"Bobby."
Bobby looked up from her desk- it was Lisa.
"Hi." Bobby said with a smile. She didn't know why but she was finding it harder and harder to be civilized towards her. She'd even felt guilty about it, after all, Lisa hadn't done a thing to her.
"Do you have a minute?" Lisa asked.
"Sure." Bobby said, noticing that Eddie was carrying a couple of boxes at a time to the long table against the wall. It was a table the assistants used for creating folders, packets, sorting... things like that.
"Great, come." Lisa said, turning on her heel with a grin and approaching the table. Bobby slowly rose and moved behind her.
"The new mailers?" Bobby asked, raising her brow as Eddie opened one of the boxes.
"Yes-what do you think?" Lisa asked, holding one towards her. Bobby took it and nodded.
She had to admit- these were nice.
"This is good." Bobby said, hating to say it. "These are really good."
"I know, right? Anyway- we want these out by the end of the week. Eddie has the list of clients, plus the prospects. See..." Lisa began, opening a second box. "There are two kind, one for existing clientele..."
Bobby nodded.
"Okay and one for prospecting." Bobby said. "Are you using the same mailing kits?"
"Yes. The same box- they all need to have the correct mailer and the correct letters." She said, pointing to two stacks of folders. "It's one from Brian and Nora, one from Matt and one from Nicholas."
"From Nick?" Bobby asked.
"Lida- Nicholas Lida not Nick." Lisa clarified, looking through them. "We just need to make sure everyone gets the right version."
Bobby looked through a large basket, full of blank post it pads with the company Logo on it.
"Oh yes. On these- this is where I need you. I noticed you have fabulous handwriting- I just need you to write this on each of them before putting the pad in the mailing kits and sending them off." Lisa said.
Bobby sighed- that would take her hours... and certainly give her a case of carpel tunnel. But, of course, Bobby only smiled and agreed.
"Sure. I'll see if Danny can help us." Bobby said and Lisa's smile grew.
"Great. Teamwork is the best." Lisa said. "Thanks."
After she was gone, Bobby stared down at the pile of things to be sorted, stacked and then placed in mailers.
"We could get one of the kids from the mail room to help." Eddie said softly as he realized it was literally going to take them hours.
"No- they're understaffed. Besides, it'll be fine." Bobby said as usual, walking over to Danny's desk.
---
Brian and Nora walked out of their office around 1pm- Nora was starving as usual and Brian was eager to take her to a new sushi place she'd been saying she wanted to visit now for weeks.
Still, they both stopped dead in their tracks as they caught sight of four assistants working what looked like an assembly line, headed up by Bobby.
"What are you guys up to?" Nora asked.
In the end, even Kevin had joined in.
"These are nice." Brian said. "They're the mailers." He turned to Nora, showing her the paper.
"Right. I almost forgot about that." Nora said, looking at the letters they'd signed and written the week before.
"We only have one box left." Bobby said, without looking up as she moved her wrist around and wrote on the pads.
"How many of these are we sending out?" Brian asked.
"200 of the regulars and 500 for prospects." Eddie said as he closed another box and handed it to Kevin, who slapped the label on and put a stamp on it.
"Oh- not this one." Nora said, reaching out and taking a box from Kevin's hand. Bobby raised her brow.
"Why?" She asked but Kevin was the one who spoke.
"Oh, I hadn't noticed the label- It's for EPI." Kevin said.
"I think it might be awkward to send our in laws this." Nora said.
"Skip this one, we'll send them something a little more personal." Brian said, tossing that one aside.
"Of course." Bobby said with a sigh.
"Are you writing on each of those pads by hand?" Nora asked, noticing how Bobby stopped and moved her wrist every few seconds.
"Yep." Bobby said, without looking up.
"What are you writing?" Brian asked, picking up one of the pads.
"We appreciate your business..." he read.
"Didn't we already put this on the letter?" Nora asked.
"This gives it a personal touch." Bobby said, mimicking Lisa's voice and making everyone laugh.
Bobby immediately turned red- she hadn't mean to do that.
"Well, you four are doing a great job." Nora said, turning to Brian. "How about you order in something good to eat?"
"And put it on the company card, Bobby." Brian said with a nod.
Bobby was one of the few people with access to a company card. It was a lesson they had learned the hard way, many years before.
"Yummmmm..." Danny said, enthusiastically. "Thanks!"
"You're welcome. Don't wait too long before taking a break." Nora said, walking out.
"Thank you." Bobby said in low tones.
"So... What are we getting?" Eddie asked the moment Brian and Nora were gone.
Bobby shrugged and looked up.
"I don't... woah." She muttered, noticing the three of them were staring at her. "you guys pick."
----
"Please..." Lisa said, wrapping her arms around Matt's neck.
Matt was sitting on the edge of his desk, his hands on her hips as she purred into his ear gently.
"I'm sorry, Lisa. I can't. My mother is the only one who can sign off on a company card as CFO." Matt said.
"It's just so embarrassing to have to ask Bobby to pay for things." Lisa said.
"Why? Bobby doesn't mind doing it- really that girl is eager to do almost anything you need. That's why she's a great assistant." Matt said.
"I know she is. I know, even if I hadn't noticed it myself, you've certainly mentioned it enough times." Lisa said with a sigh, walking away.
Matt stared at her for a second.
"What's wrong? I don't believe you're upset over not having a company card. Besides, if it bothers you that much, I'll mention it to my mother." Matt said, not moving from his desk.
"No, don't worry about it. It's not a big deal." Lisa said.
"So then what's the matter?" he asked.
"No, it's nothing." Lisa said.
"Come on, just tell me what's wrong." Matt said, moving forward and reaching out for her. Lisa sighed.
"It's stupid really." She said, letting him pull her into his arms.
Matt smiled- she could be adorable when she was being stubborn. He placed a hand under her chin, lifting her face up to his as he leaned in.
"Hey Matt..." Bobby said with a quick knock as she walked in.
Matt quickly stepped away from Lisa, surprising her as he released her so suddenly.
"I'm sorry- I'll come back." Bobby said, turning bright red as she began to close the door.
"No... wait. Bobby." Matt said, completely forgetting about Lisa as he moved out the office door.
Bobby moved quickly down the hall, past her desk, past Eddie's desk and into the break room.
She went straight for the fridge and pulled out a water bottle- taking a long cold gulp.
Seconds later, Matt was in the breakroom.
She turned to him, wiping her mouth with her sleeve as she did so and then closing the bottle.
"Sorry." She said, unable to meet his eyes.
"No, I'm sorry." Matt said, suddenly unsure of why he was apologizing. He just felt like he needed to explain to Bobby, but it wasn't like she didn't know what she had seen.
"What for? I should have waited until you said come in." Bobby muttered nervously.
"That's fine- that's our dynamic." He said, looking around the room, not sure why he felt so uncomfortable about it.
"I just... wanted to tell you that I got the papers from Finance and they need you to sign off." Bobby said, looking to the counter and picking them up.
She held them out in front of her like a shield, unable to take a step towards Matt.
Matt reached out, also feeling like he couldn't come nearer to her - it was disturbing.
"Okay- I'll have these on your desk before I leave today." He said with a nod.
"Well..." Bobby said, looking back at her water bottle. "I guess I should go."
She moved quickly, practically bolted around him towards the door before stopping.
"Oh, Matt- will you please apologize to Lisa for me?" She said without turning before she left.
"Yeah..." Matt muttered and then his eyes widened.
"Shit." He said, realizing he'd left Lisa alone in his office. He moved quickly, zipping past Bobby who was walking back to the sorting table in a zombified mode and bursting in.
Lisa was right there- looking furious as she paced back and forth.
"Sorry- I'm so sorry about that." Matt said, closing the door behind him.
Lisa put a hand on her hips and stared at him. The adorable look on her face gone with this new, full fledged anger.
"You want to explain what the hell that was?" Lisa asked.
"Sorry- Bobby and I aren't really used to the whole formal knocking." Matt said, moving towards her but Lisa shook her head.
"Yeah, no, not that. Of course, you should probably work on that but, no. I mean the whole desperately running after her and leaving me here alone." Lisa said.
"Calm down- I went to go see what she needed." Matt said.
"Are you sure? Are you sure that's the only reason you went after her?" Lisa asked.
Matt raised his eyebrow.
"What are you insinuating?" He asked, growing annoyed.
"That's what I'm talking about. Everything with you is Bobby this and Bobby that- let me run it by Bobby and now, you run after her like if she saw something you didn't want her to see. " Lisa said.
"This is ridiculous. Bobby is my assistant and someone I trust- If I run everything by her it's because her opinion matters to me." He said.
"I get that but as your girlfriend, I don't need to hear her name twenty times a day!" Lisa said.
Matt stared at her for a second, confused.
"I can't believe you're jealous of Bobby." Matt said, "It's Bobby!"
But Lisa only sighed and shook her head.
"Bobby may be your assistant, confidant, friend or just Bobby, but she's also a woman in case you haven't noticed. " Lisa said with a chuckle. "Forget it."
Matt was perfectly still after Lisa stormed out of his office. What the hell had that been about?
Lisa was jealous of how close he was to Bobby? Of course he noticed Bobby was a woman, that was a dumb thing to say.
He had eyes, didn't he?
He'd seen Bobby almost everyday since she started working at the company 7 years ago, and more so since she became his assistant last year.
Sure, she wore the ridiculous sweater and she always looked like she was mad... but he knew she was a woman. She was a tiny, angry, little woman. He almost chuckled when he thought about her.
Then Matt shook his head and sat down.
Why was he thinking about Bobby when his girlfriend had just stormed out of his office?