Chapter 21 : A New Office

George surveyed his new office. It was quite a contrast over the way that he used to work but he had to agree that it was a lot easier to get things done with all the clients' documents neatly arrayed in box files rather than in the selection of carrier bags, folders, ring binders and piles of bulldog clipped documents that had been there previously. He had a tidy desk too; just one lot of papers was waiting for his attention.

He owed it all to his new secretary, of course. She was the one who had organised all this.

She arrived in the room without knocking, peering at George over the rim of her spectacles. "I think," she said in measured tones. "that work should really have started, shouldn't it Mr. Franks?"

George looked up to return her quizzical stare with a bashful, "Yes, Miss Callow. I'll was just about to get on with it."

Allison knew that wasn't quite the case but she didn't mind. She had been quite amused by the challenge of using George's enthusiasm for female domination as a springboard to improving the performance of his business. She was taking time away from her own business but she was enjoying herself and, to her satisfaction, finding that although George might be very knowledgeable he could certainly benefit from some help in the way he went about things. When they had started she had it remarkable that George managed to get any work done at all.

George, for his part, was more than happy with the situation. Allison's close supervision of his work was encouraging him to get things completed and that was leaving the two of them plenty of time to indulge their mutual enthusiasms; he to worship at her feet and treat her as a goddess, she to delight in his attention.

The phone rang. Allison folded her arms and pointed to it. "Two rings," she said. "That's all you're allowed!"

George reached out quickly and picked up the handset. "George Franks, Accounting," he announced. "How can I help?"

The voice on the other end spoke for a few moments before George replied. "Yes ... Certainly ... Well, I'm sure I can ... Can I ask how you heard about us? ... Oh, well that's very kind. Thank you. Yes, if you can get the papers to me by the end of the week I should be able to let you have a draft set of accounts within the week. Will that be suitable? ... Fine. Thank you again. Good bye."

He put the phone down. Allison smiled. "More business?"

"Yes," George replied. "They'd been recommended by that engineering company we started working for last month. Apparently they said we were the most efficient accountants they'd ever encountered. Especially impressed by our accuracy and reliability, they said."

"Well, it seems your attention to detail must be improving," Allison looked down at George as he stared up at her from his seat. They both knew what she was talking about. For the first week of their new working arrangements she had paid very close attention to the ways that George did things and had applied appropriate corrective measures whenever things did not appear to be going well. It had worked for, while George's back-side was somewhat reddened as a result of repeated applications of Allison's belt, there was no doubt that the resulting improvements in service to his customers had already been noticed.