Signing The Contract

He only nodded his face in the affirmative because his pride would not let him say yes in words. “Please sign your contract Ms Scott, I do believe you had already gone through it and accepted the terms and conditions?” Asked the boss with raised eyebrows. “Yes I have, but maybe it needs a little changes into it? I mean, something like more incentives would do? Hmm, let’s see, how about holiday allowance?” asked Evette playfully while her finger was tapping on her cheek.

“Uhmm..?” the boss went blank. He wondered what kind of a crazy demand this woman was making. He furrowed his eyebrows and his eyes turned into slits asking himself questions. 'This woman might be so troublesome, she is already a handful and it hasn’t even been an hour.’ He fumed inside but kept his face blank showing no emotion.

“We do not have such incentives in the company Ms Scott, unfortunately. Holidays are an individual's responsibility. We can only give you leaves. Now are you going to sign?” growled the boss getting exasperated. Evette chuckled because she was getting the emotion she wanted from him. She just wanted to draw out his last nerve of patience.

She gasped as if suprised and said “you don’t have? OMG, are you kidding me? It’s international practice to give that incentive especially in the design world. Do you know how tiring it is to design? It drains you of all your energy, leaves you all depressed and the only thing you need to ease the strains is a holiday. Then what if you don’t have the money, you will die of depression? Oh my word! Maybe I should reconsider the offer. You know in the last two days, the Fullbrite Designs have been pursuing me, maybe I should rather hear them out?” she said clearly just checking him out on how he would react. She heard that even though his firm is considered the best in the city, Fullbrite Designs is their rivals.

He snapped his face towards her and thinking about the pending multi million dollar project that they may lose if they don’t hire an excellent designer of her caliber, he said “Ms Scott, we don’t have such allowances but it doesn’t mean that it cannot be looked into in future. Can we please focus on signing the contract now?” his voice sounded annoyed and too prideful.

Ms Scott took a pen and signed along the dotted line and said, “Done”. He sighed and briefed her on the project awaiting her. “You’ve got a lot of work awaiting your approval Ms Scott. When can you start?” he asked somehow relieved.

“Now” was her response. His eyes locked into hers searching whether it’s one of her pranks as she appeared like a prankster to him in a matter of an hour which they spent together just now. “Are you sure?” asked the boss. “Yep” she responded her lips pursed and her eyes widened.

The boss picked his phone and dialed a number and said “come to my office.” He put the receiver back and soon the PA guy pushed his door open. ‘What’s his name again? Uhm, oh yah Jack' Evette smiled and nodded at him as he greeted her.

“Boss, you called for me?”asked the Jack guy. “Yes I did. Please take Ms Scott to her office, give her the Sinclair Auditorium project files, if she would like to take the tour of the office, show her around and please call a briefing in the afternoon so we can introduce her to the rest of the staff.” He gave a long list of tasks. Evette wasn’t interested in all these procedures, they were boring to her. “Yes boss, right away, this way ma’am” said Jack as he led the way.

Evette’s office was excellent. Just like the boss’s office all the executive's offices were not partitioned with glass walls, they had a bathroom and a small room with a bed and a small wardrobe. It was comfortable except that it screamed male style. ‘ I guess it’s because he thought I was a man, but no worries I’ll make it more women friendly’ giggled Evette.

Given a tour around, she became a little familiar with the place. Though the place was huge, being a designer she always gets to grasp important spaces and places quickly. And that could be because she mentally marks each place to familiarize herself with it as she passes through them.

Sitting behind her desk her eyes were glued to the project files, for hours she had been going through the papers to understand what the project required. She did not eat or drink anything. A certain man knocked on the door and asked if he could get her anything. “Just black coffee please, two sugars” she spoke without glancing at him. Though he felt awkward as if she was being rude, he understood the urgency in handling the project that took all her attention. It had only been pending the design manager's direction.

Sipping her coffee, she nodded and frowned at some papers. She felt that she needed to tour the place first. Then call a meeting with her department. A briefing with the stuff to introduce her was very brief.

She asked the heads of small departments within her department such as Deco designs head, Art designs head, Graphics designs head and commercial photography head to take her to tour the place where the project was.