(Liam's POV - Sun. 11 August 2013)
"Pretty pleaaaaaaaase Liam!!!!" Shannon begs as he is sitting on my backside, his hands resting on my shoulders. A few minutes ago, I was quietly lying on my bed, face down, looking at my laptop when a weight suddenly landed on my back. A huge weight I should say. That was my best friend Shannon, as energetic as ever, who decided to invade that personal space which is my bedroom, and who jumped on my bed. He sat his bottom on mine and has been begging me to go out tonight.
"No Shan, I can't go out tonight!" I say for the umpteenth time in less than two minutes.
"I wanna go out dancing tonight! You can't let me go alone! Please Li!!" he insists, jumping on my butt.
"What the hell, Shan!! I told you no! And please get your gay dick away from my ass! Please!" I scream at him when I finally notice that he is only wearing boxer briefs, exactly like I am.
"I'm not gay, Bunny! I'm bi!" he replies, falsely offended by my remark. He knows that I am joking of course and that I don't hold any grudge against gays. My best friend is openly gay, or rather bi as he says, a jack of all trades if you prefer... one night he can date a girl, and the following night he might be with a boy, although I have seen him more often with boys lately.
"Whatever, get off of me!" I reply, trying to turn around and push him off. He eventually complies and sits down next to me, pouting like the little brat he is sometimes.
"Please Liam, I promise we'll have fun!"
"Shan, I know that we'd have fun, but I'm starting this job tomorrow! I need to wake up at 6:00 am and I need my six hours of sleep! What would be the point of going to a club for only an hour?" I reply softly, trying to reason him.
"Ugh... do you really need to wake up that early? It's not human to get up before ten or eleven!" he scoffs.
"This is just what happens to normal people who have a normal job with regular hours! I have to be there at 8:00 am tomorrow and I certainly don't want to arrive late for my first day, even less show up with dark circles under my eyes or looking tired. This is important for me Shan... I was really lucky to get that internship in the company I wanted the most and I can't afford to mess up," I explain. He tries his puppy dog face that never fails to move me, but I won't let him win this time, so I return my attention to the screen of my laptop.
"How about we go out to a bar and get some drinks?" he proposes when he realizes that he is not getting anywhere with the club.
"How about we're only twenty and can't drink?" I offer with a smug smile.
"You're such a party pooper!" he whines, getting up from my bed and heading towards the living-room.
Shannon has been my best friend for the last five years. We met during the first days of our sophomore year in high school. Shan is not really taller than I am but he is thicker, while I have always looked dwarfish and puny. My first week in this high school was like being in hell. I was bullied by taller and stronger guys from day one and I had no friends because my parents and I had just moved into this town over the summer - not that I really had any friends before anyway.
The incident happened on my second week there. I was at my locker, gathering my books inside my backpack when a group of three footballers decided to have some fun with me. They snatched my bag and started to throw all my books above the lockers, where I obviously wouldn't be able to reach them. This is when Shan arrived with his smart mouth and threatened the guys with ratting on them to the Principal. I was amazed that the guys didn't just beat him down, but when Shan told them that he wasn't afraid of retaliation or to be called a grass, they just gave up and left, shoving me against the lockers. Shan helped me up from the floor and asked a tall nerd who was passing by to help us get my books back. That afternoon, we walked back home together and this was the beginning of my first friendship ever. Shannon can be reproached with all kinds of faults, but if there is something he could be granted, it is his honesty and his hate for injustice.
Like I said, I never had friends before. For one, I am extremely shy and kind of very awkward. Then the fact that my parents moved from one state to the other every couple of years didn't help either. By the time I was starting to feel rather comfortable in a place and to start talking to other people, my parents were packing and getting ready to move to a new place. Illinois was our eighth destination and the first one in the North. My family always had a preference for Southern states and their warmth but I was glad they had chosen the North for once. My pale skin would finally get some relief from the sunburns and I was going to enjoy my first real winter.
However, after two years in the area of Chicago, my parents were ready to move again, and this time they were headed to California. When they brought up the subject in May that year, I begged them to stay for another twelve months in Chicago. The following year would be my last year of high school and I had already made plans for university. Once I would be in uni, I'd be able to live on my own and they could go wherever they wanted, especially as I would turn 18 before graduation. As a child, I was often sick and I had doubled a year at school, exactly like Shannon, but for other reasons.
The truth was I loved Chicago and I couldn't wait to move into the city. There were only two or three months a year that I would suffer from the heat and it almost set me in panic at the thought of moving to South California - because of course they were not intending to go to San Francisco or even further North... No! They wanted Los Angeles! Another reason was Shannon. We spent all our time together. At school, he was keeping the thugs away from me, and I was trying to rule down his hyperactivity and attraction for problems. Outside of school, we hung out a lot together and my parents appreciated him a lot despite his unruly reputation. So in the end they accepted to spend another year here and I got to enroll in the university of my choice.
Of course, my parents fled from Illinois the summer after I graduated but only after they had made sure that I was comfortably settled in a decent apartment. I was sure going to miss them but at the same time, I wanted some kind of independence. They trust me to be wise and mature enough to stand on my own two feet and to seriously attend all my courses. The rents downtown were obviously quite high but between my grant, my parents' financial help and the little job I found at a library, I knew I could make it. When I proposed that Shannon could move in with me and help me pay the rent, my parents got a bit dubious, knowing that he had dropped off school just before our year-end exams. To say I was disappointed the day he told me he wouldn't sit at the exams is an understatement. His grades didn't look good but I believed that he was still clever enough to try and even pass the tests. That day, the little bit of evil temper that I have in me came out and I cursed him with all kinds of names. I was so angry that I even told him to forget about our friendship.
And yet, a few days later I came back to him. This is when he told me that his parents said he had until his nineteenth birthday to find a job and get out of their house, because on November 25th, all his clothes and stuff would be thrown out the door, had he found a job or not. How could parents get rid of their child by force, even once they were adults? I can understand that they had a hard time with him and I can only imagine how a hyperactive child is difficult, but apart from making him sit at his exams, I always managed more or less to make him behave properly. It just required a bit of tact and reasoning... With that in mind, and after convincing my parents, I offered him to share the apartment with me, with the one warning that I wouldn't let him loaf around. The emotion and joy I saw in his eyes at that moment felt like I was relieving him from all his worries and the next two years bounded our friendship even deeper.
So I spent two years at the Robert Morris University of Chicago in view of getting my Associate's degree in Business Administration. I learned all the basics of business education in accounting, marketing and management that open to higher functions, but my initial goal was to work with high executives. I wanted to become a Personal Assistant. I know that this function is majorly held by women, but this is probably my feminine side emerging? Jokes aside, I have all the qualities fitted for this job: I am a quiet person, well organized and I like to tend to other people. My dream would be to work with high executives, preferably in marketing and communications so that I would be able to travel as well. Since I wanted to stay in Chicago, throughout my last year at university I started to look at the biggest companies in the city and to drop CVs and application letters in various places.
However, the one company that was holding my attention was Pierce Construction which is a constantly developing business that sells plans and builds luxurious houses and buildings almost all over the US. I had read that their CEO intended to expand their activity across the whole Northern American continent over the next two years and even Europe in the next five years. Architecture was my other main interest when I was in high school and this company could be a means to reach both my goals. There was an opportunity to maybe take evening courses to learn architecture and why not progress within the company. After several reminder letters and lots of call, I finally got an interview with their HR department in March but unfortunately, they had no job or internship openings for September; until they called me back this Thursday and proposed me an internship with the condition that I had to start as soon as possible.
My first plan had been to quietly enjoy the whole summer off and start working in September, but I just couldn't miss this opportunity. Thank God, I already spent three weeks in July with my parents in California, so I accepted the offer and proposed to start the following day, but they just asked me to be at 8:00 in the office on Monday. Despite my rather quiet nature, I am boiling inside; I am over-excited to join this company. I remember their building is really nice and the offices looked comfortable when I went there a few months ago. The HR assistant I spoke to last Thursday wasn't able to tell me much about what I was going to do, but I was ready to start with anything.
Since Shannon left my room about an hour ago, I have been staring at the door he shut. I sometimes wish I could help him settle down. Over the past two years, he has tried all sorts of jobs, from waiter in a restaurant to cleaning warehouses in the evenings, from delivering newspapers to preparing hamburgers at a MacDonald's, and so on and so forth. These jobs never lasted for more than a few weeks at best and he never found any interest in any of them. He does earn money and rarely fails to pay part of the rent. Even if he did fail more often, that wouldn't be too much of a problem but I'd just like him to find something that he likes to do for a living. The problem is that his interest lays in sleeping late in the morning and partying in the evening. Unfortunately, I can't always follow him...
With a sigh, I get up from my bed and walk out of my room to find Shan. He is in the living room, scrolling through his mobile phone. The TV is on but he has muted the sound. I sit down next him and look over his shoulder.
"What are you doing?" I ask with a small voice.
"Nothing... I was going to look for someone to go out with me, but I don't feel like it in the end," he says, tossing his phone on the coffee table in front of us with a sigh. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier. You're not a party pooper; I didn't mean what I said."
"Of course you did!" I snort, playfully poking his ribs.
"Well maybe I did, but I regret it," he repeats with sincerity.
"No problem Chipmunk! How about we order pizza and watch a movie? I need to stop thinking about tomorrow because it's gonna drive me crazy..."
"Sounds good! And stop worrying, I'm sure you'll do great! You always do!"
With that, he picks up his phone to order a pepperoni pizza and we spend the rest of the evening sprawled on the couch like the old couple that we are - not.
* * *
It is precisely 7:45 am when the automatic glass doors slide open and I walk into the Pierce Construction building. The building is not that big in surface, but it must be at least twenty-floor high. Most of the ground floor is a spacious hall with a reception desk and several black leather armchairs. The receptionist checks my ID card and asks me to patiently wait until someone comes to pick me up. I sit in one of the comfortable armchairs as straight as I can because I'm afraid to crease my suit. Minutes seem to drop endlessly as I keep looking around me. The receptionist is back to her computer screen and the security guy at the entrance of the building keeps nodding at all the employees who are passing by him and heading towards the lifts. I am surprised to see that as much as some people are elegantly dressed up, others wear jeans and shirts. At a quarter past eight, a young brunette steps out of the lift and walks toward me with a warm smile.
"Good morning Mr. Reed, I apologize for making you wait. My name is Elena and I am the one who called you last Thursday." I stand up and shake the hand she is holding out to me.
"Good morning. No problem for the delay," I assure her. "Pleased to meet you."
"Welcome on board Pierce Construction. Will you please follow me?" I nod and follow her to the elevators.
Once inside, I notice the little panel that indicates which department each floor welcomes and I see her press number seventeen, which is the HR level apparently. The doors open on a hall that leads to two corridors. Elena walks toward the right one and stops by a double door. We enter a vast meeting room which runs along the rest of the floor and to the large window panes that give a lot of brightness to the room, where a long and rectangular table is sitting, surrounded by white leather chairs. Elena spends a good hour speaking about the company and about my job. Throughout my internship, I will work with all the departments in this building and their directors' secretaries and depending on how good I do, I might get an offer for a permanent job. The last two months should see me working with the CEO's assistant, and although we are still far from there for now, I already stress a little at the idea of dealing with the big boss.
After much lecture about the company policies, rules and such, she says that she will pick me up around noon and leaves me with a whole bunch of documents for me to read and fill out for her. I start to fill all the forms then read my contract. I almost have a heart attack when I see my annual salary because I wasn't expecting that much during an internship and I can't help that pang of bliss at the idea that soon I will be able to buy a few more suits and dress shoes. When the doors open again, I am still in the middle of reading the policies.
"Perfect, you have already filled the forms and signed your contract," she says looking through the documents I neatly piled on the table. "Do you have any questions?"
"Hmm... no, I think it's all clear so far. I haven't finished reading all the policies, but..."
"Don't worry, you can read them later," she interrupts me. "Have you brought your lunch?"
"No, I didn't know..."
"No problem! We'll go get something at Potbelly's across the street and then I'll show you the lunch floor!"
When we come back from the little shop across the street with some sandwiches, Elena takes me to the first floor which is a fully open space that represents the total surface area of the building. There are bathrooms directly to the right and a nice space filled with armchairs on the rest of the right side with a big TV and even a billiard table. To the left, there is a table with one person apparently serving some lunch boxes and the rest of left side is like a dining-room with several tables and chairs, fridges and micro-waves. The room is quite empty at the moment since it is barely noon and I follow Elena to the end of a table where we settle down and start our lunch. She explains that there are also catering services which provide only sandwiches, salads and fruit; they deliver every day for those who order in the morning; people have to call the receptionist before ten so that she can place the order on time and food is delivered from 11:45 until 12:15.
Elena is a kind and very talkative young woman, which suits me well as I don't really like to speak about myself. She must be in her late twenties and has worked here for two years. After our lunch, we go back to her floor where she introduces me to the HR team and shows me her office which is next to the HR manager of the company. We then visit each of the floors and I meet so many people whose names I'll never be able to remember that by 4:00 pm I feel a headache coming. We stopped by IT where I got my own laptop and signed more documents certifying that I will respect the IT policies. There are two floors for the Projects department with dozens of engineers and architects; this is where I get to meet Mr. Brightman who is Mr. Pierce's second in command and who gives me a warm welcome. I find him very young to hold such a position, maybe 25 or 26 years old; but he is a nice guy and open for discussion.
We end up with the 19th floor and the Finance department because this is where I will spend the first two months. Elena introduces me to Mr. Jones, an older guy, deadpan type, who is the CFO, and to his assistant whom I will be working with the first two months. Carola welcomes me and says that she will give me tour of the finance floor tomorrow.
"I would normally not take you to the last floor...," Elena says after we have met the Compliance Manager and the Legal Manager on the 20th floor, "but since Mr. Pierce is on vacation at the moment, we can go and meet his assistant." When the lift doors open, I am met with a very different layout than the previous ones I have seen so far. To the left, there seems to be a huge meeting space from what I can see through the open doors, running along almost half the surface. To the right, there is a vast open space with a single desk and a long frozen window wall, behind which I guess must be Mr. Pierce's office. A young blond woman is sitting at the desk talking to a tall man, a very thin film of salt and pepper hair and quite bulky in his strict black business suit.
"Hi Tony, hi Ally... sorry to disturb you..." Elena stutters.
"Hi Elena, come in, come in! Tony was just about to leave anyway!" the blond girl says.
"Thanks! Let me introduce you to our new intern..." Elena says as I follow her toward Ally's desk. I am quite impressed by the man's domineering look on me and I have rarely felt so small but the guy must be at least 6.3 feet. "Tony is our security manager and this is Ally, Mr. Pierce's personal assistant. Ally and Tony, this is Liam Reed. Liam will be with us for a year to train as an Assistant in all the departments."
"Hi Liam, this is nice to meet you!" Ally cheers; she seems to be a very punchy young woman and as far as I can see, she will be a mother soon.
"Mr. Reed," Tony says with a nod, "welcome among us." Then turning back to Ally, he adds: "Ally, if you get a hold of Pierce, tell him to call me as soon as possible."
"I will Tony. But this is his first day off, so I probably won't hear from him until tomorrow..." The guy nods and leaves, using a private lift. "So Liam, how has your first day been?" Ally asks me.
"It's been quite... intense," I say with a small voice. "There is a lot to take in and I have met so many people..."
"Don't worry," Elena comments. "The first days are always a bit difficult. This is all new to you, but you'll get used to it."
"And you'll find out that Pierce Construction is a good company to work in. I imagine you had a tour of the facilities, so you must have seen that we work in a very comfortable environment. Most of the people here are kind and helpful; and Mr. Pierce is... a strict but good manager; though, you don't have to worry about that as you won't get to see him quite often. He travels quite a lot and rarely visits the lower levels. Anyway, welcome on board! This is nice to have a young man in the function of assistant for once! There are too many ladies in this job!" she chuckles, followed by Elena.
"Well thank you for your warm welcome and the encouragements," I say, blushing at the compliment.
"Liam, you seem to be quite shy, but I'm sure you'll easily integrate," Elena comments, increasing my blush.
"Well... thanks..." I just reply.
"How are the baby and you doing?" she then asks Ally.
"Oh... I guess he'll be a boxer considering how often he knocks me with his feet and wrists," she jokes, tenderly rubbing her prominent belly. "I'm getting a bit tired though, and I honestly can't wait for mid-September so that I can go on maternity leave. By the way, I'll come and see you sometime tomorrow; we need to launch the recruitment for my replacement."
"Sure! I'll ask Jenny to start looking at what the agencies offer at the moment. We need to define a profile. Your position is one of the most difficult and we can't just take anyone to work with Mr. Pierce..."
"He's not that bad, Elena," Ally chuckles. "He does expect a lot but he's fair and you don't get that with all the Managers..."
"Yes you're right... well, I'll see you tomorrow then, have a good evening!"
"Thanks, you too! Liam, it was a pleasure meeting you! I'll probably see you around one of these days!"
"Sure! Have a good evening!" I reply to Ally.
Elena and I go back down to the HR floor to finalize a few things before we leave the office. On my way back home, I think about my first day at Pierce Construction. I am glad that I resisted Shannon's offer to go out yesterday because I feel completely spent tonight. I haven't done that much, but meeting all these people and trying to remember all the floors and the organization of the departments was exhausting. Most of the persons I met were kind and welcoming but I know that my hardest task will be to fight my shyness and become a member of this whole group. I am happy with this first experience though, even if I am aware that my first real day will be tomorrow; this is when things are going to become serious. I will be working with the girl called Carola; she didn't seem to be extremely friendly and our interview was quite expeditious, but I shouldn't judge on my first impression. Ally seems to be a warm woman; exactly the kind of person with whom I could sympathize, like Elena. From what I understood, Mr. Pierce sounds like a difficult boss that a lot of people fear although everybody looked quite relaxed today. I wonder if it goes the same when he is not on vacation...
Published on: 24 Aug 2016
Picture above represents the HR floor (19th) and the canteen floor (1st). Except for Joshua's floor and the first floor, all the others are more or less similar with that set of offices on each side, the block in the middle, and the lifts and staircase at the top.
Liam has made his shy entrance and I hope it didn't sound too boring but I really wanted to give a lot of details about his past. Nothing much happens here, but things are starting in next chapter, and they don't go as expected...
Also, when I started writing this book, I realized that I messed up with Shan and Liam's age... From what I understood, people graduate high school the year they turn 18 in the US, right? and the fact that both Shannon and Liam were respectively born in November and December got me confused... They were 18 the year Liam graduated, but they were to turn 19 later that year, and as I didn't want to change everything in the first story, I just thought I could say that they doubled a year, though for different reasons :p
Not much else to say... Elena will be a recurrent character too, though not as much as Tony or Ally. And that's it!