Page 61 of The Rules Of Attraction
I shook my head at myself. I’d have to come up with ideas.
It would be interesting to see how this was all going to play out, and how we’d be. It was going to be hard to be this professional person she wanted me to be.
To be her boss and play this game of boss and PA.
It just might be the very thing that made me crazy indeed.
* * *
Summer
* * *
The next weekthat passed was a good one.
I’d worried how I’d flair out living with Alex but I was surprisingly okay.
Sucking it up and moving past the wholeI slept with my bossdrama worked.
I was glad that I took the job, even though the whole taking it was kind of thrust upon me.
I settled in well, and as the days rolled on I busied myself with setting up at the office and getting to know everyone I was going to be working with.
Kayla was amazing at helping me mingle with the other PA’s and other legal support staff.
What was surprising too to me was how at ease I felt, and I actually liked the job. Turned out that my fake excuse for needing something manageable for now could have held an element of truth to it.
In my rocky state of mind I didn’t think I could have handled throwing myself back into the busy fast paced lifestyle I used to have, and taking on clients who would need me to be on top form.
I also, like Eilesh said, was out of the game. I’d forgotten how quickly I needed to think on my feet, and multitask. I’d forgotten how much my brain worked like a computer, accessing files I’d tucked away in the crevices of my mind, accessing them when I needed to.
All of that kind of slipped away during my time off.
I decided on a strategy to get myself back in the game so that maybe in a few months I’d get back to that level again. Sullivan’s had an excellent reference library that would help with that.
What helped too was my new boss.
Alex really did treat me like an equal. After the first day when he’d caught me reading a legal journal he gave me a file of people who’d made basic enquiries that weren’t too technical and allowed me to deal with it. He extended that permission to include anything new that came in and told me it would help lessen his workload, although I knew it was more of a favor on my part.
Then when I checked my account I realized he hadn’t just paid me for a month. The money that was in there would cover me for at least six months. When I asked him about it he said it was part of my new starter bonus, and apparently all employees got it.
I knew he made it up, and since he wouldn’t take it back or adjust things so that I wouldn’t get paid more money for the next six months I put it to good use.
As I was living rent free, and had all this extra income I paid off the last of my loan closing the door on the debt situation, and vowing never to return to it.
I also bought a car. Nothing fancy, just a little Volkswagen Beetle to get around town in.
Then the shops called to me. With money in my pockets I gave myself some much needed retail therapy. That ended the week nicely.
Finally, Eilesh came back from San Francisco.
I went to see her the same evening she returned. It felt like I hadn’t seen her in years, and that I’d been through a lifetime of events but in a short space of time.
We met in the coffeehouse that was ten minutes away from Alex’s apartment.
She was already there when I walked in and hugged me hard when I approached looking weary with worry, for me. I knew she was going to be like that.
It came after hearing I’d been robbed.
