Saving Amy (28 page)

“Right, let’s get the important stuff out of the way first,” she said, waving her unnaturally long manicured nails in the air. I couldn’t help wonder how in hell she used the bathroom with those things. “So, the coffee machine is two doors down the hall on the right, the copier is just through there,” she pointed to a door opposite the one we just walked through, “and the café we use for the lunch run is The Mighty Bite, just across the street.” She pointed to the window as if I’d be able to see the café in question from where I was standing.

Wow.
Making coffee, running around after everyone… all my dreams and aspirations were being realised before my eyes.

“I also need you to sign these.” She thrust a wad of papers under my
nose which by the look of them would take forever
and a week to read through. “It’s just your contract, terms of salary, college placement acceptance etc.”

She tossed me a silver, expensive looking fountain pen that thankfully I managed to catch. It seemed she wanted me to sign them there and then without so much as a skim through. I did as expected of me and jotted my autograph down against the little pre-filled x’s. Six times in total and I had no idea what I was committing to. I could’ve been signing my soul over to her for all I knew.

Good job it’s probably not worth much then.

“Thank you,” she uttered, taking the signed documents from me. “Okay, let’s give you a tour of the place.”

Vanessa guided me into each office in turn. Dozens of eyes bored into me along the way, assessing the newbie as I entered each room. I was introduced to what must’ve been thirty different people and I’d already forgotten their name before I went on to meet the next one. One man stood out however – Robert. He was a fellow intern who looked as lost as I felt, instantly relaxing me a little.

Tour complete, I set about fulfilling my first task of the day – stuffing envelopes with generic rejection letters and addressing them to budding authors about to get their dreams shattered. Vanessa informed me she would be out at meetings until after lunch and said that my envelope-stuffing duties should see me through until then. I figured that was surely impossible and I would end up looking silly with nothing to do after an hour…

Until she plonked a pile of letters on the desk, stacked so high they towered above the computer monitor in front of me.

Two hours in and I was about three-quarters the way through the pile and my fingertips were shredded with paper-cuts. I was confident all envelopes would be stuffed and ready to go within half an hour, yet Vanessa wasn’t due back for another two. I pondered what I could do next. Nothing too drastic seeing as I didn’t technically have a clue what I was doing, but I didn’t want to just
sit
there idle. I needed to show initiative. Maybe this was a test? Maybe she knew I would finish early and wanted to see what I could come up with on my own.

A knock on the door startled me from my laborious stuffing.

“Hey. You wanna grab lunch with me?” It was Robert, the other intern. I recognised him instantly with his smooth sandy hair and blue puppy-dog eyes, and by the smell of cheap cologne mixed with stale
tobacco which
wafted through the air.

“Sure,” I agreed out of politeness, even though I wasn’t really sure I wanted to. I wasn’t a natural people person – people made me nervous. The whole point of this job however was to change my life and my fucked-up brain, so I knew I needed to make the effort.

I didn’t realise I was hungry until I sat down opposite Robert in The Mighty Bite. The smell of sizzling bacon danced into my nose and made my stomach growl so loud I was almost sure he heard it. He was far too polite to say if he had of course.

“How are you finding Vanessa?” Robert asked with an impish grin as I took a sizeable bite of my bacon and egg sandwich.

“Okay, I guess. I haven’t spent enough time with her to form an opinion.”

“You should know, she’s known as ‘The Dragon’ down in marketing,” he said with a wink. I forced a chuckle because I didn’t want to offend him.

“Well she’s been fine with me so far.”

As the conversation started to flow I made a conscious effort to take smaller,
daintier
bites of my sandwich after noticing Robert had a fair way to go to catch up with me. The past ten minutes had taught me that he was quite the joker – almost to the point of being annoying. His ultimate goal was to become an editor, he still lived at home with his schoolteacher parents and he preferred to go by the name ‘Rob’.

I gave nothing away about myself.

“Shit,” Rob muttered when a rogue dollop of ketchup seeped from his bread and splattered onto his crisp white shirt which still had the fold creases in from being new in the packet.

“Here.” I passed him a baby wet-wipe from my purse and his face slipped into an
expression which
could only be described as horrified. “A girl should never be without them.” I repeated the words that Julie had once told me. It seemed to appease whatever he was thinking and his face softened back into a smile.

Did he think I was a mother? Why the hell should that bother him anyway?
Judgemental prick,
my subconscious seethed, and this time I was forced to agree.

“So you just outta college too?”

Damn. He wants to talk about
me.

“No. This is the first thing I’ve done since school.”

“
Really?
” His bright eyes widened as if I’d just told him I’d killed a baby. “How old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

“
Wow,
” he muttered under his breath, jolting back against his seat as if I’d just punched him. “You must have one hell of a portfolio,” he said, sounding utterly dumbfounded.

Portfolio?
I hardly classed my old thrown-together notebook that Richard deviously showed to Vanessa a portfolio.

“I know just how difficult it is to impress The Dragon,” he continued. “She usually insists on college graduates – won’t even consider any other type for an interview. Guess rich daddy’s have a lot of clout though hey?”

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

At the risk of sounding
big-headed
, I was pretty sure Rob sounded… jealous.

“My
‘daddy’s’
got nothing to do with it,” I snapped. Rob forced out a laugh/huff/snort sound and I was left feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

I slumped back in my chair – suddenly feeling inadequate. I was willing to accept Richard’s theory that I didn’t think highly enough of my capabilities to some extent, but I was adamant my crappy and crumpled notebook wasn’t
so
good this supposed fierce, nigh on impossible to impress ‘dragon’ would abandon her usual criteria and protocols because she simply
had
to have me.

There was just
no
way.

None whatsoever.

I automatically began to wonder just how much Richard
really
had to do with me getting this job. The only rational conclusion was that it was probably a lot and the reality was it had nothing to do with me at all. In that moment, any sense of pride or achievement I’d been feeling until now had just leapt from my body and got ran over by a bus.

What influence could he possibly have over Vanessa? Did he know her personally?

“You’re very quiet all of a sudden. Did I touch a nerve or something?”

“Oh, um…. Sorry. I was just thinking about what to do when I get back to the office,” I lied. Why was I apologising? He was being a complete dick to me.

“Well don’t touch her stuff. I’ve heard she hates that.”

Why would I?

“Oh wait, you’ve got…” Rob’s hand was coming towards my face. Instinctively, I retreated back as far as the wooden slats of the back of the chair would allow. Then his finger brushed over my chin.

What the…

“Ketchup,” he said, and then smiled sleazily.

“Thanks,” I muttered, wiping his touch away. His unnecessary familiarity unnerved me and I was suddenly eager to get back to work.

“We’d best head back,” I suggested. Rob nodded and threw one last gulp of coffee down his throat.

Hmm. Did I like Rob? I was leaning very far towards probably not right now.

It was a relief to be back in the office – to be back on my own. I decided Rob was probably a nice enough guy, just a little too cocky and overfamiliar for my liking.

After finally stuffing the last of the envelopes, I used my initiative and set about tackling the tall six-drawer metal filing cabinet – separating the existing and potential client files and then rearranging them into alphabetical order.

I was finished in just over an hour and everything was nicely organised and easier to navigate – to
me
anyway. I just hoped Vanessa didn’t count this as me ‘touching her stuff’ like Rob warned me about. But then I couldn’t help wonder if he was simply trying to sabotage any efforts I might make to impress her, what with his jealousy over me being handed this placement on a big fat silver platter.

“Sorry I’m late. My meeting ran over.” Vanessa appeared in the doorway dressed in a black pinstripe pantsuit, carrying lever-arch files up to her chin and apologising unnecessarily.

“Let me help,” I offered, taking the top two files from the stack in her weighed down arms.

“Thanks. Just pop them on my desk.” I did as I was told. “Did you manage to finish the rejection pile?”

“Yes,” I said, rather proud of myself. “It didn’t take as long as I expected so I’ve rearranged the filing system.” I nodded my head towards the filing cabinet. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” she said with an expression that could only be described as impressed. “I’ve been meaning to get round to that for months.” Looking to her silver bracelet watch she added, “It’s getting on a bit, you should go for lunch.”

“Oh, um, I went for lunch earlier.” Itchy heat crawled up my neck and invaded my cheeks. It felt like I’d been caught skipping school.

“Really? I mean that’s fine of course. You’ve done
all
this and still had time for lunch? I’m impressed.”

“Well Rob from marketing asked me to join him and I’d almost finished with the envelopes, so…” I trailed off, feeling the need to justify my need to eat.

“
Ugh.
You should be careful around him,” she warned, wrinkling her nose in disgust. I was a little taken aback by her unusual informality. Was I missing something? I made a mental note to probe Rob next time we were alone.

“He’s the only person who’s really spoken to me today,” I muttered, feeling some unknown need to defend him. He wasn’t
that
bad.

No screw that. He was totally that bad.

“That’ll be because everyone else is busy doing what they’re being paid to do,” she snapped in an acidic tone. “In future, if everyone else is busy, I’d suggest you eat alone.”

Wow.
She
actually
hated him. Now I was
really
intrigued.

“What would you like me to do next?” I asked eagerly, purposely changing the subject.

“I was actually thinking of heading off early today. You might as well do the same. I’m in all day tomorrow so I can walk you through everything a lot more.”

“Sounds good to me. Thank you,” I said, already reaching for my black
blazer which
hung on the back of my swivel chair. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Yes. See you. And thank you for all your hard work today. I think we’re going to get along just fine.” I flushed,
of course
, and smiled gratefully at her. Inside my heart was dancing a victory rhythm. I’d done it. I’d completed my first day as a
working woman
and I was still alive.

Go me!

**********

Two weeks in and I was at last beginning to get my head around this working business. It felt invigorating to just be…
normal.
To be a normal girl doing normal things.
Having normal conversations about normal topics – knowing no one else was aware of my fucked-up past and self-destructive tendencies. To everyone else at Salt House, I was just… normal.

Vanessa had awarded me free reign of the slush pile, promising to reconsider anything that caught my eye. In my head I classed it as a promotion, but in reality Vanessa was probably just giving me something to pass the time – seeing as though I’d nearly always finished up with anything she threw at me by lunchtime. That impressed her. I could tell by the cocked eyebrow she flashed me every time I completed whatever task I’d been set.

Overall, everything in the slush pile deserved to be there. I came across this one novel today however, which – in my inexperienced mind – showed promise. It was about a young girl who killed her abusive father. The whole concept struck a chord with my tortured soul, and seeing as though murder wasn’t a viable option for me in the real world, perhaps reading about a warped, sadistic bastard getting his comeuppance was the next best thing. Anyway, I popped the manuscript in my bag and planned to read it through at home.

Being in the office, surrounded by books and manuscripts made me realise how much I missed reading. I’d barely read anything at all since moving in with Richard. I hadn’t needed to – I’d been too busy living my own happy ever after. There and then I made a silent promise to make the effort, vowing to read not because I
needed
to, but because I
wanted
to.