My mom firmly outlawed makeup telling me, and my sisters, beauty was from the inside out. The one time my father found me with lipstick when I was a teenager he was so sad I threw it away and never thought about it again. Until I gave into peer pressure from a roommate. There was other makeup she urged me to get, but the only things I couldn’t mess up were the lipstick and mascara.
Felix headbutts me, demanding attention. He knows I’m agitated and doesn’t like it. I pick him up and give him a cuddle. Felix meows, long low muttering meows that tell me he’s very unhappy with me. Three years ago, a fluffy Maine Coon kitten fell out of a trash can in front of me and scared the hell out of me. It was love at first sight for me, it was love at first offer of food for him.
He’s a cranky cat with the disposition of an old man unless there’s food in the offering. He’ll, of course, be willing to forgive me if I share my breakfast with him. That’s not happening, once my coffee is done I put down Felix, wash my hands and start fixing my coffee.
I’m too nervous to eat the whole sandwich, I just needed something in my stomach to drink my coffee. I badly need the caffeine, I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. The whole weekend was filled with tears and stress.
My last day at Miller Investments was anti-climactic. Although I had several people come by to tell me goodbye and they would miss me, no one even halfheartedly talked about staying in touch after I left. I still can’t believe how easy it was to say goodbye to a place I’d gone to nearly every day for the last eight years.
I’ve never been so relieved for Monday. I’m nervous for my first day and while a part of it is the fear of messing up, of somehow Leo finding out and ending everything before it gets started. The larger, much larger, part is about the need to see Leo again. I tell myself, he can’t have been as beautiful as I remember, that my response to him was because of nerves and not as strong as I thought it was.
An hour later, as Leo comes out of the elevator, I’m proven wrong. It’s just not fair for him to be so beautiful. My mouth goes dry at the sight of him, a heavy, throbbing begins from deep inside me. He’s wearing a suit in a black and gray pinstripe with a snow white shirt and steel gray tie. I can’t take my eyes off him. Then he frowns as he sees me standing behind Carol, who is walking me through the various reports showing me what I’ll need to run at the beginning of every day.
He barely looks at me. “I will need a double shot this morning.” Without a second glance, he goes into his office.
Was Leo mad at me? Did he already regret hiring me?
I look to see Carol frowning. “I forgot to tell you. He’s hardcore about his coffee. It needs to come from the lunch place downstairs in the building. But
only if Demetrius makes it. Call down and ask if Demetrius is working, his schedule is here. I would still call before you go down, sometimes he calls in. If Demetrius isn’t working you have to go to this coffee shop,” She taps the listing for a coffee shop a block over, “don’t even try going to the big-name coffee place on the corner. It’s always espresso, two sugars to each shot and breve which is half and half instead of milk.
“The coffee shop and Demetrius all know Leo’s order so always tell them you’re getting coffee for Leo. Never call it in ahead though. He wants it as hot as possible and in this tumbler.” She opens a drawer in the credenza behind the desk. There are several stainless-steel tumblers gleaming in it. Beside them are white cups sitting in saucers. “When you get back to the office he wants it served in the china.”
I shake my head, all of this for coffee? “Every day, you have to do this?”
“Oh yeah, usually twice a day. He starts the day with a cup, usually an hour to two hours later he’ll want another. It’s rare for him to start out the day with a double shot though.”
“He doesn’t have a machine someone could use here to make it?”
Carol nods. “Of course, there’s a fifteen-hundred-dollar machine in the break room I showed you. The one for just you two down the hall, it’s below the counter. Victoria could make his coffee, but no one after her made it the way he liked it.”
“That’s insane. It’s coffee, it can’t be that hard.”
“I thought the same thing. I tried when Victoria first left. He hated it. The instructions are in the file, along with all the rest of her pointers for dealing with him. Some of them work, not all of them. You better call down to check on Demetrius and get his coffee, he doesn’t like to be kept waiting. He is all about immediate responses to anything he says and wants. When he says jump you better ask how high.” Her cell phone pings. “I have to go, it’s my boss. Call me or instant message me if you need anything. Good luck.”
All I can think is this is nuts as I call down to the coffee shop. I introduce myself as Leo’s new assistant and ask if Demetrius is in. They tell me he is. I let them know I’ll be right down.
Back upstairs I pull out a cup and saucer and holy shit, it’s gorgeous. The simplicity of it, the fine white with silver around the rim and handle screams money. I don’t even want to think of how expensive it is. Carefully, I pour the coffee from the tumbler into the china.
I grab the two reports Carol had printed out for me this morning and the coffee and after a brief knock take them into Leo’s office. He barely acknowledges me at first, not taking the coffee or the files I offer. I set them carefully down at the edge of his desk.
“Is there anything else at this time?”
Dark eyes burn into me. “Take this morning to become familiar with your responsibilities. Now that you know what is expected of you, never make me wait this long for my coffee again.”
As warnings go, the words are light, still his tone stings. With my tail between my legs, I flee to my desk. The phone is ringing as I approach the desk.
“It’s Natalie. Come down two floors so we can get your paperwork done. Lynn is going to meet you at the elevators, she’s Asian, tiny, and disgustingly perky. Be careful what you say, she’s very chatty, and she remembers everything.”
“Okay.” I set the phones to Carol’s desk like she told me to this morning when I have to step away from my desk.
The next hour goes by quickly, Natalie wanted to pretend we didn’t know each other. I point blank refused, no more lies than were necessary. We settled on the truth of being neighbors and acquaintances, not admitting we were as close as we are. The paperwork feels endless before I’m back up at my desk.
Carol was kind enough to finish the most pressing things that needed to be done last week. The reports I’m supposed to do at the beginning of the morning are relatively easy, one is simply entering stock prices into a spreadsheet with the macro already in place to update, the other report was a little more involved and consisted of searching news updates on particular companies and people.
I open my inbox and go through it to see if anything is urgent. There’s nothing, so I go through the history to see what Leo has been working on. I’m overwhelmed by all the different types of companies and investments he was considering.
My phone beeps. His voice comes through the speaker. “My office.”