New Assistant

Shortly after Antonio said those words, Lia heard the door slam from behind. The last strengths she had to support herself also faded once he left her apartment. She slid to the floor and covered her face for a while - only sobs could be heard coming out of her mouth.

Several minutes later, the alarm on her phone rang. Standing up, Lia paused her alarm and read the reminder she set for herself.

Reminder: First day of office work!

Sighing, Lia removed the notification on her screen and started getting ready for her new job. She whispered, "I wonder how he will react when he sees me later..."

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"I'll call you when I'm here to pick you up." Jason rolled down the window to the passenger side of the vehicle.

"En. I'll be waiting for you." Selina waved as she watched him drive away. After seeing his vehicle disappear from sight, she turned around and walked into her company. Along the way from the elevator to her office, she greeted many employees.

Finally, she arrived at her floor. As she stepped out, she noticed the empty seat at her personal assistant's desk. There were belongings on the chair - a beige purse and matching cardigan - but nobody was at the spot.

"Hmm? Ah, right. My new assistant's first day of work is today. She probably went on an errand or something. Whatever, I'll head to my office first." Selina whispered these thoughts to herself while making her way to her office.

As soon as she pushed the door open, she saw someone in her office. She observed the lady with a pencil skirt and bow collared white blouse who was leaning half on her desk. At that distance, Selina could see the lady was placing a cup of milk tea on her desk surface.

"Good morning! May I ask who you are?" Selina vaguely remembered her personal assistant's appearance. Hence, she wanted to confirm her identity before making assumptions.

"Hello! Good morning! You must be Mrs. Hui. My name is Lia and I am assigned to be your personal assistant temporarily. Before your assistant went on vacation, she left me friendly notices and memos. I know you will be at your office around this time, so I followed the instructions left by your assistant and made you a cup of milk tea." Lia smiled brightly, revealing her white teeth.

"Great! Welcome to the team! Thank you for being attentive. How do you feel so far? It's your first day, so feel free to talk to me if you encounter any trouble. If you're unsure of anything, just ask and I will try my best to explain everything to you." On her way to her desk, Selina noticed the sticky notes on top of stacked documents with deadline dates in the order of importance.

Although it was Lia's first day, she seemed to catch on quite quickly.

"Thank you very much! Is there anything you need me to assist you with?" Lia eyed the three columns of portfolios from various departments on Selina's desk. Even though she lacked experience in business, she could make minor corrections and perform other tasks under supervision.

"Hmm. Can you contact the financial department and ask them to send me the quarterly report they promised? Oh, right. Just call me Selina from now on. I don't like it when people call me by my surname or position. We're all working together as a team. Therefore, as my personal assistant, you don't need to call me Mrs. Hui when we are alone. Just keep your composure at work." Selina settled down by her desk and took a sip of her milk tea.

"Yes, Selina. I will do that right away." Lia swiftly left Selina's office to complete her task.

After replying to a few text messages, Selina stretched her arms and wiggled her fingers to prepare herself for a full day of work. While she indulged herself in work, the finance manager received Lia's request for the quarterly report.

The finance manager was in the middle of directing other staff in completing the calculations for the report when he answered her call. Panicking, he gave Lia a response. "Yes, we are working on it right now. Can you tell Selina that I will personally bring the report up in an hour? Something went wrong with the system when we tried printing the report this morning and we are trying to make it work. Can she ask other departments to present their reports first?"

Lia nodded and scribbled his response. "Alright, I will let her know. Thank you."

"Phew..." Lia patted her chest after finishing the phone call.

Knock Knock

"Come in." Selina's ears wiggled in response to Lia's knocks. She smiled when she saw Lia coming into the office.

"Selina, I contacted the finance department. Apparently, there were some technical issues and they couldn't print the report. They are currently working on it. The manager asked if you could have other departments present the reports to you first and he will come in approximately an hour with the report." Lia relayed the message, hoping everything will run smoothly.

Seeing how nervous she seemed, Selina chuckled. "No need to be so scared. It's fine. I will call someone else to bring a report up to me. You can go back to your seat and help me double-check these few documents that I've read. If everything looks fine, then run some errands to the departments to hand these reports back to them. Thank you."

"No problem. Then I will head back to my seat now." Lia took the reports from Selina's hands and hugged them to her chest while fast-walking out of the office.

'I've never worked as an office assistant before. These missions get more and more complicated. Jeez...the only thing left to make this day more frustrating is if Antonio meets me later today.' Lia shook her head as she started sinking deep into her thoughts.

"Work first. Work first." She whispered, sitting back in her chair.