The New Hire

Okay - I am going to cheat for my first blog entry and post a short story that I wrote in June.

As he pulled out his key card to let himself into the dark office Carl hesitated and thought to himself, why am I even going in here today. A few seconds later he found himself sitting at his desk in front of the blue glow of his computer. Mondays were always depressing, especially after what seemed to be a short weekend. Carl sat back in his chair and reminisced about his weekend. He could not believe he ran into Tracey, his old college buddy’s girlfriend.

Thinking about her put a smile on his face. She hadn’t changed a bit. Seeing her at the bar brought back memories of his college days, hanging out, drinking until the sun came up -- actually, Carl thought, as his smile widened, not much has changed since those days.Everyone on campus knew that Tracey and Daryl would end up married, they seemed to be inseparable. Who would have thought that right after graduation they would have broken up?

That stupid idiot, Carl thought, how could he let her get away? "Well, his loss, and maybe my gain," he said out loud to himself."Excuse me, sir?" came a voice from just inside his office doorway. Carl was awakened from his daydream, and swirled around in his chair toward the voice, "Good morning, Vivian. I didn’t know you were in yet," Carl responded. Vivian was Carl’s admin assistant, nosey, but a great worker and cute Carl thought."Yes, sir, I decided to come in early and start the paper work for the new hire coming in today," Vivian responded.

I bet, Carl thought, probably been in here looking through some employee files or something. "That’s great, I forgot all about that. Thanks, Vivian," he said trying not to sound too skeptical. "By the way, he added, could you please bring in her file, so I can look it over?" "I actually have it right here, sir," Vivian said. "I bet you do," Carl let slip out, but hoped she missed it. "Excuse me?" Vivian asked with a hint of an attitude."Well, Vivian, I’m not too surprised you have the file," Carl said as he paused to enjoy the look on Vivian’s face as her eyes began to narrow.

As if she don’t know how nosey she is, Carl thought to himself and began out loud, "I mean, you are always on top of things, Vivian, You’re so organized. I wish I had more employees like you," he ended. Vivian, completely caught off guard, stuttered as she handed Carl the file. "Thank – thank, you, sir. I try my best.""Well you have been doing a great job. Keep it up," Carl said as he took the file and swirled back around to his desk. He heard Vivian’s excited "thank you, sir" as the sound of her high heels clicked away from his office.

As Carl starred at the closed file labeled ‘Regina Jones’. He was pulled back into his reminiscing. Jones was Daryl’s last name.He remembered how he met Daryl. He was hanging tutoring flyers in the student union, and approached Carl and the other basketball players as they came walking by. Daryl handed him a flyer. Carl looked it over, and Daryl watched eagerly, looking up at them like a little kid surrounded by giants, although he was about six-feet himself.

In the end, Carl ended up taking the flyer back to the coach and they hired Daryl to help keep the other player’s GPAs up to standard.Daryl was the nerdiest person Carl had ever met, but he was super smart in every subject. Although nerdy, he was actually pretty cool and began hanging out with him and some of the other members of the team. This is where Tracey came it.

At first glance it appeared that she was just one of the typical basketball groupies that hung around after the games, but later everyone found out that she was also being tutored by Daryl. Tutored and apparently much more, Carl thought.The weekend had proved to be pretty routine, up until he ran into Tracey. She was ordering a drink at the bar when she noticed Carl.

"Weren’t you the captain of the basketball team at UM?" she asked. "Yep," Carl responded as he quickly glanced toward the exit to make sure Tiffany, his soon-to-be ex had left. "I guess you might not remember me," she continued."You do look familiar," Carl responded sounding more relaxed now that the coast was clear. "I’m Tracey, I used to date Daryl the tutor," Tracey said excitedly. "Oh yeah," Carl responded, trying to hide how excited he actually was. As they were about to take a walk down memory lane, that crazy Leon had to open his mouth.

"Man, you work fast," he shouted at Carl, and smiled at Tracey, practically drooling. Carl mentally noted never to go out with him again, especially since he left him with the bill.Carl walked Tracey over to the table where she was sitting with her friends, who looked like the cast of ‘Dreamgirls’ Tracey being the Jennifer Hudson character, and he pulled up a seat. Tracey told him that she and Daryl broke up after graduation for some reason, that she didn’t want to get into. He told her about the PR company he started after playing for the Wizards, and they exchanged numbers.

"Excuse me, Mr. Simpson, I tried paging you but I think your mute button is on. Ms. Jones called and said she was stuck in traffic. She will be about 30 minutes late," Vivian said all at once, once again interrupting his thoughts. "Okay, not a problem," Carl responded as he checked his mute button, which was indeed on. "Also, your --," Vivian paused as she was being choked by the words. "Your fiancée is on line one," she completed as she rolled her eyes up to the ceiling.

"Vivian, I told you that you don’t have to call her that," Carl said. "I meant Ms. Tiffany is on line one," she said. "That’s better. Thanks, Vivian," Carl responded. As Vivian left he took a deep breath, let it out slowly and picked up the phone. "Good morning, Tiff --," before he could finish Tiffany screeched, "That girl has an attitude, I think she needs to be fired!"

"Tiffany, I told you a thousand times, she is the best assistant I’ve had. You already managed to run off the other two. Now you want to get rid of this one," Carl responded."Whatever, Carl, and I didn’t run off the other two. I told you they were no good in the first place," she added. Carl took another deep breath. He was seriously getting tired of Tiffany. Her jealous tirades, binge drinking, and thinking he was Bank Simpson, was getting on his last nerve.

"Tiffany, I have to get ready for this orientation so I’m going to have to call you back later," Carl said trying to get her off the phone. "Orientation?" Tiffany questioned. "I told you that I was looking for an accountant, so we don’t have to keep using an outside firm," Carl said sounding exhausted."I’m sure this ‘accountant’ is probably a woman too," Tiffany said with an attitude. "Tiffany you know I have a female quota to meet to qualify for the upcoming grant we’re going after.

We’ve been over this," Carl responded trying to sound calm. "Actually I don’t remember you saying that you were going to hire more females because of some grant," Tiffany said. "Look, Tiffany, I really have to go, and if you just called here to argue with me, I’m sure we can do this later," Carl responded not hiding his irritation."I’m sorry, it’s this hangover, combined with that Vivian who just pushes my buttons.

I didn’t mean to take it out on you, Vivian responded sounding nice and sweet. Carl knew from the ‘I’m sorry’ and her new tone that she wanted something. "I actually called to let you know that I picked out a spot for my dinner party," Vivian said as her voice trailed off. "How much is this ‘spot’ going to cost me?" Carl asked. "Oh not much, but it’s really nice, and I was just thinking about asking just a few of our friends to come out this time, not everybody and their mother," Tiffany responded.

Carl didn’t understand why he kept going through this. Again, for the fifth year in a row he had agreed to pay for another one of Tiffany’s birthday parties. Last year, she said it was just going to be a few friends and it turned out to be over 50 people, half of which, neither she nor he knew. "This time, Tiffany continued, I’m sending out invitations, and asking everyone to pay for their own dinner." "That was the plan last time, and you see how well that worked out," Carl said as he leaned back in his chair already feeling a headache coming on.

"Don’t worry Carl, it’s going to be different this time -- maybe just about ten couples including us. I would also like to get a suite so we could all meet up for drinks and change before dinner," Tiffany added. "A suite?" Carl asked. "What do you need a --." "Mr. Simpson, sorry for the interruption, but Ms. Jones has arrived, and she is waiting in the lobby," came Vivian’s voice over the intercom. "Who is that?" Tiffany asked. "That’s Vivian. My appoint --."Before he got the chance to finish Tiffany interrupted, "I am getting tired of her, with her nosey self. She is always walking in your office."

"Actually, that was her on the intercom, my appointment is here. I have to go," Carl said trying not to sound too relieved. "Well, I’ll talk to you later," Tiffany responded sounding agitated as always.Carl hung up the receiver, stood up from his chair and stretched. He smoothed out his pants, buttoned up his suit jacket, grabbed the file off of his desk, and headed out to the lobby. As he approached the lobby he saw Ms. Regina Jones rise to her feet. Ms. Jones, with her brown smooth skin, past the shoulder length hair, statuesque six feet tall model-aerobic looking physique, did not look like any accountant he had ever seen.

"Hello, Ms. Jones," Carl said with a big smile, not hiding his enjoyment, with his arm outstretched.Carl could feel Vivian’s eyes burning a hole in his back, and noticed she stopped her rhythmic typing to listen-in. "Nice to finally meet you in person," Regina Jones responded as she reached for Carl’s hand and shook it. "Likewise," responded Carl. "We can talk in the conference room," he added. As Carl led the way toward the conference room, he looked over his shoulder at Vivian, who’s eyes were focused in his direction, "Vivian," he started.

"Yes, Mr. Simpson, hold all your calls," she said with a slight grin.Vivian watched as Carl opened the door to the glass windowed conference room and then pull out a chair for Ms. Jones. This Monday was going to be an interesting one for sure she thought. "I can’t wait for that gold-diggin’ Tiffany to call back," she said out loud but to herself. Just as she began to imagine how Tiffany would react when she couldn’t talk to her so-called "fiancé" she was startled by the beep of the intercom on her desk.

"Vivian is Carl in?" came the husky voice. "Yes, ma’am, but he is in the conference room with the new hire," Vivian responded dutifully. The hairs on Vivian’s neck stuck straight up. If there was one person should could not stand even more than that gold-diggin’ Tiffany it was Jill. Jill acted as if ‘she’ was the president of the company. The only reason she worked for Mr. Simpson, is because her brother John Martin, who played ball with Carl, was one of the investors.

"Let me know when he gets out," barked Jill. "Yes, Ms. Martin," Vivian answered politely, but with a frown on her face. That woman is scary, thought Vivian as she tried to shake Jill Martin’s image out of her head.Jill Martin was the so-called ‘Contract Manager’ for all client accounts. As far as Vivian was concerned that meant she just got to eat lunch or dinner with the clients once every six months or so using the company credit card just to watch them sign and renew their contracts.

Vivian thought this was a total waste, because almost 400 pound Jill did not need another meal and the contracts could be renewed by computer.Jill also ‘thought’ that Vivian was her assistant and this annoyed Vivian to no end. When Jill did come to the office, she claimed she worked from home most of the time, all she did was boss Vivian around, yell and scream at her computer, bang up stuff in her office, and three hours later she was gone. "Only two more hours to go," sighed Vivian counting down the hours until Jill was due to leave.

Vivian wondered what was going on in the conference room between Ms. Jones and Mr. Simpson. One minute they were huddled up over documents, the next they were both laughing with they’re heads back and mouths open. Tiffany is not going to like this at all, Vivian thought as she continued to stare into the conference room with a smile on her face.Two hours later, she saw Mr. Simpson and Ms. Jones standing and shaking hands.

Mr. Simpson held open the conference room door and Ms. Jones walked through. "Vivian, Ms. Jones will be starting tomorrow, could you please make sure that her info is put into the system by the end of the day?" Carl asked. "Yes, sir, not a problem," Vivian smiled as she gladly took the file from Carl’s extended hand."Ms. Jones, I know you’ve talked to Vivian over the phone and met her this morning, but I just want to formerly introduce you to the best admin assistant I’ve ever had," Carl said smiling gesturing towards Vivian.

Vivian, now standing and smiling, shook Ms. Jones hand. "He is too kind," she said. "I guess you’re ready for that tour I promised you," she added talking to Ms. Jones."After your tour, why don’t you two grab some lunch on me, " Carl said as pulled out his wallet and handed Vivian the company credit card. "Well, I’m sure I have a ton of messages waiting for me, so I’d better get to work. You ladies enjoy your lunch, and I’ll talk with you later, Ms. Jones," Carl said as he headed back towards his office. He could not wait until Vivian got back so he could hear about the details of their lunch and any other information Vivian managed to pry out of her.

As he sat back in his office chair, Carl could not believe his luck. He seemed so comfortable with Ms. Jones – Regina, as she said to call her. He knew this was going to be the start of a wonderful working relationship. Lucky for him Regina would be primarily working from home and dealing with outside clients, so he did not have to worry about Tiffany being on his case. If Tiffany got a glimpse of her, he would not hear the end of it, for sure.

Carl was amazed that he and Regina had so much in common. Although she did not play ball herself, she had a cousin who tutored a basketball team and that cousin was indeed Daryl Jones. She even vaguely remembered Tracey, although that seemed like a touchy subject. He guessed that their break-up must have been a bad one, since neither Tracey nor the cousin of her ex wanted to talk about the subject. He didn’t even bring up the fact that he ran into Tracey the other night. What a coincidence, he thought. Just as he thought this his phone began to ring.

"Back to work," he said out loud before he picked it up.An hour later, as Vivian settle back down at her desk, she could not believe her luck. She had eaten a free lunch, got some interesting insight on the new hire, Ms. Regina Jones, and the best part of all she made it back after Jill Martin had gone for the day. Hopefully, she will be out the rest of the week, Vivian thought. Vivian enjoyed her lunch with Ms. Regina Jones.

Strangely enough though, and unlike previous new hires, she did not ask a lot of questions about Mr. Simpson. but of course Vivian freely volunteered the information.She definitely did not spare any little detail about Tiffany, and on that subject she didn’t even have to exaggerate. But Ms. Jones didn’t even flinch during the jealous girlfriend/delusional fiancée stories. She acted as if she was not really interested. She didn’t even pry for details, although Vivian freely gave them of course. There was something odd about her though, but Vivian just couldn’t put her finger on it. As she thought about this, she decided to take the card back to Mr. Simpson.

Carl heard Vivian’s shoes before he saw her, and he was glad for the interruption. He had been listening to Tiffany’s tirade about her upcoming party plans for the last 20 minutes and couldn’t take it much further. "I’m going to have to call you back, but that all sounds good so far," he said. Tiffany so elated with her plans, didn’t realize she was being rushed off the phone, "Okay, later," she responded, and the call ended.Carl gestured as if he was wiping sweat from his forehead.

He reached for the card. "So, how was your lunch," he asked. "It was great," said Vivian as she handed him the card and turned to leave. "Hey, you’re not going to get off that easy," he said stopping Vivian in her tracks. Twenty minutes later, Vivian was back at her desk putting Ms. Regina Jones’ information into the computer. She had told Carl all that went on during her lunch with Ms. Jones, of course leaving out the parts about Tiffany.

Carl was always amazed at Vivian’s skill. She could squeeze out information from a blank sheet of paper. She managed to find out more than Carl had in two hours, over a little more than thirty minute lunch. Apparently, Regina was not a really close cousin of Daryl’s and that was probably the reason why he never mentioned her. She also took most of her classes online which explained why Carl didn’t remember seeing her around campus. Just like Vivian, Carl also sensed that there was something a little odd about Regina, but he just passed it off as nervousness.

Carl decided to call his partner John Martin to let him know that he hired the accountant he recommended. He clicked the speaker phone button and dialed John’s number. As the phone rang, he promptly turned the speaker volume down. John had a tendency to yell into the phone and off for that matter, and he did not need the entire office to hear their conversation."Hey, man!" John screamed. "What’s up, J," responded Carl in a lower tone hoping John would follow his lead.

"So, how did your appointment go?" John asked. "How did you know about my appointment?" asked Carl. "I talked to Jill earlier, and she said you had an appointment with a new hire," John said. "Oh, I didn’t even see Jill today," Carl started. "Anyway, all is well, we have our very own accountant," he ended excitedly. "Well, I’m glad it worked out, we need our own accountant," John responded just as excited. "Did you know that she went to school with us?" Carl asked."Yes, when I got the call from another accounting buddy of mine with the recommendation, he told me that, but I did not put two and two together until later.

You are apparently quicker than me on these things," John said laughing. "But it’s cool that you are cool with it, I didn’t think you would be," John added. "What do you mean put two and two together?" Carl asked. Of course, I’m cool with it, you know I don’t mind hiring old college buddies," he added."Well maybe you are not as quick as I thought you were," John said laughing even harder and louder. "What are you laughing about?" Carl asked as he quickly reached to turn the volume of the speaker phone down even lower.

"You really don’t know who Regina is?" laughed John. "J quit trippin’ who is Regina?" Carl asked. John now laughing uncontrollably managed to calm himself down enough to shout, "Daryl, Regina is Daryl!""What!" Carl found himself shouting. "Are you trying to tell me that Regina is a man?" he yelled. John, still laughing, practically choking, let’s just say she ‘was’ a man -- the former Daryl Jones himself. Or, should I say herself," shouted John as his laugh echoed throughout the office.

Carl leaned back in his chair with a shocked looked on his face, just as he did this, he glimpsed Vivian standing in the doorway. She was smiling and shaking her head. "Any woman wearing a hot scarf tied around her neck in the dead heat of summer is trying to hide something," she said as she shook her head and walked back to her desk.

THE END
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