This wasn’t goingto end well, Andi thought, but then again, did anything in her life ever end well? Deciding to see where this went, she followed the large man that apparently had a history of breaking his assistant’s will to live off the elevator and onto a very quiet floor that was tastefully decorated.
“The rest of the executive offices and the boardrooms are on the floor beneath us. The employee cafeteria is on the fourteenth floor. The executive lounge is on the fifteenth floor. Human Resources is on the fifth floor if you need them,” Devyn MacGregor, her new boss and the man that she’d spent most of the night googling, absently explained as he continued looking down at his phone as he led her to a large desk covered in folders, stacks of papers, and…were those empty Kleenex boxes?
Yes, yes, they were, Andi thought, shifting her attention to the man that became all business as soon as the elevator doors slid open, but that wasn’t really surprising given what she knew about Carta Hotels’ youngest CEO. From what she’d been able to find out, which admittedly wasn’t much, her new boss was a workaholic and had brought Carta Hotels from the brink of bankruptcy to being one of the leading luxury hotel chains in the world. He had a reputation for setting impossibly high standards and expecting his employees to do whatever it took to meet them, and as long as he didn’t try sticking her in the accounting department, that was fine with her. More than fine, in fact, she welcomed a challenge, and this job was going to give her exactly that.
She’d never planned on applying for any assistant jobs, never had any interest in doing it, but now that she was here, she was looking forward to trying something different. She could do this, Andi thought, taking in the large desk covered in folders before following Devyn’s gesture as he absently pointed out the kitchenette, the breakroom, the file room, the supply closet, and his office, which was behind the large double doors to the right of her new desk. When he was done, he headed towards his office, his gaze never leaving his phone as he said, “There’s a list on the desk to help you get started.”
And with that…
He was gone.
Curious to see what was expected of her, Andi walked around the large desk and dropped down on the large leather chair with a satisfied sigh, absently noting that the chair was quite comfortable and, after a quick search, found the list on the desk marked “Daily List” and went over it, noting that there was a lot to do, but it really wasn’t that bad. He needed her to fill out an employment packet for Human Resources and call the extension that he’d provided when she was done so that they could send someone to pick up her paperwork.
After that, he wanted coffee, regular with two sugars, one cream, and two shots of caramel syrup, brought to his office every two hours and a bottle of ice-cold water brought to his office every hour on the hour. Still, not that bad, Andi thought, continuing to read through the list as it moved on to things like organizing the folders on her desk, logging in the information from the reports that should be in her in-box, and then taking care of the folders stacked on her desk.
“This isn’t so bad,” Andi murmured to herself, wondering why he was having such a hard time keeping assistants.
She could handle this, Andi thought as she continued reading the list, noting that unless he had a business meeting, he took his lunch in the executive dining room every day at noon, liked to keep his phone meetings in the afternoon when he could, and expected a daily summary of what she’d accomplished, issues that she ran into, and things that required his attention on his desk by five p.m. sharp every day, ensuring that he wasn’t disturbed during the day.
Again, nothing that she couldn’t handle, Andi thought as she got to the end of the list and…realized that there was a second page. She turned the page and found herself frowning as she went through the rest of the list and decided that perhaps she should just get started when she realized that there was a third page. She flipped back to the first page, scanned the list, and decided to start by learning how to make coffee.