Just then, Ian’s office door opened. He stepped out, wearing a completely different outfit than he had before. Except the shirt—that was the same.
He seemed surprised to see me there. “Oh,” he said. “Where’s Jonathan?”
“He’s in his office. He had to take a call.”
“Did you just answer the phone?”
“I did. I wasn’t sure if you were going to get it or not—”
“I wasn’t. Which is why we hired you.”
“Yes, I know.”
“And how did you answer the phone?”
I looked at him. “How did I answer it? What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I just said. What did you say when you answered the phone?”
“Oh. Well, Jonathan didn’t tell me what to say, but I think I said something along the lines of, Hello, Hard Tail Security, this is Daisy.”
He nodded. “That works. You don’t need to identify yourself, though. In fact, I’d prefer you didn’t.”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ve always done so in the past because it makes it a little more personable, but I don’t have to keep doing it.”
“The secretary doesn’t need to get personable with the clients,” he said. “Unless I decide she does, at which point, I will let you know. What else did Jonathan go over with you?”
“Um . . . not too much yet. I think he’s going to do more when he gets done with the phone call. I’m really sorry about spilling the coffee like that, by the way. Are your pants okay?” I had meant to ask if he was okay, but ended up saying that instead.
He gave me a funny look. “Uh, yeah, they’re great,” he said. “They were really hoping to go for that antiquated look that only spilled coffee can seem to achieve.”
I smiled; he didn’t. Great. I snuck a glance toward Jonathan’s office, though he showed no signs of reappearing. Ian followed my gaze, a bemused expression on his face.
“The main things we’d like you to do here are answer the phones, make sure the place stays neat, so that means filing any paperwork, restocking supplies as necessary, emptying the trash. Jonathan and I will periodically have a list of things for you to do aside from what I just mentioned, but I think it’d be good for you to start with the basics.”
“Sure,” I said. “I can definitely handle all of that.”
He nodded. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”
Chapter Five
Ian
I spent the rest of the day in my office with the door open, so I could overhear everything that Jonathan and Daisy talked about. It was quaint, really, sort of like listening to “How Not To Get A Girl Interested In You.” It was almost unbelievable how badly he sucked at flirting. I mean, it was painful for me, and I was just eavesdropping.
It got so bad that at four-thirty, I made my way out of the office and told Daisy she could take off early. She was sitting at the desk, pen in hand, file folders separated into different piles in front of her.
“Oh,” she said. “I was just going to file these, and then I’ll go. Does the day usually end now?”
“Not usually,” I said. “So tomorrow you can expect to be here longer. But for your first day, I think it’s good if you ease into it. If you want to file those before you go, you can.”
“Okay, I’ll do that first.”
She got up, smoothing her skirt down, even though it wasn’t rumpled, and took the files.
“You’re doing great, Daisy,” Jonathan said, as though he were her life coach or something.
He was trying not to hover, but he only lasted about two seconds before he made his way over to the filing cabinet.