Bombay Mixx (3 page)

‘And your name is?’ John retorted in the campest tone I’ve heard in a while
.
‘
M
y name is Nita Patel and it’s my first day today
.
’ I saw a sly smile b
etween the two of them and Lucy
replied, ‘oh good for you, I’ll just call her to see if she’s available. Why don’t you just take a seat over there and she’ll be down in a few minutes
.
’

As I sat down waiting for her to make the call, I saw she continued talking about the eventful weekend and this started to make my blood boil.

I could have reminded them about me after 5 minutes of waiting but I thought of a craft
i
er technique. I remembered that Ann had given me her office telephone number in case I got lost
,
so I gave her a call.

I turned away out of sight, so they couldn’t see me talking on the phone and I dialled the number, after three rings she answered, ‘Ann Lough
.
’ ‘
H
ello Ann
,
it’s Nita. I’m having a few problems at reception as I’ve been here now for the past 15 minutes (yes I lied but they were really annoying me) and I’m just wondering if you have been notified to my presence yet?’ I asked in the posh telephone accent we all do when we’re phoning someone important
.
‘
N
o I haven’t and I shall be down in a few moments
,
’ she answered in an icy tone which made me think she was about to rain the pain on tw
ee
ddle dumb and tw
ee
ddle dumber!

Just as Lucy
was about to pick up the phone, Ann came out of the lifts with a thunderous look on her face and approached the reception desk. The pair looked nervous and stopped their conversation.

Ann turned and greeted me and asked me to approach the desk, it f
elt like a court room drama,
there was so much tension in the air
.
‘
C
ould you tell me how long you have been waiting here for me?’ she asked
.
‘
R
oughly about 15 minutes
,
’ I continued in my posh accent, ‘and can one of you tell me why a new employee has been waiting this long?’ she enquired.

There was silence and a flush of embarrassment came across both of their faces, ‘I trust this will not happen again as if it does then we will need to think about employing two new people who know how to do this job quickly and effectively. Consider this a warning and it will be mentioned to your
superior
, do you understand?’
T
hey both nodded to show understanding of the caution.

I walked away feeling great but didn’t look back as I thought I’d won this round and didn’t want to spoil the feeling.

There was the usual small talk in the glass lift then a flourish of busy talk, facts and figures and fast walking which filled the lift as the doors opened onto the accounts floor.

‘Welcome to the accounts department. This is where you will work and Daniel will give you a full tour of the building later on this afternoon as you will communicate closely with the shares department
, Research
and possibly Human Resources
,
’
Ann proudly announced.

I could see it was going to be an eventful day already so I settled into the meet and greet of my new colleagues, got acquainted to my neat but modest wooden Ikea looking desk, which was outside a gargantuan, eminent, glass office and proceeded to the buildings restaurant to make the first of the days moaning calls to Anya
.
‘I seriously don’t think I can do this
,
’ I
whined
as soon as she answered the phone
.
‘
D
aaarling, you need to give it a chance. You have only been there for a few hours!’ she said in a tired voice
.
‘
M
y boss is a tyrant and everyone in the office looks like they want to kill themselves
at
any second. I can’t work in this place. I’m going to tell them it’s not for me at the end of the day!’

For a second I thought she got tired of my moaning and hung up on me, as she’s done that before, which is funny afterwards but not at the time when you’re talking to yourself for about 10 minutes, in public, before you realise and have to make up a fake end to the conversation so people don’t think your weird!     

‘Honey, give it a week and I bet it’ll get better and if not then I could always refer some of my clients to you but I w
ould start you with Hassan
, better to start small first!’ Anya purred as we both burst out laughing at the thought of me trying to do her job.

As I looked at my watch I realised it was time to go back and do the courteous nods
and
polite laughs at the office humour and settle into the boredom of people telling me about how to do the job to my best ability.

I got into the lift and as soon as I reached the accounts floor, Ann was waiting for me with a determined look on her face
.
‘Oh god, she’s about to eat me alive!’ I thought as I smiled and approached her
.
‘
G
ood
,
you’re back on time. I like punctuality. You will fit in well here if you continue with this. Ok, follow me; it’s now time to meet Mr. Maguire
.
’

My ears slightly perked up but judging by the men I have already seen in the office they went back down. We approached the giant glass office in front of my desk and I was told to wait outside whilst she made sure it was acceptable to enter
.
‘Oh my gosh! Was he some kind of king who needed everyone to be announced this way
,
’ I thought to myself as she popped her head back out and gave the green light to enter.

The office was very masculine, with floor to ceiling sparkling clean windows, fancy exotic flowers (that looked like they were changed everyday! Not like the roses I had from last month that my dad bought me to try to cheer me up!), financial newspapers in fancy holders at the side of a dark brown expensive leather sofa (which looked m
ore expensive than all the items
in our flat!) and a huge mahogany desk with an ultra modern
, sleek
laptop, telephone and a neat pile of paper work to the right hand side and a very sexy looking young man behind it
.
‘Good morning Miss Patel. How are we this morning?’ His voice was like harps being played
softly in my head
and I would have continued to gaze into his beautiful emerald eyes but I was rudely interrupted by the
S
ergeant
M
ajor
.
‘Nita, Mr. Maguire asked you a question
,
’ she said in a head teacher tone like her students were not performing well and needed the cane.

After a much needed gasp for air
,
I tried to be as professional as I could
.
‘
H
ello, I’m having a productive morning so far. It seems like a very good company
to work for,’ I lied but at that
moment I felt that everything I said on the phone to Anya had no significance now I am working for this hunk of Irish rock!

He smiled as Ann continued to praise him and his work
but his secret gazes
completely melted me
.
I felt like I was going dizzy at one point and had to look away as he cont
inued to inspect my very being.
I tried to snap out of it so I could listen to the ending part of Ann’s narrative but unfortunately only heard her say, ‘and Nita you will need to be aware of Mr. Maguire’s role in the department as you will be working very close to him
.
’ I flushed red at the thought
of being very close to this alluring stallion of a man
and wondered if it was just me fe
eling this immense attraction?
Of course, it was just me feeling like this!

‘
This man must have thousands of girls throwing themselves at him! Why would he give me a second look?’ This thought crep
t
into my mind and brought me back to reality and back to my normal skin colour!

As I nodded and smiled, I couldn’t wait to leave his office. I felt a little bruised at my final thought but, as if he knew what I was thinking, he announced, ‘we’ve done a good job recruiting this one Ann, I look forward to breaking her into all the ways of AG Cathal
.
’ I looked back with a tinge of hope and received a naughty wink and mischievous smile
.
‘
O
h my, now I know that I’m not imagining that he could be interested! I would love to be broken in by him right now
,
’ I thought as I blushed and immediately shut the door.

As I tried to
drag
myself back into work mode I completely forgot that his office was complete glass and as Ann introduced me to Daniel, who was my tour guide and computer whiz, I couldn’t help but take a second look, only to see him leaning back on his chair, gazing at me with a naughty smile on his face which gave me an idea as to what he was thinking.

Before my mind could drift onto me running into his office and straddling him on that chair right now, I was unkindly ripped back into reality with usernames, passwords and programs I would need access to before the week was
out
.

I took notes, did menial tasks for the ones who couldn’t be bothered to do them themselves and mingled with the team around me with small talk and getting to know the office gossip. So far
,
I have found out that Daniel has tried it on with all the ladies in the department, without much success
.
Ann was single and was a dinosaur in her previous life and there was mixed opinions about Angus
.
‘I thought he was so gorgeous when I first started to work here but then I realised what a male, chauvinist pig he was
,
’ Deborah proclaimed as though she had some history with him. ‘I think he’s ok. Not bad eye candy for the office and the sexi
e
st accent I’ve heard so far.

He could ask me to do anything with that accent and I doubt I’
d
be saying no!’ Leah swooned, to which everyone started laughing.

Leah was the funny one in my new section but she w
as a gossip. If you needed to
know who was sleeping with whom, who got promoted but didn’t want anyone to know or who was having an affair with a younger woman, she was the lady to go to.

She had been working in the accoun
ts department for a year and
already had two office romances herself
;
none of which was with my own personal Fergus McNessa
.
‘I wish his healing hands were on me right now
,
’ my mind w
andered
again!    

I was happy when it hit
5.30pm
and it was time to go
.
‘
O
h I’m glad I found you before you went home. I hope you have enjoyed today but I will need you to be in the office tomorrow at
8.30am
as we have a meeting with Mr. Maguire and the rest of the management team. Please be on time. Good evening
.
’ Ann stated as she followed me to the lift making sure I was not able to run away
.
‘I can’t believe I will have to get up an extra hour earlier! This meeting better be worth it! Actually
,
of course it’ll be worth it, Angus will be there!’ I dreamed as I nodded to her request and bid her a good evening.    

I arrived back at the f
lat an hour later and
before I reached the door I knew we had company. Gabrielle’s fake laughter meant there were men there and I heard bottle corks flying across the room so I knew Amelia was at home
.
I opened the door with a heavy heart knowing I would have to have an action plan to make it to my bedroom in one piece
.
‘
H
ey, Neets. How was your first day at work? Neets works in stocks you know!’ Amelia drunkenly announced.