LoveBird

Chapter Two

My sister brought me to the floor of the creative department. It is in the middle of the office, all othe desks are clustered together in a circular border filled with books and documents. Each employee has a computer and everyone is working diligently. I am placed in a empty desk next to a guy wearing a mustard colored tshirt and suspenders. He has brown hair like me, brown eyes and a mustache that curls on each side. He has a evil eye handing on his desk, the blue shining from the florida sunlight beaming in through the windows. 

"You must be Alana's sister, Zosime, my names Basil." He extends out his hand to me, giving me a big smile. Immediately I feel at ease. "I'll take it from here Alana, you go." He says ushering her away and taking my bad and wrapping it around the back of the chair next to his. He pats the seat next to him inviting me to sit down.

"Your a intern like me right?" I nod my head looking at him, "Which you probably got the easy department with creative, I am the personal assistant to Olivia which is the Creative department Director. That woman is evil let me tell you all she does is yell for everything she needs all of the time." He looks over at me, "Your pretty to shes going to be especially hard on you, just don't say anything out the way to her and you'll be fine." I nod thinking what the hell did I get myself into did I start working at Hells corporate office. 

"Are you going to the Gala tonight Basil?" I ask and he beams with excitement. "Of course I am, its a old school ball, with the dresses and masks. We will all be dancing with the members of high society and they will have no idea if we are rich or poor. It is like a modern day cinderella. I can not wait." He is beeming with excitement and we continue to chat on until it is time for lunch. I like Basil he is very welcoming and everyone at the company excepts him even with his all of his excitement. 

We are gathering our items to go to the plaza to find something to eat when a loud shout comes from a office not far from our desks. "s**t thats our cue, come on put your things down." I quickly drop everything and follow Basil to a office not far from our desks. Through the glass I can see a petite woman, with a deep red bob dressed in all designer, clenching her head between her head. Basil opens the door to the office making the woman look up, she has piercing cold blue eyes that seem to look straight through you. "Ms. Olivia what's wrong?" She starts hitting her desk making me flinch from the sudden harsh movements. "There are so many documents to fix before the Galla tonight and we do not have the time. I need you to get the whole team to fix and go through these documents putting them together alphabetically. Please Basil you and the other standing their fix the situation before the galla tonight." I look around wondering who the hell is she calling the other.

I clear my throat looking at her, "My name is Zosime." Her head turned toward me so slowly looking at me up and down as if she couldn't hear me. So I decided to repeat myself. "My name is Zosime not the other." She slowly rose from her chair coming over to me, those blue eyes piercing through me as if I were nothing but a speck of dirt unsightly on her new shoes. 

"Basil get this away from me, GET IT OUT!" She quickly throws the documents at us, Basil grabs on to my arm, pulling me out of the office and shutting the door quickly. He rushes me to our desks. "We almost died, I swear she was going to kill us." He keeps muttering to himself. "That b***h is crazy, why can't she remember my name its Zosime not the other what is her problem?" Basil quickly puts his hand over my mouth keeping me from saying another word.

"Shhhh, she will hear us and definitely kill us. I'm to young to die at work, and I especially do not want to die here. Keep it together Zosime before we are both fired." He starts seperating the documents into two piles. "Now here is your computer, your going to open the program Noblesse and by looking at the information provided their arrange the documents to correspond with the dates and places provided here. If you have any questions just ask, the quicker we get done the sooner we can leave." My stomach then takes the oppurtunity to growl as loud as it can. I barely got to eat this morning and these people want me to work without lunch, I am going to starve to death. I pull out my phone to order a pizza and order two pepporoni for Basil and I so atleast we get to eat. The people here are turning out to be so awesome.

....

After 3 hours we were able to finish all of the documents and eat the our pizza which finally arrived. As Basil and I are sitting there finally relaxing our cramped fingers a woman walks by and collects the documents. "Don't worry it gets better, I'm just glad to see a fresh face here in the office. I used to be a intern like you but I recently was given the title of copywriter in the company. My names Rose, its nice to meet you." I gladly took her hand, grateful that their were a few nice workers here to rule out the horrible ones. "It's nice to meet you, honestly there hasn't been alot of kind people here and I was starting to get my doubts about this company."

They both laughed at me. "Don't let Olivia ruin your mood this is honestly a great place to work. We get to go to many events, meet alot of people and you'll make awesome connections. Don't worry I am sure you will get used to this place." We all continued to chat, Basil decided to show me around the company. We were in the middle of the archive when someone from the office informed us that there was a meeting about tonight and that we needed to attend. Basil and I quickly went upstairs rushing around. We quickly found a spot to stand among the crowd as Eric and Mr. Redmont made their way into the center of the gathering. I received a text from my mother;

I heard from your sister about you geting the job, I am so proud of you, o bampás sou kai egó se agapáme lovebird(your father and I love you).

I smile down at my phone replying back when alot of whispers erupt throughout the crowd. "Did you see Asher? He's Mr. Redmont's eldest son, not only is he the heir to the company. He is a famous singer and photographer." I look around the crowd but I do not see a new face among the sea of faces. I just shake my head listening to Mr. Redmont explain the series of events to occur this evening at the event. 

"This Gala is sponsored by us as well as many other organizations in the Naples area. The event will be held at Artis, as well as being a ball their will be a art exhibit present of one of the clients we have just recently sponsored. All of the donations will go toward the new art musuem to be built in the down town area and for furthering art education in the area." Applause erupted throughout the crowd. Everyone seemed really pleased with his statement. "Now I will turn it over to our HR manager Ms. Crawley and she will go over the standards we expect you all to uphold during this evenings event."

What felt like hours later we were finally free to go and start getting ready for the evening, it started at 8 and we were expected to stay through the main presentation of the event. Honestly I was really excited to go to the art exhibition. It would be a wonderful experience to get the view art done by some of the most reknowned artists in the area.  I could feel myself growing with excitement for the evening. I grabbed my belongings and went to my sisters office, where she seemed to be getting her things together.

"I was just about to come to you, how was your first day?" She asked me putting her laptop into her work briefcase and grabbing her coat. We started to exit the office. "It was good Basil was very helpful in showing me how to work Noblesse and they're alot of nice people that work here-" remebering Olivia made me rethink what I was going to say. "I take that back most of them are nice." My sister laughs from beside me, "What did you think of Olivia." I can feel myself visibly scowl not being able to hold it in. "That woman is evil." My sister starts cackling as we make our way to the parking garage. "She does have that effect on people, in my opinion she is very dramatic, I am just glad I am in the financial department and only have to deal with her nonsense every once in a while." We make our way to her car I can't help but physically relax. I didn't realize how stressful working somewhere like this would be. I have spent so much time at home helping my parents with their shops and not working for other people. 

The ride home passed my sister talked about the outfit she would wear for the evening and we decided to stop by my mother's clothing shop to find me something to wear. We pulled up to the shop, my mom owns a little boutique called Esmeralda named after herself in downtown Naples. Serving the high class society with handmade dresses and jewelry. We walk in and see Cloey the front desk lady and our cousin talking to a older woman about a gown she wants custom made. 

"Yes ma'am she can get that completed for you by December 14th, we will just need you to come back by the first week of November to have you try on the gown for any other adjustments made." She finished her business with the woman handing her a card and sending her on her way. "Hey girls, how was work today? Zosime I heard you started a new job with your sister, good for you girl." She came around and gave us each a hug and talked about the work day. "Esmeralda your daughters are here!" She yells getting my mothers attention as she comes around from the back. Her hair is pulled back with a clip, she is dressed in a native dress with her jewelry from Greece decorating her neck and fingers. 

"My Doves!" She runs around the counter wrapping us both in a huge hug. "How was work my beautiful daughters?"

"It was good mom, everything went great." I told her I would not dare tell her of what happened with my boss or she might come up there and deal with my problems herself. My mother may be small and kind but she is a firecracker. 

"Mom were actually here to get Zosime a dress for the Gala tonight and I need to pick up mine. We are close to Artis so we could get ready here." My sister said, my mom quickly ushered us to the back of the shop and into her workshop as she calls it. 

"I am so proud of my lovebird taking after her sister and working hard. You both make me so proud." She wiped her eyes as if she were crying. My mother has always been a fan for the drama maybe its because she grew up watching european dramas. "Alana I have your blue dress here, I finished it last week and tried to get the look you showed me from the dress in the vogue catelog." The dress she pulled out of the bag was breathtaking with a high neckline covered in diamonds and pearls, the dress is made out of a satin material colored a deep navy. The dress would compliment my sisters blue eyes and blonde making her truly look like the snow queen we called her as a child. 

"Mom this is so beautiful! Thank you so much!" Alana hugged mom so hard pulling her small body into her tall frame. "I figured you could wear it with those black heels you have and I believe I have some Sapphire earrings up front that would accessorize it perfectly." My sister put the dress down to go look up front for the earrings, excitement was written all over her face. 

"Now my lovebird I have a few dresses I have made for my late summer/fall collection that I think will fit you. She started to pull out dresses in bags out off of the hanging pole she has set up across the back wall. "I believe this red dress would be stunning for this evening and you would look the opposite of your sister. It would be perfect." I took the bag from my mother and unzipped, inside was a crimson red dress. It had a two straps for the top coming around and tieing at the neck, the bottom half flowed like a river to the floor with a slit rising high in the material. The dress was elegant and beautiful. 

"Mom I can not wear this you know how careless I am what if I ruin it?" I am a clumsy person and I should not be trusted to wear anything so elegant.

"Well then I will make another. I want both of my girls to wear something made by me to this gala. When people ask you were you got your dress from you will say me and it will bring me business here."

"But I-" 

"No buts Zosime you are wearing this dress and I have the perfect accessories to go with it. Now hurry up and start getting ready so you are both not late. I brought all of your makeup, hair products and perfumes with me this morning when I came to the shop. I figured if you were going to get a job at the company you would be required to go to the gala as well." She said giving me the bag of my belongings and turning on one of the lights at the desk for me. My mom always likes to be prepared for whatever situation. Opening the bag I got to work getting ready. I decided to keep my hair curled in loose curls since the back of the dress was open. I applied a smoky eye to exagerrate the green in my eyes and a red lip to match the dress. Lastly I applied my home made oil to my neck and my wrists. This had always been a hobby of mine. When I was a kid I read a herbology group and learned that many plants I grew myself could be used a perfume and a cream. 

I started to take flowers I grew like hibiscus and lavender flowers and broke them down to a liquid so I could mix them together with other materials to make a oil suitable for my skin. My mother turned on music for us to listen to as we got ready and she continued to work on her dresses for the upcoming season. My mother had a hard time adjusting to life here living in Greece for her whole life but she decided she could not live with my dad and promised to follow him where ever he went. There love is something you read about in fairytales with a never ending devotion to one another. All my life I have hoped to find a love like theirs.

By 7:30 it was time for us to leave. The red dress was beautiful with my hair and makeup making it a perfect choice. My mom Found some red heels to match with it and diamond hoops to match it. She gave me and my sister both masks. Mine was a red lace that covered my eyes and my sisters was a white lace to match the pearls on her dress. We both looked at ourselves in the mirror and we were both stunning. 

My mother looked at both of us with tears in her eyes. "My beautiful girls, you are both so breathtaking." She gave us both a big hug. "Please be careful tonight and do not stay out late. Also do not take anything from a stranger."

"Yes mom." We both answered hugging her back. We waved goodbye to her as we both left to make our way toward the Gala.