Administrative Assistant's Day

Cynthia was running late and she knew that Brian would be pissed. He had four meetings that day, three of which were with clients, and she needed to be there to help him get everything gathered up and ready for the meetings. After the run in her hose, the rain and the fact that her car wouldn’t start, she ended up almost an hour late for work.
           
“So good of you to join us,” Brian said as she took a seat at her desk. He was coming back from the lounge with a cup of coffee. “You’re lucky I get my own coffee on a regular basis.”
           
“Brian, I’m sorry. My car wouldn’t start and…”
           
“Just get me the files I need for the Motorola meeting.” He then walked into his office.

It took Cynthia about half an hour to finally find the files he needed and she made her way in.

“I’m sorry…” she started. Brian just looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she shut up.
           
“Now that I have exactly ten minutes to go over these….” He stood and took the files, sliding them under his arm before leaving the office. When the meeting was over Cynthia had the files for the next meeting on his desk and ready to go. Or at least what she thought were the files for the next meeting.

“Cynthia.”
           
“Yeah, boss?” she asked as she poked her head in.
           
“This meeting has been moved to tomorrow. The next meeting is with the Old Pitt people.” He held the files out. She sighed and took them, then went and got the correct files. The rest of the day continued roughly the same way. After mixing up files and getting the wrong restaurant for the lunch meeting and a dozen other things, Cynthia was certain that Brian was going to fire her.

“Cynthia, can you come in here a minute?”

She sighed and got up, heading into Brian’s office. “Yeah boss?”
           
“I need you to take these down to legal for me.” He handed her a manila folder. She nodded and left without even looking in the folder. When she handed it off to one of the lawyers, he looked at her.
           
“Is this some kind of joke?”
           
“What?” she asked.
           
“There’s nothing in here,” he said.

She took the folder and looked at it, then sighed. Brian must have forgotten the paperwork, though that wasn’t really like him. She made her way back up to her desk and froze. Sitting in the middle of her desk was a vase filled with two dozen bright pink roses. There was a full size card on a stand sticking out of the vase. On the envelope was printed Cynthia in Brian’s handwriting. She opened the envelope and looked at the card. On the front it read “Happy Administrative Assistant’s Day.” She opened the card. It was a blank card with a hand written note from Brian on the inside.
           
Cynthia, you do so much for me and I rarely say thank you. You put up with my bullshit. You deal with me when I’ve had a bad day. You take whatever I dish out even if it’s not your fault. You go above and beyond your job description on a daily basis to help make sure I don’t look like a total idiot. You do a lot of the work with the clients and are an integral part in getting them signed. This is just my way of saying thank you for everything you do. I’d be totally lost without you.
Brian.
           
Cynthia couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She was getting ready to put the card back in the envelope, perfectly content with the roses, when she noticed something inside. She pulled out what looked like a check. Her eyes went wide as she noticed the rather large amount of the check. She popped her head into Brian’s office.
           
“Yes?” he said, trying to hide a smile.
           
“Um…..Brian……you didn’t have to….”
           
“I wanted to. And you deserve it.”
           
“But….why so much?”
           
“That’s thirty percent of the singing bonus for the accounts today.”
           
“This is only thirty percent? What about the rest?”
           
“Gardner gets thirty-five percent and I get thirty-five percent.” Brian smiled.
           
“But……why?”
           
“Cynthia, do you really want to try to figure me out?” Brian smirked.

Cynthia thought about it for a minute, then shook her head. She came in and gave him a quick hug. “Thanks, Brian.”
           
“There’s another reason, Cyn.”
           
“What’s that?”
           
“You really need a new car. This is the third time you've been late because your car wouldn't start. Now you can go out and get whatever you want.” He smiled again and she laughed. “And you can have the day off tomorrow to go do that.”
           
“Really?”
           
“Yeah. I don’t have any meetings and, like I said, I get my own coffee.”
           
“Thank you so much.” She started to walk out of the office, then stopped and looked at him. “So I’m guessing this nice streak is today only?”
           
“I’d pretty much bet on that.” They shared a laugh before Cynthia left the office and they both got back to work.
 

Return to Rena's