Part 13
Mia's first day at work confirmed Tim's instincts about her. She was a quick study, and was eager to make a good impression. Tim assigned her to one of the four offices behind Julie's desk, and gave her a binder full of materials. They included some routine paperwork dealing with corporate and office policy, as well as materials on the past three years of ad campaigns that Tim had worked on during his time at the main corporate office. He asked her to spend the morning looking those over, and in the afternoon they'd meet and discuss a few leads that Tim had on potential clients.
She and Julie were clearly glad to be working together, and they quickly fell into what Tim guessed had been their relationship had been when they were co-eds together: they were thick as thieves, and they combined a playful casualness with the ability to be professional and focused on their work when necessary.
When Mia showed up that first morning, she was wearing a safe first-day choice: low heels, bare legs, black skirt, white blouse buttoned up. Her black hair hung to her shoulders, and though she would sometimes wear it in a ponytail or tied up, today she wore it down. She was petite and wore just a little makeup to complement her tea-colored skin and the slight epicanthic fold of her almond-shaped eyes. Her fashionable glasses and cupid bow of a mouth completed the picture, and for the first time Tim thought of her resemblance to the super-cute psycho bodyguard girl with the mace in Kill Bill.
He pictured Mia in that schoolgirl outfit, but then forced himself to stop that train of thought. Or at least put it off!
One small event set the tone of the way Tim and his new employees would interact in the coming weeks. When Tim asked Julie to process Mia's paperwork, she took it.
As Tim was walking Mia over to her new office space, Julie piped up. "Mr. Johnson, I see that Mia filled out her two-page data sheets in black ink instead of blue, as the form says. Will that be a problem?"
Tim and Mia turned to her. "No. I think that's only on the form to distinguish between originals and copies, but it's not a big deal."
Just as he and Mia were turning back toward her office, Julie said in an innocent tone of voice, "Okay. But even if it's not a big deal, wouldn't that count as a first mistake?"
Tim and Mia looked at each other for a moment, then Mia turned back toward Julie, giving her a comically dirty look. "I supposed you think you're being funny?"
Julie said, "Not at all. But I know that yesterday you said you'd never make four or five mistakes in a week, so I thought I'd better remind you, just to help you out."
"Thank you," Mia said, icily.
"You're welcome." Julie opened her top drawer and retrieved something. She held it out to Tim, grinning. A ruler.
Tim couldn't help but smile at his clever secretary. He took the ruler, and Mia sighed and held her hands out in front of her, palms down. Tim lightly slapped both sets of knuckles, one at a time. Then he handed the ruler back to Julie, who took it and primly returned it to her desk drawer, saying, "That's one," quietly.
Tim stayed on the phone and computer in his office for the rest of that morning, and Mia stayed in her office, devouring the materials in the binder that Tim had given her. At lunchtime, Tim came out and offered to buy lunch for Mia and Julie from the sandwich shop in the next block. He gave Julie his order and two twenties, and asked her to bring their lunch back to the office. Mia said she'd like to stretch her legs, and went along with Julie.
When they came back, they sat down to eat at the conference table. Mia pulled the sandwiches and sides out of the bag, while Julie got some paper plates and drinks from the office kitchenette. Mia opened one sandwich and said, "Is this your's, Mr. Johnson? A club with swiss cheese?"
Tim said, "That's the one."
Mia looked back over her shoulder, and whispered conspiratorially to Tim. "How badly do you want the swiss cheese?"
"What?"
She took one more look back to confirm that Julie was still in the kitchenette, and then plucked the slice of cheese off of Tim's sandwich, and tossed it into the now-empty bag. Tim looked at her, confused, but she winked at him.
Julie came back with the silverware and plates, and distributed them. Mia said, "This is your Caesar chicken salad," handing it to Julie, "and this is mine. So this must be yours, Mr. Johnson. A plain club?"
Julie absently said, "No, he gets swiss cheese."
Tim held his open sandwich out in front of him. "Not today, apparently."
Julie looked at it. "What? I know I ordered cheese on it."
Mia grinned. "Oooh! It looks like somebody made a mistake," she said, in a sing-song voice.
