8 Chapter 08 - Carina's P.O.V. 6

"Ask Mrs Miller to assist you to your office then come to my office after you have settle in." He said and then proceeded to his office. I went over to Mrs Miller's office and was surprised to see her there, beginning her work.

"Good morning Mrs Miller. Mr Novell ask me to come here for my briefing." She raised her head from what she was doing and smiled at me.

"Ah yes. Good morning. Come with me." I followed her.

"This is your own office. As you can see, the things in here are already in place, but if you want to rearrange it, you can. Anyway, every morning, you must be here at the office before Mr Novell arrives. You must prepare a coffee for him so that when he arrived, the coffee is ready. There's an intercom on your table. Whenever Mr Novell needs you to do something for him, he will call you on the intercom. There's also a telephone too where you can use to call out and receive calls for Mr Novell. Also, always check on your desk for notifications from him. Sometimes, he will sends you files you need to do. Any questions?"

"Hmmm... What if I need to ask him something, am I allowed to go in directly to his office?"

"No. Just contact him first on the intercom, then if he says yes, you can enter to his office." 'What the heck is that?'

"Okay. I get it. Thanks Mrs Miller."

"You're welcome dear. Good luck." She smiled at me one more times and then went back to her office. She's a friendly lady, I can say. I sat on the swirl chair and opened the computer. I was waiting for it to boot up when I suddenly heard a voice from the intercom. I got surprised and my heart jumped up. 'What the...'

"Yes sir?"

"So I assumed that you'hv already settled in. Come in my office right now." His voice is so authoritative.

I quickly got up on my feet and went directly to his office. I knocked first and then heard him said "Come in."

"Yes sir. Do you need anything?" I asked him politely, a little awkward and nervous. 'Don't be like that Carina! This's the only your first day, you can do this!'

He lifted his head and stared at me frowning. I was a bit surprised seeing him wearing eye-glasses. 'So, he wears glasses.'

"Of course Ms Westbay. That's why I called you here. Anyway, sort out all these files alphabetically, then prepare my schedules for the next 3 months. You have the journal of my last EA, you can use it as a reference. Then, you call all the people who are on this list and verify the date and time of our meetings. These files here are about the company profile and stuff that you need to know. You need to read all of that so you can have a deeper and better understanding about this company and to perform your duties effectively." My mouth dropped. I looked at all the files that I needed to do and knew right there it would probably take me the whole day to finish. I was about to pick up the files when he spoke.

"There is an office cart there, you can use it to load all that stuff." I took the cart and put all the files and documents that I needed on it. As I was about to leave, he spoke again.

"Ms Westbay, come here and get this list and read it carefully. If anyone on that list search for me, either by phone or here in the office, tell them anything to shut them out. I don't want to have any connections with them. Understood?" He said sternly, looking directly into my eyes.

I gulped and replied. "Yes sir."

I went out of the office and began my work. Then I remembered the list that he handed me. 'Who are these people anyway?'

I looked at the names, there were at least 15 of them. I was a little curious why they're all girls. I shook my head and continued my work. I was so engrossed in my works that I didn't noticed the time and Mrs Miller calling my name..

"Carina.... Carina! It's already lunch break. Come and I'll show you where the canteen is." I stood up and stretch my arms.

"Is lunch time already? I am not hungry yet." I said and took my bag.

"Don't be so workaholic. It's just your first day. Let's go. I am starving already."

...*...*...*...*...

When we reached the canteen, I was a slightly shocked. The place was already so crowded. It seemed like all the employees has the same lunch breaktime. We went to the long queue and waited patiently for our turn. After almost 10 minutes, it was finally our turn.

"Hey Carina, there is an empty table over there. Let's go before someone else occupy it."

We were in the middle of eating when the girls who were betting yesterday approached us, holding their tray of food.

"Can we join the two of you?" The taller girl said and smiled at me. I smiled back and nodded my head.

"I am Francine and this is my friend, Pauline. What's your name?" The taller girl ask while staring at me. She seems like the type of girl who is friendly to anyone.

"I am Carina. I am the new EA." I replied simply and continued eating my lunch.

"So, how's your first day so far?" The other girl asked aka Pauline. She had that playful smile on her lips, like expecting to hear something funny from me. My awkward self began to surface again. I am not used talking to people like this. But I promised myself that I would change and break free from my old personality.

"So far, I am liking it. I think I like the job."I said casually. Then I caught them staring ateach other with a meaningful looks on their faces.

"You know what, it's not like I'm discouraging you or anything but you should know, there was never been an EA whi lasted for 3 months." Francine said matter-of-facts.

"Yes. I heard that Mr N has an attitude problem. I never even saw him here in the employees' caferia either." Pauline added.

"You know what Carina, don't listen to these two. They're just scaring you because you're new here." Mrs Miller interrupted, giving the two a look.

"Don't be ridiculous Mrs Miller. Everybody knows that he's the problematic. All his previous EA's were saying that he's a demon pretending to be a person." Francine insisted again, and Pauline nodded in agreement.

There was a part of me that hurts a little bit after hearing what they said. And that surprised me too. I remembered the time when he saved me and I saw that he was not a bad person. If not, he wouldn't waste his time saving me.

"Maybe he was being misjudged by people." I said defending him. The two laughed again and shrugged their shoulders.

"Let's wait for next few days if you can still say that." I heard Pauline said but I just ignored them and finished my meal. I was a little bit intrigued of what they have told me and I prayed that they were wrong about him, If not, it will be the end of me.

...*...*...*...*...

After our lunch break, we went back to our respective departments. I on the other hand, continued my work. I was busy doing my work when I heard the intercom.

"Ms Westbay, I expect that you already finished the work that I gave you this morning."

"Not yet sir. I am still doing it." 'what the heck. Did he except me to finish all these? These'll requires the whole day for me to finish'.

"What have you been doing? You can read the company profile at home. Do the other tasks I gave you first and I want it done before you go home." His voice was so demanding that I felt a little agitated and at the same time irritated.

"Yes sir." I simpltly said and proceeded with myVworkI just finished calling all the names that he told me to call. Then at 10 minutes to 5pm, I finished all the files that needed to be sorted out. There was a lot of documents in folder, envelopes and binders. I stretched up and gathered all my things but then I remembered, I didn't say goodbye to him. I went back to my office and pressed the intetcom.

"Yes? What do you want?" his voice was a little irritated.

"N-Nothing sir. I just want to inform you that it's time for me to go home." I got pissed off by myself again because I shuttered.

"You don't need to inform me of such things. If it's already time for you to go home, just go and don't disturb me."

"Noted sir." 'Whatever.'

I went out of my office again and peeped at Mrs Miller's office. She was arranging her things on the table, I said goodbye to her and went out.

..*...*...*...*...

I was about to walk to the bus-stop When I heard someone calling me. I looked at the other side of the road and I saw Christine, waving her hand. I went to the pedestrian lane to cross to the other side.

"I was about to call you when I saw you. Let's go home together." She said, looking so tired.

"I thought you'll be finishing at 6pm?" I questioned while we're walking towards the parking lot.

"Yes but I finished my work early. Anyway, how's your first day?" She pressed the unlocked button on the car key and we enter inside.

"Not that bad. Mr Novell gave a mountain of paper works but I managed to finish it before 5pm. What about you? I think you're enjoying your job, I guess." I diverted the topic about her because honestly I didn't have anything to say.

"Yes, so far I am. I thought before that working like this would be too boring for me bur I guess I was wrong. It's just that I didn't expect it to be this stressful and tiring." She heaved a sigh and started maneuver the car out of the parking lot.