9: Beginning of the Future

I had my new clothes on that I had bought last week with Liz, a white shirt patterned with little daisies paired with black trousers and a pair of heels to make me feel taller. With my new clothes, I felt ready to take on the day.

Even with the confidence I felt in my new clothes, I still felt jittery as I entered the building that was to be the beginning of my future. The receptionist, Jada, smiled kindly as I walked in and showed me to my new team.

"How are you feeling about your first day in your new role?"

"Nervous" I admitted, my breath shaking slightly. "This is my first office job and it's such a great opportunity. I don't want to mess it up"

Jada gave me a reassuring smile "Don't worry too much. You're going to love it here. It's such a great company to work . "

"Have you been here long?" I asked her.

"I've been here for almost three years. I was originally just supposed to be here for a while until I found something closer to home, but I just love it here so much I could never think of leaving this place"

That was reassuring to hear. I had always heard horror stories of some companies being bad to work for. I was glad this company was not one of them.

"That's good to hear. My friend Jason works here, and he has nothing but good things to say about this place"

"Oh, Jason." Jada said, placing her hand on her heart. "He is such a sweetheart. Just the other day, he stayed behind to help me move my car when it didn't start up. And it was slashing with rain too"

I smiled, that sounded like Jason. We had approached the top of the stairs and stood behind the door of the first floor. "Are you ready?" Jada smiled, and without waiting for me to respond, opened the door to my future.

Although it was a small office, it bustled with life. The room came to life, people were chatting on phones, getting down to business, some were huddled over their desks, hard at work and some were running about, with coffee in some hands and others with stacks of paper.

The walls were bright, and the windows were big, making the room feel large. My heart was beating fast, I didn't think I was ready for this. I looked around for a familiar tuft of sandy blonde hair but struggled to find him in this bustling office.

"Where is the marketing department?" I asked casually. Jada just smirked, knowing who I was talking about.

"Marketing's on the second floor "

"Oh" I sighed, disappointed that I wouldn't have a familiar face in the office.

"What's your relationship with Jason? He's never mentioned a girlfriend before"

"Oh, no" I said, my face heating up "We're just friends"

Jada raised an eyebrow at me but didn't broach the subject further "I'll show you to your team" she said as she took me to the end of the office where the finance team were.

She smiled as we approached them, taking me to my new team "This is Madeline, she'll be your new manager" Jada introduced as I shook Madeline's hand.

"Rosie, it's so nice to have you on the team. We can't wait for you to get started" Madeline smiled. The first thing I noticed about Madeline was that she was tall, with her red blazer and trousers to match, it was a power outfit. "Let me introduce you to the rest of the team"

"I'll be off then. I'm just downstairs if you need anything Rosie" Jada said as she went back to her desk.

I smiled nervously at Madeline as she took me around to meet the rest of the team. "Our team is small, but we work really hard to make sure all the finances of the company run smoothly. So, this here is Jakub, he's our finance analyst." Madeline pointed out.

He wore glasses, his brown eyes reflecting off them "Nice to meet you Rosie"

"You too" I smiled.

We moved on to the next person who sat beside Jakub. "This is Yasmine, she deals with the payroll"

"Hi, welcome to the team" she smiled brightly.

"Thanks. I love your hijab. It matches your outfit" I said, complementing her matching outfit.

"Thanks. You have no idea how much time it takes in the morning to match my outfit together" she laughed.

"And we also have Daniel, who normally sits beside me, but he's just stepped away from his desk. I swear, his timing is impeccable" Madeline rolled her eyes.

"I'm here." Daniel barged through the door as if hearing his name. "Sorry, had a little comfort break. You must be Rosie. I'm Daniel, I'm one of the accountants here, it's nice to meet you" he said, shaking my hand.

"It's nice to meet you too"

"I believe you'll be sitting next to me" Daniel said "Our workload has been getting bigger since we've started to expand the company, hence why we needed an extra pair of hands for the job"

"Well, I'll certainly try my best" I responded, eagerly hoping that I wouldn't disappoint.

All day, Daniel had been training me on how to use the software and explained what I would be doing. My role was finance assistant; therefore, it was my responsibility to assist everyone when they needed to, hoping to take on some of the other team members workload since their own workloads had gotten too much to take on since the expansion.

There was so much to learn and do in this role, my head was hurting just trying to remember it all. But luckily, I was a copious note taker, a skill I had taken with me from my college days and was writing everything Daniel was telling me. Now, as well as my head hurting, my hand hurt too.

As Daniel was in the middle of explaining something important, my stomach chose that moment to growl. And it wasn't exactly quiet.

Daniel chuckled while my face flamed in embarrassment "I suppose that means it's lunchtime"

"Really? So soon? I didn't realise the time" I said, failing to salvage the moment.

"You might not have, but your stomach certainly did" Daniel chuckled "Come on, I'll show you to our break room"

The break room was on the ground floor and was big enough to fit in a lot of staff members. Obviously, not for the whole office as not everyone took their lunch at the same time. We had an hour break and could take it anytime in the afternoon. A breakfast bar stood at one end of the room with a few stools for people to sit on. A table also lay in the middle of the room with couches surrounding it making it a good place to relax while eating lunch.

"There's microwaves over there if you ever need to heat anything up. And the fridge is just there if you need to chill your lunch" Daniel pointed out.

"Thanks. I've just brought a sandwich for today. I didn't know what the lunch setup would be like"

"No problem. Just make yourself comfy. I'm just going to heat up my lunch"

The lunchroom was quite busy. My ears were filled with chatter as colleagues chatted amongst themselves, ready to have their lunch. I managed to find a spare spot on the couch and took out my sandwich. Compared to everyone else's amazing looking lunches, mine looked measly. The air wafted with the different scents of home cooked meals, all mingling together, invading my senses. I was so going to have to start bringing in home cooked lunches from now on.

"Hey. I haven't seen you around before, are you new here?" The person beside me asked.

"Yeah, I just started today"

"Nice to meet you, I'm Andrew" he said, shaking his hand "I work in marketing"

"Hi, I'm Rosie. I've just started in finance. So, you know Jason then?"

And speak of the devil and he shall appear. At that moment, Jason sauntered in, all smiles as he laughed to a colleague beside him.

"Ah, yes, Jason. He's one of our own. A marketing genius, so he claims" Andrew replied.

"Did someone say my name?" Jason smirked upon hearing his name.

I smiled, happy to see a familiar face. "Jason, we were just talking about how good you are at your job"

"I hope you were talking about what a marketing genius I am"

"That's exactly what we were talking about" Andrew chuckled

"Hey Rosie. Good to see you've been acquainted with the old timer that is Andrew"

"Hey, I think you're forgetting who your boss is"

"I never forget Andrew" Jason smirked as he went to the fridge to retrieve his lunch.

Andrew was his boss! They had such a casual relationship; I would never have thought that Andrew was his superior.

"As you can see, it's a great company to work for. Everyone here is friendly, so you never have to worry about anyone. Well, maybe not everyone" he raised an eyebrow towards Jason.

"Hey, I heard that" Jason said from the microwave.

I chuckled "I can see that already. Everyone I've met so far has been really nice. I'm looking forward to my time here."

Jason took the spare seat beside me "I told you you'd enjoy it here. It's such a great place to work"

Daniel joined us, sitting across from us "I see you've been acquainted with Jason"

"Actually, I already know Rosie. I've practically known her all her life"

I smiled, loving that Jason wasn't embarrassed to admit he knew me "I could probably tell you lots of things about Jason that you don't know about him"

"I'll hold you to that" Daniel laughed.

Jason's eyes widened "Eh, Rosie, I know you're new here and all, but I think we need to discuss what's appropriate and not appropriate to discuss in the workplace"

Andrew laughed "Oh, it would be great to hear all about Jason's life outside work"

"Trust me, it's not that exciting" Jason defended.

"Well, there was that one time-" I started, while Jason playfully pushed me away.

"I think that's enough about me for one day" Jason shook his head "Don't want to get fired and then that would mean I wouldn't be able to afford to get you anymore Oreos" Jason's smirked. That shut me up. Jason chuckled, knowing exactly how to get his way. "So, how's your first day at work been?" he asked, steering the conversation away from himself.

"It's been great. I'm learning so much already, I just hope that I'll remember it all"

"Don't worry, you're a smart cookie. You're going to be fine. And as much as I hate to admit it, you're in great hands with Daniel"

"She's doing great already" Daniel praised. "I think she'll do even better than you ever did" he chuckled.

"Hey, that one time I did help out finance, I did an okay job. I think. "

"You worked in finance before?" I raised an eyebrow.

"For a while. They needed a hand, so I volunteered to help the finance team out. Since I had studied a little finance during my course, I thought I could use that knowledge and put it to good use. Turns out I did not meet with the finance teams' requirements"

"There were a few mistakes on Jason's part" Daniel admitted.

"Is today make fun of Jason Day? Because I'm personally feeling attacked right now"

Everyone laughed, lapping up Jason's charm and charisma. It was strange seeing Jason outside of the house like this. He seemed like a different person and completely in his element here. I could never imagine Jason in an office environment, seeing as I only ever saw him at his house or during our outings with Liz. But seeing him here, surrounded by his peers, he fit in.

His laid back and relaxed attitude hadn't changed from his home life. He seemed to enjoy it here and obviously loved the attention. Everyone knew him and loved him here. Everyone I spoke to seemed to have nothing but good things to say about him. Even Andrew, his boss, couldn't help but praise him, and would even tease him about his work ethic. It was obvious he was Mr popular around here and it was no wonder. Jason was good at what he did and on top of that he was a genuinely nice person. He didn't put on an act; he didn't show off. Jason does what he does from the heart. He had always been like that and it was nice to see that hadn't changed in his work life.

It was a strange experience seeing him outside his home environment, but it was nice to see Jason in a new light. Everyone around me smiled and laughed as Jason spoke, taking in his every word. Even though he had only been here a year, he had definitely made his presence known, and that was just by Jason being himself.

I don't think I ever had the chance to see Jason without Liz being around. I smiled; it was an experience I was looking forward to.