I’m being brave and launching another new story as I have almost completed Business Deal (though haven’t posted it all yet).
Hope that this one goes down the same way. Please comment as it is really encouraging.
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She was twenty five tomorrow! No longer could she blame the errors in her life on the exuberance of youth, no longer could she justify coasting along with no meaning on her age! No, as Madeline, sipped her coffee, she realized that not only was she entering the next quarter of a century of her life tomorrow; she was actually going to change her life. Find a purpose. And the catalyst had been leaving her job of three years as a receptionist at a dental surgery.
Shed seen an advert in a magazine for a PA job, and whilst she had no specific experience, her degree in business management and tourism, really lined her up as the ideal candidate for the fairly local chain of restaurants. It was hardly an a-list job, but once she was successful in getting it, she realised that it at least started her on the right footing to achieve the dizzy heights she’d always dreamed of! And her first day was due to be her birthday.
She sat back in her chair, her head still throbbed from the excesses of the previous night. It didnt get much worse than this, sitting in a cafe waiting for a bus to take her home after another night or random drinking, and this time shed woken up in a strangers bed.
She shook her head, fighting the flush of shame that threatened to creep up her neck and face. Shed had a few boyfriends over the years, but no relationship lasted more than a few weeks, and like last night, shed had a few one night stands. The jubilation of a drunken encounter didnt defeat the sickening feeling inside the next day.
Draining her coffee, she spotted her bus pull in to the stop opposite, so she dashed across and climbed on.
Sundays were always quiet. Over the years the distance emotionally between her and her family and grown, and now there was a bottomless gulf, that they were unable to breach. So instead of the usual family gatherings, lunch and analysis of the week that a Sunday used to be, now it was spent alone, analyzing the mess her life had become.
Where did it all go wrong?
She flinched, she could pin point the day that she lost her innocent view of life, and lost her trust in everyone. At sixteen shed made one mistake, one huge mistake, and had spent most of the last nine years trying to come to terms with the fallout from it.
Back home her shared flat was empty. Steve and Cindy her housemates were both out. Cindy often spent the night at her boyfriends, and it was not uncommon for Steve to be out all night, he like her enjoyed life to the full! So she headed for a shower, scrubbing herself clean, winding her hair up into a twist, then finding clean pyjamas she headed for her bedroom. Curled up in bed, she turned on a rom-com DVD and nodded off watching it.
Later that afternoon, there was a knock at her bedroom door, and it woke her from slumber.
“Hey!” she announced sleepily as Steve came in and perched on her bed.
“You ok?”
“Im good, but hungry! Have you been cooking?”
Steve laughed, “nice to know I have my uses, no I havent cooked, but I did win at poker last night, and Im feeling generous…..fancy coming out for a late lunch?”
She smiled, “you are THE best mate a girl could have!”
Ten minutes later she was following him out the door, and along the road to the nearest pub. He ordered a couple of beers and two large roast beef dinners.
“So what did you do last night?” has asked as they sat opposite each other under a parasol in the garden to the rear of the pub.
“I met some work friends, we headed to a new club. I ended up going home with the brother of one of the guys at work!”
He nodded, “good work, you seeing him again?”
She shrugged, “I snuck out this morning before he woke up!”
“Maddie! Thats so bad! When are you going to give things a chance? You always run away like that! He couldve been the man of your dreams!”
She shook her head, “he wasnt, he was ok. But that was it!”
Steve nodded knowingly, he was used to the way she was! He and Cindy had strived to find her a suitable man for years, and despite many ideal candidates, none had got past a first or possibly second date.
The next morning she woke to her six birthday cards, a non descript plain one from her parents, not a to my daughter in sight, one from her elderly aunt, containing fifty pounds, her only loving relative, Steves, Cindys, one from work, and another from her downstairs neighbor. The joy of life she almost exclaimed aloud!
Her new work base was offices above a restaurant in a busy part of town. She was shown in by someone who called herself Gina. Upstairs in the office, she sat and waited for Eric Vonden, the regional manager of Tate Club, a chain of expensive restaurants, that all were based within forty miles of this, the head office. Shed read the blurb before her interview, and new that Evan Tate was a chef who had struck lucky at the right time, and now spent his time expanding this success string of restaurants.
Picking up an innocuous cooking magazine, she leafed through it, her legs crossed beneath her linen skirt. After four years managing a theme bar in the centre of town, she needed a change, needed to challenge herself. This was it. She glanced around the office space, it was very white, very minimalist and very modern. Behind Ginas glass desk, was a white and chrome filing cabinet that Gina seemed to frequently pull open and stoop over.
If she stared hard enough she could see her reflection in the spotless glass that separated the reception from the office. Her brown hair was bland, her face decidedly average in her opinion. Her sister had a heart shaped face, and dimples, Maddie just saw over full lips, grey eyes, and the lank hair. God why hadnt she bothered to dye her hair?
“Miss Newman?”
She looked up dragging her mind away from her flaws, “Mr Vonden!” She stood and offered a hand, “Im so glad to be getting this opportunity!”
He smiled, “you too! Its been getting too much for us here, were desperate for a stepping stone between Gina and me!”
He ran a hand through his blond hair, and his eyes twinkled as he added, “though youre hardly a stone!”
She almost snorted in surprise at the blatant flirt, and Gina stifled a laugh at Maddies response, Eric was oblivious as he stepped back and with a sweeping gesture offered her into his office.
By lunchtime hed highlighted the majority of her role, and literally she was a bridge between him and reception. His day to day tasks were to manage the marketing of the whole chain of restaurants. Her job would be to help co-ordinate marketing plans, comparing and contrasting the differences between the seven restaurants, and helping Eric to make projections for the future.
Easy!
By half four she had doubts as to whether she could do this. Erics writing was illegible, his organization ridiculous, Ginas filing system was non-existent! Her first four hours had seen to results.
But she slept early that night and headed in bright and full of ideas!
Lunchtime on the second day she had ensured two things, Gina would scribe any notes for Eric and type them up, and she had warned Erics off. He brushed too close to her as she questioned him over some references, and she snapped at him. Looking like as child whod been caught up to no good, he disappeared on an early lunch!
Maddie was just getting her bag to go get lunch when Gina beckoned to her.
“I normally head to a little cafe around the corner if you fancy joining me for lunch?”
Maddie smiled deeply, “I would love to! I have a million and one questions!”
Laughing, Gina led the way.
They sat near the window, Gina picking at a Bulgar wheat salad and herbal tea, Maddie with a bacon sandwich and a strong black coffee. Not that she didnt need to watch her weight, she just couldnt be bothered at the moment.
“So whats the deal with Eric?” Maddie asked her colleague, wiping tomato ketchup from her chin with a chuckle.
“Hes married, but a serial cheater, he doesnt know that I know hes married. Evan let it slip one day. Since then Ive kept my distance and watched…” She smiled, and looked at Maddie, “I keep a record….just in case my typing or filing isnt good enough, or rather that I dont respond to drunken advances at the Christmas party.”
Maddies eyes widened, “is he that bad?”
When she nodded, she added, “like I say Evans in the know, so I think my job will be safe!”
“Evan Tate?” Maddie looked at her in wonder, “whats he like? Ive heard so much about him.”
Ginas face lit up, and Maddie instantly realized that Gina was head over heels for the man. Now that she had her opening, Gina started to wax lyrical. He apparently was a tall man, good looking (of course), generous….the perfect boss! Maddie took it all with a pinch of salt, the girl was blatantly obsessed.
Back in the office, Eric headed off to meet with a marketing company for the afternoon, so it left Maddie to sort through the hard drive on the computer shed been given.
There were all sorts of half empty files, downloaded albums, games. The hard drive was well over half full, and she figured that by streamlining there was a chance that shed actually see an improvement in the speed and efficiency of the machine that had frustrated her as much as Eric had with his bizarre office management.
“God! Who the hell encrypts games? This really is a piece of junk!” With a sigh of frustration she put her hands over her face and pushed her chair away from the desk, letting her head fall back.
“I see Erics up to his usual wonderful management!”
She paused sensing familiarity in the voice. Slowly she peeled her fingers from her eyes, and felt her heart stop. It was him. The man shed left sleeping in a strange bed three days ago.
“Nice to see Eric has great taste in new employees, and we get the chance to meet again!”
She flushed, heat spreading up her neck and to her face.
Then out of the corner of her eye she spotted Gina, swooning as she made a cup of coffee, catching Maddies eye she fanned herself dramatically, and Maddie started to have bad vibes…..VERY bad vibes.
“Youre….”
His face lifted as he beamed at her, offering her his hand, “Evan Tate….indirectly your new boss!”
What People are Saying…