Sometimes

Chapter 2

After a long day, and a nightmare journey, I arrived home to my little Fulham flat just in time for Eastenders. With Eastenders on in the background I pottered about, fed my cat, Squiggle, popped a lasagne in the oven and checked my emails. Living alone had its perks, but being along on a cold January evening wasn’t one of them.

Dinner eaten, washed up and ironing done, I headed to dreamland, and here people were thinking working in the music industry was glamorous. Not to the assistant it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my job, however my life was ticking by. I had always been focused on my family and my career, and with both of them on the straight and narrow my life began to look empty, and felt lonely. However working 15 hour days didn’t allow for a social life. I simply existed to answer phone calls, type emails, arrange taxi’s and proof read press releases, and in my spare time I was either catching up with friends or curled up in bed with the season box set of Grey’s Anatomy. This was my life. However, I was not a moaner, and I was a lot more fortunate than some, and I had to be grateful for that.

5.30am and my alarm rudely knocked me from dreamland, but it was Friday, which meant no alarm tomorrow, which always made the 5.30am start a little easier to swallow. By 6.30am I was on the platform awaiting a once again, late tube, however Starbucks was keeping me company so I dealt with that delay in a reasonable manner. By 7.15am I was at my desk, checking the answer phone, booting up computers and filling up the kettle and coffee machine. By 10am the office was full and the phones were ringing and the emails were coming through at a steady pace.

“Morning Jemma” Sharon said as she passed with her second coffee of the morning.

“Oh morning Sharon, did James get hold of you, he came by about 15…” but she was already nodding so I stopped.

“Kirsty emailed me about you covering upstairs, are you ok with doing it, and holding the fort here?” she said it a concerned manner, people slate their boss but really Sharon had a heart of gold.

“Oh yeah, it’s only an hour a day, and I don’t take a lunch break as it is so it will get me away from this desk…and say at another. I’ll make sure my calls are diverted and the team know where to find me” I said reassuringly. If she felt I couldn’t do it the opportunity would be gone, and maybe this was what I needed to make my life that little bit more interesting.

“Well as long as you are ok with it, then I’m ok with it” she said as she headed back towards her desk.

12.44 clicked over to 12.45 and clicked divert on my phone, and turned on my email auto-response, and just to be safe left a note on my desk and sent round a team email. I arrived on the fourth floor to an empty desk and the answer phone flashing.

“Shit, was I supposed to me here earlier” I thought aloud as I checked my watch. There was a post-it stuck to the computer screen –

“Sorry, had to leave at 12.45pm. Nothing expected over my lunch – check diary for appointments. I’ll be back at 1”

“Well that’s really professional” I again, thought out loud, just as the phone rang.

Crap. What am I supposed to say on the phone, improvise Jemma.

“Good morning, Jemma speaking”.

“Oh, hi is Kirsty there please?” a male voice said, sounding a little confused.

“She’s actually on holiday. Is there anything I could help with sir?” Crap, was sir too much? No, this was Simon Cowell’s phone, for all I knew I could be speaking to Max Clifford!

“Oh ok, well I’ve got an appointment with Simon at three today but I can’t make it. Could I push it back to one thirty on Monday?”.

“Urrrm” I fumbled around trying to find a pen “Hold on a second and I’ll check” I said as I reached for the diary on the other side of the desk, knocking over a glass of water in the process and drowning the diary in water, “Sorry sir can I just pop you on hold?” I said as a shook the diary, flicking water everywhere.

“Yeah that’s fine”.

I hit the hold button and flung myself out of the chair and headed for the kitchen. Tissue, and lots of it was in need. I ran back to the desk and began dabbing the surface of the desk while muttering away under my breath.

“Excuse me, do you need a hand” said a voice from behind the desk. Oh god, they had heard me cursing and swearing and seen me running around like a fool. My eyes had clearly failed me on this one. I patted down the diary and began looking for today’s page as I popped my head over the desk to investigate who had just spoken.

“Oh I’m fine thanks, just a little water. Thank you though” Matt Cardle stared back as he hovered over the sofa in that I’m half standing and sitting pose that people tended to do when they had been stopped in their tracks. “Does Simon know you are waiting?” I asked as I still attempted to find today’s page in the diary. Why was the page not folded over or something?

“Oh yeah, he walked past a few minutes ago and said something about some calls and that he’d be right with me” he said as he sat back down.

“Oh ok, well I’m sure he will be with you once he’s free” I said as I found today’s page in the diary.

Back to the phone call I went.

“Sorry about that sir, three o’clock you said today and you want to move to one thirty on Monday”.

“Yeah” he said politely as I flicked over to Monday.

“Yes that’s fine, was it just an hour you needed?” I said as I flicked back to Friday to check his name.

“Yeah that will do”.

“Ok so that’s one thirty on Monday Mr Styles” I’m sure he didn’t need me to repeat it, but that was my appointment booking habit coming out.

“Ok, thank you”.

I proceeded to listen to the answer phone messages, before I finished tidying the bombshell that was formally a desk.

One o’clock came round quickly and I was soon back at my desk dealing with my own answer phone messages and dealing with the 102 emails in my inbox. 102 emails in an hour was unbelievable, but that was Friday’s for you, people always leaving things till last minute and then expect it done in seconds.

Thankfully 4.30pm soon arrived and the office began to empty, however the end of my day was far from close, it was my responsibility to man the phones until 7pm. Once the office had emptied I made myself a cup of tea, kicked back, put my iPod on and flicked through the various celeb magazines that had accumulated on my desk.