The Billionaire’s Assistant

Chapter Four

I stepped through the company doors, squaring my shoulders as I walked over to security. I stopped at the security station, pulling out my card and showing it to them. The card had been mailed to me over the weekend and it was complete with my name, position and office address.

A sense of pride filled me with when the security’s eyebrows raised at the words on the card, Executive Assistant to the CEO.

He shifted, waving me through. I walked past the nice receptionist, giving her a smile which she returned before walking towards the elevator.

Stepping in, I pressed the button for the second floor as other people squeezed past me to enter the elevator. It soon became crowded, with employees going off to their work stations.

The elevator soon stopped at the second floor, and I made my way out, others also stepping out with me and rushing off in different directions.

I hurriedly made my way to Mrs. Sawyer’s office, not wanting to be late. I knocked on her door gently, the answering “come in” granting me permission to push the door open and enter.

She was sitting behind her desk as I entered and she looked up and smiled when she saw me.

“Right on time, Miss Richards. How are you?”

“I’m very well Mrs. Sawyer, thank you”, I replied, a smile gracing my face. “And how are you?” I asked her back.

“As good as I can be”.

She pulled herself out of her chair as she spoke and walked over to me, her sharp eye’s scanning me all over and I instinctively held my breath.

Probably satisfied, she nodded and I let out the small breath I was holding, happy with my choice of clothing.

I couldn’t resist scanning her too, observing her style from head to toe. Mrs. Sawyer had a distinct air to her. She was like the calm before the storm, peaceful but with a force brewing deep inside her. Today, she had her hair up in a tight bun, not one strand out of place. She wore a loose white jumpsuit with a grey jacket and white stilettos on her foot. She looked good and naturally put together. Her ensemble was completed with the dark red lipstick she had on her lips.

“Come on”, she said, walking towards the door, “let me show you where you will be working and introduce you to the president”.

My breath cut at her words but I hurriedly composed myself and followed her. She led me to the elevator and both of us stepped inside. She then pressed the button for the tenth floor, the highest floor in the building.

“The president has a chief secretary”, she explained, “who is also the head of the chamber of secretaries of the president. His name is Paul Walker. You..” she turned towards me, “ will be working one on one with him as the president’s executive assistant. Basically his personal assistant. There’s also a team of assistants who will assist you and also the secretaries. Apart from that, there are a few other people who also work in the president’s office but you and Paul are the main employees, since you assist the president directly”.

“We refer to the offices as chambers”, she continued, “for no reason except it sounds more majestic. And so we have the chamber of secretaries and the chamber of assistants. Paul will introduce you the the chambers and explain the inner workings of the CEO’s office. The main thing I want to tell you is that the CEO’s office is like a department on it’s own and since you are new, there will be people wanting to undermine your authority and step over you. I want you to remember that you have become one of the heads of that office so do well to carry yourself as one”.

I nodded at her words although my head spun with the large number of people Sebastian Crawford had assisting him. I wondered how busy he must be for him to need a team of assistants and secretaries.

I knew that Crawford enterprises was a huge company but it was only now I was getting a full understanding of how large this company was, whether in workforce or resources.

As people stopped at their different floors and left the elevator, Linda introduced each floor to me and the department situated on the floor. A steady stream of people was always stepping into the elevator with more than half of them greeting Linda, it was quite clear she was well known in this company.

A couple of people glanced my way but none of them paid much attention to me for too long. I understood it since new faces would be quite common here.

We rode the rest of the way in comfortable silence until we got to the tenth floor. My nerves got strung tight and the anxiety I had managed to suppress came rushing back with overwhelming force, cutting my breath short.

We stepped out as the elevator doors dinged and opened. I trailed after Linda slowly as she lead me to a set of double doors.

She pushed the doors open and led me to what looked like an enormous conference room filled with slightly larger working cubicles.

People were seated neatly on each side, about ten on the right and ten on the left, working in an organized manner.

I only realized that each side had a glass wall closing off the area and separating them when we walked in fully.

Most of the workers stopped their work and looked at us at the sound of the door open and I started feeling self conscious.

I glanced around to distract myself from the piercing gazes before noticing that the offices actually had glass doors with gold plaques on them.

The door on the left had a plaque showing “chamber of secretaries” and the door on the right had the same one but instead “chamber of assistants” was written on the plaque. I had found the office I was meant to head.

I was surprised by the number of people in each office since I had been expecting a fewer number.

I was once again reminded of how much manpower was used in running and efficiently managing a company as large as Crawford enterprises. Because if only the president’s office needed this much manpower, it was quite hard for me to imagine how large the entire workforce and Human Resources of the company actually was.

Most of the people there greeted Linda and I was once again reminded of how popular she was at the company. She nodded and replied to the greetings before turning to face a skinny, tall guy with glasses.

“John, is the president in?” She asked him.

“He is”, John replied, “Secretary Walker is there with him”.

“Ok”, she nodded, “Please announce me, tell him I’m here with his new executive assistant”.

I could instantly feel the heavy, piercing stares at my back and I resisted the urge to shrink into myself.

I watched as John walked towards the office in front of us, knocking before pushing the door open and entering.

My gaze focused solely on the thick, opaque glass doors in front of me, my breath catching as it beeped.

I watched as the door opened and a man who I could only describe as a force of nature stepped out of it.

Sebastian Crawford.

He was standing here, in the flesh, right in front of me and I could feel my heart pounding out of my chest at that moment.

Oh Jesus.