Chapter 2

David's callers were mostly publishers and advertisers. A few models and a television actress called after every half-an-hour to ask me if he was available for dinner tonight. I had to tell all of them what David had asked me to: that he was having dinner with his family tonight.

Before lunch break I realized I haven't met any of the staff members. Just as soon as this thought crossed my mind, the receptionist I met in the morning came to my desk.

'Where did you get those shoes from?' she asked.

'Umm..,' I hesitated.

'Are they from Barneys, or Bloomingdale's?'

'Well, actually they're from Macy's,' I replied with a nervous laugh.

'Eww… I hate that place. But I see that they do have some good stuffs there,' she replied.

I didn't know what to say in reply so I just sat there.

'I'm Gabriella Munéz, the receptionist here.'

'Yeah, we met this morning. I'm Bella Swan. It's nice to meet you.'

'Take it easy, newbie, no need to get all chummy. Now if you'll kindly get your back of that chair, it's almost lunch and I'd like to introduce you to the others.'

'Thanks, it's very nice of you, and I really appreciate it,' I replied gratefully.

'Hmm,' she nodded. Then suddenly turned towards me and snapped:

'What is up with that hair? You're not in church, remember?'

'I thought I'd be more professional on my first day,' I replied weakly.

'Then you've got a lot of things to learn here, sweetie.'

With that, she yanked out my hair-band, letting all my hair down.

'Better,' she replied, smirking.

The cafeteria was overly crowded. It seemed like almost half of Manhattan was lunching there. Gabriella rushed to one of the less-crowded tables and I followed her. I quickly found a seat next a guy with straightened hair falling on his forehead, with a few light brown highlights in it. I noticed he had a little lip-gloss on and I bit my lip to hide a smile, realizing that this was the fashion industry after-all.

On my other side sat a woman in her early 40s, with a kind face. On the other side of the table, I saw Gabriella already engaged in a conversation with a black woman in her 30s, sitting next to her. On Gabriella's other side was a young girl who looked about my age, in her early 20s, and she was touching up her face with a little bit of make-up.

Suddenly, the guy next to me exclaimed, 'Who are you and what are you wearing?'

I suddenly became conscious of my clothes and stuttered 'I'm David Gordon's new assistant.'

'Sorry guys, I didn't introduce her. Meet Bella. She's new here,' replied Gabriella.

'Oh!' the guy sighed, 'So that explains you choice of clothes. I'd forgotten that 'Arrogant Mr. Know-it-all' approves people with boring preference of clothes. I'm Eric Hannigan, by the way, Fashion Designer of this magazine,' he said proudly, motioning his hands around the room.

I shook hands with him and turned to look at the woman on my other side.

'I'm Grace Mayer, Eric's assistant and best friend.' She dropped her voice and said, 'Don't worry about Eric. He's been unable to stand David ever since he rejected Eric's original designs for our Fall/Winter Collection last year and asked him to make new ones. Seriously, I don't blame David either. I mean, who would wear feathers on business suits?'

I smiled at this and turned to the others. The woman sitting next to Gabriella put her hands forward and said 'Hi, I'm Michelle Robinson, the Art Director. And that's Olivia Turner, the seamstress.'

The girl named Olivia was the one who looked about my age. She was now texting away madly on her mobile phone and as her name was mentioned, she raised her free hand in response.

Next, everyone got up to get the food. I was really excited about this part because I am a really enthusiastic person when it comes to food. I rushed to the table where a wide variety of food was arranged and was disappointed to see that none of them met my appetite. Judging from my queasy look, Grace replied 'That's all they eat in here, to stay in shape,' she mocked. I noted that all that the cafeteria provided was salad, coleslaw, spinach sandwich, potato salad, fruit salad and yoghurt. These were the basic items; of course there were another ten types of salads, yoghurts of fifteen flavours, fruit salads with different variations of fruits – basically food that I find to be unappealing. I grabbed a bottle of juice and a box of fruit salad and went to join the others at the table.

The others were eyeing me curiously as I nibbled at my salad. Finally, Eric said,

'Let me guess, you are not a big fan of salad.'

'Or any other raw stuffs for that matter. This is just a side meal for me,' I replied.

'Oooh,' he took a sharp of breath.

'And judging from your reactions, I guess you've never met someone who doesn't like eating salad,' I said with a sigh.

'So what do you eat, anyway?' Olivia asked.

'You know, usual stuff, chicken, rice, burgers.'

'Oh Darling, that's like a sweet fantasy in the fashion world, something we like to dream about at night- eating carbs,' Eric said.

Michelle came to my rescue saying, 'These people are exaggerating. Surely everyone here doesn't survive by eating grass.' Eric and Olivia rolled their eyes in response. 'Grace and I are with you. So is Gabriella, on the days she doesn't have mood-swings.'

At that moment my mobile phone rang, and I fumbled inside my bag to receive the call.

'Hey.' It was David.

'Yes, David? Do you need something?'

'Actually, yes. I know it's your first day and it's my mistake that I didn't tell you, but as my assistant, part of your job is to bring me my lunch.'

'David, you should've called me earlier. What can I get you?' I asked, pushing away my half-eaten lunch, glad for the distraction that he'd caused.

'Get me a caramel macchiato from Starbucks and a double cheese burger from McDonalds.'

'Coming right up,' I said hanging up the phone.

I rushed downstairs and remembered there was a McDonalds just round the corner. While the guy made the burger, I asked him if there was a Starbucks nearby and he showed me its direction.

I ran to get the coffee and when I got back, I found that the burger was ready. The packets were too hot to carry but I managed to the office building in ten minutes. By the time I reached David's office, lunch time was almost over and I was breathless.

'Go on then,' David suddenly said, while munching on his burger.

'Excuse me?' I asked, baffled.

'Aren't you going to lecture me on how I should drink less caffeine and eat more salads and stuff?' he inquired.

I laughed.

'Seriously, I'm the last person to give you that advice, believe me. In fact, my colleagues were giving me an earful about how they dream about having the stuffs I eat on a regular day basis,' I replied.

'Phew,' he said, clearly relieved. 'That's one thing you and I have in common.'