Lustrous

Chapter 1: First Impressions are Ever Lasting

It was a strange place for me to apply for a job. 'Lustrous' was a chain of hotels that was quickly taking over the five class society around the world with hotels opening up from England all the way through to Japan and the CEO of the company is in search of a new assistant - which hopefully was where I come in. Although the job was so far out of my league it should be in a different solar system, I was determined to give it my best shot and at least interview for the job. I had made it through the first three rounds on the basis that they liked my determination and as co-workers of the CEO they believed that I would be best suited for keeping him on track.

I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or a hidden stab at my distasteful looks but I wasn't going to read into it too much.

"Nervous?" The woman next to me broke the silence pulling me out from my moment of escape and back to reality.

I turned to her and smiled shyly. "Very."

"Just take a few deep breaths and try not to be intimidated, you'll be fine." She smiled reassuringly at me but it did nothing to calm my nervous, in fact it only increased the anxiety building up in me.

Being intimidated wasn't the problem that I faced. In my previous experience with occupation I have been fine working with powerful people who could crush me like an ant and quickly adjusted to their intimidating stares, my problems were much greater than the simple intimidation. I was one of the few applicants no doubt who would be able to cope with the intimidation and successfully not flirt with the man in question but being me I was prone to little... accidents.

With a ping of the elevator I followed the woman - whose name I had yet to discover - out of the elevator and out onto the floor. The first thing I saw was a large wall that kept me from seeing anything but the golden lettering 'Lustrous Company Administration' which suddenly made me click that that's what CA stood for in the elevator.

That's all you got out of that?

We turned the corner and walked around the wall to find an interesting styled room. The walls were all painted a deep French Puce colour that looked even darker with the gold lettering on the walls that informed you of each individual office that was housed in the surrounding area which - if can count correctly - was four. Built off the make shift wall that we had to endure the walk around was a large reception desk that stood empty currently. I followed the woman over towards a door that was in the centre of the far wall and proceeded to walk through and take in my surroundings. On the other side of the door the French Puce seemed to fade and only appear on a wall here or there like a feature. We came to a stop just before the next door, this room was lined with black leather couches and another large reception desk that also stood unattended but I had the feeling that this was the position was currently about to interview for.

"Ready?" She asked me as she reached down and took hold of the gold handle.

I gulped loudly and nodded my head.

"Mr Renner is expecting you." She nodded and opened the door revealing a very... interesting office. The walls were painted such a deep colour that I'd swear they were black while the outer wall was tall floor to ceiling windows - of course, not that I expected anything less - while the furniture was all white leather and glass.

I was a little too busy looking around the room that I hadn't really noticed the man sitting down at by his desk staring at my opened mouth 'wow' face.

Yep great first impression, the man probably thinks your codfish already. Maybe he'll let you try it again, oh you could try the famous entrance and flip your hair back - oh wait it's in a bun, never mind.

I licked my lips nervously and made my way further into the room and sat down in the chair just opposite him while he regarded me with a coy expression. "By all means, take a seat." He gestured with his hand and flashed a very annoyed fake smile.