Novel Square
11
It was quite early when Elizabeth awoke. Drowsily she wiped the sleep from her eyes as she rolled over to look at her clock.
She groaned when she saw the lights flash 6:30. It had been three weeks since she had last set foot on the McGregor building. Yet she still awoke every morning at least an hour before she had to.
She swung her legs out of the bed as she sat up. She had never been particularly good at going back to sleep after she had woken up.
Her morning ritual had changed quite a lot. Finally, she actually had time to make breakfast and watch the news. After that she would leave the building at 8:30 and walk over to the star bucks on the corner. Here she would pick up two regular black coffee’s, one cappuccino and one vanilla latte, which had already been made for her.
She would smile, say hi to Ria, pay for the coffee and be on her way again. Then at 8:45 she would walk into the building and into the elevator and up to the 14th floor.
“Morning Paul.” She said to the receptionist as she set down one of the black coffees on the counter. “Morning honey, it’s such a lovely day isn’t it?” He said smiling. “It always is when I see you, sweetie.” Elizabeth laughed as she walked towards her office.
Down the hall on the right was a bright office with three desks, one for Elizabeth, One for Oscar and one for Hailey. She set down the vanilla latte on Hailey’s desk and the cappuccino on Oscar’s. As she walked over to her own desk.
The two of them usually wouldn’t come in until 9 and that was also true for today. It had been only three weeks since she started, but she knew that those two might actually be some good friends.
The two of them started the day with their usual banter as Elizabeth went about her work. Everything went as usual when the phone rang. On it, she saw Natalie’s name flashing and with a smile she picked up.
“Hey! How are you?” She said in a cheery voice.
“Elizabeth! I need your help honey!” Natalie said panicking. “Calm down, what’s going on?” She said shushing Oscar and Hailey. “The gala! I know I know, it’s tonight. But there are some problems. The Ritz had a fire and we can’t use the venue.” Elizabeth groaned.
“Mr. Moreno said that he can’t make it and Mr. McGregor hasn’t even found himself a date yet.” She continued.
“But Moreno is the biggest contributor,” Elizabeth said. “We can’t afford to lose that. I mean you can’t. O, God…”
“Alright here’s what you do, you call the Four Seasons and ask for Red. Then offer them twice the money as the Ritz and that should fix that. I’ll call Moreno and get that fixed and you’ve got to be Mr. McGregor’s date.” Elizabeth started writing herself a memo to call Moreno.
“Ok. I can do that!” Natalie said cheerfully on the other end of the line. “But what will Jack say about that?” She said. “Nat, your boyfriend will be fine, just trust me,” Elizabeth said.
“Alright, thank you thank you thank you! I gotta go! Bye!” She yelled in one breath before hanging up the phone.
Elizabeth sighed and sat back.
“My my, so that’s the perfect assistant,” Oscar said clapping and laughing, causing Elizabeth to look up.
“Perfect Assistant?” She said with a smile.
“O come on, the boss told all of us the stories when you were coming,” Hailey said. “I mean not the stories but how every big shot in the city wants you to be at their beck and call.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Well, I did get some nice offers.”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
The three of them talked for a minute before returning back to work and they worked until around noon. Then the second the lunch break started Elizabeth dialed Mr. Moreno’s number.
“Good afternoon Mr. Moreno, this is Ms. Waverton.” She greeted him.
“Ahh Ms. Waverton, you had me wondering who knew my personal number.” He said cheerfully.
Elizabeth laughed and said. “I heard you can’t make it tonight?”
“O come on Elizabeth, you know I am a busy man.” He laughed
“Too busy to have lunch with me?”
“That never. But I don’t think we can get a reservation at this time… Do you still have your magic touch, when it comes to that?” He inquired.
“I still do. Meet me at 13:00 at the Pompadour.” She laughed.
The two of them met at exactly that time and hugged each other. They went over to their table and started talking about all kinds of things when suddenly another man entered the restaurant.
“Ah, Mr. McGregor!” Moreno said happily. “I seem to have found an old employee of yours.” Elizabeth stiffened as she felt his presence behind her.
“Mr. Moreno it’s nice to see you again. Elizabeth.” He gave a curt nod to Elizabeth as he walked around her and over to Moreno.
The two of them shook hands and spoke for a second in hushed voices before he went over to his own table.
Elizabeth shifted awkwardly as Moreno turned to talk to her again. After they finished lunch and Moreno had promised her he would be at the gala tonight she went back to work.
The rest of the day seemed to be quite normal and uneventful until around eight o’clock. Elizabeth was sitting on her couch when the phone rang once more.
“Elizabeth! I’m at the hospital, Jack was in an accident! I can’t go to the gala.” She yelled. “Calm down Nat! Stay with him and forget about the gala! I’ll fix it!” She said.
“No Elizabeth, I can’t ask that of you! I… I… just don’t know what to do…” She said breathing heavily.
“I know saying this usually doesn’t help, but calm down. I’ll take care of it, stay with Jack. It will be alright.”
“Alright…” Natalie breathed, “Thank you.”
Elizabeth sighed as she put down the phone. How am I gonna find that man a date to show to the cameras?