“Morning Will,” Tony poked his head in from the adjacent door, not bothering to knock – a habit that had been formed in the early days of their university days together. “Got the info on Molly girl you wanted.”
“Thanks,” he took a long sip of the coffee in his mug, the hot liquid feeling like a salve to his exhausted soul. Jesus Fucking Christ. He had been in the office with his team till four in the morning and had slept on the futon in his office. This had been the third time in the past seven days; he was going to need to bring a bed in here soon if things didn’t change. He’d been up at seven to have a meeting with the China team and was running on energy drinks and black coffee, and he was sure his liver was planning to kill him. Unlike him, Tony looked perfectly fine, which was highly irritating. Even back in their college days, they would attend all-night parties, and Tony would come out looking as if he’d been to a meditation retreat for the entire weekend. He swore it was Tony’s Italian genes. The tomato sauce his grandma made had some kind of secret sauce.
Will, on the other hand, not so much. He’d changed his clothes, but his scruffy beard was aggravating him, as was the need for some Visine for his eyes.
Tony dropped a stack of papers in front of him, “tell me again why you need info on this girl?”
Will looked up from his computer, where he was finishing off the final touches on a contract that was meant to be sent to their China team by 8.45AM. “Why? Something interesting pop up?”
“Depends on how you define interesting,” Tony leaned back in the chair opposite Will, propping his feet up on the table, “Troubled youth, ended up in foster care, jumped from city to city. I think she has a juvi record, but its sealed so there was nothing HR could do on our end to access those files. Records of a minor are pretty much impossible to get into. She’s active in the community, works at the library, rents a small flat in Kensington market, what else…” he flipped through the pages of the documents he’d gathered, “she has really bad habit of getting parking tickets, but aside from that, she’s been pretty clean since she was eighteen. Lives with her cousin, graduated with a nearly perfect GPA from University of Toronto, and doesn’t seem to be a crazy party girl from what we could learn from her social media. Speaking of which,” Tony turned the papers around and handed them to Will, “she appears to be obsessed with Matt Damon.”
Will looked at the Instagram post of Molly posing next to a life-sized cut-out of the fictionalized Jason Bourne, smiling from ear to ear. “Interesting.”
“She a new hire?”
“Something like that,” Will sifted through the screenshots of various Instagram photos. Aside from being a fan of Matt Damon, Miss Molly May was apparently into taking photos of dogs in quote ‘funny’ circumstances, cats who looked displeased, and of various escapades with select friends. He felt like he was looking at an alien world. He never understood why people took such thrill in documenting such mundane parts of life such as this.
Tony raised an eyebrow, “do I even want to know the backstory to this?”
He snorted, “Probably not.”
“Jesus, what have you done?” Tony uncrossed his ankles, appearing bemused but unsurprised. “Anyway, I have a 9-o clock. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Thanks, Tony.”
He briefly perused the first few pages of the document, skimming over details of Molly’s childhood. She’d had bounced all over the Greater Toronto Area, from Hamilton, to Brampton, to Whitby and Etobicoke. For someone who appeared so unassuming, the rockiness of her childhood seemed to clash with the outcome. Not many people survived growing up in the foster system, fewer graduated from University and managed to come out of their adolescence still sane. He wouldn’t say he was impressed, simply that his intuition regarding her was confirmed. She was probably used to uncertainty, being independent, and focusing on getting a job done – which was exactly what he needed for this project, and to get his family off his back. He wasn’t sure how many more family dinners he could tolerate with his mother ‘accidentally’ scheduling a dinner with a childhood friend of his from his past at the same time, leading to painful conversations and strained silences. He didn’t know what it was but something about being in his thirties had activated the ‘matchmaker’ gene in his mother. He’d pay millions to any scientist that could discover how to turn it off. Getting Molly to play the role of his fiancé would only be a cork in the problem, but it was a necessary one for now. He could’ve started dating again, but even that had become a strain. He literally didn’t have the time. Between work, attending to his clients outside of work, and finding hours in the day to sleep, he had no time. Besides, he didn’t even want to. He’d been insatiable when he was younger, reveling in the game of courting. But after a few dozen one-night-stands, even that thrill had died away. Women always seemed to have expectations, want more than he could emotionally provide, so he was a certified expert at disappointing them on that regard.
He put a pin in perusing the documents and stashed them away in his cabinet. It was nearly nine, and he needed to send some e-mails before she arrived.
Which she did exactly on time. A gentle knock sounded on his door a few seconds after nine.
x.x
Molly didn’t miss the way he reclined in his seat, his arms relaxing on the leather armchairs on either side of him. He was the type of panther that would play with its prey before it devoured it whole, of that she had no doubt. Mischief was etched into his being as finely as the smirk on his face at the sight of her. The windows behind him looked out onto Lake Ontario, and the vast blueness contrasted with the grey, black, and dark brown of his office. Everything was impeccably neat and clean, almost sterile in its polish.
She squirmed uncomfortably where she stood, trying to kick-start the part of her brain that had suddenly sputtered into stillness at the sight of him. She was aware of the power dynamic between them, but tried to revive the courage she had gathered at the bar. She could do this. She had already negotiated with him twice, once during the interview and once over drinks. She needed to get over the bristling jitters that filled her body whenever she saw him.
She sat down in front of him. Despite the wood writing desk keeping them apart, it never felt like there was enough space in the room when the two of them were together. “How has your morning been?”
His eyes didn’t leave her, not even once. “Just fine, how was your night?”
The question threw her off, but she didn’t miss a beat, “That’s a little personal for morning small-talk, isn’t it Mr. Harding?”
“I’m only being practical. If you’re to be my fiancé, I should be aware of what’s keeping you busy at night.”
She swallowed nervously, “Is that your way of asking me if I have a boyfriend?”
“Boyfriend, casual fling…” he gave a casual shrug, his green eyes boring into hers. “If you’re going to convince my family that we’re engaged, I need to be aware of anything that might jeopardize our arrangement.”
“No boyfriend,” she leaned back, and folded her leg over her knee, “Casual… well, that depends on the night.”
His reaction was non discernible. He only brushed a hand over his five-o-clock shadow. “I’d need you to disclose to me whenever that happens, so that I’m not caught off guard.”
“If that’s what you need,” she said nonchalantly, “I suppose I should ask you the same question.”
“I don’t have any romantic commitments. It’s not a priority a right now. That’s why you’re here”
“Of course,” Jesus, this man was insane. “I’ll need to know who exactly is in your family, so that I can prepare myself.”
“Here,” he slipped across a slim folder, with an innocuous cover and backing. “Everything you need to know about my family.”
Is he for real? Molly opened the folder, and tried not to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. There was a photo of his mother, followed by a short description of her personality. As she continued flipping through the pages, she saw photos of various family members and friends, with the same paragraph-descriptions next to their name and picture. “You want me to study this?”
“You need them to make them like you.”
“Usually people just meet each other and you know… talk and get to know each other that way.”
He frowned, as if she’d just said something crazy, “I don’t take risks. It would be much easier for you to get to know them if you already know what they like and don’t like…”
Rather than tell him that there was no way in hell she was studying this, she simply nodded. “Great, I’ll make sure to look through this.”
“Fantastic. Happy to have made this arrangement.”
“As am I.”
“Well then, now that we have that settled, why don’t I show you around?” He stood up, pocketing his cell phone and a pen into his breast pocket. “Everyone here knows I’ve hired you as my personal intern, who will be assisting me with my cases.”
Molly took a nervous gulp as he walked by her, the smell of his cologne doing things to her stomach. Hot, and heady things to her stomach. She needed to squash the part of herself that found him attractive pronto. That was not going to help the situation at all.
Despite being a full foot and a half taller than her, she straightened her shoulders to appear shoulder and followed him out into the hallway.
“Bathroom down the hall to your left, kitchen down the hall to your right, emergency staircase right ahead of you, and your office right here.”
His words distracted her. She had an office? She’d only ever had a cash register with a hand held food-scanner. At most, she’d been assigned to work at a desk in a shared room. Offices were for when you reached your mid-thirties, and had managed to bribe your way up the corporate ladder.
Not that she’d earned this internship through innocent means.
“Claudia will set you up with your work phone and laptop,” William motioned to the office, “if there’s anything you need to get comfortable here, just speak to her. I need you to have your phone on you at all times, in case there’s anything I need you for. The major client that we’re signing at the current moment is in China, so my hours are all over the place.”
She tore her eyes away from her new office, which had its own desk, bookshelf and window, and followed him down the hallway. He knocked on a door, and opened it before anyone answered.
“Tony co-founder of WTA,” he motioned to the man who was sitting at his desk, chatting away on his phone. The blonde, blue-eyed man looked up and smiled at Molly, waving at her from his desk. “He’s head of HR, and manages the daily operations of all staff nationally and globally. He was partner, but stepped down to focus on the HR side of things a while ago.”
She waved back, immediately taking a liking to his warm smile and chaotic office. Papers, books, and an assortment of random things, were strewn all over the place, which was how she normally lived her own life.
“What does Tony think of… my internship?” She asked as William led her further down the hall, “If he’s the head of HR…”
“He doesn’t ask questions, where I’m concerned.”
She rolled her eyes behind his back. Arrogant ass.
“This is Adam’s office. He’s also partner, but he’s on parental leave. Wife just went into labour.”
So the only sociopath in the trio was William, she thought but didn’t say. “So you three founded this company together?”
“In college.”
“That’s impressive,” she said. Which was true. You didn’t hear of many consulting firms that managed to make it so big within a decade of operating.
They turned a corner, and ended back in the lobby of the office. “This is Holly, my EA.”
“Oh, Holly!” It came out before she could stop the word vomit, “our names are so similar. I’m Molly.”
Holly looked up and gave her a strained smile, “right.”
Jeez. Did no-one know how to relax in this building? William went on, as if she hadn’t even said anything. “Holly will set you up with your email and phone, and give you your schedule for the day. Let me know if you need anything else.”
With that, he nodded to his EA and went back to his office.
Molly stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do with herself. Holly had gone back to typing on her computer, not looking up from her screen at all.
She needed to assert herself.
“So what -.”
Holly raised a hand, silencing her. “One minute.”
Molly clenched her jaw and breathed out the resulting irritation. Great. Not only was William Harding a sociopath, but his EA appeared to be a miserable bitch. She normally wouldn’t have allowed anyone to speak to her so curtly, but William Harding’s EA was not someone she assumed would respond well to being pissed off. She looked down at her watch. It was only 9:25. Only 25 minutes into her internship, and she was already struggling with the social aspect of it all.
“Thanks,” Holly said dryly, and the printer whirred into action behind her. She swirled around, gathered a binder full of pages, and walked around her desk to greet her, “Follow me.”
Did no-one speak with pleasantries here?
Regardless, Molly followed the EA back into her new office, where she turned on Molly’s computer, “The binder here has all your new passwords, and instructions on how to set up various tools and software. There’s also a map of the building, and other things we give to new employees,” she droned on, as if bored, “your schedule will be in your Outlook inbox. I’m not sure what William has you doing today, probably a bunch of on-boarding material.”
With that, Holly booted her computer, and then left. Silence filled the room in her absence.
Molly stood uncertainly in the room, not knowing what to do with herself.
Quickly, she pulled out her phone and texted Liv excitedly.
I have my own office!!!
Pocketing her phone immediately, she sat at her desk and entered her log-in details.
After maneuvering through various set-up instructions, she opened her email to access her calendar.
She frowned as she her schedule.
It was blank.
There was nothing on there.
That couldn’t be right…
She refreshed the calendar, to see if there was perhaps a lag in the system.
When it appeared again, the same blank calendar appeared, with no items to fill the time-slots.
Furrowing her eyebrows, she went to her inbox and saw an email from William.
Ms. May,
Here are some websites to on-boarding material, and pages where you can learn more about the company. We can touch base next week once you’ve become familiar with the firm.
WH.
Anger began to seep into her as it dawned on her what was going on.
The nerve of that guy.
He was going to give her nothing to do.
He was using her to act as his fiancé, to fulfil whatever personal quest he was on to stave off family pressure to find a wife - and in exchange, he wasn’t going to put in any effort of actually teaching her anything.
She clenched her jaw, trying to sort through the rush of frustration racing through her. What did he expect her to do? Spend the entire day, every day, sitting in her office reading websites?
Molly hadn’t agreed to do this for nothing. And she wasn’t going to let him dictate how this worked out. She had learned from an early age that she had to look out for herself. After her mother’s passing, her father’s admittance into rehab (after which he had relapsed more times than she count), she had been thrown into the state foster care system. If she hadn’t learned how to take care of herself, she wouldn’t have survived the six years she’d spent being shuffled from foster home to foster home.
She was probably too headstrong for her own good, but it had been the only thing that protected her from the shitstorm she’d grown up in. She couldn’t remember the amount of times she’d had to steal money to be able to afford lunch; sneak out of the escape gate in her apartment to protect herself from drunken fights; scream loud enough so Liv knew where she was when the neighbourhood bullies caught up to her after class.
She’d stopped feeling sorry for herself a long time ago. She’d learned quickly that pitying yourself got you nowhere. It was the person who actually wiped the blood and tears away, and fought back that moved forward in life.
She bit her lip, her mind already racing.
Without taking a moment to think on it further, she quickly opened her calendar again. If she was William’s intern, their calendars were probably linked…
She grinned as she saw his name in the corner of the calendar and she clicked on it to see his calendar appear on the screen next to hers. His busy schedule appeared, with exact information on time and location.
She looked at the 9:30 time slot.
9:30AM: Meeting w/ Xi Pexin, Crys. Group. Floor 42-Room B2.
Molly looked at the time. 9:28. Well, shit. She had to hustle. She had a meeting to attend in exactly two minutes.