to Beijing” he looks at me and I see a slight moment of concern on his face “however, Mr. Unfrid will be in this meeting with you, you will need to prepare for it with him beforehand” he hands me a handful of folders, “this is information about the client, please read beforehand, so you’re aware of his portfolio and position in China. I look at the folders and back up at his concerned face “everything will be fine Mr. Harris, thank you for you help and greeting me here” the concern washed from his face and his smile returned “I can sense your confidence and I believe you will do well here, please let me know if I can help in any way. Your meeting with Mr. Unfrid is at 1pm, so please meet him on level 60 then and please don’t be tardy”. I nod my head and smile as he steps in the elevator. I keep smiling till the doors close. “Phew” i breathe out “a whole office to myself”. I sit down and start reading through the paperwork and try not to dwell on my upcoming meeting. I look up at my clock and see that it is 12:59, I gasp and a small wave of panic washes over me. I grab my laptop and rush to the elevator, which takes longer than expected. Going up one level seems to take forever, I look at my phone and it says it’s 1pm. The doors open and wobble out, my legs feeling like jelly. The 60th floor is not as bright as mine and is filled with old, oaken wooden furniture. As I step further into the office, I see Mr. Unfrid sitting behind his desk. He looks at a clock sitting on his desk and then up at me, and I’m instantly intimidated. He has dark blue eyes and light brown hair, and even though he’s sitting in a suit, I can tell he’s tall with a large frame. To my surprise, we are not alone in this meeting, he has an assistant beside him who looks calm and ready to proceed. “Hi Miss Sterling, my name is Grayson, I will be hear to conduct this meeting, please, take a seat” he gestures to the singular chair opposite Mr. Unfrid. I look at him and he is no longer looking at me, but at the documents in front of him. “We will be having our meeting with Mr. Lee later in the week and we have printed out the emails for you to peruse over, this will help you understand what the client is looking to achieve by using us.” Mr. Unfrid handed Grayson the documents and Grayson handed them to me. This gesture was both confusing and a little rude, my main boss has looked at me briefly, not welcome me nor introduced himself and now he’s not even handing me documents, maybe he thinks he needs no introduction or no reason to speak to a woman. Perhaps he was against hiring me. “Thank you Grayson, I do have a question though; if I have any questions regarding the meeting, who do I direct them to?” I ask “You will direct them to myself” he responds. This is my first day and I don’t want to rock the proverbial boat, so I decide to accept things as they are. If I fight back against this right now, I will lose my job on the spot. I looks at Mr. Unfrid who still refuses to look at me, but does it with such seriousness that it appears I’m not even worthy of being looked at. “Thank you sirs, I will look over the documentation and ensure I’m up to speed on the clients wishes.” “I will speak to you later in the week to make sure we’re on the same page, until then, we have sent you a list of our overseas clients that require translators that are appropriate for you. Please make sure you run your eye over all the client files before calling to discuss any current or pending deals”. I nod my head and stand up, taking the papers with me. I notice there’s one still in front of Mr. Unfrid and I reach down to pick it up, he grabs my hand which startled me and appears to also startle Grayson. Mr. Unfrid looks up at me and I can see his pupils dilate for a second, and then back down at the document I was reaching for. “Sorry, I guess this one is yours too” he lets go of my hand and replaces it with the document. Grayson is too stunned to speak, his mouth has gone slack and Mr. Unfrid is slightly red in the face. I pull back and say “thank you” and no further words were exchanged. In the elevator I feel flushed and reeling from the awkwardness of that meeting. Without realising it, the elevator has gone down to level 58 and Mr. Harris steps in. “Ah! Hi Miss Sterling” he said in a chirpy manner “how was your meeting with Mr. Unfrid? Are you going down?” “Hm? Oh! I missed my stop, I think I forgot to press the button for my floor” I blink a few times to gather my senses. “That bad?” “No, no, it’s just that he had an assistant there to conduct the meeting and I thought he wasn’t going to speak, but then at the end he-“ “He spoke to you?” Mr. Harris’ mouth dropped just like Grayson’s did. “Well, he said one thing at the end and grabbed my hand, but-“ “He touched you?!” I think he said that a little louder than he intended. “Don’t worry” I laugh “I’m not going to file a complaint or anything, it was really just harmless”. The doors to the elevator opened and at the reception area and he looked dumbfounded as he walked out, he squinted and looked away as if he was trying to mull something over in his head. “Miss Sterling, we like to have work drinks on Friday, and that’s the day of your first client meeting, so I think you deserve to join us. Will you come?” He had a slight smirk on his face, what was he getting me into? “Sure, sounds great, have a good afternoon sir” “You too” he smiles and walks away. I finish off a few client calls and emails for the rest of the day and pack up to go home. At home, I kick off my heels and flop on the bed ‘what a strange first day’ I think, before getting ready to go to sleep. The last thing I think of before I drift off is Mr. Unfrid’s face looking back at me, and I wonder what stories lie behind those deep blue eyes.