Читать книгу Getting Organised - Carolyn Caterer - Страница 12

Monday morning dawned bright and sunny and Abi leapt out of bed with an enthusiasm never previously felt for a job.

She surveyed her wardrobe and chose a simple white blouse, teamed with a navy suit from Zara and added shoes from LK Bennet. Pearl earrings and a necklace gave her a smart and yet understated look. She wasn’t so keen at having to pull on tights again, but felt this was a small price to pay in return for an income which would give her more than she needed.

Forcing some breakfast down her, even though she felt almost too excited to eat, she found herself smiling at the change in her fortune. In fact she hadn’t stopped grinning since her job offer on Friday night and was amazed at how productive she had become in the past two days. She had managed to weed the garden, plant some new seeds for her vegetable patch and clean and tidy the house from top to bottom, as well as doing the washing that she had been avoiding for the past ten days whilst she had focussed on her lack of a job. She even managed to quite enjoy doing the ironing, something she had never imagined could be possible as she detested ironing and had managed to sub contract that out during her marriage without David ever knowing about it. The subterfuge had been worth it, if it relieved her of a task so tedious that she felt she would rather have her teeth extracted with no anaesthetic than spend an hour on the ironing. She wasn’t sure where this dislike came from but she felt it had something to do with watching her grandmother berate her mother for her sub-standard ironing skills in such a cruel way that she had vowed she would never learn to iron if she could possibly help it. Thus when she first lived on her own she had been very careful to only purchase clothes which required little or no ironing and negotiate with her flatmates to ensure that she never had to iron anything herself. She always knew that her excellent cooking skills would stand in her in good stead.

She left the house with such enthusiasm she almost tripped over a cat which was very annoyed to be disturbed whilst stalking its prey.

Climbing into her car, Abi switched on the radio and chose to listen to some soothing music to calm her down. She didn’t want to appear so enthusiastic that she came across to Imogen as being overly keen and excitable. She had got the impression from their meeting on Friday that above all, Imogen’s clients demanded a relaxing and safe atmosphere in which to relax while they were waiting. Idle chit chat was obviously not on the agenda and Abi began to wonder exactly what these clients were like, as so far they seemed to be swathed in mystery.

Half an hour later she was congratulating herself on only getting lost once as she followed Imogen’s written directions. Old Basing was a rather nice place she concluded. Nothing to draw your attention to it as it nestled near the Basingstoke ring road, but a rather pleasant find when you did get there.

The office itself was to be found on the top floor of an old house. In fact as she approached it Abi was convinced she must have taken a wrong turn and be heading towards a private house as opposed to an office, but she could see the names of another two businesses located there (an upmarket cosmetics company and a holdings company, neither of which seemed to be a hive of activity), although no mention of Imogen’s business was to be found.

Checking her appearance in the car mirror and applying just an extra touch of her nude lipstick, Abi smoothed down her skirt and walked into the building. She followed the hall past the stairs, made a left turn and walked towards the door at the end of the corridor. It was eerily quiet and she began to wonder if she was the only person around. If she was she wasn’t sure that she was enjoying the experience. Fortunately as she turned the handle and walked through the door she could hear Imogen’s voice a short distance away.

‘That’s fine, yes, I will expect you at your usual time. See you then. Goodbye.’

Imogen motioned to Abi to come in as she finished her call and then walked up to her and shook her hand warmly.

‘Abi, welcome, so glad you manage to find the place. I chose it for its discretion, which also means that people do have a tendency to get lost on their first visit. Once you know where it is though you never get lost again!’ Imogen was looking very much the professional in her well-fitted suit, though Abi was quite surprised to find her dressed in such a vibrant red with shiny black patent shoes. Imogen didn’t seem to notice the attention her attire was being paid and proceeded to encourage her to look around the room and make herself at home.

As offices went it was pretty luxurious. A desk with telephone and computer on it as well as a leather bound A4 diary that Imogen had been writing in when she arrived. Some smart wooden filing cabinets were located against the wall and other cabinets sat below the window sills. All the cabinets seemed sturdy and all had locks on them, indicating that the information contained inside was not to be viewed by anyone other than those trusted with the key. The view from the window was across the rear garden of the property and was extremely relaxing as the silver birch trees swayed slightly in the wind and the birds sang out to each other as the sun broke through the clouds.

The walls were painted in a warm cream colour and were adorned with what looked like some pretty expensive contemporary artwork. A table positioned to the right of the desk had a tray with china cups and saucers and a cafetiere of freshly brewed coffee and handmade biscuits. Abi had noticed a small kitchen as she walked along the corridor and was pleased it was located so conveniently.

Across from the desk against the wall that backed onto the outside corridor two brown leather sofas were located, divided by a table which had a few upmarket country magazines and a couple of psychology journals.

Finally, to the left of the desk was a door. She assumed that this was Imogen’s office. Seeing her looking at it Imogen ushered her forward and opened the door. It was another much shorter corridor with her office located about half way down. Again it was tastefully decorated, much in the same style as the office in which Abi would be located. No couch though. Abi was a little disappointed not to find this cliché lurking in Imogen’s office but decided that the last person who would be subject to clichés of any kind was Imogen. A large fire place set the room off nicely and to the right of this, next to the window was another door. All in all it was typical of a house of its era with plenty of space and high ceilings that had been tastefully adapted into offices.

Abi decided that she was going to like working in these surroundings very much indeed.

Imogen noticed the smile as it spread slowly across her face and grinned back at her.

‘So you like my premises then? That is good to hear. I have been very happy with them myself over the years and never felt any need to work elsewhere. It is secluded and quiet here and yet very accessible from the motorway and other main roads. It suits me and my clients perfectly. Oh and in case you were wondering, the other occupants are equally discrete and we rarely see each other if I am honest. Here take these.’ Imogen handed Abi a bunch of keys.

‘You will need them if you are to arrive before me and put the coffee on! Usually I will leave after you. Once my last client of the day has gone in you are welcome to go home. I can always book in their next appointment or they will call you later in the week to schedule something in.’ Imogen looked at Abi and hesitated a little before continuing.

‘I do hope that you won’t find it too boring here Abi. To be honest there really isn’t that much to do, but by welcoming my clients and sorting out the paperwork and my diary you will really be helping me and it is only four days a week so I suppose that is a bonus to have Friday’s off!’

Abi nodded in agreement. She could barely speak and really didn’t care how boring it was going to be. She would be able to do the work asked of her and, once the clients were in with Imogen and she had finished whatever tasks she had on her list that day, she was more than happy to pick up a book or do some research on the internet if there really was nothing else to do, but she couldn’t imagine that would be the case initially and indeed it wasn’t. As Imogen opened a filing draw Abi soon realised that filing really hadn’t been Imogen’s thing or that of any temp that may have worked here in the past.

So with Imogen’s first client not due to arrive for a couple of hours, Abi had plenty of time to get stuck in and start to organise Imogen’s filing system, or rather set up a system for Imogen who had obviously been throwing the files in the cabinets in a rather random fashion.. One thing Imogen did make clear was the importance of the privacy of her clients and that she did not expect Abi to take a peek at the files under any circumstances. Abi was the sort of person who valued her privacy and, as such would therefore give others similar respect when it came to theirs and besides, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t understand the kind of notes a psychologist would be making about her clients anyway. Best not to know so that she didn’t start judging any of them, she thought to herself. She was also pretty sure that if the clients were coming to see Imogen because they had weird phobias about cheese or something similar, she really didn’t want to know.

The cabinets were kept under lock and key and only Imogen and Abi held the keys to them. Imogen made it very clear that no one else was to gain access and Abi was more than happy to oblige by ensuring that the cabinets were kept locked at all times. Not that this was the kind of place that people just suddenly ventured into, but what with data protection and all that, Abi was determined that she was going to do her job to the best of her ability and make Imogen see that she had made the right choice in employing her and that she wouldn’t let Mabel down.

The files were soon all sorted and organised. Abi realised that it was almost lunchtime and that meant that the first client would be arriving soon.

Imogen had also organised a delivery of locally baked sandwiches for their lunch and they ate those in Abi’s office and chatted away convivially.

‘I have told my clients to expect a new assistant, so your presence here should not come as a shock to any of them.’ Imogen explained.

‘All you have to do is call me to let me know they are here and then send them through. No need to make small talk, or show them into my office, as they all know where it is. Do you have any questions Abi?’

‘Only ‘Have I died and gone to PA heaven?’’ Grinned Abi.

‘Welcome to your new job Abi, I am sure you are going to find it a blast and with more opportunities than you could possibly imagine.’ Imogen walked through the door towards her office leaving Abi to wonder how it could possibly get any better than this.

*******************************************

It seemed that in no time at all she heard footsteps outside approaching the offices and, as she looked up from her desk a distinguished man in his early sixties walked through the door. He didn’t seem overly surprised at seeing her and nodded in her direction with a polite but brief ‘Good afternoon.’ Abi checked in the diary and smiled at him.

‘Good afternoon Mr Makepeace. I will just let Ms Fraser know that you are here.’ She picked up the phone and spoke to Imogen who asked her to send him through. Abi noticed from the diary that his appointment was for two hours. In fact most of the appointments seemed to be for this length of time and Abi could only conclude that these high profile clients must lead very stressful lives if they were prepared to take two hours out of their day to come and see Imogen.

From this she worked out that Imogen only saw twelve or so clients a week. Most of them seemed to pay in cash from what she could gather and one of her tasks was taking the money to the bank to deposit it. A few paid by cheque or bank transfer, but looking at the amount of money that seemed to be paid for these two hour sessions with Imogen, Abi felt she must have a great reputation within her industry to be able to charge the amount she did, but she was a well qualified woman so why shouldn’t she earn that much? Besides, Abi was certainly reaping the benefits.

By the end of her first ‘week’ of work Abi felt like she had been there all her life. She was never bored, despite it not being the most challenging of jobs, simply because she was fascinated by the men that were coming through her door (and yes, so far they had all been men, but then as men dominated the top jobs in industry was this any surprise?) and the fact that they were obviously men of substance. Some no doubt were very senior within local companies, while others worked up in the city but lived more locally. These tended to be the ones that arrived for the later appointments and, exceptionally she knew that Imogen would work beyond six o’clock for some of them. Of course she charged a premium for this out of hours service and Abi was impressed. It seemed to her that Imogen was extremely confident in her abilities and the fact that her diary was always full backed up the fact that these men were most certainly happy with the service she provided.

Abi was quite pleased that she wasn’t a man in such a high powered world, where the stresses and strains meant you had to employ someone to confide in, but she wasn’t going to complain when she was doing so nicely out of it all, thank you very much.

One thing that Abi was sure of was that her discretion would be tantamount. Even with Mabel she would not discuss details about her job and Mabel never seemed to ask anyway. The good thing about being a PA was that you could just tell someone what you did and if they asked any more their interest soon waned when they realised you worked locally and not for some actress or musician.

By the end of her first month Abi had the filing system and booking system well under control and was on smiling terms with Imogen’s clients. Other than that her interactions with them were the bare minimum in terms of greeting them, getting them refreshments while they were waiting or booking in their next appointments. Most seemed to schedule monthly visits and some (who were obviously under even more pressure) would visit twice a month. All were polite but distant and barely gave Abi a second glance most of the time. This didn’t trouble Abi one single bit. She was never one for being the centre of attention and she was more than happy to blend into the background. In fact she was sure that if any of the clients were to bump into her in the street they wouldn’t have a clue as to who she was.

Her new income enabled her to add more additions to her garden, this time in the form of a climbing rose up the front of the cottage and a new patio around the back, replacing the one which was more weeds and grass than patio and which Abi was sure was such a health and safety hazard that she half expected to be sued by a guest who was tripped over by a particularly vicious clump of weeds which had made themselves very much at home in one of the many cracks that had appeared.

The new patio completely transformed the garden and she was soon able to add garden furniture, wood of course, rather than the plastic stuff which was always prone to blowing away in the wind. She felt very extravagant making so many purchases, but now she could afford it and was answerable to no one but herself she wasn’t going to hold back from getting just what she wanted. As the evenings started to grow lighter and warmer she was looking forward to sitting out in the sunshine and enjoying a nice glass of chilled wine before dinner and of course entertaining her new friends. Well by that she meant Mabel who had become more like the grandmother she had always wanted. It wasn’t that Abi was unsociable, she just chose her friends carefully and that took quite a bit of time. She firmly believed in quality and not quantity when it came to friends and in Mabel she really had found the jewel in the crown. For someone who was a good deal older than her Abi was impressed at how young Mabel was. She always seemed to have her finger on the pulse of what was going on in the arts world and was not averse to listening to the latest pop bands so that she could stay in touch with the ‘young people’ as she endearingly called them. If anyone would be able to hug a hoodie and get away with it then Mabel was that person. In fact Abi was wondering why David Cameron had not snapped up her skills and employed her as one of his campaign managers.

Her other neighbours were friendly enough but seemed to spend most of their time out of their houses. As some of the houses in the cul de sac were much newer, they didn’t enjoy the luxury of the bigger gardens that went with the houses owned by Mabel and Abi and so were not the kind of people who did much gardening at all, if any. In fact Abi realised she could go for weeks without seeing any of them as they all tended to leave the house at different times and those who commuted to London had left well before seven when Abi was getting out of bed and contemplating her day ahead over a cup of coffee.

Brian and Cara both worked for an airline company as pilots, so they kept particularly odd hours and very rarely seemed to be in the house at the same time; then there was Gemma and Craig who were first time buyers and who lived in a house that was so small Abi wondered how Craig managed to get his rugby player’s frame through the doors and up the stairs. Good luck to them for getting on the property ladder she thought to herself. She knew it must be tough as Gemma was a nurse and Craig worked for a telecoms company, so they were obviously watching the pennies. She would regularly see Craig outside tinkering with their car at the weekends which seemed to be a temperamental beast at the best of times. She noted that Gemma usually walked to work at the cottage hospital at the other end of the town.

So most of the time Abi said a welcoming hallo to these neighbours and made the odd comment about the weather, and that seemed to suit everyone. Of course there were the neighbours in the enormous house at the end of the drive who seemed to avoid any contact with anyone and were hardly ever seen, other than to drive their very expensive cars in and out through the five bar gate with barely a glance at the people who lived within a stones throw away from them. Even Mabel had been defeated in any attempts to be friendly and no one knew anything about them. Abi had to admit that on this information she wasn’t going to be the one to try and, it came as a relief to her and everyone else when ‘The Gables’ was seen as being up for sale in one of the more upmarket estate agents in town.

Abi and Mabel decided that whoever moved in could not be any worse than the current occupants and indeed a change could be a very good thing indeed. All they had to do was wait and see what happened.