Chapter 5
Tank POV
The control room was buzzing this morning and not because it was a Friday or the fact that it was New Year's Eve. No, the buzz was because a certain person was coming in for an interview and word had gotten out that it was the lady who makes the delicious treats. All in all the men did 60 extra miles and Vince got taken to the mats for indulging without asking the day after she visited. Hal racked up the most extra with seven, I only had to do one because by the time I was able to take a break from my paperwork they were all gone which I was quite disappointed about.
I had just finished reviewing the roster for the next two weeks when my phone rang and Junior at the front desk informed me that Ms. Plum was here. Normally Lester handled our interviews but since this position was directly under my supervision and eventually Ranger's when he returns so I wanted to be part of this one. I made my way to the conference room passing Lester on his way down to the lobby to greet her and bring her up.
A few minutes later a fairly tall slim brunette, a crazy head of curls and, just as Lester described, eyes that were as blue as the ocean walked into the room immediately extending her hand to greet me before I even managed to stand up. I introduced myself and noted her confidence in my notebook after we all sat down. The interview took about two hours. We started out talking about her previous work as a buyer which would come in handy for ordering supplies. Then we moved on to some of the other skills she had from business school and her internships which would be useful if we trained her to do payroll, scheduling, filing, and other procedural tasks. Overall her skill set would be a great fit and was exactly what we were looking for.
After we were done going over her skills she surprised us by asking several questions about the Rangeman business and the other offices. Although some of the things she asked were not quite public knowledge like when she started asking about Ranger and him being away on a government business and if that occurred often. I had to protect the privacy of Ranger so I put on my boss hat and questioned her about where she learned the information in case there was a breach. Her face turned a bright red color and she apologized several times for overstepping before explaining she had talked to Hector and her Dad about the company and the men who worked here. I assured her that it was okay since we knew her sources were reputable and did not mean any harm by sharing the information.
Lester led the next portion of the interview by asking some random questions like where do you see yourself in 3 and 5 years, what is your greatest weakness, and how do you handle working in a team. These questions didn't normally factor into a candidates possibility of being offered a position unless one of the answers was extremely concerning like they didn't like teams or their biggest weakness was they can't keep their mouth shut. Stephanie passed with flying colors.
In fact her optimism had me intrigued to how she would interact with the guys. I myself was typically one of the quieter men in the office but I couldn't help the feeling building within me to open up to her something I normally only felt when I was at home with my cats.
To wrap up the interview we went over the benefits of the job including salary range, vacation days, onsite apartment and amenities, and also the employment requirements. She got a worried look on her face when he mentioned mandatory exercise and carrying a firearm was highly encouraged but Lester told her that we could work out a deal since her job would entail little to no field work. I was ready to offer her the job but I needed to wait until we could bring Bobby into the conversation so we told Stephanie to expect a call from us by the end of next week with our decision.
Stephanie POV
I got a call on Monday from Lester informing me that he would like to officially offer me the position of office manager of the Rangeman Trenton branch. I accepted immediately and we worked out that I would start in a week since I would need to relocate to Trenton. One of the perks of Rangeman was that it came with an apartment but I decided to find my own place since I was hesitant to live in a building with a bunch of men I hadn't really met yet. Luckily my dad knew of a place on St. James and Dunworth that was about ten minutes from the office that had an open apartment.
I had called Hector immediately after talking with Lester and my Dad to let him know I got the job. On Wednesday Hector and Hal came to help me move. I decided after spending all day Thursday unpacking I would go shopping on Friday to pick out some new outfits for the office. Lester had mentioned that the dress code was all black so I definitely needed some new shirts since I only owned one office appropriate option currently. I called my best friend since high school, Mary Lou, to see if she would like to join me. She just had her first child so she was super excited to have a reason to get out the stroller other than a trip to the grocery store or a walk to the park.
We spent several hours at the mall and I was able to get six new shirts, two pairs of pants, three dresses, two new pairs of kitten heels, and one pair of combat boots. I also got some new lingerie. It wasn't like any of the men were going to see it but I wanted something to make me feel like a woman if I was gonna be surrounded by all of that testosterone everyday. I bid Mary Lou farewell in the parking lot and then made my way to my parents house for dinner.
It was just my parents tonight since my grandma was on a seniors trip in Atlantic City and my sister and her family had gone back to California. My Dad was absolutely ecstatic that I got the job at Rangeman. My mom was apprehensive about it but when my Dad told her that the men were good people and not to be rude she wisely kept the rest of her thoughts to herself. She decided to change the subject to her second favorite topic, my love life.
My mom was the one who had set me up with Dickie because his mom was in her book club and had mentioned to her that her son was looking for a burg wife. I didn't really want to be a burg wife but at the time I was still naive enough to feel obligated to make decisions based on her happiness. We didn't talk for six months after I broke off the engagement and the last two years I have been living in Newark so lucky for me I had been able to avoid her meddling in that part of my life again. Now that I am back I see that she will be intent on picking up her meddling ways. She had started talking about some young man who worked at the butcher shop who may be a good match. I shot a look at my dad and rolled my eyes, getting a chuckle out of him. After we had finished dessert of chocolate cake I took my leftovers and drove to my new apartment.
Hector was waiting for me in the parking lot and helped me carry everything upstairs. He also carried a box similar to that of when he visited my Newark apartment so that he could install new locks in this apartment too. After we were done we got chinese for dinner and watched my favorite movie ghostbusters. He had mentioned during our dinner that the guys really enjoyed the treats I had brought him so I decided to spend the weekend unpacking and making more for my first day at Rangeman.
On Monday, I pulled up to the Rangeman building and parked in spot number 5 as Lester had directed me to do. In spots one through four sat a mercedes, two porsches, and a truck. It was comforting to know that money was good in the security industry. I was 15 minutes early so I took a few moments to myself before getting out of the car with my treats and going to the lobby. The man at the desk was new this morning and introduced himself as Ram. His eyes got super wide and a smile broke out on his face when he noticed the boxes of treats but he didn't say anything and picked up the receiver to let Lester know I had arrived.
Lester led me up to Tank's office so we could go over the rest of the paperwork to officially make me an employee. The big man ushered us over to the small table in his office where he had everything laid out.
"Is there somewhere I could put these boxes down?" I asked. Tank looked up from his laptop to see the treat boxes before frowning. Oh boy, Did I do something wrong already?
"Welcome to Rangeman Stephanie. You can set them on my desk." He replied. I set them down and then took a seat in one of the chairs around the table. "Stephanie, before we dive into this paperwork you should know that sweets, junk food, and fast food are strictly prohibited from the premises, company policy."
"Oh gosh. It's not even an hour into my first day and I've already broken the rules. I'd understand if you want me to leave I'm so…" I started to apologize but was stopped by Tank.
"Since it is your first day and you were not aware of the rule I will let it pass but you'll have to leave them in your car the rest of the day." He stated with a blank face before. We stared at each other for a few more moments before he softened the crease in his forehead.
Once we got that out of the way we spent 3 hours signing waivers, nda's, and insurance forms before Lester came back to take me on a tour of the office before we all headed out for lunch. I was going to take my treat boxes with me but Tank said I could get them later.
The building was only seven stories but they were able to pack a ton of things into the building. The first floor held the garage, an event / retail space that was currently unused, and the lobby. The second floor consisted of conference rooms and cubicles for visiting employees including the lawyers and accountants who normally worked from home. The third floor held the IT office, the storage and staging area for all of the security equipment, and the medic office. Lester mentioned that Bobby the medic would be back next week so I would meet him then. The fourth floor held the employee apartments.
The fifth floor was conference rooms, what they called the control center for monitoring all of the accounts, the core team's office, and cubicles for all of the main employees. My cubicle was going to be the one closest to Tank and Rangers. The final two floors we didn't visit as they were the private apartments of the housekeeper Ella and her husband Luis, the building manager's apartment, and Tank, Lester, and Bobby's on-site apartments on the sixth floor leaving the entirety of the seventh floor to Ranger's private residence, considering the size of the building it must be huge. We ended the tour in the basement which held the gym and the gun range. There was also a sub basement but according to Lester I didn't need to worry about that.
We met several of the guys in the garage to head over to a pizza place called Shorty's on the side of Trenton I don't typically frequent. We had just finished ordering when Tank stood up to speak.
"Gentleman, today we welcome our newest employee Stephanie Plum. To celebrate she has brought us another round of treats and as an extra bonus you are not required to do extra miles in the gym to make up for eating them." He announced after pulling the boxes from behind his chair that I hadn't even noticed him bring inside. The men cheered at his announcement and immediately dug into the boxes.
I leaned over to whisper to him. "I thought you said they were prohibited?"
"I believe I said they were permitted on the premises, not that they were banned completely. You make a damn good brownie little girl. It'd be a shame to see them go to waste." He said a grin spread across his face and he popped a brownie into his mouth.