Mr. Handsome A Billionaire Romance(7)
“You know what, that’s a fantastic idea, Christina. Shame no one could have thought of it before this mess happened. Now, how did this mess happen?” Speak of the devil, Marissa appeared as if out of nowhere and was leaning over the reception desk, witnessing Jennie and I trying to sort through the many messages.
She seemed only a little annoyed, which was good, thankfully.
“Oh! Miss Fiore, good morning. You’re in early today!” Kristi came hurrying out of her office and Marissa’s annoyed gaze flitted over to her.
“Yes, of course I am! I was here before any of you were arranging for two of our men to be on the cover of Vogue. Now, I’d like for you, Kristi, to tell me how this mess happened?”
Oh shit, Marissa was onto Kristi like a blood hound to bacon. Kristi was definitely going to get chewed for this, I thought.
“Um…I, uh…” Both Jennie and I flinched at this painful moment. Poor Kristi, I just hoped Marissa didn’t fire the woman.
“You made the mess, Kristi, then you told Jennie to take the blame for you if I asked, on top of making her and Christina clean it up for you. You know how I like organization, and look at you. All hyped and disheveled. You can take the messages and clean up the mess yourself, after which you can go home. I don’t want to see you until you pull yourself together. Wednesday the earliest.”
With that, Marissa turned on her heel and stalked across the room and into her office.
We all sat in stunned silence for a beat and then Kristi silently gathered the messages and went into her office to organize them.
“I feel bad,” I whispered to Jennie.
She nodded woodenly, her eyes still wide.
“I know, me too. But you should probably go and get that coffee before Marissa comes back to chew you out for not having her breakfast here,” Jennie reminded me and I grabbed my keys, all but running from the industrial warehouse office.
The building had a lot of fashion firms and modeling agencies inside. Each floor was a separate office that had an open floor plan. When you walked into our office from the elevator, you were immediately met by reception and a spacious seating area.
Then, past that, there were two long tables with six desk setups for the various assistants and surrounding it were six offices for the managers and coordinators, and of course, Marissa. They were all pretty much glass enclosed, but there were blinds that could be drawn for privacy.
I needed to get from Seventh Avenue to Second and back quickly, no one liked a hard bagel or cold coffee. I was able to make it back with soft warm bagels and hot coffee, thankfully.
“Wow, that was fast, girl, you’re lucky Marissa hasn’t come out of her office for coffee yet. But a teary eyed Kristi just left for home.”
I shook my head sadly and shared a sympathetic look with Jennie. I went to place the bagels and coffee on the food table next to the water cooler and then headed to my desk to take a small breather. Sometimes working at Urban Plus was a head spin, but that’s mostly because I was basically an intern and had to do grunt work and be everywhere at once.
The rest of the day proved to be fast paced as Marissa took on three new guys in the agency and was setting up shoots left and right for them. I was making appointments with Jennie, taking messages, running errands, and I even had to switch out the heavy jug for the water cooler. By the time I got home at nine, I was ridiculously tired, what was worst of all was that I had to wake up at five to do it all over again.
I collapsed on my couch when I got in from work and realized that I really needed to put some more time into my job search. If I got lazy with it I’d never find the job I knew I deserved. Going to Penn State had to stand for something. Once I found the job, then I could actually start my life in the city. I could make friends and not be so frazzled and stressed all the time. I sighed and sent my resume out to several other marketing firms and advertising companies in the city.
After that, I forced myself to take a shower so I could have a few extra minutes to sleep in the morning. I was too tired to have dinner and simply collapsed into bed when I got out of the shower.
My alarm clock woke me up with the usual headache and I made a mental note to go and buy a freaking cell phone after work today, or maybe on my lunch break. When I was at work, they provided a work phone, but I had to turn it in at the end of the day. It was another one of Marissa’s odd rules. After I showered and was heading down to my car, I remembered that I had to work late that night. I sighed and then groaned out loud. I so needed to be rid of this job.
The drive to work was unusually quick and I found myself arriving at work early, just as Marissa was getting in. She actually smiled at me on the elevator ride up to the office.
“Well, Christina, it’s nice to see someone on the ball around here. I’m glad you’ll be at the Armani shoot today, we could use ten of you, honestly,” she said with a cordial smile.
Marissa was a tall and handsome woman, she was in her early fifties and had thick black hair and prominent cheekbones which were her staple back in her modeling days.
Her olive skin tone came from her undeniable Mediterranean background, as did her black irises. Her gaze was piercing when she wanted it to be, but she was very beautiful and a smile always lightened up her face.
“Thank you, Marissa, I always do my best.”
Her smile almost widened; wow, she was in a good mood today. I wondered if one of her new models had a private meeting with her the night before. It was rumored around the office that she only handled male models because she wanted them for more than “management” purposes.