I started every Monday morning by going to the coffee shop I used to work at and grabbing a vanilla cold brew to go. I greeted my coworkers as I went up to the twenty-second floor. Marge was back at work that morning, so I was prepared to return to my old desk. However, Carla stopped me.
"Good morning, Emerson," she said, smiling sweetly. "You're being called to the twenty-fifth floor this morning."
"Oh, okay, thank you for letting me know," I said, already getting nervous. I was expecting a rejection. It had only been a weekend since I interviewed. Surely they interviewed more qualifiable people than me and quickly realized I was not in the running.
On the twenty-fifth floor, Sasha told me I didn't have to wait. She led me into the sitting area but we didn't stop there or in a conference room. We entered a different room that had three doors. The one on the right was Emilio's office. The one on the left was Michael's office. We went through the one in the center and emerged upon another reception area with Don's desk. There was a glass wall dividing this room and Mr. Jett's office. However, all of the curtains were pulled so I couldn't look into it. "Go ahead and wait here," Sasha said. "Don will be here shortly."
I tapped my foot as I waited, but Don came out within a minute. Mr. Jett was with him. They each sat in one of the armchairs across the coffee table from me. "How are you, Emerson?" Don asked.
"I'm fine, totally fine," I said. I technically was fine, but nervous.
"Nervous?" Don asked, smirking as he pulled a pipe from his pocket.
"A little," I said, chuckling.
"There's no need to be nervous," Mr. Jett said, in that soft tone he spoke in. He wasn't quiet and he didn't speak timidly. He was just...soft spoken, but his voice was still commanding in a way, like although he wasn't loud he was worth listening to. "We're just here to offer you the position of Don's replacement, if you so choose to take it."
I paused, then asked, "Are you serious?"
Don chuckled. "Yes, my boy, we are serious. Well, Lafayette is serious. It's his call, after all. He has decided he wants you to replace me."
"Not 'replace' you, just fill your position, Don," Mr. Jett said. "You can bring your belongings up to this desk today." He gestured towards Don's mostly empty desk. "Don will be working with you today and the next couple of days to get you situated."
"Welcome to the twenty-fifth floor, Emerson," Don said, puffing on his pipe.
"If you accept, of course," Mr. Jett said.
"I do. I-I do accept, of course," I said. "Thank you so much."
"Great." Mr. Jett stood up. "Don will go over some paperwork with you, discuss your pay increase, finalize everything and then train you." He glanced at Don and then said, "It's good to have you, Emerson."
"Right, thank you, Mr. Jett," I said, smiling nervously.
He nodded and then went back into his office. The curtain covered the entirety of the glass wall. I could only see a sliver of him through the door, which was also covered by a separate curtain. I had a sinking feeling that Mr. Jett didn't like me, but I shook the thought from my head. I couldn't worry about assumptions. I had to worry about doing a good job.
Don had me fill out some new paperwork. He discussed pay with me, and the pay was impressive. It was much higher than the average salary of a New Yorker and was definitely enough for me to have my own apartment. I only had until October 15th until my lease was up, though, so I figured I could stick it out for a couple of more months. After the new paperwork he went over the scheduling system, which was luckily the same one I had been familiar with. Don was very organized and I appreciated how he had everything color coded. He made it seem simple, but I was worried it would actually be overwhelming. Luckily for me it appeared he had some consistency in certain meetings. Financial meetings on Mondays, marketing ones on Tuesdays, executive meetings Wednesdays, so on and so forth. He also didn't actually seem to have as many meetings as I thought, but he did receive a lot of calls.
Towards lunchtime, Michael and Emilio entered the room. "You must be the new Don," Emilio said, smiling.
"This isn't The Devil Wears Prada, Lio," Michael said. "I'm Michael." He extended his hand for me to shake. "I'm sure you'll be getting to know us better during your tenure here."
"He's always too formal," Emilio said, snatching my hand with both of his. "It is a pleasure to have you join us, Emerson. You will soon see the staggering differences between Michelle and I here. Uptight, hoity-toity, rage like a chihuahua. Then there's me, the handsome, suave, incredibly talented one."
Don chuckled, pulling my hand away for me. "Please leave the poor boy alone," he said. "And Em, do not listen to my dear Emilio. While they are quite the odd couple, they simply complement each other well and both surprisingly have redeeming qualities."
"Okay, so now that introductions have failed, can we get some food?" Michael said.
"Certainly. Emerson, we'll be going to lunch and upon our return you and Miss Sasha can go get your lunch," Don said.
"You're also allowed to just eat through your break," Michael added.
"Hogwash. Eating through your break is just a capitalistic scheme to take advantage of your energy. Take your break and enjoy it," Don said, pointing at me.
"Okay, of course. Who watches the phones while we're away?" I asked.
"We're not completely helpless," Michael said.
"Okay okay, my dear Miguel, it's clear you are in need of some food," Emilio said, placing his hands on Michael's shoulders.
At this point, Mr. Jett entered the room. "I'll have to pass on lunch this time around," he said. "Tell Jerry I'll see him sometime later this week." Michael rolled his eyes but Emilio nodded to Mr. Jett before he went back into his office. The three of them said goodbye to me and then left.
Everyone knew Michael, Emilio, and Mr. Jett had been friends since middle school. They were all friends and founders, it was the beauty of the company's origin story. But seeing Michael so tense, the way they hardly said a word to Mr. Jett, it made me wonder if they were still friends. Maybe it was just a bad day. Michael seemed to be tense regardless. When they returned from their lunch break, Don told me not to worry about paging Mr. Jett, he would page him for me. I didn't bring lunch that day so I went out to the elevator lobby to go to the restaurant on the second floor.
"Need a lunch partner?" Sasha asked when I hit the button.
"Oh sure! I'd love one," I said. "I didn't bring lunch so I was just going to go down to the restaurant if that's okay with you."
"Totally. I go to the restaurant all the time. My girlfriend is actually the sous chef there. I usually eat with her but she doesn't work Mondays so it's the only day I don't eat with her 'cause she's always at home." Sasha grabbed her purse and paged Michael to tell him she was leaving.
Together we went down to the restaurant and to the bar because the bar always had seats open. I asked her how long the breaks were and she said they could be between thirty minutes to forty-five minutes, but it might be different for me once Don was officially out of the office. We ordered food and waited, the cooks knowing we were employees and prioritizing our food.
"So is Don doing a good job of giving you the low down?" she asked. "I'm sure he is, but I can always be of assistance too, if need be."
"Yeah! He's doing good so far. I think I'll get the hang of it, but I'm mostly worried Mr. Jett will be annoyed if I don't get things immediately. Is he like that?" I asked.
"I'm not sure, really. He says good morning to me everyday but that's about it. Sometimes I'll have to sit in on a meeting and he's a cordial guy, but I don't know what he's like behind his curtain." She laughed suddenly. "Like the wizard in The Wizard of Oz, hiding behind a curtain."
I laughed with her, then asked, "Do he and Michael get along? Like, are they still friends I guess?"
"Yeah, they're still friends. I've worked here for about six years but only one time did I see Mr. Jett get mad and it was maybe last year. It wasn't long ago. Him and Michael were snapping at each other. Not yelling, not exactly being mean, just very...snappy." She shrugged. "I'm sure you'll learn more than me in time."
I nodded, wondering if they've always been like that. Our food came and we ate, chit chatting along the way. She told me she met her girlfriend, Sydney, by working here and that they had been together for five years. They lived in a decent apartment complex close by, which got me asking about the apartment because I was wanting to look for a nice one close by too. We talked and ate for thirty minutes before heading back up.
For the majority of Monday and Tuesday I hardly saw Mr. Jett. I learned Tuesdays were more of his busier days, so he was out of office often. Don was still training me but no amount of training could alleviate my anxiety. I just really didn't want to disappoint Mr. Jett. He seemed like the kind of person who was quiet but scary, a kettle ready to blow its whistle. On Wednesday and Thursday, Mr. Jett was actually out of office for business, which was kind of nice because Don had me do everything without him Wednesday. He just sat on the couch, reading, and was there if I had any questions. I actually didn't have any questions, so on Thursday while Mr. Jett was still out of office he spent most of the time in either Michael's office or Emilio's.
On Thursday, I decided to stay a little later and get ahead on some things, review things, to be prepared for Mr. Jett's return. Since I was now salaried my hours were more flexible. I had a horrible fear of being fired, but I told myself that this was not the kind of company to fire someone for not immediately catching onto a new job. Still, it made me anxious.
It was a quarter until six when a light suddenly turned on in Mr. Jett's office. I could only see it turn on through the tiny sliver between curtains. My heartbeat quickened. Honestly, I thought it was a ghost or something because I had been at that desk all day and didn't see anyone go in or out. I couldn't just leave it, though, because what if it was someone breaking in? I was too afraid to go in there, though, so I just paged the phone. "Who is in there?" I asked.
A second later, Mr. Jett opened his office door. "It's just me," he said.
"Oh my god, I got so freaked out. I thought someone broke in or there was like a ghost or something," I said. "I'm so sorry. How did you...how did you get in there, though?"
"Sorry to startle you," he said. He wasn't smiling, but I could hear amusement in his voice. "I actually have my own entrance I use sometimes, usually outside of office hours."
"Okay, that definitely makes sense and I should've assumed that. I'm sorry," I said.
He nodded. "It's alright." He looked inside his office for a moment, like he was debating something, but then back to me. "What are you doing here so late?"
"Oh, I was just preparing for tomorrow. I don't mind staying later, so if you ever need me to then I totally can." I smiled without showing my teeth, feeling so awkward.
"No plans or anything?" he asked.
"Not really. Other than Friday nights I don't have any plans. Plus, I have this weird roommate that I kind of hate living with so I usually find ways to not go home." I shrugged. "I guess that's more info than you needed."
Finally, the corner of his lip twitched up. "You're good. I'll be here for a while, so feel free to finish up whenever you need to," he said.
"Sure thing," I said, and then asked when he turned, "Hey Mr. Jett?" He turned back to look at me. "Uh...I just wanted to let you know that I'm catching onto things well and didn't have any troubles today, but I'm sorry in advance if I mess up or something."
"Of course, mistakes happen. You'll be fine, Emerson." He gave me a nod and then went back into his office.
I mulled around for a while longer, until a quarter past six, when I agreed to meet up with this guy I met on Grindr to hook up with at his place. That way I got back to my apartment at around ten at night, when my roommate would be out doing whatever he does at night. The next day I went to work. We threw a retirement party for Don, and then I performed at the club Friday and Saturday. The next week, I was completely on my own.