Page 45 of The Reboot
‘Yes. Very happy.’
‘If you have any problems or concerns, you know you can always talk to me or Dylan.’
She nodded. ‘Thanks. But I don’t have any issues. Everything’s great.’ Was this some kind of employee review, she wondered. She’d forgotten she was on a six-week probation period. It was all too easy to forget that Jake and Dylan were her bosses, but maybe they weren’t happy with her and they’d decided to let her go at the end of it. Or perhaps they’d give her a pep talk and tell her she had two weeks left to pull her socks up if she wanted to be made permanent.
She didn’t imagine they had any complaints about her work. But it could be that they’d decided she didn’t fit in here – that she was too dull and set in her ways and was ruining the casual, easy-going vibe they strived for.
‘You like this desk?’ Jake ran a hand along its surface. ‘You sit here every day.’
‘Yeah.’ Shit, they’d noticed. She should have made more of an effort to work in different spaces. Maybe they didn’t like that she’d taken this desk out of rotation for everyone else. ‘But I can move around if that’s a problem.’
‘No, not at all. Whatever makes you comfortable.’
‘I just like having a base, knowing where my stuff is.’
‘Sure, sure.’ Jake nodded. ‘Excellent costume, by the way.’
‘Um … thanks.’ She’d dreaded her first dress-up Friday, but she’d made an effort to show willing and join in. Unfortunately, the best her meagre wardrobe could stretch to was a cut-rate Harry Potter with a grey jumper and an off-brand maroon tie and scarf that only roughly approximated the Hogwarts’ school colours. She already had the short dark hair, and she’d dug out an old academic gown of her mother’s and bought a cheap pair of off-the-shelf reading glasses. ‘You look amazing!’
‘Thanks. Brite Bomber,’ he pointed to his chest, which was adorned with a unicorn motif. ‘You know, from Fortnite?’
She shook her head. ‘I never played it.’
‘Did you tell her?’ Dylan’s voice came from behind her.
‘No, I was waiting for you, mate.’
Oh God, they were going to let her go, weren’t they? They’d come to tell her it wasn’t working out. Ella turned around. Dylan was coming towards her carrying a small round tray. He was dressed as Cher fromClueless, in a yellow-check mini-skirt suit, white thigh-highs and a long, blonde wig. He looked spectacular, and he was grinning from ear to ear. Jake hopped off the desk and stood beside him.
‘Congratulations, Ella!’ Dylan said. ‘You’re our Employee of the Month.’
‘Oh!’
‘Just a little token of our appreciation.’ Jake took a mug of coffee from the tray and placed it on her desk alongside a large muffin adorned with a fizzing sparkler.
‘Gosh, seriously?’ Well, this was weird. She’d barely been here four weeks and she was employee of the month already? But they probably did this for everyone, she reasoned – they were so eager to make their staff feel valued. Still, it was sweet. ‘Thanks.’ She took a sip of coffee as the sparkler fizzed out.
‘Skinny caffè mocha, right?’’ Dylan said, beaming.
‘Right.’ And the muffin, she noticed, was blueberry – her favourite. Then Dylan presented her with the last thing on the tray, a little bowl of Smarties.
‘Brown ones only,’ he said, putting them on the desk in front of her.
‘Oh! Thank you.’ Ella was ridiculously touched. It seemed those inane interview questions hadn’t been so pointless after all. They’d been listening, paying attention to her answers because they really wanted to know. It dawned on her now that it wasn’t an accident that they always had egg mayonnaise sandwiches at team meetings, and a good supply of her favourite oat biscuits in the break room.
‘Congratulations!’ Jake said, beaming at her. ‘You deserve it. You’ve done an amazing job organising our accounts. This is the first month since we started that I haven’t had our accountant shouting at me about the state of our books.’
‘And Gordon was really impressed with the work you did on our Facebook ad campaigns. He said you really know what you’re doing and they’re performing brilliantly – better than he and Philip have ever managed.’
Ella smiled. She’d been really happy with her work on those campaigns and was pleased that she’d been able to make a substantial contribution. She’d run pay-per-click ad campaigns for some of her virtual assistant clients, so she did know what she was doing, whereas Gordon and Philip were techies who’d ended up handling the company’s marketing by default, and it wasn’t their forte. They knew how to use the data, but they weren’t so good when it came to the creative side of advertising and their copywriting skills left a lot of room for improvement.
‘So that’s an area you could pursue more, if it interests you. Or you could take over the accounts. Anyway, that’s a discussion we can have down the line when you’ve settled in and decided what you’d like to focus on. We’ll leave you to enjoy your break.’
‘Where did all the other Smarties go?’ she asked, peering into the bowl.
Dylan pointed to his stomach with a wry smile.
‘He’s been scoffing boxes of Smarties all week.’
