The deal

Chapter 5: New friends

Ally

I finished printing the report when I heard a knock on my door. It was the same lady that received me the day of the interview. She was a sweet lady on her late fifties with short blond hair and sparkling blue eyes.

"Good morning sweetheart" She greeted me. "My name's Lucy and I'm the receptionist."

"Good morning Lucy, I'm Ally, Ally Bennett" I greeted her too.

"Honey, there's something I want to ask you." She said in a low voice, looking around carefully.

"Yeah, what is it?" I said biting my lower lip.

"Is there any chance that you know what happened to the boss' coffee machine?" She asked softly almost in a whisper.

"I... I... may have had some trouble with it earlier this morning." I said whispering too.

She looked at me with wide eyes and then started laughing. She was laughing so hard she couldn't say a word.

"Oh, honey, this is hilarious." She continued laughing clutching her stomach.

"Shhh" I made a sign to her. I was worried about the big dickhead next door a.k.a. Mr. Sterling coming and firing us for being so loud.

"It's ok Ally, the boss is with Ms. Hamilton, it's going to take a long time before he's back." She smiled at me this time cleaning the tears she had in her eyes with her forehand. "The thing is darling that you have made history on your first day in this office and is somehow my fault so I apologize. Today I had a doctor's appointment and I couldn't be here at 7:30 to bring Mr. Sterling's coffee on time. I didn't know you were starting today."

"No, Lucy, is my fault I...."

"No, honey" she cut me off. "I'm going to tell you a secret. That machine... has never functioned. Nobody, not even Mr. Sterling knows how that stupid thing works. It was a gift from a client in Italy that gave it to him and he thinks that every morning his delicious latte is brought directly from his precious machine but the truth is I bring the coffee every morning from a shop down the street." She said and winked at me.

"Starbucks?" I asked. "I brought him a coffee from Starbucks and he almost kills me!" I said throwing my hands up in the air.

"You brought him a coffee from Starbucks?" She asked laughing again. "He hates it!"

"Well, now I know..." I added.

"I can imagine his face when he tasted it. The truth is I bring it from a little Italian coffee shop every day, but don't worry honey I'm in charge of that. He asked you this morning because I wouldn't be here." She said

"Damn my luck! Right?" I said scratching my head. Lucy came closer and started taking coffee beans from my hair.

"Yeah, but don't worry I'm here now, ask me if you need anything." She winked at me. "Oh and I'll see you at lunch." Lucy said nicely.

"Thanks Lucy!" I said glad that someone was nice with me today.

****

When lunch time came I had already a pile of files on my desk to read and a thousand of reports to write. Every time Blake Sterling came to my little office was to give me more and more work. Lucy knocked on my door poking her head.

"Are you ready?" She asked sweetly.

"Mhhh... I think I'll pass this time. I have a lot of work to do." I said politely.

"Mhhh... I think you should come, eat something and relax for a couple of minutes. It's your first day kid. You will have plenty of work to do every day so you're taking your lunch time ok?" She scolded me in a sweet tone.