Charlotte was, to put it mildly, not a girl who was going to be intimidated. Working in her industry simply didn't allow for any uncharted moments of weakness of even the possibility of letting her guard down for a second. She hadn't managed to claw her way to her dream job through niceties and her warm demeanor, she had got there through sheer hard work and more ruthlessness than anyone should need. Working as a PA to Stephanie McMahon was never a walk in the park and nor did Charlotte feel it should be. Stephanie was intelligent, articulate and refused to answer to anyone except her father and while most people found that terrifying to Charlotte it made perfect sense. Striding through the backstage of the various arenas they visited, keeping perfectly matched pace with Stephanie was absolutely where she was meant to be. It was as if every piece of her intricately assembled puzzle was now in place and she felt entirely content.
Charlotte had been in her position for 2 years now and so was beginning to get accustomed to her monthly performance reviews. While not exactly intimidated by Stephanie she was certainly the closest anyone got to making Charlotte feel uncomfortable and that was bad enough as far as she was concerned. Sitting in the hallway outside Stephanie's main office in Stamford Charlotte waited slightly impatiently to be called in for her review. Although she appreciated the theory behind these annual meetings she felt that, given her exemplary record and undeniable skills in her job these reviews were somewhat of a formality for her and, given the huge amount of work she had to keep up with in the run up to Survivor Series, also a completely ineffective use of her time. If it was up to her….
"Ahem, when you're ready"
Her thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of her boss. Looking surprised to find the usually focussed Charlotte lost in her thoughts Stephanie stepped aside to let her assistant enter the room and take her seat.
"Well, as you know I usually start these things by giving you an overview of how we feel you've performed over the last year but to be blunt that's an absolute waste of both our time. You've far exceeded anything we could have expected of you Charlotte and you've been an unbelievable help these last 2 years…"
Something about that last sentence didn't seem to be quite sitting right, it just seemed so final, was she being fired?
"… You've not just performed in your PA role but your assistance in the direction of the company has not gone unnoticed, your input on the creative side of things has been an absolute blessing for us and the board and I feel like you're being wasted as a resource in your current role."
"You're firing me for being too good at my job?" exclaimed Charlotte disbelievingly.
"Oh dear god no, not at all, far from it. We'd like to offer you a new position within the company. As you know we're focussing a great deal of time and money on the regeneration of our developmental programme. We firmly believe that NXT is the future of the company and as such it's going to be used not just as a training environment for the in-ring talent but also for the backstage team as well" explained the older woman somewhat vaguely.
"I really don't see where you're going with this …" Charlotte began before being cut off by Stephanie's continued explanation.
"To put you out of your misery and cut a long story short Charlotte we'd like to offer you a creative role within NXT. It's somewhat an amalgamation of your existing role and the writer position I'd like to see you eventually end up in."
"You're offering me a role in creative?" questioned Charlotte astonished. She loved her job and working for WWE was fulfilling a lifelong dream but she was not by any stretch a writer. She had never written as much as a diary since she was 12 and now she was being handed one of the most sought after roles in the business. She was, for possibly the first time ever, at an absolute loss for words.
"Technically, no" explained Stephanie patiently, "You'll still be employed as my PA but we're putting you on secondment to NXT for a few months, you'll be working with the writers and developing talent but I'm also sending you as a peacekeeper. Developmental has been a mess for years and we're hoping to finally bring it together as a cohesive part of the brand with the launch of NXT and to be blunt they could use someone as meticulous and organised as you down there to help whip that office into shape as badly as we need you down there helping the writers keep on track with the direction we want them to be taking these guys in."
Charlotte stared at her in stunned silence for several minutes before taking a final deep breath, taking her pen and neatly printing a signature on the bottom of the paperwork Stephanie had slipped over to her while she was waiting for a response.
The older woman's face lit up in an approving smile and she quickly began explaining the many and varied duties Charlotte would have down in Orlando while Charlotte simply sat in stunned silence at the opportunity she had just been given.