Off The Books (A TayNew AU)

04 - Acumen

New

Dr. Raymond Reilly defines business acumen as the keenness and quickness in understanding and dealing with a business situation in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome. It is having a good grasp of the overall big-picture of the business. I always thought that a good academic foundation in finance would be enough to get me through my internship. However, the realization that I was wrong came early.

I still had the image of an annoyed Mr. Tawan in my mind; his intense dark eyes that were like piercing a hole through my head, those thick brows that were furrowed. Gosh, I fucked up so bad. I have never been this nervous about interacting with someone since I was young. Maybe the fact that he is a Vihokratana is messing up with me.

"Hey kid, having first day jitters?" A soft voice from the man Mr. Tawan called Pick brought me back to the present. He introduced himself as Mr. Tawan's personal driver and assistant. He reached out his hand with a smile.

"Um. Kind of." I shook his hand and returned his gentle smile. "I'm new to all of these things plus he's the first executive I've ever encountered in my life. I never thought it'd be this nerve-wracking."

"Relax, kid. There's nothing to worry... yet," he teased.

"Mr. Pick." I groaned at him while he just laughed at how I tensed with his taunting. "I'm just playing with you. He may not look like it but Tay is actually a gentle soul." He said while he turned to Mr. Tawan's office. I followed where he was looking and saw my boss already busy with signing some documents. His face was far from gentle. "Just give him time to warm up to you and you'll see what I mean," he reassured.

"Well anyway, I'll just be downstairs. Do you have my number? You can just call me when Tay needs anything, or if you need help." I shook my head and gave him the phone that the company has provided me.

"Actually, I kinda need your help with a few things. I hope you don't mind."

"No, I don't. I have nothing else to do anyway," he replied while saving his digits on the phone. I explained to him my dilemma on making coffee especially with an unfamiliar machine.

"I'm sorry I can't help you with that. I'm no good in making coffee either." He giggled as he handed the phone back. "But I guess you could just order from the coffee shop downstairs. He likes a good vanilla Americano."

"Thank you, Mr. Pick." I sincerely thanked him for the advice. I guess I have to spend my personal money just for this. I should probably ask my friend who works in a café how make one. My telephone rang and saw that the ID was from Mr. Tawan's office.

"Sir?" I nervously picked up the phone. Mr. Pick silently waved goodbye and left the office.

"Have you made a follow-up on the weekly reports yet? I need to study them before the BU meeting." I heard Mr. Tawan on the other line. I scrambled to open the scheduler on the iPad and browsed through his schedule which was stacked. It shows a couple meetings but none of them says BU.

"uhh..." was the only thing that left my mouth with the confusion. "Check Ampere's notes, everything should be in there."

I hurried and skimmed through a bunch of notebooks on the desk hoping for anything that would tell me what to do. "And get the reports an hour before the meeting."

"Which meeting, sir?" I asked, stupidly, I thought.

"I just said the BU meeting." What the hell is a BU meeting? I tried making out what it could mean but nothing gave me a single clue. My boss might have noticed my incoherent mumbling and dropped the call, rather harshly. "..."