10

Amara

"Amara," says Leo.

She looks over at him, tensing for what her body does. It does not disappoint. A shiver of awareness rushes through her at the sight of Leo's gaze.

"I thought since Stewart is still tied up, you could care to say hello to the secretaries and take a brief tour of the office."

"Yes, of course," she rises, smiling, and turns again to Stewart. "It was nice meeting you."

"You too, Amara," he greets happily. "I'll most likely still be here when you get back unless the tour goes through some of the city's tourist sites."

She smiles and steps out of her office with Leo.

He leads the way, with her having a great view of his back and butt. She is made to look away abruptly when she catches herself fantasizing about grabbing his butt, scratching him with her fingernails, and pressing his body against hers.

"So you get along well with Stewart," Leo says, turning to her over his shoulder.

It's like he had caught her staring at him. She is smiling and greeting. "Yes. He seems like a great guy."

"Hmmm. he has worked for me now for a number of years."

They move into the wide section of the passage with cubicles.

Leo heads in the direction of the cubicles. "Good morning, Ladies."

The ladies working from the cubicles greet Leo.

He gestures to Amara. "This is Amara, my new personal assistant. I hope you all can help her settle in," he says. He looks at her and starts gesturing to the women individually. "These are my personal secretaries. Precious. Beatrice. Melanie. And Karen."

All of the women smile and nod at Amara as their name is gestured to.

Karen even waves at her a bit.

She smiles back at them.

"How about me giving you, Amara, a tour of the offices?" Leo proposes.

Precious glances at her watch. "I'm in five to see a client, but if it might possibly be an hour, I'd be happy to," she says, smiling.

"Could do," Beatrice responds.

"Okay, thanks," Leo responds. He smiles at Amara. "I will leave you in the care of Beatrice."

Beatrice, a dark-haired, olive-skinned beauty, stands up and comes towards Amara. She shakes her hand enthusiastically, smiling at her. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too,” Amara replies, noticing that her smile doesn’t quite meet her dark brown eyes.

“I’ll be in my office,” Leo says. He turns and starts to walk away.

“Let’s go.” Beatrice smiles at Amara. “I take it you’ve found the break room and the bathroom next to your office?”

Amara nods.

She nods back. “Good.” She strides quickly along the hallway. Her long legs mean she takes long strides and Amara has to almost jog to keep up with her. She points to either side of herself as she walks. “This here is accounting,” she says. “And this is our tech team. These are just their offices. The magic happens in the computer labs. You’ll see them soon enough.”

A woman walks towards them.

Beatrice smiles and greets her. "Amara, this is Jess. She's the team leader of the software development team. Jess, this is Amara, the new personal assistant to Mr. Joe."

Jess and Amara greet each other.

"Jess is the one to talk to if you have a problem with any of the software," she says, echoing Leo's words. "Because she coded most of it." She doesn't even allow Amara to interject before turning to Jess.

"Clear your schedule, Jess, because there's going to be lots of calls," she says with a laugh that sounds more manufactured than anything.

Jess raises an eyebrow. “I hope you’re not implying my software is riddled with holes,” she says.

“No. God no, of course not,” Beatrice gushes.

So as Amara suspected, she’s implying she’s stupid.

“I’m just saying Amara might struggle to find her way around it with her being new to it and all that,” Beatrice adds.

Amara doesn't appreciate where this is going. "Leo showed me the basics, and I believe I've got it." She smiles at Jess.

Beatrice stiffens slightly when she uses Leo's first name.

Jess smiles at her. "You'll be fine. Just because Beatrice here doesn't know a spreadsheet from a diary page doesn't mean that you don't, okay?" Jess laughs.

Beatrice laughs along, though it's clearly forced. "What am I supposed to say? Some of us spent our college years living a life," she says.

"And some of us didn't need a university to learn how to do our job in the first place," Jess retorts. She smiles at Amara. "No offense."

"No offense. So. you're learning on your own?"

"Most developers are," Jess replies. She smirks. "Or at least the ones who are good."

Yes, well, we'd better get moving," Beatrice says.

Jess makes a mock salute and darts into her office.

Amara finds herself jogging along alongside Beatrice again. She thinks about asking her why she seems to think she's too stupid to figure out a new program, but she stays silent, remembering Stewart's warning that everybody here teases each other. She's just teasing her.

They cross the lobby and continue down another corridor.

This is the marketing department," Beatrice points to her right. "And to the left is conference room A, which is just called the conference room where the others get their full names. Make sure you pay attention to where this one is, as Mr. Joe has a lot of client meetings in here and you'll likely be asked to sit in on the meetings and take minutes.".

Amara nods, making sure to mark where this conference room is.