03
James McGregor marched into his building with an air of, speak to me and you’re dead, hanging around him.
Most people moved out of his way immediately as he walked into the elevator. Natalie waited patiently knowing that in a few minutes she would be called to come up to the top floor.
And sure enough, within five minutes she was called up.
“Where is she?” He asked her looking livid.
“She told me to tell you that if you asked, she’ll be here at 9 o’clock,” Natalie replied. “That’s not what I asked, I asked where is she?” He said getting angry.
“I don’t know sir,” Natalie said sighing. “I would tell you if I knew sir, but honest to god, I don’t know.”
At nine o’clock on the dot, the elevator opened revealing Elizabeth Waverton wearing a blue dress and black heels. In her hands, she carried several files and what seems to be a clipboard.
James silently sat in his chair waiting, for her to get closer. He observed as she walked over to her own desk and laid most of the files down, he watched as she checked in one of the mirror’s whether she was looking alright and he watched as she entered his office.
Three short knocks were heard, to which he replied with a short ‘come in’ and the door swung open. “Good morning Mr. McGregor.” She said walking over to his desk.
“Ms. Waverton, why were you not here this morning?” He asked calmly as he toyed with a pen lying on his desk.
“I had a prior engagement.” At that James looked up from the pen with a menacing look in his eyes, grabbing the pen tightly in his hand.
“Prior engagement?” He scoffed contempt clear in his dark eyes. “Ms. Waverton, you do know that until the end of this week you still work for this company.”
Elizabeth opened her mouth to try and say something but she could not get a word in before he continued, “You work for this company, meaning that you work for me! You can’t just run of and show up whenever it suits little miss perfect! You might have gotten away with batting your lashes at that old man, but that won’t work on me.”
Elizabeth was seeing fire, “For your information, I was working for the company. In fact, I was working for the company at the request of ‘that old man'” She said with air quotes, taking James by surprise.
“And what might that request be?” He asked, anger still clear in his face.
“That’s-” But Elizabeth was cut short by Natalie walking into the office in a hurry. “Liz, Mr. Young just walked into the building, right now he’s talking to Fred, but he wants to see Mr. McGregor.”
“What?! But he isn’t supposed to show up until tonight.” Elizabeth said surprised going back into work mode.
“I know, but apparently he doesn’t keep to schedule,” Natalie replied.
“Alright, get him his usual tea, it is in the bottom drawer of my desk. Call Fred and tell him to sent him to conference room 2 that should be empty and I’ll make sure Mr. McGregor is prepped.” She said throwing the keys to the drawers at Natalie.
It took a second for Natalie to take all of that in. “Go!” Elizabeth yelled, startling her slightly as she started running back to the elevator.
“What was that all about?” James said slightly confused.NôvelDrama.Org exclusive content.
“I’ll explain, but first we have to change your tie, Mr. Young hates this shade of blue.” She said opening a thin cabinet door revealing several neckties.
“This one should do it”, she said holding up a simple black tie.
“Alright, so one of the last major events to happen before your father’s death was the Young deal. Basically, his company, name, and product would become part of McGregor industries. The problem, however, was that at one point Mr. McGregor couldn’t do it himself anymore, so that’s where I stepped in.”
She said taking off the tie he was wearing. A bit dazed and confused James stood up from his chair. As she started tying the new one.
“Usually the PA isn’t allowed to do such thing, but Mr. McGregor urged me to speak on his behalf. The final meeting and everything would be done the day after your father passed away. So I took his place. Everything went well and we got the merge, but now he wants to see you and have dinner with you tonight.” She said finishing the tie.
“Right now all you have to do is welcome him and be nice to him.” She gripped his tie pulling him in closer, which she only managed to do by taking him by surprise. “Do not, under any circumstances insult him.”
Once she realized what she had done she quickly composed herself and straightened her shirt.
“Now we mustn’t keep him waiting. How much do you know about him?” She said opening the door of the office and singling for James to walk through it.
“I met him at a fundraiser once.”
“Good talk to him about that, he knows you probably don’t know much about the deal yet, but for now just keep him happy.” She said as the two of them got into the elevator.
“You did this after the day he died?” James asked quite intrigued. “Yes I did, anything wrong with that?”
“No.”
Elizabeth continued to give him more information about Mr. Young when they reached the conference room 2.
“Alright, good luck.” She said, straightening his tie. As she moved to walk away she turned around for a brief moment and said, “And don’t fuck it up.”