First Week

After a week-long break, I enter my new office with renewed energy. It feels like 3 months ago when I started at Magna Corp, only better because I would be meeting with Tony at the end of the work day to debrief. (He quite literally entered it into our shared calendar as Debrief).

I'm more nervous than I should be because of my stupid dream, but I'm a professional, so I suck it up and put on a brave face.

At reception, I am handed a badge and told to proceed to the top floor. The reception at the top floor then directs me to a corner office. I'm starting to get curious about who I'll be working for. I assumed that Mr. Conti was saving me from Mr. Finch and they might not actually have an open position for me, especially for an executive.

I enter an office with two desks with a similar set-up to my last workplace, only this place is bigger and more modern, which I prefer. There is a door at the opposite end to the room that I assume leads to our boss's office. The best part, though, is that we have our own little break room and private bathroom!

"This is Jessica," the receptionist explains, "She is the first assistant and you will answer to her. I'm Claire if you need anything else."

Claire leaves and I turn to Jessica and reach out to shake her hand, "I'm Alexa, it's nice to meet you."

She looks at my hand with distain, then walks around me and says, "Follow me."

She takes me on a light-speed tour of the office where I do my very best to keep track of every name and direction she gives me. Once back in our office, she gives me a brief overview of what my duties will be and, had I not been an executive assistant previously, I would have been lost.

I spend the first couple hours of the day tracking down the IT guys to get access to all the systems. Marty, the IT guy, is super sweet and wishes me luck with Jessica, "I'm scared of the girl, everyone is. She sucks, but for some reason she doesn't get fired. Stay on her good side, if she has one."

When I return to my desk, around 10am, with my access all sorted, the door to Mr. Conti's office is open and I can see he is in deep concentration at his desk. Just as I'm about to sit, I hear him yell out, "Coffee!"

Jessica had listed that as part of my duties, so I look to her and ask, "How does he like his coffee?"

"Your first task and you're already asking questions," she shakes her head at me like I'm pathetic, then returns her attention to her work.

While I have no clue how Mr. Conti takes his coffee, I am thrilled to get to use the fancy coffee maker in our private break room. Judging by Mr. Conti's intense demeanor and manliness, I decide to keep it simple and go with a black coffee.

I check to make sure he isn't on a call, then enter the office and place the coffee on the coaster on his desk.

"How is your first day so far?" He asks, surprising me. I assumed there would be no chit-chat.

"It's been great so far," I say, "I have access to everything and I love the coffee machine."

He takes a look at his coffee and asks, "Black?"

"Yes," I respond, "but I can grab milk or sugar if you need."

"No, this will be fine. Thank you." He doesn't look back up after that, so I take it as my cue to leave.

I head back to my desk and intend to start on the list of morning tasks I'm supposed to be doing when Jessica looks at me with a saccharine smile and says, "Don't worry if he didn't like the coffee. It's hard to get it right the first time."

I nod, not bothering to tell her he accepted the coffee. I don't know her well enough to understand her intention in saying that comment, but I know it isn't kind. I assume I can now check black coffee off of the list of coffees that Mr. Conti likes. I'm watching and he hasn't taken a single sip. I'll have to try something different tomorrow. I wonder why he didn't just tell me he didn't like black coffee. Maybe he was trying to be nice on my first day.

The rest of the day seems to go fine until 4:30pm comes around and Jessica dumps a load of urgent work that needs to be done on my desk. I text Tony to cancel our plans and get comfortable for the night ahead. Jessica stays until Mr. Conti leaves. She had been ready to leave for an hour, scrolling through social media on her phone. When Mr. Conti came out of his office she pretended to stand up like she just happened to be leaving at the same time.

I can't help the huge smile that breaks across my face. Her desperation is flowing off her in waves and you can tell Mr. Conti is annoyed. I quickly look down towards my work so that Jessica won't see my smile. After just one day, it's already pretty evident what kind of person Jessica is. She gave me all this urgent work, yet she sat there doing nothing for the last hour.

She doesn't know that anything is better than working with Mr. Finch. Watching her attempts to land Mr. Conti might actually be entertaining. I'll have so many funny stories for the gang.

I get a text from Tony saying he'll miss me and not to work too late. I send him back a text asking him to do some cyberstalking on Jessica. He loves that kind of thing and after the little tricks she pulled today, I assume there is more to come. He promises to get to me by the end of the night and I can't help the smile that comes to my face. I'm so lucky to have met Tony. He is a really loyal friend.

They say 'know thy enemy' and I intend to do just that.