Conflict of Interest

5: Elevating

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Seeing the basketball court in person was absolutely surreal as I stepped into the gym. The full court and even the walls of the room were themed with the colors red and black. Four women were currently playing a game and seemed to be taking it rather serious considering that they hadn't even noticed us coming in.

"Ah perfect Margaret's already here." Ms. West stated before walking towards the group of girls "Margaret!"

All four stopped dead in their tracks upon hearing Ms. West and one walked over to her smiling "Hello Ms. West, what can I do for you?"

She was remarkably gorgeous with vibrant electric blue eyes, tan skin, and long dark hair that cascaded in waves. As I watched on it was strange to see such a professional work dynamic playing out in the middle of this gym but it seemed so fitting to what I had learned in my research of The West Company.

"I wanted to introduce you to the new Marketing Intern, it's her first day here." Ms. West stated before they both turned their attention to me

"I'm Margaret Flint, one of the head marketing coordinators here at The West Company." She stated extending her hand out to me

I took her hand shaking it firmly "It's very nice to meet you I'm Harper Bardot."

She rescinded her hand and smiled at me "Well I'm definitely looking forward to working with you. I was excited when I heard we'd be getting a marketing intern."

"Thank you I'm definetely looking forward to working with you and everyone else as well!"

"I'm gonna get back to my game but I'll see you around and good luck with your first day!" Margaret said smiling at me

I smiled in return "Yeah I'll see you around and good luck with your game!"

Margaret ran back over to the others and I followed Ms. West back out to the hall.

She stopped and turned to me as soon as the door shut "You're extremely sociable aren't you?"

"What do you mean?" I questioned completely caught off guard by the question

She shook her head "Nothing, follow me."

I walked closely behind her and couldn't help but wonder what on earth had possessed her to ask me if I was sociable? Did I do or say something to suggest that, and even if I did why is it such a surprise?

The rest of the first floor was primarily the main lobby where customers could schedule appointments, file complaints, and ask questions. The second through thirtieth floor were all offices for the real estate agents and Ms. West luckily didn't make me tour each individually. The thirty-first floor was divided into the break room and nap room. The nap room was much less interesting than I had expected and was pretty much just a bunch of individual smaller rooms that only contained a bed in each.

The thirty second floor was HR, the thirty third through the thirty fifth were taken by the accounting and finance departments. The thirty sixth floor through the fourtieth floor were all designated to the marketing department. The IT department spanned from the forty first to the forty fifth floor and then operations management occupied the forty sixth to the forty ninth floor. The fiftieth floor was all management and then as I was trying to keep straight what was where she threw me for a real loop.

She leaned back against the wall continuing to casually explain the layout of the building as we slowly ascended to the fortieth floor "Now I'm only going to say this once and you are expected to listen and to never ever break this very simple rule. The fifty second floor through the sixtieth floor are all completely off limits to staff. You are to never, under any circumstances go to these floors and if you do I will be notified immediately through our security system. It's literally almost impossible to accidentally end up on one of these floors but if you did then you would need to stay on the elevator and not get off. Do you understand these rules because if not I can say them again."

"Yes ma'am I understand the rules." I stated feeling my heart beat increasing at the edge in her voice

She seemed to calm down immediately "Perfect."

Ding!

"Here we are, follow me please." She stated before leading me into a rather chaotic floor where many woman were all either talking or typing away furiously at their keyboards

I stayed close to her, half because I was scared I'd actually lose her in the chaos!

"It appears that Jane isn't at her desk at the moment, hold on a second." Ms. West stated before cupping her hands to her mouth and yelling loud enough to be heard in every corner of the floor "Attention everyone!" Suddenly the chatter and tip tapping of keys ceased "Has anyone seen Jane?"

"Right here." A blonde curly haired woman stated from a few desks away

She had been discussing something written on a paper with the young woman at the desk prior to our interruption.

"Return to what you were doing everyone!" Ms. West yelled before walking over toward Jane "Hello Jane, I've brought the intern to meet with you."

"Ah I see, it's very nice to meet you I'm Jane Jacobs, head of marketing." She smiled extending her hand out to me as countless people had throughout the day

Her almond eyes held a warmth to them, her fair skin covered in far more freckles than the secretary, Brenna, downstairs.

I took her hand shaking it firmly and smiled "It's very nice to meet you, I'm Harper Bardot."

"Ah Harper, I had bets on you getting picked." She smiled as she put her hands in her pockets "So what do you think of the top marketing floor?"

"It's a bit, um" I paused for a moment thinking of the best way to phrase it "It's a bit different than the other floors I've seen."

Both her and Ms. West started laughing and I can say with certainty that it was the first time I had seen Ms. West truly laugh.

"That's an understatement." Jane said between laughter

"I'll say," Ms. West added shaking her head "alright we'll we won't keep you any longer, good luck working on the Bernardo project."

"Thank you Ms. West," She smiled before turning to me "and very nice meeting you Harper."

"You as well." I smiled nodding to her before following Ms. West back to the elevator

Once the doors shut a question popped into my head and out my mouth before I had even processed it "How is it possible that the elevator can cater to this many people without constantly being backed up?"

Ms. West looked at me seeming taken aback for a moment before recovering "Well it's basically a super speed elevator, one of the fastest in the world and we've purposely taken measures to make it unnecessary to leave floors unless you absolutely need something only on another floor. There's also technically two elevators on one track but one only goes between my office and the forbidden floors and they're programmed not to be within two floors of one another. I mean at lunch it gets a little crazy at times but not too bad. There's also the stairs but those are a pain so most people don't use them."

It was interesting to hear her talk about something she didn't know the technicalities of and something about it made her seem more human.

"Interesting, and that's safe?" I questioned

She gave me a pointed look "Of course it is and we have maintenance check it twice a day as well."

"Good to know." I smiled

Ding!

I stepped out of the elevator onto the fifty first floor and felt like for the first time I had actually just had the upper hand during that elevator conversation, literally.

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