28. New secretary

With John now gone, Zack finally settled down in his new, spacious and well-furnished office, with the windows overlooking the busy city.

Not only were the computers and furniture latest, but the office even had a fridge containing all sorts of drinks, a coffee machine and then a snacks cabinet.

Zack had just sat in his comfy chair when a knock came on the door, and he gave permission for the person to enter.

The door opened and a young man walked in, seemingly in his early twenties, and he had a goofy smile on as he awkwardly walked towards Zack.

"And who might you be?" Zack asked the unfamiliar face.

"I am Nicolas Coleson and I will be your secretary slash assistant from today on," the guy introduced rather excitedly.

"You look too happy for someone who got assigned to work for someone like me," Zack noted.

"Well, even though you are a hit or miss, a college dropout like myself could never imagine I would get to the top so soon from being a mere clerk," Nick said, and Zack's mouth dropped open. "I promise I will assist you to the best of my ability, and we will show them all that you are a hit!"

At that point, Zack wasn't sure what to be more surprised at.

"Did you just refer to me as a hit or miss? How would you know about something like that?" Zack asked him. " The meeting had only ended a few minutes ago, so how did this guy and the others know to use that word to describe him?

"Oh, it's on the company's online group," Nick said, taking out his phone from his pocket before scrolling a few times and rushing to show it to Zack. "See? It's posted here on the dashboard."

Zack took the phone from Zack and read the post on the dashboard.

'Nepotism at its best. Executives agree the company's latest hire (heir) could either be a hit or miss.'

Zack read the post and below it were comments.

'Come on, he is a direct heir of the chairman, I am sure he will do a fair job.'

'I bet his ass is going to fail to make it really soon. Wanna bet?'

'I heard his name is Zack'

'I saw him this morning. He is so handsome!'

'I think I know that name. He used to work here. But I heard he got into drugs.'

'I worked with this guy. Such a waste of talent when he stopped working here'

'Two heirs in one company? I sense a RUMBLE!'

'Who wants to bet who will be heir'

'You guys are so stupid.' Don't you know he is the only son of the vice chairman that died some years back?'

'Really? I had never heard of that. What happened?'

Zack didn't feel the need to continue reading the comments and handed Nick his phone back.

"The whole place is buzzing as the news is all over the place."

"I see," Zack managed to say, to which Nick nodded. "So you said you were a college drop out?"

"Ah, um. That was a mistake I made out of excitement," Nick rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed.

How worse could it get? Zack thought to himself.

"Just, go do what you have to do," Zack waved for him to leave.

All of his confidence and excitement went out of the windows as he dragged himself out of Zack's office, only for him to come back later, with a stroller carrying a ton of files.

"This is what we will be working on," Nick said to Zack.

"Alright, you can go now," Zack told him.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Nick asked.

"No, I'm alright. I will call for you when I need you," Zack said, not paying attention to Nick.

"Yes sir," Nick's head hung down in defeat as he turned to leave.

"Wait. On second thought," Zack said, and Nick turned back with all of his excitement, which only faltered with Zack's next words. "Prepare a cup of coffee. Make it light. You can do that, right?"

"Yes sir," Nick replied, defeated.

*

Chris paced around in his office biting the tip of his thumb. The door opened and a woman entered.

"I have assigned him a secretary just as you wanted and just now, Mr. Walker had him moved to an office on this floor," Zelda, Chris' secretary stated, and Chris stopped pacing.

"That b*stard. Only a day here and he already has Mr. Walker on his side. And what else? Now they expect me to hand over this important project to him," Chris said frustratedly.

"Mrs. Vaughn just called to make sure it was handed over to him."

"I am never giving it to him!"

"Sir, I understand your frustration, but the chairman," Zelda reminded him.

"Instead," Chris turned to his secretary. "Get a bunch of useless stuff for him to work on. Something even secretaries wouldn't want to work on."

"Yes sir," Zelda nodded and excused herself.

If there was anything Chris liked about Zelda, it was her efficiency. He only had to say a few words for her to understand what he meant.

Just then, Chris' phone rang in his pocket, and when he took it out, he saw a familiar name before answering.

"What do you want?" Chris said brusquely.

"Come on Chris, I thought we were more than that?" the person on the other end said, his voice light and humorous despite Chris being harsh.

"Well it's not like we are friends, so quickly get to it," Chris stated.

"It's about your company and I think it might create some buzz. I will send you the pictures. Let me know what you think," the person said and cut the call.

A 'ping' sound came, indicating a message.

Opening the pictures, Chris was surprised at what he saw as he went from picture to picture, all of them having the same content.

Chris couldn't help himself, as he let out a chuckle. "So you had some fun too, didn't you? I guess you weren't so innocent after all."

A call came from the same person again and Chris answered it.

"This will create some buzz, don't you think?" the person laughed. "You know I can't help it when I see things like this. Some people won't like it, so I'm sure you know how much is needed to keep it quiet, right? You won't want anything to ruin the company's reputation."

"That sounds like a threat," Chris snorted. Before the other person could say anything, Chris added.

"I am sure certain people won't be happy about it. So, with the right words, it will bring more harm than good."

"I will pay you double to publish it on a certain day," Chris said before ending the call, leaving the other person surprised.

Chris went over to his desk and pressed the intercom. A few minutes later, Zelda appeared.

"You can give him the project."

"Are you sure about it sir?"

"Why not? I just need to make a few changes to it before that," Chris chuckled to himself.

*

Nick's excitement soon faded away as he found himself doing petty errands for work that he didn't have to do even as a clerk.

From making his busy boss coffee, receiving delivered packages, serving him lunch, and then sitting at his desk all day doing nothing but waiting to be called. And on the third day, Nick finally felt tired.

He was so happy when he finally got to work for someone at the top, but now it appeared to be what it was, a punishment.

Now Nick found himself working for a boss who is given small tasks such as creating and updating spreadsheets for office expenses, but not inventory sales, filing data and entry to storing old files digitally.

If he was any other person, Nick would have started thinking about quitting and getting another job somewhere else, but he barely had enough qualifications to keep working in his current place.

Just then, Zelda started approaching and Nic sat upright. As he tried to pretend to do something important, he realized there was no important paperwork on his desk.

Zelda stopped in front of his desk, looking down at him with contempt.

"How may I help you?" Nick asked her.

Zelda dropped a file on his desk, and it landed with a thud. "Give this to your boss," having done that, Zelda turned and left.

"I bet it's another useless file," Nick said to himself before picking up the file.

He got up and went to his boss' office. He knocked on the door twice before entering, to find Zack, as always, buried in his work.

Zack didn't look up from his work as Nick went over and placed the file on top of the heap of other files.

"You have a new one sir," Nick tried to call for his boss' attention.

"Alright. If that is all, you may go," Zack said, still not looking up.

"Sir, I would like to help you," Nick stated.

"I am fine. You can just get me an energy drink from the fridge..."

"I don't want to do things like that anymore!" Nick exclaimed, shocking Zack, who finally looked up from his papers.

"Sir, please. Let me work with you," Nick dropped on his knees. "I may not have much to show on paper. But I swear I have what it takes. I don't want to get paid for anything. I know for a fact that no one here roots for you as much as I do. So please, no matter how small, don't let my abilities go to waste and let me help you achieve your potential."

"Get up Nicolas," Zack ordered him.

"Nick, you can call me Nick."

"Alright Nick. Grab a file and let's work on it."

Nick's face brightened up as he stood up and picked up the nearest file, which happened to be the file he had brought in.

"What is this one about?" Zack asked him and Nick went through the file briefly.

"It looks like a proposal between Gabrielle's holdings and the Vaughn enterprise," Nick flipped through the pages.

"Let me see that," Zack extended his hand and Nick handed him the file.

A frown appeared on Zack's face as he went through the file, realizing what it was.

"Thanks to you, I was able to get to this on time," Zack commented, and Nick felt proud of himself. "Looks like there is already a meeting scheduled in a few days' time. Let's get to working on it now."

"Right away, sir!"