Chapter 5

"So, a lot to process in a short time, eh Ben?" Holly asked with a smile.

"Definitely," Ben agreed.

"Well, we'll answer any questions you have and walk you through things one stage at a time," the older blonde assured him. "Veronica has some papers for you to sign and then she'll get you set up with a keycard and passcode that will work in the parking garage as well as any of the doors around here. After you're set up, the three of us will tackle your office redecorating."

"Which office am I getting?" Ben asked.

"You're taking over your grandfather's old office in the corner," Holly replied. "Your dad doesn't want to move so he said you could have that one."

"That's the best office in the building, I shouldn't get that one," Ben protested. "Besides, it was grandfathers."

"Your dad said it's time to get some use out of it but since only you or he can use the offices in this hallway, it's now yours," she replied. "Alright, why don't the two of you go handle the easy stuff and then come get me when you're ready to tackle the office."

Veronica led him to her office. She was dressed in a form fitting white blouse and tight black skirt that ended a few inches above her knees and both showed off her incredible body. The young blonde was about five foot ten in her high heels which did amazing things for her legs and derriere. All in all Ben was quite pleased with their choice for his personal assistant.

"Have a seat Ben," Veronica said before grabbing a file from the table behind her desk.

She sat down and opened it up.

"Ok, these allow us to set up the monthly payments into your existing account from the trust fund," she explained. "You need to sign them where I put the sticky notes."

Ben quickly read the document after she handed it over to him and then signed all three copies. Veronica also signed and put a copy into three separate folders before putting them back on the table behind her. Next, she pulled out a keycard and a small business card.

"This is your keycard and passcode," she told him as she handed them over. "Some doors just need the keycard swiped and others, like our glass door, need the passcode inputted in as well. They both shouldn't be stored in the same place in case you lose your wallet but for now I'm sure you'll need to carry the card with you until you memorize the code."

Ben took a look at the code of random numbers and both lower and upper case letters and then handed it back to her.

"I'm good," he said.

"Really?" she asked.

He regurgitated the passcode back to her.

"Impressive," she said. "Can you do that for more than small passcodes?"

"Let's just say I have a good memory," Ben replied, wary of revealing just how good his memory actually was.

"That is a very useful thing to have," was all she said in response. "Let's go make sure they work and then we'll get started on your office."

She had him try both the card and the passcode for the main glass door and found they worked fine before they rejoined Holly in her office.

"All set?" Holly asked.

"Papers signed and card and code worked fine," Veronica reported.

"Good, now let's head to your new office Ben," Holly said and got up.

They had him open it up with his keycard and they stepped inside. The smell and dated furniture and decor brought back memories when he used to visit his grandfather when he was a kid.

"Alright, we can't replace the paneling but just about everything else is ok to change," Holly told them. "The building has been designated as a Heritage building so certain physical things can't be changed. If nothing else, the old furniture, the carpeting, the window and lighting fixtures have to be updated. It's up to you on the artwork, desk and the conference table."

Both the desk and the table were massive wood monstrosities that didn't fit with what he wanted in an office. The artwork was mostly paintings of land and sea battles that also didn't go with the modern scheme he was thinking of.

"I'd like to go with a more modern and elegant theme," Ben admitted. "Can we store all of it somewhere rather than just throwing it away?"

"Sure, we have rooms in the basement where some of the older furniture is stored," Holly answered. "We can have the furniture moved out right away and then have the carpet and window treatments removed. The new carpet and window furnishing can be installed on Tuesday morning after the holiday weekend if we put our order in this morning and the new furniture can be delivered in the afternoon. Your office should be ready for your Wednesday afternoon start. Sound good?"

"Sure," Ben agreed.

"Ok, I'll get that part organized while you and Veronica pick out the new decor in the conference room," Holly told him.

Veronica led him to the room across the hall and he groaned when he saw the piles of catalogues.

"It won't be that bad," she said with a grin.

"Ok, let's get started," Ben replied with a sigh as he sat in one of the chairs.

They picked out the carpeting and window treatments first to establish a colour base and then went through a dozen catalogues to decide on the modern desk, chair and credenza. Ben let Veronica pick out a new sofa, matching chairs and the tables for a sitting area and then they agreed on a new conference table and chairs. Ben left the artwork and lighting to the women but being pretty much a tech geek, he decided on the computers and monitors he wanted.

"Alright, that should do for now," Veronica said, finishing up her notes. "It's just about lunch time; let's see if your dad is out of his meeting."

"Your dad went out to lunch with Bob and the group," Holly informed them when they entered her office. "Why don't you hand over what you've decided on so far and I'll get that ordered. I have to stick around while the guys are removing the furniture and the carpet anyway. Why don't you two head down to the pub for lunch?"

"Shall we bring you something back?" Ben asked.

"That is so sweet of you to ask," Holly replied. "Maybe a chicken Caesar salad would be nice."

"Ok, see you soon," Ben replied and followed Veronica back to her office to get her purse and a small jacket.

Five minutes later they were waiting in line to get a table in the crowded pub. It took another five just to get to talk to the hostess.

"I'm sorry it's going to be at least twenty minutes," the hostess informed them before they could utter a word.

"We'll take the reserved Stone table please," Veronica told her.

"That's for Mr. Stone only and while he's cute, he's not Mr. Stone," the hostess replied, looking at Ben.

"This is Mr. Ben Stone, his son," Veronica informed her, "there are now two Mr. Stones."

The hostess looked at Ben and then back at Veronica and replied, "Give me a minute; I'll let the manager make the decision."

She came back with a red haired gentleman a minute later.

"You've certainly grown since your grandfather brought you in here last, Mr. Stone, but you definitely look like your father," the man said. "I'm Percy O'Rourke the manager. Please follow me."

They followed the man to a table in a relatively quiet part of the otherwise full back room. Percy took the reserved sign off the table and waved them into the seats.

"Thank you Mr. O'Rourke, this is Miss Veronica Terrence and please call me Ben," Ben said as they sat down.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Terrence," Percy said with a smile. "I gather you will be handling the younger Mr. Stone just as Miss Robson does for the senior Mr. Stone?"

"That is correct, I'm this Mr. Stone's personal assistant," Veronica replied.

"Does this mean that you'll be coming downtown to the office more often?" Percy asked Ben.

"I'm going to come for one afternoon during the week and on Saturdays to start," Ben told him.

"That is very good news," Percy responded. "I'll make sure my staff knows that you both are to be seated at this table whenever you grace us with your presence. Your waitress will be over shortly to take your order. Please don't hesitate to ask for me if you require anything."

"Thank you Mr. O'Rourke," Ben said before the older man left.

"I didn't know they kept a table reserved for our company," Ben remarked after he was gone.

"Ben, you and your dad own the building, this table is permanently reserved for your family," Veronica told him. "Holly made sure I knew about it. You could order alcoholic drinks and Percy would serve you without blinking an eye, as long as you weren't going to be driving."

"Do we give him a discount on his lease for this privilege?" Ben asked.

"I don't know much of the story behind it, but it started with Percy's dad and your grandfather many years ago," Veronica answered. "Just accept it as a fact and use the table whenever you come here to eat. So, what are you in the mood for?"

"I remember liking the burgers here when I was a kid," Ben replied as he looked through the menu. "I'll probably have one of them with some fries."

"You should have a salad to get some vegetables in you," she remarked.

"Yes Mom," Ben reacted.

"I did come off a tad parental, didn't I?" she asked with a grin. "I'll have to make sure I don't make a habit of it since I'm only a few years older than you. That's definitely not the relationship we're going to have."

"I'm glad to hear it," Ben told her. "So tell me a bit about yourself, Veronica."

"I just graduated with a degree in accounting from the University of Toronto in April and I'm continuing to study to become a certified accountant," she began. "I was hired at Stone Inc. in May and then was moved into my new position at the beginning of July. I spent the last couple of months learning from Holly what my responsibilities will be as well as what Stone Inc. does. I officially took over your trust fund management at the beginning of this month under Holly's supervision."

"Any other work experience before this?" Ben asked.

"I interned at two different accounting firms in the city for the last two summer breaks," Veronica answered.

A cute redhead came over to the table.

"Hello, I'm Amy and I'll be taking care of you today," she said with a smile. Can I get you something to drink and maybe an appetizer to start off?"

"Hi Amy, I'll have a sparkling water," Veronica replied after Ben made her go first.

"I'll have one as well," Ben added. "It looks busy so maybe we should get an appetizer tray to start."

"Probably a good idea," Amy agreed. "I'll put that order in and then bring you your waters."

She walked away and Ben enjoyed looking at her in her cute outfit.

"She is a cutie," Veronica remarked with a grin.

"Sorry, that was rude of me," Ben said as he blushed. "Besides, while she's cute, you're beautiful."

"Why thank you Ben, a lady always likes to hear that she's appreciated," she told him, "and just so you know, I don't have a problem with you looking as long as it's discreet. I'm sure you would be embarrassed if I stared at a man blatantly while we're together or if your girlfriend did the same thing. Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No, I haven't had much success talking to girls let alone ask one to go out with me," Ben replied. "How about you? I don't see a ring so no husband or fiancé yet. Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Nope, I'm definitely single and will probably stay that way for a while," Veronica replied.

"Really, a beautiful lady like you doesn't have men falling all over their feet trying to get you to go out with them?" Ben asked with a grin.

"I get more than my share of bothersome proposals from men but I have been concentrating on school and will continue to concentrate on my career rather than my love life," she answered. "We're going to busy getting you up to speed on Stone Inc. so I'm afraid you're going to be the only man in my life for the foreseeable future."

"Well, I don't know if being my personal assistant is going to really take up so much of your time at work let alone your free time," Ben remarked. "Please don't sacrifice your personal life for me, Veronica. Now is the best time for you for that while I'm just a part time intern."

"How about you let me worry about my personal life and just pick out what you want to eat?" the beautiful blonde asked with a grin to soften the rebuttal.

"Certainly, it's definitely none of my business," Ben agreed quickly and looked at his menu.

He ordered the bacon cheeseburger and fries and a side salad while she chose a Chicken wrap and salad when Amy came back a couple minutes later. They placed Holly's order at the same time and, after the waitress left, Veronica started up the conversation.

"So, tell me about Ben Stone," she ordered.

"Not much to tell really, I'm sure Holly has told you about the family history," Ben said. "I'm going to start grade eleven on Tuesday. I like computers, math and science in school and I work out, read and play video games on my computer at home. I have a couple of friends at school that get good grades like me but we're definitely not in any of the popular groups. They belong to a couple of the clubs like the Chess club but I stay away from those things so I'm not labelled a nerd or tech geek, though I get good grades. Enough about me, tell me a bit about your life. Where did you grow up? Do you have a big family?"

"I grew up in Ajax, just outside the city," she replied. "Besides my parents, I have an older brother who's in construction and a younger sister just starting her first year at U of T in nursing. I have a small apartment on Queen Street past Woodbine Park above a convenience store."

"I know it's not polite to ask a woman her age but you're still young enough that it shouldn't matter," Ben said with a grin. "I figure you should be about twenty-two if you just finished a four year degree."

"You would think so, but I graduated high school a year earlier than most and then finished my degree in three years by taking summer and night classes," Veronica replied.

"So you're twenty?" he asked.

"Not until next month," she answered with a big grin.

"So not even four years older than me," he said with an answering grin. "I like that, though I'm a bit intimidated about the fact you've done so much more with your life already. Maybe I should put a better effort into finishing high school early."

"You're probably too late, I skipped a year in public school," she told him. "Besides, you're going to be getting invaluable experience working here which will beat anything you'll gain by rushing through high school. Maybe we can get you through University quicker if we plan it correctly. We know what you'll need to study to excel at Stone Inc. we can tailor your courses accordingly and let you take the non-essential courses in the evenings or later."

Amy dropped off the appetizer tray off and they dug in. The redhead waitress came back with another sparkling water for both of them but only gave him a flirty smile before she left. Veronica spoke up when she moved away.

"There's your first lesson you'll have to master quickly," she said. "Amy was probably told to take very good care of you and that you're a VIP. So she's being very attentive and flirty to try and get your interest. You'll start seeing that more and more as the girls and women start seeing you as one of the prime catches in the city. You need to be very careful how you react to them. At all times you'll need to act in an appropriate manner in the public and company eye. Even harmless flirting can have its consequences. Don't lead her or any other girl on if you're not going to pursue her. Understand my point?"

"Yes," Ben said simply. "You don't have to worry about me leading anyone on or flirting with girls or women. I'm amazed I can even talk to you without stammering."

"Good, the same goes with the ladies in the secretarial pool," she added. "They'd all like to be the next Mrs. Stone or the next ex-Mrs. Stone. You know the old saying, don't piss where you drink or crap where you eat."

"I understand," Ben told her.

"Good," she said and ate another cheese stick.

Their entrees took a while to come out which gave them ample time to polish off the appetizers.

"Sorry about the wait, we're really backed up," Amy apologized when she finally placed their plates in front of them.

"No problem, we knew it was going to be a while," Ben replied.

Ben tried to get Veronica to take a bite of his cheeseburger but she refused, citing her figure. It didn't take them long to eat their lunch with a minimum of chitchat. Veronica had Ben sign the bill and putting on a twenty percent tip. They had an account with the restaurant and she wanted to make sure they knew he was authorized to sign on the account. After one last smile from Amy, they waved goodbye to Percy at the bar as they left.

They took the elevator to the top floor and walked back to their offices. She led the way into the Stone hallway and delivered the salad to Holly.

"Thanks," Holly said with a smile. "Your dad had to go back into the meeting so Veronica will set you up in the conference room with some information about Stone Inc. for you to read while they work on your office."

"Alright," Ben agreed.

He scooted into the conference room just as a couple of men carried a sofa down the hallway. They both ogled Veronica as they passed but she ignored them and walked to her office, returning with several binders.

"Here is the new employee handbook, a company profile we use for our clients and a more extensive review of each division that was provided to the division managers at the last quarterly meeting," she informed him as he took them from her. "It should take a couple of hours to go through them all and then we'll go over what you've read and see what you've retained."

"Alright, I'll make myself comfortable in here and see you in a while," Ben responded and sat down in the big chair at the end of the table.

She left him to it and Ben began to read about the company his family built. He flipped through the handbook which outlined office and public conduct, computer and information security, holidays and vacations, health and retirement benefits and the non-disclosure and non-compete policy.

The generic profile outlined the departments and general goals for each. There was Acquisitions for both businesses and real estate, Accounting for both Stone Inc. and external companies, Legal for both Stone Inc. and external companies, Management services for external companies, Management for Stone Inc. held assets, Office Management for Stone Inc. and of course the Management hierarchy for Stone Inc. itself.

Under each heading was the client list and Ben was surprised to see a who's who of Canadian and international companies under each department, some of which were clients of several departments.

The list of assets were broken down into headings for office buildings, condominiums, malls, vacant land, apartment buildings and other companies, without listing any individual items or values.

After reading through the rest of the generic profile, Ben started reading through the upper management's detailed version. He was still reading it when Veronica startled him from the door of his office.

"Interesting reading isn't it?" she asked with a smile.

"That's like saying the Great Wall of China goes on for a bit," Ben replied.

"Any questions so far?" she asked.

"I just got started on the detail report so nothing yet," Ben responded.

"Just make sure that you don't leave them unattended if you have to go to the bathroom or need to stretch your legs," Veronica warned him, "especially with people wandering around here today."

"I'll bring them back to you or Holly if I need to leave the room," Ben told her.

"I'll leave you to it then," she said with a smile.

It took Ben another hour to read through the detailed report. He was amazed to find out what buildings they owned in the city, including the one that they parked their cars in. Other buildings leased the land from them at extraordinary rates for relatively small parcels of land. Farther away from the city centre, Stone Inc. owned the land under several large shopping malls, owned condominiums along the lakefront or in other exclusive residential areas and owned and operated apartment buildings around the University and colleges. Large undeveloped tracks of land all around the greater Toronto area (GTA) were theirs and just waiting for the further expansion of the cities surrounding Toronto.