Discovering My Stranger

First Day of Work

First Day of Work

05:15am I woke up without the need of an alarm; I couldn’t sleep any longer after sleeping the whole afternoon yesterday. Today was my first day at Palmer Enterprise and my first impression will matter. As I took my shower, I reassured myself that today was a new day and I had to forget the events of my past weekend. When I finished, I quickly dressed up into a knee length sleeveless black dress and wore a beige coat about the same length of my dress. I brushed my hair back into a ban, wore a pair of studs and applied some face powder and red lipstick with a bit of mascara to my long lashes, I wore my black chained detailed heels. When Janet woke up and sat stretching her body, she rubbed her eyes and stared at me.

“Wow you look amazing for just an assistant” she said and then yawned.

“Executive assistant Janet” smirking knowing I got a better title than just an ordinary assistant.

 “Girlfriend you still someone’s P.A” Janet hissed.

“Yeah right, the CEO’s P.A I just pray his not a pain” We both started laughing. I dashed to the kitchen and grabbed some yogurt from the fridge for my breakfast and bid my goodbye to Janet and left. Ibex Hill was far from where I lived and if I had to get there in time, I have to leave early in this case it was 6:15am.

After a long 45mins drive, I managed to get to Palmer Enterprise at exactly 07:00am. Security at the gate was tight and I was lucky to have collected my ID well in advance or else I was going to be late waiting for the person who was to hand it to me. As I drove in I noticed It was a huge 5 story building with a huge packing lot which only had 3 other vehicles parked, a black Toyota land cruiser is what I noticed first parked towards the entrance, a Mitsubishi Pajero and Toyota RAV4 parked next to each other not too far for from the entrance as well. I park my Toyota Allion not too far on a slot that has no reserved post on it, getting out of my car with my laptop bag and handbag; I walk towards the main building. The atmosphere in the building changed, it was quiet and cool as I walk straight to the reception and notice the receptionist was not yet there. I spot a lady mopping the floor not too far from me and walk towards her assuming she must be the hygiene assistant.

I excuse myself politely “Excuse me miss” she turns to face me with a straight face.

“Yes, how may I help you?”

“I was wondering if you could assist me with where I can find Mr Palmer’s Office”. She looked at the reception area over my shoulder checking if the receptionist was there or not,

“That silly girl is always late and now I have to do her job as well as my own around here” am assuming she was talking about the receptionist

 “His office is on the last floor, you will figure it out once you get there” she turned around as soon as she was done talking and continued mopping the floor.

“Thank you” I said under my breath realizing she wasn’t even paying attention to me. I walked straight towards the elevators and got into one and pressed #5 which was the last floor.

When I came for my interview, it was done in a meeting room on the ground floor and I never got a tour around the office so I felt the awkwardness moving around the building on my own and finding my way. Once the doors slid open I stepped out into a large room that had many offices separated by glass walls. There was a middle-aged lady behind seated behind a desk right outside the elevator. I approached her and introduced myself;

“Good morning Ma’am am Katherine Mr. Palmer’s new assistant” she got up from her chair with a big smile.

“Hello dear, welcome, let me show you to your office.” She came around her desk and I followed her behind. Did I hear her correctly, did she say my office? I thought I got a cubicle or desk but not an office. Oh well lucky me. Once we entered my office, she pointed out Mr Palmer’s office which was right opposite mine.

“He asked to see you as soon as you got here, you can call me Angela”

 “thank you” I said, and she smiled and left. I placed my handbag on the grey carpet on the floor, took a diary and pen out of my laptop and placed it on my table before leaving and heading to his office.

I stood outside his glass see through door and knocked, even though I knew he could clearly see me and easily say come in, but I had to knock. 5 seconds later he looked at me and it seemed like he was asking himself if he should let me come in or not.

“Come in” he said in a husky tone. I swung the door open, walked in and closed it behind me.

When I walked in, I couldn’t help but notice how handsome Mr Palmer were. He was about 6-foot-tall with a slender body and broad shoulders. He had defined cheekbones, a concrete jaw. His eyes had a-flicker of curiosity. His hair was neatly laid back. He moved around the office with a leopard-like kind of grace. He was quite dashy, and any girl would be swept away after setting eyes on him.

“Good morning Sir” I said in a calm voice standing still now. He lifted his head up to look at me from my shoes to my head. This made me nervous and I began to look at myself wondering if I was dressed inappropriate for this job or not when I clearly thought I was okay. He stared at me for what felt like 5mins then he spoke.  

“You are late!!!” was what he said.

 I looked at my watch on my wrist which indicated the time was 07:10am, now am wondering what time am expected to get here because normal working hours start at 08:00am sharp and this was only 07:10am.

“You think this is quite early but am telling you that you are late. Yes, most places start work at 08am yes but anyone who works with me knows my work starts at 07am” he said this while looking at a file in his hands. Then he threw it on his table which startled me. He got up and came around his table and stood in front of me.

 “You shall report for work at exactly 07am or before. You are never to come in after I do, if you are running late kindly let me know. If you plan on missing work call in earlier than 6:30am so that I find a replacement. Are we clear Ms.…?” he paused for me to respond.

 “May” I said with my face looking down.

“I think I prefer Katherine” he walked back to his chair and sat. I cleared my throat before I spoke

“What would you like me to do today?” I opened my notebook ready to take down notes.

“Hmmmmm there’s a laptop on your desk, the password is DEJAVU. Once you start it go to calendar and see what’s there. I share most things via email, and you must accept and add to your calendar. This includes meetings within and out of the office.”

“Will that be all Sir?”

“No, if anything comes up, I will call”

I exited his office and returned to my office. I checked the calendar once my office laptop was on, the only thing on the calendar was that he had a meeting in the board room at 09am and another over lunch which I had to arrange at Intercontinental Hotel for 2 other guests apart from himself.

At 08am someone from the IT department came through to setup an email for me and once that was done emails started flowing from Mr Palmer requesting me to communicate and set appointments for him. 15mins before the 9am meeting I had to dash out of my office to the board room on the 4th floor quickly to set up for the meeting. I didn’t know if this was my job or not, but I had to make sure everything was set for his meeting. He was expecting 10 people and asked me to make sure refreshments where ready for the meeting. I rushed to look for the nearest kitchen and it happened to be on that same floor. I grabbed 12 bottles of water, a big jar of cookies, tea, coffee, sugar, fresh milk and mugs cups which I placed on the trays on the trolley I found right there in the kitchen.

I set up the board room quickly for the meeting laying out the papers he gave me earlier in front of each seat on the table. After I finished preparing and checking the projector was set, I called his office using the phone in the board room to let him know that everything was set. Soon after I called him that people started arriving and I took a back seat to take minutes.

The meeting lasted over 2hrs, Mr Palmer had a big project coming up, and he was planning to open a resort on a 20-acre land he recently bought outside Ndola. Main features of the resort were being discussed in the meeting, marketing and advertisement, Financials, Recruitment and so on. The construction company was given exactly 4 months to complete all the construction work for the resort, November was for final touches and grand opening was to be done in December.

Soon after we all left the board room and returned to our respective offices I was called into his office.

“I want you to sort out the files in that cabinet over there” he points towards a brown and black cabinet to his far right.

“Separate the active files from the inactive files I want this job done before tomorrow.” Once he was done giving me instructions, he picked up his journal, phone and left me standing in his office.

 “See you later off to my lunch meeting.”

I moved towards the window and looked down in the car park and I saw him drive out and leave the premises. I soon got to the cabinet and started sorting the files. This work took me the entire afternoon and I didn’t pay attention to time until I heard someone walk in. I didn’t turn just then to see who just walked in until he cleared his throat and that’s when I noticed him standing there.

“Sorry didn’t realize you walked in” I lied about not noticing him, I did sense someone had entered the room. I was embarrassed he found me seated on the floor without my shoes on.

“Are you almost done? I want to be left alone in my office” he said this in an angry voice and walked over to his chair. His meeting didn’t go as planned and was upset about it. I picked up the few files left on the floor and wore my shoes, as I walked out, I stopped just to check if everything was okay.

“How did the meeting go?”

Next thing I heard him scream “Get out of my office now!!!!!!!!” I left his office faster than the sound died in his office.

I sat at my table still startled from his scream. “Eish things didn’t go as planned I guess” just then I heard my stomach grumble and looked at the time on my laptop, it was 5pm and just then I realized I had been working on those files for over 5 hours now. I needed to go home and have a hot meal. I picked my phone to call Ms. Angela and he was standing in front and I dropped the phone on the table.

“Come to my office now” he turned around and walked back to his office. I quickly got up and followed him behind wondering what he needed me for after chasing me out of his office less than 5mins ago. He took his jacket off and hanged it on his chair before he sat down.

“Bring out all the inactive files and place them on my table tell me why they are inactive file by file.” He ordered.

“Sir I left these papers on your table which summarizes why each file is inactive” I gave him the papers which were already placed on his table. Am glad I was proactive enough to do this while I separated the files. He picked up the papers and tore it to piece and threw the pieces into the bin besides his table.

“I want you to tell me the reason for each and every file” he was very angry, and I wasn’t going to be part it.

“I just gave you the reasons and you decided to tear the papers and threw them away” now I was angry.

He then hit the table hard with his hand and raised his voice “I didn’t ask you for your opinion, just do the damn job.”

How I hate people who raised their voice at me. But I wasn’t going to fight with him and so I just did as he asked. When I finished reading to him, he then just waved his hand at me and said

 “Leave!”

I returned to my office and now I was really exhausted and hungry. It was dark and I had to turn the light in my office on for me to see things properly. It was now 8:30pm, I saw him pick his jacket from his chair walked towards the door turning the light off before he completely left. A few minutes later I heard him drive out. I was so upset for his horrible treatment towards me today, I did nothing wrong but got shouted at and over worked. I don’t think I needed this job either way. I could live off the rent money I received from mum and dad’s house and my grandparents sent me $1,000 every month for my upkeep. I think am done with this job. At 9pm exactly I packed all my things up and left the office. As I walked out of the main building, I noticed everyone had already left and only the guards at the reception were present. I jumped into my car which happened to be the only car left and drove off. I was lucky to get home after 15mins due to less traffic in the evening. Janet was home and prepared dinner for both of us. I loved having her around because she always prepared delicious meals.

“What happened to you?” Janet could tell something was wrong with me. I mean who wouldn’t notice I wasn’t okay.

“I had the worse day of my life, let me take a quick shower, have diner then we can talk” she just nodded as I left the room.

After dinner we both sat on the sofa in the living room while sipping on some wine as I explained my whole day in detail to her. Even she couldn’t believe I put up with such a day. Soon I started to doze and decided to call it a night. I wasn’t sure if I still wanted the job or not because it was such a pain.