Unstuck (7 page)

“Fish for every detail you find about the possibility of collaborating or buying them off,” Ok. Patrick was going for the extremes, I liked it!

For the next 2 hours I walked around a golf course, still not getting a thing about golf itself, and writing down everything that seemed interesting. Seemed that in the end May, Inc. would end up buying Stinson’s company since he didn’t seem to find a collaboration very helpful. I wrote everything though, off and on the record. I learned that on the record was when Patrick said “Lucinda,” while looking at a golf ball, a hole or the sky. Off the record was everything else.

After that we went to have lunch, where the on and off the record pointers were still given and I couldn’t eat half my salad because by the time I was free to sink in Patrick, in all his businesslike manner, got up said goodbye and with a “Lucinda,” full of authority ordered me to leave with him. Goodbye Salad.

“Why did we leave like that?” I asked Patrick once in the SUV.

“We don’t need them, Lucinda, they need more of us than they realize. Once Stinson sees that we’ll be back in business. Leaving before him was showing him who has the upper hand,” He said in a patient way, like a teacher to his pupil. I just nodded, “Got anything juicy?” he asked.

“Well, I can tell you, he doesn’t want to collaborate, that’s for sure. Unless he is fishing for something else,” I told him and he nodded.

“Mike,” He raised a bit his voice for Mike to hear him “Take us for pizza,” I immediately grabbed my stomach. “I noticed you didn’t eat,” He smiled and I nodded.

Three

“That was definitely the best pizza I’ve ever had,” I said as we both walked into the house later that evening.

“Definitely. Best pizza ever,” He said smiling like a little child.

“Patrick, do you even know the name of that place?” I asked him with my hands on my hips.

“Nope, I don’t even know what kind of pizza I just ate. All I know is that it was the one I always have and it was delicious.” I just shook my head in disbelief. This man was so helpless.

“Do you need anything else?” I asked him in the foyer.

“No. I’ll let you know if I do,” he said going up the stairs.

“I know you will,” I said going the opposite way to the pool house.

The rest of the day was uneventful; Patrick had very few pregnant lady cravings, like the milkshake Donnie used to make (Donnie= former assistant,) and tacos for dinner. He sent me Monday’s schedule, and it looked horrible and stressful but also included that I was going to be in charge of the putting it together from then on, which meant I was going to be the one sending the schedule to him. The real job was about to begin; the weekend was just an adjusting period.

On Monday morning I was up at 6 in the morning; we were leaving at 8 so I had just enough time to get in the shower, have my hair done and put on some make up. I decided that I was now someone’s personal assistant so I didn’t have the need to look the part, at least not the “boss,” part. I put on a black pant suit a red shirt and pulled my hair up in a pony tail, red pumps and red purse. I thought that it was the right look for Maynard’s assistant as everyone was going to know me from then on. I was in the kitchen at 7:30 having a glass of OJ and a quick bagel with cream cheese when I heard Patrick going into the kitchen. He gave me a look and went out to the dining room again. I grabbed the tray with the coffee and the paper and went outside.

“Coffee,” I said and he reached his hand out, “Paper,” I said he drank the first cup of coffee in a single sip and nodded. Post coffee Patrick was back.

“Breakfast?” I asked and he looked at his watch and shook his head no.

“Leaving?” I asked again and he nodded.

“See you in the car in 10,” Was all he said and I nodded.

“No breakfast,” I said going into the kitchen.

“Oh honey, it’s going to be a bad day,” said Miranda. I looked at her feeling panicky on the inside she went on. “Breakfast and midnight snacks are his favorite meals, if he is not having breakfast he is in a terrible mood,” I nodded and grabbed two thermoses, filled them with coffee, grabbed my purse and went to greet the boss.

“Here,” I said giving him one of the thermoses.

“What is it?” he asked, still in a horrible mood.

“Coffee,” He immediately drank it in a single sip.

“Thank you,” he said sounding more normal. We rode in silence for a while until he felt ready to speak, “You look nice, by the way,” he said turning to look at me.

I smiled; maybe I was going to be able to scare the bad mood away before getting to the office. We had one hour to figure that out.

“Thank you,” I said sounding cheerful, “do I look the part?”

“Well, what part do you want to look?” he asked raising his eyebrows. See! Right there! I was bringing good mood back. That sounded just like a Justin Timberlake song, right? “Maynard’s assistant,” I said smiling.

“Then you definitely don’t look the part,” I must have had the saddest look on my face because he laughed out loud and went on, “It’sn’t bad, Lucinda. Most of my assistants look like they have been run over by a bus. Their hair is always a mess, no makeup, surely no high heels,” he said looking at my feet and with a smile on his face he said, “You look like someone with an assistant of her own.”

“Is that bad?” I asked still worried.

“Not bad, not good. It’s you; Lucinda and I hired you for you. Although I don’t think you’ll be ‘Maynard’s assistant’ for long,” he shook his head while smiling.

“What?”I was confused.

“People will want to remember your name,” he said and smiled.  I didn’t know if I wanted that. I wanted to be Maynard’s assistant; I wanted to blend in so much that I would be someone’s assistant and nothing more.

“Lucinda,” I heard Patrick’s voice; it was barely 11 in the morning and I had already been inside his office six times; had met with Brian in HR, signed 2 contracts, had my picture taken; gave orders to people that were behind on some deadlines and now I was on my way for the seventh time to his office.

“Yes, Patrick?” I asked going in; he had a face that could easily resemble someone that possessed by the devil himself. So much I even took two steps back in case he was about to spit fire at me.

“Close the door,” he said as he rolled the sleeves of his shirt up. I did as he said. “Sit down,” I did as he said. AGAIN. In the last three days I had learnt something very useful: When Patrick is in a bad mood you just do as he says and answer in monosyllables.

“Have you heard from Adams?” He was breathing heavily.

“I’m sorry, Patrick. I haven’t. I’ve talked with his assistant at least 4 times but he hasn’t called back,” I was sure he was about to start spitting fire.

“Ok,” he nodded. I was confused; confusion was everything that I felt in this first day at the office I had no idea what I was doing that’s for sure. “I’m stuck,” he said taking his hands to his face, he seemed frustrated.

“Stuck with what?” I asked. Maybe if he said everything out loud it would help.

“I can’t see the problem,” he said motioning to the computer screen.

“May I?” I said eyeing the computer, he nodded. I looked at the screen. Spreadsheet, loads of numbers, he was looking at predictions. Financial forecasts of the company's divisions.  “What Branch?” I asked still deep into the spreadsheet.

“Education,” he said and I quickly focused on it. I looked at it quickly, I had no idea about most of the numbers but some of them gave me an idea of what he was trying to do. “Don’t buy Stinson,” I said at the end giving him back the computer. I was sure that he was looking for reasons to buy or not to buy.

“What?” he looked at me like I had two heads.

“Don’t buy Stinson, Patrick. Education is a small branch, go for collaboration and buy them out in a year when May, Inc has given E-course enough strength. Right now the branch can grow with the collaboration and will get more out of E-course in a year. I think…,” Shit, I was not this person anymore! My first day and I was already in deep shit, I hated business management, I hated administrative shit; I just wanted to be free and be bossed around.

“Lucinda, what the fuck are you doing here?” Patrick asked and I knew that maybe it was time to retreat before the spitting fire began.

“Nothing, I am going back to my desk in a second,” I said getting up when I heard him laugh. See? Confusion. All day long.

“Lucinda, I didn’t mean it like that,” he was still laughing really hard and I was still confused. Maybe all it took was time; time to get used to Patrick the boss.

“I meant what the fuck are you doing as an assistant? I should promote you to CFO,” No! I didn't think so; don’t even think that, sir. “But I won’t, you are too good of an assistant I may never, ever find someone like you,” he was smiling and I gave away a tiny smile. I had no idea how I was feeling. He just said that I had great skills as a CFO and as an assistant. WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT SAY ABOUT ME? Ugh! I was definitely annoyed.

“C’mon,” he said while taking his suit jacket from the chair. “Let’s have lunch,” he opened the door and I was quickly behind him.

“Harriet,” that is the executive assistant that seems to don’thing because my name has been the one yelled all morning. Not in a good way. “We are going to get lunch. All my calls are to be redirected to Miss Stuart’s cell phone.” He kept on walking, I grabbed my purse and whispered to Harriet “Lucinda`s Cell phone,” I smiled and ran after him.

Mike took us to some Arab place that Patrick liked and we had lunch. “So, you are a genius,” he said crossing his arms as we waited for coffee and dessert.

“No, I’m not! You knew what I told you,” I said.

“I knew that the education branch was not strong enough to buy Stinson but I didn’t know how I was going to make it grow. Now you gave me a way,” he said smiling at me.

“Eventually you would have. You were stuck. You said so yourself, you just needed someone that hadn’t been looking at those numbers for 5 hours.”

“Maybe. Whatever it was, it means I need you around Lucinda,” he said pointing at me with his finger.

“Maybe you do need me, Patrick.” I smiled back. “I will need to go to my place at some point to get the rest of my stuff, Patrick, you asked me to pack for a week. Do you do that to all your assistants? Make them believe they are flying to town for an interview and then hit them with the
you are living here now
thing?”  I changed the subject quickly. I wanted to get away from the Miss Stuart shit that was going on in my head as soon as possible.

“No,” he said laughing. When he laughed his face seemed a bit childish, his eyes partially closed and it made him look much more younger than 35. “I wanted to see if I could work with you. I wasn’t sure you and I would make a good team.” He gave his coffee a sip.

“Why was that?” I asked confused. AGAIN.

“You are the same as me. Well, at least in the business world. I didn’t know if you would adapt to the assistant job,” Well, that was honest.

“Have I?” I asked while raising my eyebrows.

“Surprisingly, yes. Three days in and you are already saving my life,” he smiled.

I shook my head smiling and went on, “Anyway, when can I go to my place to get the rest of my things?”

“We can go today after work.” What? I didn't want my boss in my house.

“Oh! You don’t need to come, I can go by myself,” I said nonchalantly.

“I don’t mind. That way you won’t have to carry all your stuff by yourself. Mike can help,” I nodded. Who was I to say no to my boss, right?

“How is your first day going?” I looked up to find Brian sitting on my desk and smiling. Widely.

“Hmm I wouldn’t know how to describe it. I’ll probably get the hang of it soon. Right now I feel like Bambi on the ice for the first time,” I said while chewing the cap of a pen.

“That’s not what I heard,” He said grinning.

“What? What did you hear?” I asked leaning forward and Brian leaned closer.

“I heard the boss took you out for lunch,” he said whispering.

“That? I’ve had lunch with Patrick for the last 3 days, Brian,” I said disappointed.

“Well, Lucy, Patrick doesn’t have lunch with his assistants on Mondays, or any other week day. Besides, a little bird told me you have been in and out of his office.”

“Little Bird?” I asked suspicious Brian motioned with a movement of his head towards Harriet’s desk. “What?” I mouthed the word.

“She is afraid you’ll be doing her job too. She said all she did all morning was screen calls for Mr. Maynard,” Brian whispered to me.

“I was wondering what her job was,” I said more to myself than to Brian, “Well, I won’t let that happen.”

“Brian,” The door to Patrick’s office opened and his voice was heard throughout the entire floor. I think I was getting used to that. Brian jumped down from my desk and went to Patrick’s office. “Yes, Patrick?” I heard as Brian closed the door.

“Miss Stuart?” I heard Harriet’s voice and looked up to find her.