What Nobody Knew

Part 34

Room service. Enough said.

The spread was amazing and way more than William and I would ever be able to finish in one sitting. There were waffles, eggs, fruit, yoghurt, bacon, sausages and assortments of jams and jellies. I had officially died and gone to heaven. 

William had finally filled me in on the plans for our trip. Okay, don't get too excited, he only scraped the surface and gave me the agenda for the day ahead.

We updated his diary over breakfast. I didn't think I would be, but I was practically gleeful at the fact that I could jot down the plans for the day.

I hated not knowing what was going on. I wanted to be prepared, to know what to expect. And, even though this job wasn't exactly what I had in mind for myself after university, I wanted to do it well. I saw no use in doing something if I wasn't willing to give it my all.

"So this meeting this morning, will it be in English?" I asked before scooping more yoghurt and berries into my mouth.

"Some of it will be."

I didn't look forward to sitting through a whole day of not knowing what was being said. It would make my job nearly impossible.

"Well, my meeting minutes will certainly be interesting then," I said scanning over the agenda again.

William seemed to cram everything into this one day. He had set up meetings throughout the day.

"We'll go through anything that was unclear afterwards." 

We finished the rest of breakfast in silence.

I had 30 minutes to get ready before we had to depart for our first meeting of the day. 

I took a quick shower, blow-dried my hair, dressed and put on a light layer of make-up in record time. William would not appreciate it if I left him waiting. 

I stepped out of my room with five minutes to spare. William was already standing there, waiting, dressed in a suit and tie.  His hair was still damp from the shower.

I averted my eyes. No need to repeat what happened last night.

The breakfast table had already been cleared. Room service had to have come in while I was in the shower.

My eyes travelled back to William who was busy giving me a once-over. 

I quickly peeked down at my outfit choice. Nope, my bra wasn't visible through my white blouse and there weren't any runs in my stockings.

Meeting his eyes again, William gave me a swift nod and started walking towards the door. Apparently, we were leaving.

I quickly grabbed my notebook and rushed after him. 

...

By the third meeting of the day, I felt completely alienated.

So far none of the meetings were in English as William had said. I could simply smile and nod to most of the conversation. Although, even that proved to be challenging since I had to gauge the appropriate reaction from William's facial expression. And his facial expressions remained as always hard to decipher.

Luckily the current meeting fell over lunchtime so I had something to keep me busy, even if it wasn't taking notes or even contributing to the conversation.

William was deep in the middle of a discussion with two other men. I couldn't make out two words edgewise and William was certainly not doing anything to fill me in on the goings-on of the meeting. 

I wonder how he became fluent in German. He spoke without hesitation and with as much authority as he did in English. Did he learn the language for business purposes? Or was it something else?