Authors: Michelle Escamilla
The drive must have flown by when I was on the phone; I put my phone in my bag and as I rounded the
corner to my building. I was running a little late; but I wasn’t feeling too bad about 10 minutes,
especially since I had stayed in bed for three snooze alarms.
“Are you kidding me, Ava! I just finished the proposal and didn’t even work on any of the contracts! Why
the fuck is he in such a hurry?” I rarely cussed at work, but I felt like I was going to be a sailor the rest of
the day.
“Ryleigh, I’m sorry. I tried to keep it next week but he said that he’s going to be vacationing in St. Tropez
next week and he wants to get this done. I can see if I can get him to do it later this week?” She looked
nervous; I don’t think that I have ever been angry in front of her. I actually felt bad.
“No, Ava, it’s okay.” I said calmly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap back there. I just don’t know why he is all
the sudden in a hurry, he came to us a month ago and we just got his information a week or two ago. He
must have another offer. I will get his contracts done, what time did he want to meet?” My mind kept
repeating noon, knowing that I was going to have to cancel on Courtney.
I growled. Of course he wanted a lunch meeting. He was a typical business man whom wanted to have
lunch meetings with companies that wanted to cater to him, because they would really cater to him and
buy lunches. My ideal lunch was not eating it, especially today, with Mr. Rogers.
“Great. I made lunch plans, but I will fit him in. Can you call his assistant or someone down in his office
and find out typical foods he orders in? I will call him personally afterwards and get an order.” I started
typing on my computer with extra force in my keystrokes.
“I wish that was the case, look we are going to have to push shopping back and maybe do dinner? I am
so sorry to do this to you; this client I have been trying to get is pushing his meeting up from next
Wednesday to noon today! I am so pissed right now!” I was gritting my teeth from saying anything
further.
“I am going to duck out of here after the meeting, I am not sure when that will be though. He is a
stubborn old man and I need to make sure everything is perfect.” I began to pull up his files on my
computer.
We hung up and I began to work on Mr. Rogers’ contracts. I heard my phone buzz but I was really too
involved with this project that I put my phone in my purse and tried not to even pay it any attention.
This was the time when my head was finally concentrating on something rather than personal related
issues.
After working on this project for three hours, Ava finally poked her head into my office.
“Hey, sorry it took me so long. I called everyone in that damn office and found that he orders at random
during his meeting. So I’m coming in here to tell you that I found out nothing. I feel like I just wasted
three hours of both of our lives and I so frustrated right now.” She said annoyed.
“Ava, it is okay. I will just ask him what I can order him when he gets here. Thank you so much for going
through the trouble though. I really do appreciate it.” I said reaching for my phone. “Can I order
something for you as well?”
“Oh yeah! That’s fine. Thank you, Ava. You do an amazing job here. I don’t know what I would do
without you!” As she walked off, I dialed up our marketing department to make sure I could get a
projector in the conference room set up.
I also decided to get the okay from human resources; I wanted to give Ava some sort of incentive. The
best way to ever get ahold of those guys was to send an email. They never answered their phones or
seemed to be in their office, but when they got an email they jumped all over it. I never understood
them.
At exactly noon, I had everything finished. I was pretty impressed with myself that I accomplished an
entire presentation in about few hours. I typically liked to be able to take a week to make touch ups and
practice presenting the information.
I headed down to the conference room. I was greeted by an older gentleman who was wearing a
sweater instead of a suit jacket. I would say that he was in his mid-60’s. The television Mr. Rogers was a
slender man, the Mr. Rogers in front of me was a heavier man. He was not fat, but had a bit of a gut.
“Good Afternoon, Mr. Rogers.” I held my hand out for a firm handshake. “I am Ryleigh Andrews, we
have spoken many times on the phone, but I am glad that I finally have the opportunity to have some
face to face time with you. I would love to order us some lunch while we discuss your expectations of us,
me and my team.”
“Pleased to finally put a face to the voice, Ms. Andrews. I would love some lunch.” He shook my hand in
a firm grasp. “That is a grip you have there. I like a woman who knows how to really shake a hand, we
will get along famously.” He winked at me and sat down at the head of the table.
I handed him a few menus and we finally settled on some Italian food. I made a phone call to the
restaurant and asked it to be delivered in a rush and that there would be an amazing tip in it.
“Oh, please, I didn’t even notice. No harm done.” I smiled at him. “While we wait would you like to see
some of the documents that I put together? The slides will explain them a little better, but if you wanted
to look over where we will invest some of your funds and how we will spread it out appropriately.”
I handed him the folder and watched him read every line. Most of my clients skimmed my work and it
made me a little nervous that they weren’t really reading what was going to happen, our charges and
what we can do for them.
We ate with the occasional banter about home life and then I knew that it was getting awkward because
we began to talk about the weather. I did learn that he had been married four times! The man believed
in falling in love but apparently the women he had married believed in falling in lust. He had three sons
that would be taking over his company at some point down the road and while they were all very smart
with his company, money wise they needed some extra help.
After I had finished up my last couple of bites from my spaghetti, I began my presentation. He looked
very impressed with all of my work and continuously made comments about how amazed he was that I
looked so young and could manage to handle this amount of money.
“There you have it, Mr. Rogers. I promise that the moment you sign the contracts, we will have
everything taken care of for you. Your company and family will be in very good hands with us. Do you
have any questions?” I asked as I powered off the projector and took a seat next to him.
“Ryleigh, this amazing work and I think that I would be a fool not to sign. And please call me Frank from
now on. I have always hated that I had the same name as that dork on TV.” He laughed and shook my
hand.
I couldn’t help but laugh as well. I handed him a pen and went over each page of our contract for him to
sign. After each page was sign, we shook hands again and I walked him to the elevators.
“Frank, thank you so much again for coming down here. I hear that you are off to St. Tropez next week?
I hope you have a lovely time!”
“Ryleigh, I am not going anywhere next week, but in order to see how willing you were to drop your
schedule to bring me in, it shows me a lot of dedication. However, I am going to go golfing in Phoenix
this weekend, so I will have just as much fun.” He winked at me and stepped on to the elevator and
pushed his button. Cheeky bastard.
“Yeah, come in. Have a seat.” I had pulled up my emails; thankfully they had just approved my request.
“I just want to thank you very much for all your hard work. You make sure that everything is taken care
of and I don’t know what I would do without you. So I went ahead and had Human Resources adjust
your pay and you should also know that I will be getting a check cut for you, it will be a thousand extra
bucks.” I told Ava as she began to tear up.
“Yes, I did. We’re going to be getting a lot more business with the account that I just signed and it means
that you are going to be quite a bit busier as well. So I know it’s only 2:45, but I want you to take the rest
of the day off, go shopping, get a pedicure, go enjoy your man and come in here tomorrow ready to kick
some ass. Sound good?” I asked with a smile.
I pulled my phone out and dialed up Courtney.
“Hey! I just finished up my meeting! Up for a shopping trip?” I asked. I was so ready to get out of here
for the day and be around Courtney. I needed the girl time.
“Yes! I’m actually heading down towards the mall right now; we could meet up and then have
something for dinner down there? Oh hey, Jason is calling on the other line, meet you there in a little
bit.” Courtney then clicked off.