I Need to Forget The CEO!!

Chapter 5 - Under Pressure

After I jotted everyone's orders down on my notepad, I took my employee ID and I went into the company's cafe, conveniently inside the Maddox building, and carefully repeated each individuals order. It took about 10 minutes to get every item correct, not because of the amount of drinks, but because of the many orders ahead of mine. I should be getting used to working in a big company soon.

The company's cafe was about the size of a high school cafeteria, or maybe even a large buffet. The walls were trimmed in gold and brown accents-the floor with beautiful white marbled tile. Mr. Maddox most definitely takes design seriously. His vehicles are well-known for their beauty and luxury.

I honestly never planned on working for such a company. I never had any interest in auto-motives during my lifetime, unless I knew it was fancy and expensive. You can call it shallow but I think it's smart. I'm sure anyone gets excited seeing a brand name in the stores or driving by. When I was job searching after graduating Yale as a business major, I didn't plan on anything extraordinary right away. I know Yale looks great on a resume, but ten years of work at a successful company looks better. I fully expected to be rejected from most of the jobs I applied for, and I was.

But, I came across an advertisement for an office assistant. There was no company name, no organization-it only said that the pay will be high and the job was sought after. It may have been stupid at the time, since it was labeled as only an office assistant, but I applied. I got an email back a few days later that I almost thought was a scam.

"𝙳𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝙼𝚒𝚜𝚜 𝙻𝚢𝚛𝚒𝚌 𝙱𝚎𝚊𝚞,

𝙸 𝚊𝚖 𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚘𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚊𝚌𝚌𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚎𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚘𝚢𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚊𝚝 𝙼𝚊𝚍𝚍𝚘𝚡 𝙰𝚞𝚝𝚘𝚖𝚘𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎. 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚏𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚒𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝟸𝚗𝚍. 𝙿𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚊𝚝 𝟼:𝟹𝟶 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚜𝚒𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍. 𝙱𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚍𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔. 𝙿𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚗.

𝙱𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚁𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚜,

𝓔𝓷𝔃𝓸 𝓜𝓪𝓭𝓭𝓸𝔁

𝙴𝚗𝚣𝚘 𝙼𝚊𝚍𝚍𝚘𝚡"

I remember the shock I felt upon receiving that email. I reread it several times, googled the email I received it from to see if there was any record of phishing, and even made a Reddit post asking if it seemed official. Eventually, I emailed back and was directed towards the hiring manager via phone who confirmed everything was correct. I ultimately decided to work for Maddox because of the higher pay and weekends off compared to the other jobs I was accepted into.

I was taken away from my thoughts when the barista called my name and handed me two secure cup bags with each drink inside. I held Mr.Maddox's tea separately to avoid mixing it up.

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It was a bit of a mission trying to press elevator buttons with all the cups in my hands, but I eventually made my way back up to the administration floor. I began handing out the drinks that were requested to the proper employees and discarded of the cupholder-bags.

"Here ya go, Bryan, " I walked over as I handed him the last bagged drink. " iced americano with low-fat milk and two pumps of sugar."

Bryan looked up from his desk with his eyebrows furrowed. He reset his appearance and smirked slightly, saying, "You sure that's mine?"

My eye twitched with agitation.

Not right now, Bryan. I was in a good mood.

"I'm positive that's yours, it's exactly what I had wrote down." I pulled my notepad out of my pocket and started flipping through the pages to show him proof. I guess he hadn't realized I wrote everything down since his expression changed from arrogant to embarrassed so quickly.

"Yes, yes, I understand." He dismissed me and I headed back over to my desk.

Bryan - 2 Lyric - 1

I'm catching up.

I went back to my desk where I placed Mr.Maddox's drink and brought it to knock on his door lightly. Since there was no response, I sat down at my desk and placed it on the corner, finally having some time to myself since the day started. I opened up my backpack I brought and began unpacking some of my belongings I brought for my desk.

I pulled out my erasers and pencils, pink and purple paperclips and office supplies, a brand new TI-84 calculator and my notebooks and empty file box. I placed everything in the already given 3-tiered wire trays and into my drawers, prepared for anything required of me in the future. Lastly, I pulled out my more personal items

I had a small cloud themed picture frame with a photo of me and my cat, Bean. She was a sweet senior Tabby who wears the cutest blue collar. I was smiling and squeezing her in the photo. The next few items are trinkets and figures that pertained to my hobbies and interests.

The exact second I was done organizing, Mr. Maddox opened his door and called for me to join him inside.

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"Here you go Mr. Maddox." Once he was seated at his desk, I graciously handed him his tea with both hands and a bright smile. He grabbed it after staring for a short moment then motioned me to sit down.

"Well," he took a sip of his drink before he continued. "I saw that Bryan asked you to look for files from 2013?"

I nodded my head, "Yes, sir. He handed me a large pile and asked me to find anything from that year. I saw 35. May I ask what it's for?"

He raised his eyebrow and leaned back into his chair, crossing his leg over his knee and adjusting his tie. "I was going to ask you that, Miss Lyric."

"Bryan didn't mention why he needed those files from 2013. He handed me the stack and only demanded I look for them." I watched as Mr.Maddox placed his cup down, uncrossed his legs, and stood up from his desk, pacing back and forth, thinking.

"Lyric, " He paused, "It's Mr. Thatcher. Bryan Thatcher. You're not required to call him by his first name. I notice he has an authority complex."

I laughed softly as his face turned from super serious to playful at a moments notice. "Noted, Mr. Thatcher from now on."

He sat back down at his desk after his skit was completed and pushed his chair in, now leaning onto it while his expression darkened.  "I need you to find out why he needed those files. In 2013 Mr. Thatcher almost lost his position at Pennsburg, but I was never given reason why. That will be my first task for you, Lyric."

I swallowed and my smile faded a bit. I spoke softly, "Mr. Maddox, forgive me if this is out of line, but Bry- Mr. Thatcher has been very difficult to talk to. I'm not sure how I'm going to get that sort of information out of hi-"

I was cut off before I could finish my sentence, "You will be able to, Lyric."