Hi again! thanks for the great response guys, please keep reviewing! I promise the chapters will get longer, I just need to have a few short ones to establish the story.
It was 6 am and Belle sat on the floor of her new office, taking a drink of water and setting the paint roller she was holding back in the bucket. She had gotten the job with little contest. Mrs. Lucas had said that she was the only candidate with the right kind of attitude. Belle had settled in quickly, a week had passed and she had managed to meet almost everyone in the office, everyone was friendly and professional, though she still had yet to make any real friends. There was still one person she had yet to meet, her boss. On her first day at the job she had been under the delusion that Mrs. Lucas would be her boss, when Belle had mention something to that effect, she scoffed "far from it dear, I am assistant to your boss, Mr. Gold, Branch manager and major shareholder in the company. He at the headquarters in Scotland for two weeks, that's why was put in charge of hiring you". Belle had been shocked, Mrs. Lucas was only an assistant?
A week had passed since then and Belle still hadn't met the allusive Mr. Gold. She picked the paint roller up again, she had been given her own office just adjacent to the front desk, it was small but two of the walls were glass and they gave her a lovely view if the floor. She had always been an avid people watcher. After getting permission to paint her office she had come in very early that day to paint, arrange and truly make it her own. Though she wasn't allowed to paint it any colors that would compromise the style of the office floor or make any major architectural changes, she had decided on paining one wall a very soft blue with chalkboard paint. That way she could draw on the wall to appease her creative desire. She had also hauled an antique desk she had painted white into the small room. It was much prettier than the black metal one that came with the room.
As she finished up and was contemplating finding a bathroom to change into more work appropriate clothes (as her current ones were paint covered in paint) she heard a small "ahem". "oh hey Jefferson, what do you think?" Belle questioned, motioning to her lovely new office. "Well its certainly something else" he said with a teasing smile. Jefferson was the closest thing to a friend Belle had here. He was their IT man and therefore worked with Belle a lot as she was in charge of the overall function of the office. Though Jefferson had a daughter named Grace he was quite young and quite good looking. Belle may have been interested in him if it wasn't rumored that his marriage to Graces mother had ended because he was gay.
"Don't you think it's nice" Belle questioned. "It's quite lovely" he said, still with a teasing air "I'm sure the boss will love it when he gets here today". "He's coming back today" said Belle horrified. "yeah, we just got a large account so he decided to come back early to get started on it, there will be an office wide meeting about it at 11:00, so you'll get to meet the big man then". Belle was shocked, settling into her new job without a boss looming over her had been so nice, but that was about to end.
11:00 rolled around and Belle checked herself in the bathroom mirror. She wore a bale pink blouse tucked into a black leather knee length skater skirt, the tights and black high heel ankle boots made the outfit stylish, yet professional. She headed for the room she knew to be Mr. Gold's office "you ready for this" Jefferson said teasingly, opening the office door for her. She smiled at him, but said nothing.
The office she entered into was much larger than she could have ever imagined. One wall was made up entirely of windows and looked over the city, the majority of the room was taken up with a large conference table that most of the company now sat at. At the head of the table was an impeccably well-dressed older man whom Belle had never seen before, that must be him she thought. Belle Sat Down between Ariel and Jefferson. Ariel gave her what was supposed to be a reassuring smile but Belle couldn't shake the knot that had formed in her stomach.
"Well everyone it's good to see you all again" Mr. Gold said, standing up from the table "And hello to our new comer, Mrs. French is it?". "Yes" Belle managed, something that could have been butterflies burned her insides at being addressed directly.
The rest of the meeting was spent discussing the new account, Belle absorbed little of it, though it didn't really concern her anyway, she was only the office manager. As she left the meeting she couldn't shake the feeling that he was watching her as she exited. Practically running back to her office, she shut the door and tried to calm down. She was a lot more flustered then was really necessary.