Chapter 6

The next month flew by and I was extremely busy. The entire building had heard about the new financial division that was being formed and there was a lot of speculation about possible changes that would follow. They decided to give us the fourteenth floor and it was remodeled within seventy days. My office was at the very end of the hall. It was a large office with an adjourning conference room and a smaller outside office for my office assistant.

Robin and I barely talked and the tension was high, whenever we were together. The strange thing was, I really like Robin and was hoping to continue our relationship. Although the more I talked to Terri the more I found out this building was a large drama mill. I knew who was sleeping with who even though it did not really matter much to me.

We were approaching November and on October twenty ninth, I moved into my new floor alone. They sent me one girl from the secretarial pool to answer the phones for the time being. According to Richard Butler, he wanted me to hire one receptionist for the entrance to the office, one secretary for myself and one assistant to get some of the research work off my back.

For the next seven days or so, I interviewed at least a dozen and a half people for the various jobs. No one really stood out except the one girl that I hired as the receptionist. She had a pleasant phone voice and extremely attractive. So, for the time being its was just Belinda Banks and myself in the office.

Two days later, Carla Davenport sent me a young woman who had some bookkeeping experience for a local insurance company. Brooke Claiborne was twenty-seven years old and had been working for the same firm since graduating high school. Just recently, her boss had hired his new girlfriend at the office and Brooke was too close to his wife. He was afraid that Brooke would spill the beans about the girlfriend, so he told her that he hired a bookkeeper to do her job. She was terminated immediately but her did give her a letter of recommendation.

The second interview that day was a young woman by the name of Bella Tomas. Ms. Tomas was twenty-seven years old and had not worked in close to five years. She had been home caring for her mother who had just passed away with pancreatic cancer. She was in school to obtain a business degree but had to drop out her junior year to care for her mother.

She had a slight darker complexion than most and was extremely beautiful. She weighed maybe one hundred twenty five pounds and had an amazing figure. She knew quite a bit about accounting and really wanted to go back to school and finishing but really couldn’t at this time. She still had a few thousand dollars left from her mother’s life insurance policy. Thankfully, the small house her mother had owned was paid off.

Bella Tomas seemed genuine, sincere and eager to work. I decided to hire her on the spot and sent her to Human Resources to complete the paperwork. I felt she could assist me with various projects already having three years of college with a business background.

I decided for the time being to hold off on hiring a secretary for my outer office. This was new to me and having to train two employees at once with Belinda and Bella, it just seemed like a lot. I would hire a secretary several months down the road and I was leaning toward the girl I had interviewed, Brook Claiborne.

That evening, Amanda Peat reached out to me and said that Bella Tomas was good to go. She asked me when did I want her to start. Since it was Thursday, I informed Amanda to tell her to be here for eight o’clock Monday morning.

Belinda Banks, the receptionist I hired was fun to work for and very flirtatious. She was good looking and liked to have fun in a very low, key sexual way. She was in between boyfriends and made sure I knew that fact. On Friday evening, she came into my office and sat down with me making sure I had returned the calls I had received. After going through several days worth of messages, I asked her to call several people Monday morning for me. As she was writing the information down, I looked up at her.

She was wearing a very short blue skirt with a white button down blouse. Once glance at her legs gave me a great view of her black panties. I’m sure that she intended for me to look up her dress so why disappoint her. She didn’t catch me looking which and I may be wrong, seemed to disappoint her. She left about ten minutes later and I was right behind her.

As usual, I had a very uneventful weekend and was at work early Monday morning. Bella Tomas arrived at about seven twenty and Belinda right behind her at seven thirty. I introduced the two of them, then for the time being assigned Bella the office right outside of mine. I figured since we would be working together it was better for now that she was very close to me. About ten o’clock Monday morning, I received a call that would send the business into a turmoil.

I met with Richard Butler, Carlos Reyes and Jeremy Land at ten thirty that morning in Richard’s office. Whenever all three were together, you knew it was going to be serious.

“Tim, now that you’re settled into your new offices, we have a new task for you. Understand that going forward we will market you an avenue for our present and future clients who need financial help. As of now you have the Gadden family, Helen Jameson and the two Gadden companies.” he began.

“I am now adding a new client to your agenda, Butler, Land and Reyes. I want you to go over our expenditures for the last five years and find out where we can cut cost and be more efficient. This firm is too large now and we basically have no rules in place for expenditures. Last time I checked, we have close to seventy five credit cards in employee’s hands with no real verification of what is being spent. I want a complete breakdown of each department and their expenditures. Any problem doing that?” he ended.

“No sir, not at all. I may need to borrow a girl or two from the pool for a while, but it won’t be a problem. The only other thing I would need is to speak with who is handling the financial records now.” I asked.

“That would be Nora Davis.” Richard replied.

“If you would like, I can arrange for Nora and two or three of her people to help you.” Richard replied.

“If its’s all the same sir, I would prefer not to deal with them at this time. I would like to get a fresh set of eyes on everything, if that’s ok with you.” I answered.

“I think that’s a smart thing to do, Tim.” Richard said, smiling.

“I’ll call down to Nora Davis and let her know you’re on the way down.” Richard advised.

By the time I rode the elevator down several floors and exited into what used to be the financial section of the firm the news had already arrived. I walked across the office and to Nora Davis’ receptionist Stephanie Jackson.

“I need to see Ms. Davis, please?” I asked.

“Ms. Davis is not available.” Stephanie answered, not looking up from her paperwork.

With that attitude, I realize that we were going to play whose dick is bigger. Since I had just been given explicit instructions from Richard Butler, my dick was definitely bigger.

“First of all, Ms. Jackson, when you address me have to the courtesy to look at me.” I said, raising my voice slightly.

From that point on you could have heard a pin drop in the office. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and all eyes were on me. Stephanie Jackson lifted her head and stared at me with eyes that could kill.

“I said she was busy. She will get back to you.” she replied, sarcastically.

“May I borrow your phone for a second?” I asked, picking up her receiver and dialing Carla’s extension.

“Carla, can you connect me with Richard. I seem to have run into a problem down here.” I asked.

“I figured you would. Hold on.” Carla laughed.

Several seconds later Richard Butler picked up the phone and I explained exactly what was going on. He asked me to give the phone back to Stephanie Jackson, which I did. After about twenty seconds of verbally reaming her out, she transferred the call to Nora Davis. I waited for several minutes as the tension got to a fever pitch on the floor. Finally, Nora Davis came out of her office with a furious look on her face walking up to the receptionist’s desk.