The 18th Floor

Chapter Six

Cyrene and Lucien's office floor plan

I wheel into the building and Madeline has my pass ready as promised at the front desk.

I feel like I'm in the opening of a cliché work movie as I make my way towards the elevators, everyone around me in freshly pressed suits and phones to their ears. Cancelling meetings, chasing clients, pushing deadlines.

I've hardly been here for five minutes and I already feel out of place. Breath Cyrene, just breathe. Amongst my snooping on the employees last night on LinkedIn, I did intensive research on the company last night. It's not that I went into the interview unprepared, I just didn't spend as much time researching the ins and outs as I did last night.

The focus is on real estate law and whilst the majority of people in the office are lawyers, like any other business they have their marketing, HR and finance departments both in house and some outsourced. Lucien said we can dress slightly less corporate, but I didn't want to risk it on my first day and opted for black trousers, without the tag this time, a simple white blouse and a trench coat on top rather than a blazer as it is slightly colder today, paired with a pair of low, black heels. I didn't go heavy on the makeup, but just a little something to brighten my undereye.

I get in the elevator and press the 18th floor and quickly withdraw my shaking hands back to my lap. Breathe. Whilst trying to turn around, a few more enter pressing different floors. Maybe I need to try and get in earlier because all these floors seem like they'll take forever to get to before I reach 18.
After 8 minutes in the elevator, I finally reach the 18th floor and I am the only one left. All the floors above us are still undergoing renovation, so I guess the only time someone will come up with me is if their a builder or they work on my floor.

My floor.

As I wheel out, I see Simon wonder between offices and turn to face me. "Moring Cyrene", he greets me.

"Morning Simon", I smile back and make my way over to him.

I follow him as he leads me back to Lucien's office, highlighting what I have on my agenda for the day. As I turn into the office, I see that Lucien really has had everything moved. Not that I doubted him, because if I did, I wouldn't have a desk right now, but looking around, the office is different from yesterday. Gone is the coffee table and leather seats, and instead there is a desk twin to Lucien's. Lucien's desk has moved from in front of the window to one side of the wall, with mine being directly opposite. On top, lays a new laptop, a notebook and a pot of pens.

"Oh wow", I say, not knowing what else to say, as I wheel myself behind the desk.

"Glad you like it. Lucien will be pleased to hear his efforts did not go unnoticed", Simon laughs lightly.

"Lucien did this all himself?", I ask Simon.

"Yes, he was here after work moving the furniture down to storage in the basement. Something about maintenance saying they wouldn't be able to shift it till next week, but since we planned for you to start today, he said he would handle it personally", Simon replied as it was nothing. Moving all the furniture to the basement.

"I'll have to thank him when I see him. Speaking of where is he? Do we all not start at 9?", I ask but regret it immediately. Who am I to question when my boss starts work?

Simon must sense my unease at the question I blurted out, but smiles as he says, "despite his work ethic, Lucien has a tendency to fall behind in life by 5 minutes, he should be here shortly".

I nod and smile back.

"I've set up your laptop with your details and your login. Your notebook also has a copy of all your passwords and information you may need. We have a meeting at 9:30 every Tuesday with the whole team to discuss the week and you'll meet Reid and Abbi today as well. Till then, familiarise yourself with your set up and I'm sure when Lucien is in, he will tell you more about what he wants you to do." Simon begins.

"Today might not be the most fun day. There's a still a lot of admin work we have to get through, which we would have normally handled beforehand, but that's no worry. Andddd, we have a bunch of boring online courses you have to do for safety and GDPR blah blah", he says apologetically.