Vitale's End

Cocky

Monday morning came much too quickly for my liking. All of Sunday, Lorelei and I nursed our hangovers. By the time I was feeling better, I started getting everything ready for my first day of work. Which was bound to have some level of awkward tension around it since my boss saw me clubbing.

I was still annoyed at my whole encounter with him. After all, I was celebrating getting a new job. It wasn't like I was on the clock. I don't know why he felt he had the audacity to say something like that to me, but I sure didn't like it.

Nevertheless, I showered, drying my hair before pulling the top half back to keep it out of my face at work. I slipped on another black dress, thinking it was formal for the business setting. Then, after securing my knife to my thigh, I slipped on my heels and headed out the door.

I walked the two blocks to work instead of catching a cab. You never know who's driving those things. Besides, it would have been quicker to walk with the morning traffic anyway.

I let a mischievous grin pull on my lips when I saw Janine sitting at the receptionists' desk, "Hi, Janine."

"Hello," she gave a tight-lipped smile in return. It was going to be so fun working around her.

I could feel nerves bouncing around in my stomach as I took the elevator to the 78th floor. This was it. This was my first day at a job I got on my own. If I could keep this job, I could make it on my own as long as I could keep myself hidden.

Keeping my hands folded in front of me, I walked toward that familiar set of double doors, knocking lightly before entering.

"Ms. Kennedy, how are you this morning?" Mr. Vitale asked, not even looking up from the papers he was signing.

"I'm doing well, thank you," I nodded, standing at the edge of his desk.

"You're office is just out my doors to your left. It's decorated the same as the rest of the building, and I have left you some reports to look over. If you would like, you can try putting it in the system. If you can't figure it out," He looked up, leaning back in his chair with amusement-lined eyes. "We can go over that later. This will also let me see where you're at with everything you said you could do."

"Yes, Mr. Vitale," I nodded with a polite grin. However, when I turned, my eyes rolled. His arrogance was practically pulsing off of him. His smirk proved that he didn't believe I could do what I said I could.

I left his office, turning left into my own, "Wow."

This office was much larger than I would have expected. I expected a small office, with a tiny desk and no windows. This, however, was large, with a large black desk, a white rug beneath it, a comfy yet luxurious black leather swivel chair, and the furthest wall from the entrance was made entirely of windows. It resembled Mr. Vitale's. However, I had one wall of windows, and he had three.

Tracing my finger along the edge of my desk, I sat in the comfy swivel chair behind the desk, my desk. The set of reports sat stacked in a neat pile in the center of my desk. A Macbook sat just next to it.

Looking between the stack of papers and my new laptop, a wave of determination spread through me. "Let's do this."

I spent hours filing through reports, entering them into the system, just to move on to the next one. The system wasn't complicated. It was similar to the one my family used with minor tweaks here and there.

I stopped for lunch around one-thirty. Mr. Vitale told me that someone on the lower floors often brought in lunch for everyone in one of the break rooms if I chose to eat with the others. If not, I had thirty minutes to be back at work.