In Time

Chapter 5

A call wakes me up; Ann is calling and I grunt as I receive it.

"Morning" I somehow open my mouth.

"Hey Jennifer, good morning. I need to ask you a quick favour! Can you please fill in for me today? I promise I'll make it up to you next week!"

"Sure". We say goodbye to each other and I get up. The wine was not a good idea definitely. It's almost 7 and I wake up and make my bed and then have a quick shower. With my bathrobe on, I make my breakfast- scrambled eggs and some strips of bacon along some pancakes. Along with my regular cup of milk; I always have one either in the morning or before I go to bed. Then I go and put on my makeup and get ready for the day. I work for five days a week at the publication house nearby where I work as the editor's assistant. Ann is the other assistant for Mrs. Bradford who is the editor-in-chief there.

Mrs. Bradford or Annalese Bradford is a woman of 52, a very career oriented woman and I do admire her. Her spirit is really great. Needless to say, we're quite good acquaintances and I always try to maintain a very professional behaviour with her, as opposed to her attempts at friendship. Nevertheless, she is a good boss, and as a team we do well.

I promptly reach the office and my desk before 8.30. I tend to be early and believe that it's so very obviously better to be early than late. I prepare my coffee and get down to work- despite my job as a mere assistant to the chief editor here, I have also been on the bestsellers for a couple times now. It's not public knowledge though. The only people who know are my team and Ashley. Not the people in the office. So anyway, I always make sure I arrive at least an hour early and get a bit done. I am currently in the last stages of the book I am currently working on. I had held a nationwide contest for the book cover and closed it a few days back. It's been three days and I'm still sifting through the entries.

I hear someone coughing and look up, surprised to see Mrs. Bradford- obviously not in the best of health. I accompany her to her cabin which is connected to mine with a sliding door we always kept open- so that it looked like we're in one room; except when we are meeting important clients or something of such serious matters. After settling her down, I go to the kitchenette we have in our office and fix up a steaming cup of chamomile tea- which surprisingly a lot of people in our office prefer. Ross and Chandler are there as usual, quibbling over the mugs; I smile- they're two new crazy interns, fresh out of high school.

Mrs. Bradford sighs gratefully when I hand it to her. Neither of us had a very hectic schedule for the day; sometimes I felt that most writers work through the weekend and have a pretty slow Monday- it is my routine too, except that I do only the office stuff on Mondays and take a break from my own writing. So I settle down in the couch in her room and just read the newspaper- neither of us talk- we are good that way, I suppose, that there is no constant need to chatter. We offer each other companionable silence, neither of us being good talkers.

"What's this I hear about some Ann wanting to interview some new bigshot?" Mrs. Bradford pipes, her voice husky from the hotness of her drink.

"What?" I remember Ann telling me no such thing when she called this morning, and I'm puzzled.

"She wants to cover on this new guy who's, I hear, a new oil magnate"

I murmur, going back to the newspaper, "No idea"

You see, the thing being a publishing house, albeit a good one, situated in a small town was that, we also had the town's newspaper under our wing. Almost around a century ago, the town leader who owned the newspaper factory, wanted to forage into the publishing business as well, and that's how we came about. Mrs. Bradford is the editor-in-chief for the publishing house, while her husband Mr. Bradford was the editor-in-chief for the newspaper. It was pretty common for the employees to do a feature or an article in one of the other. Being a family based business, it was pretty casual but no one slacked. So Ann wanting to do something was not a surprise for her- it's been done before, with good results, I might add.

Satisfied she goes back to her tea. The clock chimes nine, just as I'm finished with the news. I stand up.

"Happy working, Mrs. Bradford"

"You too, Jen"

And so, our week begins.

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So hey guys! I know it's been a long time since I uploaded but honestly, this semester has been so hectic, I swear!

And see this- now that finals are here, I'm finally finding some inspiration to upload new parts! Perhaps it's simply me to distract myself from the tension- as a way of stress relief during finals month!

Anyway, do tell whom you picture as Jen...

Lover,

Suze