Today was Monday and therefore also my first day at work.

I would drop Charlie off at the apartment of the Blacks which was only a few blocks from the headquarters of Black International Inc. where I would be working at.

I was really excited but also nervous because I didn’t know what to expect.

Mr Black had told me I would mainly have to organize and occasionally assist on legal matters which probably meant a lot of reading and typing and briefing but I was grateful for the chance I had gotten and I would do my best to not disappoint Mr Black.

I hadn’t exactly seen myself working for the biggest conglomerate company in America when I decided to study law.

I had rather seen myself becoming a public defender or maybe working for a non-profit organization. But even if Mr Black had wanted, he couldn’t have given me a job as a lawyer as I hadn’t finished law school yet.

Either way I was really lucky though, because even though I had already forgotten half of what stood in the contract I signed, I did remember that the salary was way too high for someone who hadn’t even finished university, and only went to a mediocre college.

That was, what I had told Mr Black too, but apparently that was the average starting salary for my position at the company, or at least so he said.

Also, I was wondering if I would see him or Damien at all during my time there.

Probably not though.

There were over 7 000 employees working for Black International Inc. in this building alone, and there were a few more offices distributed throughout the city.

And from what I knew Damien and Mr Black were travelling a lot and they probably didn’t spend too much time with low class workers like me.

That made me feel a little less nervous.

We hadn’t really talk in the hospital and the only reason he didn’t say anything was probably because Charlie had been around.

But of one thing I was certain, I would try to avoid Damien as best as I could.

With the subway it only took me a couple of minutes from the Black’s place to the company building and when I arrived I swallowed hard.

The huge high-rise construction, that had to be at least 50 stories, was entirely glass fronted and there was a large square in front of it with people chatting, slurping coffee, and checking their phones or documents.

It was almost quarter to 8 which meant that most people were probably about to go inside and start their workday.

For me it meant that I should probably hurry so it wouldn’t be so busy and crowded inside. Mr Black had told me to go to the customer service and ask for Mrs Anderson.

I made my way through one of the many entrances and much to my relief the customer service was right on the first floor. I passed security and made my way to the back of the building.

“What can I do for you?”, a young woman asked with a professional smile.

“I would like to see Mrs Anderson.”, I responded smiling nervously and she tilted her head for a second as if she were inspecting me.

“Are you Miss Jacobs?”, she asked curiously, and I nodded.

She smiled, now genuinely.

“Amanda said you would be coming. Just walk down this hallway, take the elevator to the 18th floor, walk along the big corridor on the opposite side, take the first left and then the 3rd door to the right. That is her office.

Do you want me to write it down for you? This building can be a little confusing at first.”

I nodded again, relieved.

“That would be great, thank you.”

“You need a company ID to use the elevators so you can just use mine and give it back to me later.”, she explained and handed me a card.

I thanked her again before I turned around.

I followed the instructions on the little paper the girl had given me, and I finally arrived at the right door. Room 1934, Amanda Anderson S. Ex. Customer S..

I had no idea what all of it stood for, but I just shrugged it off.

Hopefully, she wouldn’t question my knowledge of the company too much.

The door was made out of glass, but the big desk was facing the glass façade, so she didn’t see me coming.

I knocked carefully and she turned around.

When she saw me, she beckoned and smiled. I opened the door and stepped in.

“Excuse me, I really don’t mean to bother you, but my name is-”

She interrupted me.

“Allison Jacobs? I know. You are the girl that called two weeks ago. You are really lucky I picked up the phone that day. A few employees were sick and there was a big conference in Chicago many needed to attend so we were short on personnel and I had to fill in for a while. Mr Black told me all about you afterwards. It is so great to finally meet you!”

“Oh- Yes, you too.”, I responded and my cheeks felt hot.

She was right, I remembered her voice now.

Embarrassed I bit my lip and thought about how hysterical I had been that day. I hadn’t thought I would meet her in person.

“No need for embarrassment. I think they are all just very glad you are here now. And Charlie too, even though the circumstances weren’t ideal.”

I stared at her in confusion.

“You know about Charlie? And everything else?”

She shrugged and smiled warmly.

“I have been friends with the Black family long before Ethan took over the company and I have been working here for even longer than that. But don’t worry, my lips are sealed.

No one besides me knows anything and you shouldn’t tell anyone either. I am afraid many staff members would think that you have some sort of advantage over them and as sad as it might be, there are many people out there that would try to use any information on you against the Blacks. And against you too.”

Her smile turned sad and I couldn’t help but think that she knew exactly what she was talking about.

“Believe me, I wasn’t planning on telling anyone anything.”, I promised, and she patted my shoulder.

“I know dear, we just needed to get that out of the way. Now, are you ready for your first workday?”

I shrugged.

“Not really but I will try my best.”

She laughed and opened the door.

“You will see, most people here are pretty nice, and you will get used to your work. You have to reread lots of contracts, make sure no deadlines are missed and occasionally you will also have to plan some meetings.

There is a briefing every morning at around 10 in the Conference room number 11 for the different divisions of the legal department. You will be part of the division International Commercial Law.

Of course not everybody can attend those meetings which is why you have to go, take notes and then brief your division after the meeting is over which means that you tell everybody what is new and what new contracts have to be written and signed.

That is the hardest part because you don’t know everybody yet but it will get easier in a few days and if you are not sure just ask someone or give me a call, but don’t call my office because I am usually never there.

You can call my work phone though. I have written all the important phone numbers, conference rooms and names down for you.”, she explained while I followed her down the hallway to a different elevator and she handed me the folder she had been carrying. I took and opened it nervously while biting my lip.

How would I ever fit in here and get all this work done?

“I have added a little schedule and there is also a floor plan in there. I have marked all the important rooms red for you.”

She had really thought of everything.

“Thank you so much, I would probably get lost without it.”, I thanked her, and she smiled as we entered the elevator, and she pressed two buttons.

“No problem, sweetheart. I have talked to Emma -the girl you talked to at the customer service. She called me when you arrived. She is waiting on floor 15 for you and she is going to show you your workplace and the conference room and she will answer any questions you have. I am afraid I need to attend a meeting now.”

We had already reached floor 15 and the doors slid open.

I stepped outside but turned back around to face Mrs Anderson.

“Just give me a call if you need anything. I will see you later.” She waved and then the doors of the elevator closed again.

I pressed the folder closely to my chest while I started walking. This floor was a lot busier and men and women in suits and blazers were rushing past me.

I fit in pretty well. At least on the surface.

I wore a grey pencil skirt, a white blouse and a blazer matching my skirt.

I had gone shopping for a few new clothes yesterday because I hadn’t really had anything to wear besides jeans and t-shirts.

Most women here were wearing heels, but I could barely walk in these things and the way from the Black’s apartment to here was way too long.

But other than that, the only difference between me and these people was, that they knew exactly where to go and what to do. I didn’t.

“Miss Jacobs?”, I spun around and saw the girl from earlier rushing in my direction.

“Hi, my name is Emma Richards. Can I call you Allison? You are probably barely older than I am and that always makes it so awkward.”, she asked and brushed a strand of her curly red hair behind her ear.

“Sure, but Ally is fine too.”, I said a little surprised and she grinned back at me in relief.

“Great. Now, let me show you your office.”

I looked up. “I have my own office?”

She grimaced. “Yeah, lucky you. I have been working here for almost two years and I still don’t have one. But whatever… Your office is right here.”, she opened the door to a small office with a desk, a chair, and a cabinet with lots of documents and binders crammed in there.

“The woman that worked your position before you got pregnant, that is why you get her office now. But I am afraid the hormones made her a little messy.

It will probably take you a while to look through everything and make sure nothing important went missing in this chaos.

Also, you will probably have to take some of the stuff down to the archives. Everything older than a month should go there.

But make sure that you don’t miss the briefing, which will usually take about half an hour. After the briefing you have to make copies of everything they give you and then you have to make sure everything goes to all the senior lawyers of your department. You can give it to their assistants too, most of them are pretty reliable.

But always make sure that you have another copy for yourself.”, she explained and grabbed the folder from my hand.

After a few seconds she found what she was looking for and pointed at a list of 5 people.

“Their offices are right down the hallway. I can show you where you can make copies and then I have to head back to work. But maybe we can go out for lunch together. Lunch break is from 12 a.m. to 1 p.m. and there is a great little café down the street.”

She sounded hopeful.

“You know a lot of the people that work here are so stuck up and I really hate going out alone.”

I laughed a little.

“That would be great. I don’t really know anyone here anyway.”, I admitted, and she smiled relieved.

“Okay, perfect. Now let me show you around.”

She showed me the copying room and how to make a copy because the copier was a lot more sophisticated than I had assumed.

After that she also showed me a big break room with multiple coffee machines, a few small tables with couches sitting next to them, and a big kitchen that even had a fridge.

There were also smaller bowls with snacks on the tables, and I was tempted to try one of the wrapped chocolates in the bowls, but Emma pulled me further along.

Suddenly I remembered her ID card in my blazer pocket.

I pulled it out and handed it back to her.

“Sorry, I completely forgot about it.”, I apologized but she just shrugged.

“No big deal. A colleague let me use his for the elevator, so it wasn’t a problem.”

Then she also showed me the bathrooms and the conference room that I had to go to later and then we had agreed on meeting outside at fountain, sitting on the square, at 12.

After that she had left, and I had returned to my office.

It wasn’t big, and it wasn’t facing the outside, but it still had a glass front towards the hallway and the lighting was great.

I put my purse with my laptop in it on the desk and looked around. There were a few people passing by my office but none of them even looked inside.

I started to look through the cabinets and it didn’t take me long to figure out that Emma had been right.

It would definitely take a while to look through these.

There were hundreds of folders and no matter how hard I looked, there was no consistency at all in the way they were ordered.

I sighed and set my alarm for quarter to ten so I wouldn’t miss the briefing which meant that I had about one and a half hours left.

I was surprised how fast I was able to sort everything.

I was sorting everything by date, and sometimes I looked through some of the more current documents.

I could barely make sense out of any of it but after a while I started remembering some seemingly important cases and contracts, as well as a few partner companies and subsidiaries that got mentioned more often.

When my alarm went off I had looked through almost a third of the documents.

My back and knees ached from kneeling on the floor because my desk just hadn’t been big enough to spread all the paperwork on there.

Now there were multiple stacks of documents, one with the things I hadn’t checked yet, one with the older copies that needed to go to the archive, one with the more recent copies, and one with different documents of which I wasn’t sure what they were and what I was supposed to do with them.

There were all sorts of things, contracts, copies of emails, court cases, declarations of consent and much more.

I would have to ask Mrs Anderson later, or maybe I could ask Emma for help, but I wasn’t sure whether she knew much more about this than I did.

The briefing wasn’t as long as expected.

I took lots of notes even though I didn’t understand half of what they said but after the meeting I still went and took copies of everything.

I checked my folder again to make sure I remembered the names of the people that should receive the copies before I went and gave the documents to them.

I talked to all of them for a few minutes and they welcomed me and told me about what additional tasks I might have to deal with.

They all seemed nice but, like Emma had said, a little stuck up.

When I got back to my office I only had an hour left till lunch break and my head started hurting again from all the new information, so that I decided to finish up looking through all the documents on my floor later.

Instead I started reading through the folder I had gotten by Mrs Anderson earlier.

In there was also my company ID and somehow it already had a picture of me on it. It was used for the elevators and some other areas around the building.

But Emma had explained to me that I couldn’t enter all the areas with my ID card.

Some places, like the corridor with the offices of important people, like Mr Black or Damien, needed an ID with an additional code that got changed at least once week, or more.

There was also a smaller sheet with a new email address and a password on it.

I logged in and I noticed surprised that I had already gotten a few emails.

The first one was the standard email that you get when you create a new account. The second one was from one of the representatives of the workers committee welcoming me at the company, but it sounded so blunt and impersonal that it was probably just the email that was sent to every new employee.

The third email was the most recent, and also a little more interesting. It was from Mrs Anderson. She was asking how my day was going and sent me a few more phone numbers and email addresses that I needed to remember.

I answered her quickly before I decided to take the first batch of old copies to the archive. It took me a while to find it, despite the floor plan, and when I got back to my office it was already time to leave and meet Emma outside.