Bombay Mixx (6 page)

‘Hello, this is Nita from Accounting. Can I speak to Ms Hutchinson please?’ I asked in
my
most posh telephone voice. There was a pause and then she put me through, ‘Hello Sarah Hutchinson, speaking
.
’ ‘Hello, this is Nita from Accounting. I am calling on behalf of Mr. Angus Maguire who would like to request a meeting with you on
Monday 14th December 2009
?’ I heard a chuckle
.
‘
W
as she laughing at my telephone voice? Stuck up cow! I’m not from
Cambridge
but I thought my new telephone voice was very convincing
,
’ I thought angrily to myself as I waited for her response.

‘Yes, Monday the 14th is good for me, shall we say at
2pm
?’ she asked as she composed herself
.
‘
Y
es
,
that is fine. I will send you an email to confirm
,
’ I replied dryly and then went to end the call
.
‘
A
re you Angus’s new assistant then?’ she enquired this time with no laughter.

‘Yes I am,
’ I responded a little confused as to why she wouldn’t already know this?

‘Well it’s very nice to meet you. How are you finding accounting? Has Angus and Ann helped you settle in?’ ‘Ok maybe she isn’t a posh cow. She’s actually sounding a lot nicer now. Like she a
ctually cares! But everyone here
seems to be a little odd when you get a bit closer. Ann is a Sergeant Major in her spare time and well we all know about Angus! So let’s just test the water with this one but it doesn’t hurt to get friendly with the bosses in other departments, does it? I mean who knows she might have
a better job for me up there,
she’ll give me a fantastic promotion and I’ll be able to buy
all the fancy bath products, like
Anya
,
from Harrods and I’ll be able to walk into work with one of them high powered, really expensive suits, like the managers in Advertising and the dumb and dumber twins on reception wi
ll just look on in utter shock.

Ok enough daydreaming I thought as I realised I hadn’t actually answered her question
.
‘
E
veryone has been really nice and I’m just trying to find my feet but it shouldn’t take me long
,
’ I cheerily replied.

There was another pause as I heard someone come into her room for her signature and then she came back to me and chuckled, ‘well, if you want I could give you the low down on the whole company and give you some advice on how to succeed in the rat race they call AG Cathal
.
’ ‘
S
ounds great
,
’ I eagerly replied as visions of speedy promotions and shopping sprees sprang to mind
.
‘
H
ow about tonight after work? There’s a little bar down the road which does amazing cocktails and between
5-8pm
its buy 1 get 1 free
,
’ she asked temptingly
.
‘
O
h no! More alcohol on a work night? Ok I’ll just slowly drink 2 and then be home for
10pm
, right? Yep that’s what I’ll do!’ I thought as I agreed and ended the call.

The day seemed to go a lot quicker and as Angus went to various meetings, I was able to focus on completing all the work set
,
with Ann giving me glances every 10 minutes to make sure I was concentrating
and not making endless personal calls and emails like the previous assistant had done.

As it hit
4.45pm
, I started to pack up my desk and headed to the toilet to inspect my appearance for the evening ahead. I got to the ladies bathroom door and felt a hand on the back of my neck
.
‘
O
ne of my fantasies would be me and you getting passionate in the ladies bathroom here
,
’ it was Angus and his smutty chat up lines.

I moved away from him and tried not to look at him but unfortunately I could smell him and it made it even harder to try to be strong
.
‘
C
an I help you, Mr.
Maguire
?’ I asked sternly as I looked him in the eye and tried not to crack the confidence I was trying to display
.
‘
P
lease never ask that question Nita. Too many naughty thoughts spring to mind
,
’ he responded smoothly.

Even though he looked good enough to have there and then, I still felt like it was a test to see how professional I was and maybe this meeting with Sarah was too
,
so I continued, ‘I haven’t got time for this Mr. Maguire, I have meetings I need to attend so if there is nothing else, have a nice evening and I will see you at work tomorrow
.
’

The atmosphere changed suddenly and he started to laugh. I looked at him with a confused daze
.
‘
W
as this the moment he was going to tell me I’ve passed the test and it’s laughable
that
this Adonis would even spare me a second look?’ I pondered as he saw I wasn’t joining in with his amusement and
he
composed himself
.
‘Yeh I hear you have a meeting with Sarah from Research?’ unsure at why he found this so amusing, I tread carefully
.
‘
Y
es I do. Is this a problem?’ I retorted
.
‘
N
ope. Not at all. I now understand why you don’t want to get close to me. But have a great evening
,
’ he said as he smiled
.
‘
A
hhh now I get it. He thinks I’m going to the meeting to see if she has any jobs for me and thought I was using this position just as a stop gap to move on up to the place where he thinks I really want to be
,
which is Research. Well if this stops all the flirting then why not play along?’ I mused as I just said goodbye and got ready for the evening.

**********

The bar was darkly lit but
was very contemporary with dark walls, low
l
ighting, and a funky, multi coloured
bar, comfo
rtable soft leather sofas and
strong, clean lined
tables. ‘I think they we
re going for a sexy vampire
theme
,
’ I contemplated as I found Sarah tucked away in a corner of the room.

Sarah was a tall (maybe 5”9), sophisticated looking female. She was definitely a female all the other managers and associates seemed to be scared of.

I heard about Sarah yesterday from one of my colleagues who had a dispute with the way she spoke to him about a mistake he made on one of the accounts. Needless to say he did not make that mistake again.

I couldn’t believe she was this hard talking, ball breaking vixen who could scare the men of the office with one stern word
;
but that’s her profile in our office and I wanted to find out for myself if these were just lies made
up
by the men who wanted her job.

With an English rose completion, her dyed
,
sharply cut, shoulder length
black hair made her rose cheeks even more apparent, she sat there with a big smile on her face
.
‘
S
o glad you could make it. I hope you didn’t mind but I ordered for you already
,
’ she said gleefully as I examined the huge Mojito she pushed towards me as I sat down and took off my coat.

She was so easy to talk to.

As we laughed about work (especially Ann and her army approach to getting people to do the
ir job
), our family lives and relationships, I realised we had gone through 6 cocktails each and I was starting to see double.

On the sixth drink, I realised the joke
she told
about Angus and his old methods of trying to close a business deal with female associa
tes made my bladder scream
and I had to hurry to the toilet.

As I tried to find the toilet and hover above it with precision (well as much precision as possible when your blood may have actually now turned to pure alcohol!) I finally felt the relief which was much appreciated and a semi drunken state of mind came back to me as I composed myself and headed back out.

The bar had
got busier when I got back to my table and two men came over with two Martini’s.

One
of the me
n was dressed in a smart looking black suit, dark blond hair, a
dark coloured
tie and
had
very chiselled
features
. The other man had dark brown hair, a grey suit, black tie and was slightly shorter than his friend
,
but both were attractive.  

I straightened myself in the couch and smiled seductively (or so I thought but after six large cocktails you think your doing every
thing
perfectly!), th
en the blonde haired man put fresh
cocktails on the table and
said
, ‘
H
i. We saw you from the bar and you both looked like you were having such a great time we thought it would be nice to join you
?
’ his friend smile
d in agreement. I was just
about to answer
but Sarah’s mood changed rapidly.
‘
T
hank you for the drinks guys but we’re actually in the middle of a business meeting at the moment. Maybe next time?’ Sarah answered quickly.

The men smiled, nodded and went back to the bar
.
‘
W
ell that was a bit sharp. We haven’t spoke about work in a professional way since we got here. Are we going to start now? I really hope not as I’ve just dribbled some of the martini on my blouse and I really hope she hasn’t seen that!’ I considered as I pretended to brush some fluff off where the martini evidence was.

‘Sorry about that. I just thought we were having such a nice time getting to know each other that it might have been spoilt with the guys intruding. Well at least we got a free cocktail out of it
,
’ she giggled and although I was still a little perplexed by her reaction, I couldn’t help but join her in the laughter as we finished the cocktails and then decided to call it a night.

As
we stumbled to the bus stop, we were laughing uncontrollably
at how we were going to cope with the hangovers at work tomorrow
. ‘Well this is my stop
. Looks like it’s only gonna be 2 minutes…funny that, I think that’s what my last boyfriend did when we last slept together
,
’ I blurted out before feeling a flash of embarrassment.

There was an uncomfortable second of silence before Sarah looked at me shocked and then started to laugh loudly again.

We could hear the bus
approaching and she waited with me whilst it came. The doors opened and the other passengers
made their way onto the bus.
‘I’ve had a fantastic evening Neets. You’re such a great girl. I hope we can do it again soon. Maybe I could take you clubbing? I’m glad you’ve joined the company
,
’ she expressed as she closed in and gave me a drunken lunge hug. ‘That sounds great. I’ve had a great time too and I’m defo up for clubbing. You can be my new work
’
s
party
partner
,
’ I laughed.

However she didn’t laugh.

Instead she backed away and had a serious look on her face.

‘Oh no! Did I say something to offend her?’ I tried to think
,
as the past seven cocktails were now on the final level of blurring my thoughts.