Early Impressions Part I
"I'm Monty Lattimore." Monty reaches across the desk to shake Ted's hand.
"Nice to meet you Monty." Ted says shaking his hand. "I'm Ted, the main assistant here at Jabot. I work closely with the CEO Jack as well as other executives here."
"Nice to meet you Ted." Monty says flashing him a big smile. Monty was happy to be starting his first day at Jabot and was dressed to impress in a very sharp navy colored suit. Him and Ted chat for a bit more and then Ted directs him to one of the meetings rooms where him and the other young people who had been hired would meet with Jack and Billy on their first day of work.
On his way down the hall to the room, he walks by Gloria. He flashes her a smile and nods and says hello to her. Gloria stops for a moment to stare and talk to him. Monty stops to see what she wants to talk about.
"Why Helloooo..." Gloria says. She reaches out and shakes his hand. "I'm Gloria, I work very closely with our CEO Jack here." She informs Monty. "And you are... one of our new young executive trainees who we have hired to join our team? I'm guessing." She asks looking up into his very handsome face and smiling.
"Yes, ma'am." Monty says smiling at her. "I'm Monty Lattimore."
Gloria waves her hand. "Oh, you don't have to call me ma'am, Gloria is just fine, darling." She tells him. They talk for a bit more.
"Well, welcome to Jabot. Happy to see you join our team." Gloria says as they end their conversation.
"Thank you." Monty says and they part ways. As he walks away Gloria watches him for a moment and smiles.
"Ummm." She says smiling and puts her hand to her face thinking for a moment.
She makes her way up to the front and talks to Ted.
"Hi, Ted." She greets him.
"Hi, Gloria." Ted says greeting her.
"Is Jack in yet?" She asks.
"He is actually in Billy's office talking with him a bit, before they head to the meeting room and talk with our new hires." He informs her.
Gloria nods. "Okay… Well I met one just a few moments ago. Monty…" She tells Ted, smiling.
"Very polite and a very handsome young man. I mean, whooo..." Gloria remarks. "I guess we're hiring models, now..." she jokes.
Ted raises his eyebrows and tries his best not to laugh. "I met him too. He seems like a nice guy."
Gloria nods. "Yes, he does." Gloria and Ted talk a bit more and then Gloria goes off to complete some tasks.
By this time Monty has made his way to the meeting room. He steps inside and sees two other young people in there. They are talking to each other. He walks over and introduces himself.
"Hello." He says to them. They smile at him. He reaches out and shakes one of their hands.
"I am Monty Lattimore". He says to one of them.
"Nice to meet you Monty." The pretty young woman says shaking his hand.
"My name is Valentina Alvarez." She tells him.
Valentina was a young Latina lady in her early 20s. She has fair skin, long dark brown hair and pretty dark brown eyes. She was short in stature and had a little bit of a curvy figure. She was an intelligent, confident, ambitious young woman and was looking forward to starting her career at Jabot. The next person who Monty shakes hands with is another young 20 something male, a 5'11 young white man with dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing glasses and was wearing a light grey suit. He was also an intelligent young person that was friendly but also serious about his career. He was excited to work at Jabot as well.
"Hi, my name is Boyd Denver." The young man says shaking Monty's hand and smiling. The three young people talk amongst themselves. While they are doing that Jack and Billy enter the room. The three young people turn to look at them.
Jack flashes them a smile.
"Hello, everyone." He says greeting them. "I am glad to see you guys here. Welcome to Jabot." The young people smile at him and go over and shake his and Billy's hands, introducing themselves.
Once they are done, the young people move more towards the center of the room.
"Everyone we have some refreshments set out for you. Feel free to grab, some and take a seat. Billy and I will start talking to you a bit about some important facts about the history of our company, our expectations and goals for you." Jack pauses and then continues.
"And some of the latest projects that we are working on now that we want to have you contribute to right away. We want to hit the ground running with you guys. And we believe we have hired a great set of young people."
Jack then indicates to the table in the room that has food and drink on it. "So please, don't be shy. Grab you something to eat, have a seat and we can start getting down to business." The young people make their way over to the table and each grab a plate, puts food on it and grabs a drink and goes sit down at another table. After they are settled and eat some, Jack begins talking to them.
"We are very glad to have you guys here with us." He turns to look at Billy and smiles. "We believe that we have hired some of the best and brightest young people out there and we are looking forward to having you on our team."
Billy then talks. "We will be counting on you guys to help us continue to take Jabot into the future. We have some exciting new projects going on and we want you guys to help us launch them. If we all work together, we can do great things." Billy tells them optimistically.
"That's right. We are all a team. And together we really can accomplish a lot." Jack repeats. He then talks with the group a bit about the history of Jabot and his father's legacy. They take in what he is saying and about how the company means to him and to their employees and consumers. He then starts to tell them about some new projects they have coming up.
"Our apparel line Jabot Collective has been a great success and addition for us." Jack informs the group proudly. This line has been thriving for us for almost two years." He pauses for a moment and then continues. "And we are now adding some new clothing collections to this line. We are adding new summer collections, that will include swim wear. And we are also preparing to introduce new collections of fall clothing."
"We would like you guys to help us market these new collections." Billy tells the group. "We want to hear your fresh ideas and input on how we can better market these collections..." He gestures with his hands. "We want to hear your suggestions on what tools we can use to help market these products to a mass audience, including young people."
"So…" Jack says looking at Billy and smiling. "We are going to assign you guys to help us market and promote these collections. We're going to get you right into the thick of things."
"You'll mostly be reporting to me." Billy tells the group. "And also, Jack at times, but we are going to trust you guys to really do a lot of the leg work for marketing for these new clothing items. You are a very bright group of people and we wouldn't have hired you if we didn't think otherwise."
"So, Billy and I have decided to put you in pairs, one to handle the introduction of our new summer clothes, including our swimwear."
"And the other pair will focus on working on our fall collections, which we wanted to jump start." Jack looks at the group. "So, there are four of you." He then pauses for a moment and makes a face. "Wait, there is supposed to be four of you, but someone is missing…"
Just then Mattie comes through the door with a very frustrated and apologetic look on her face. She looks at Jack and Billy and apologizes. "I'm so sorry I am late." She says apologetically. "But something happened with my car this morning…. and I just got through dealing with that. I am very sorry for being late." She apologizes again.
Jack and Billy share a look and then Jack smiles. "That's okay, Mattie. Are you okay?" He asks concerned.
Mattie nods. "I am now." She says. "But it's been a very hectic morning."
While this is going on, Valentina leans over to Monty and remarks. "She definitely looks a bit frayed."
Monty makes a face, thinking after he hears Valentina's comment and he takes in Mattie. He noticed that she was pretty and was well dressed, but that she did indeed look frayed. Jack nods understanding. "I have had those before." He gestures towards the table where the other young people were sitting. "Have a seat." He instructs her.
"You can also get some food and drink on your way over there." Billy tells her kindly.
Mattie nods but bypasses the food table and takes her stuff and heads over to the table where the rest of the young people were sitting. She was frustrated by how her morning had started out and embarrassed that she was late. She was usually on top of things and had wanted to make a good impression on her first day at work. But things had not worked out the way she had hoped.
Mattie heads over and sits beside Monty. puts her some stuff on the desk and her purse beside her chair. A couple of the pens she bought slip onto the floor and she sighs. They fall near Monty and he picks them up and puts them on the table for her. Mattie finally gets her stuff situated and sits down, trying to fully gain her composure. She looks down at her things for a moment and takes a breath thinking. Right after she does this Monty leans towards her a little and asks:
"Would you like something to drink? Or eat?" He asks her helpfully. "I could go get you something if you like."
"No thank you." Mattie says not even looking at him. She was still trying to compose herself. "I'm not hungry."
"Okay…" Monty says and leans away from her. He shrugs his shoulders and faces his attention back to Jack and Billy. Mattie faces her attention to them as well.
They start up talking again. "So now that Mattie has joined us, I will just fill her in on a little of what were just talking about." Jack fills Mattie in on some important details and then turns the discussion back to the marketing of the new collections. "So, like we were saying you are going to be paired off in groups of two and assigned to help promote and market these collections."
"I hope we get to work together." Valentina says leaning towards Monty. He looks at her and smiles.
"So, I guess the best way to do this is..." Billy looks at the group. "Maybe just pair you off." He looks at Valentina and Boyd, "You guys can work on our fall collections." He says to them and Valentina frowns a bit, disappointed she wouldn't' be working with Monty. He then looks at Mattie and Monty.
"And you two guys can help market and promote our Summer collections." He instructs. Monty turns to look at Mattie and she finally turns and looks at him. She looks at his face and notices that he is very handsome. He smiles at her and she puffs out her cheeks and cautiously returns his smile.
He reaches out and shakes her hand. "I'm Monty Lattimore." He says officially introducing himself to her.
"I'm Mattie Ashby." Mattie says taking his hand and shaking it. They look at each other a little more and then turn their attention to Billy and Jack when they start talking again.
"Okay, then, now that we have determined our pairs and assignments... We are going to give you guys some information about our new collections and we will really start to get the ball rolling this week." Billy says clapping his hands together.
"We look forward to working with you guys and I think we are going to make magic together." Jack says smiling at the group. Him and Billy continue to talk some more with the group, and they start to map and plan out the tasks they would like the young people to do regarding the new collections. Everyone in the room is optimistic about working together to get them launched.