Monday Meetings

I didn't sleep at all Sunday night. I tossed and turned and worried until 4 in the morning when I finally just got up and showered and spent all my extra time curling my hair. During the night I had talked myself into thinking I was going to get fired on the spot to thinking that I was going to be made into a public example at the meeting. I was so anxious I felt sick. Nate (Chris definitely introduced the shortened version to me) had sent me a few text messages during the day but I couldn't think of anything to say back. I really liked him, there was no denying that. However, I wasn't prepared to lose my newly acquired dream job that I had worked hard to get the education for. 

I was a bundle of nerves on my way to work, too nervous even to get a coffee along the way and secretly glad Kathy hadn't sent me a text about it this morning. I hurried into my office after the world's longest elevator ride, ditched my bag at my desk, took a deep breath and went to knock on Spencer's door with shaky hands.

He opened his door and smiled at me. "Good morning, Skye. How was your weekend?"

I was caught off guard. Surely he wouldn't be asking me about my weekend if he was going to fire me, right? "It was good." I answered hesitantly, stepping into his office.

For the first time I noticed a woman maybe 18 or 19 sitting in the corner of his office. She would have been pretty but she was so inappropriately dressed that it was hard to look past the cleavage. I smiled at her, and she smirked back at me.

Spencer cleared his throat. "You're probably wondering why I called you here. This does have to do with our meeting later. Kathy is no longer with us."

I was surprised. "Why?"

He looked uncomfortable for a moment. "There has been some evidence lately that she was...um...getting too comfortable with another employee."

This whole idea seemed so absurd to me that I almost laughed. "Really? I find that a little hard to believe."

"I did too but the evidence is there. I know you really liked her that's why I wanted to let you know before the meeting. She won't be mentioned during it but we are making an example of the case for other employees. We thought this might be a good time to remind everyone of our relationship policy so this hopefully doesn’t happen again."

I felt terrible for Kathy. I knew she loved her job and I just found it hard to imagine her breaking the policy especially because everyone in this office other than the senior editors were a good 15-30 years younger than her. I was definitely going to miss her.

"As a replacement, a permanent replacement if she adjusts well, I have brought in my niece, Ashley. She has some experience as an administrative assistant and we will be helping her learn along the way. Ashley, this is my leading lady in HR, Skye."

He's introduction of me was adorbs, her limp handshake was anything but. I don’t know about you but I immediately judge people by how firm their handshakes are.

"Nice to meet you, Ashley." I said sincerely. Or hopefully it sounded sincerely anyways.

"Yeah." Was her contribution.

Spencer looked awkwardly from her to me. "Would you mind doing the paper work with her after the meeting?"

"Sure." No thank you. "Let me just get ready for the meeting really quick and then we can head there together."

"Wonderful."

I hurried into my office, hoping that Ashley was a better person than my first impression of her made me believe. I sent Jess a quick text saying that there are leftover from the weekend on the fridge if she was hungry when she got back from her shoot.

J: thanks! I'm starving, only ate veggies on location all weekend. I'll pick up Koda from doggy-day care if he will let me. Can't wait to see you. 

Loved having Jess back from her location shoot over the weekend. Ashley dragged her feet to the meeting and I caught a few people casting questioning looks at her. Spencer seemed to be oblivious to it. We sat at our usual spot and filled her in on what Kathy usually did at these meetings, which was mainly take note of the main points of the meeting so we could see of anything needed to be amended policy-wide. Twenty minutes into the meeting I noticed that Ashley was not taking notes but playing on her phone. I cleared my throat and she glared at me. Great! 

Once the meeting was done, Spencer suggested we go to lunch together after I met with a few more clients so we could "get to know each other better and feel more comfortable". He avoided all eye contact with me when asking my to do this, so he must have known I was less than impressed with this new addition to the office. 

Never had my lunch hour felt longer. I tried to talk to her and get at least a little bit acquainted, but all I got from it is that she didn't want to be at lunch any more than I did.

Before I went home at the end of the day I swung by Spencer's office, Ashley had already left for the day (2 hours ago…).

"How's it going, my dear?" Spencer asked, pushing his chair back from his desk.

I felt really comfortable around him and had from day one, but I still felt uncomfortable bringing this up. "Do you think Ashley is the best fit for us?" I asked, hopefully not too bluntly.

He took his glasses off and ran his hand over his face. "I don’t know. I know this isn't ideal, but we need someone to fill in for Kathy."

"Okay. What about interviewing other people?" I said cautiously. "Or possibly doing an internal transfer?"

"We'll still do that. Let's see how Ashley does. She needs a bit of help and my brother practically begged me to give her a job." Spencer looked pleadingly at me.

I sighed. "Okay, but she needs to dress more professional. Can you let her know that?" He looked at me. "Spencerrrrrr, don't make me do it." He smiled sweetly. "Ugh, fine. I’m going home, I'll see you in the morning."

"I'll bring you Starbucks." He called after me. Starbucks was not going make having Ashley around any better, but it was going to start my morning off the right way.