After embellishing her resume, Valerie-a single mom-lands a job as an administrative assistant to the hottest, most entitled and obnoxious man she's ever met: Preston Cartwright, the CFO of the prestigious Cartwright & Sons Enterprises.
Several yea...
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Valerie is already in the office when I get there. She has a cup of coffee in her hand, staring at something on the computer screen. She's so into it she doesn't hear me coming. I'm considering saying something sarcastic about her finally figuring out the coffee machine, but for some strange reason, I don't go there.
Instead, I just say, "Good morning, Valerie." Which startles her.
"Hey," she says as she looks up, and then immediately corrects herself. "Good morning," she says instead, sounding more professional, and I'm surprised to see her cheeks go slightly pink.
Interesting.
That was not the kind of response I expected from her. She seems fiercely independent and not very intimidated by management or making mistakes. But then again, maybe she is doing something on the computer she shouldn't be and is worried that someone will find out.
That must be it. But it's not as though she can access anything terrible on the computer. Easton forgot he was on his work computer at home once and tried to get onto a porn website. It locked him out and simultaneously alerted our IT department. Luckily for him, they didn't involve our dad, just Andrew.
The IT guys had been mortified when they had to tell Andrew. He still laughs about it.
So, I'm not too worried. If she does something stupid, she'll be found out and it will be her ticket out of here. That thought makes me smile.
I'm in a good mood as I head into the kitchen and grab a cup of coffee. Someone brought in donuts, and since I had a good workout at the gym, I grab one. I'm on my way back to my office when Valerie calls my name.
"Yes." I stop and turn to her. She is no longer blushing. Her eyes are peering up at me from behind a pair of rose-colored eyeglass frames I haven't seen before, and there is a serious expression on her face.
"You have a meeting request for this afternoon from Peter regarding a Marramount account, and I see you have one scheduled for tomorrow as well with Mr. Demers. Is that a mistake? Is it supposed to be just one meeting?"
"Peter requested a meeting?"
"Yes." She nods and gestures to her computer screen. "He sent a request half an hour ago."
Now that was interesting. I hadn't told Peter about the meeting I had scheduled for Friday. So, either he'd heard from Demers, or there was something else he wanted to discuss. All I had asked him was to review the updated estimates and our budget. If he wanted to discuss it in person, it might be bad news.
"Accept the meeting," I tell her.
"Okay." She nods and clicks a button on her keyboard. "And keep tomorrow's meeting?"
"Yes." I take a step back to walk to my office but stop. I'll need to review the records we have before the meeting. "I need you to get me the file on this as soon as possible," I tell Valerie, "and print whatever notes are on the file, okay?"
