Raine (Gods of the Fifth Floor #2) - M.V. Ellis Page 0,11
finished reading the manual and turned to the last page. The final piece of advice was to send Nate’s PA an email that simply said SOS, and she would come running. I had no idea why I would need urgent help, but I decided to take the advice. I’d never met James, but judging by the notes, he was a solid kind of a guy, and, I was sure, prepared to do whatever it took to keep the wheels on the train in his absence, so I sent the email.
A few moments later, a very tall, very stunning, woman strode down the hall toward me, and I knew straight away that she was Angela. I was also truly beginning to wonder if I’d somehow read the briefing information incorrectly, and I’d accidentally ended up working at a modeling agency—one where all the staff also doubled as models in their spare time—rather than an advertising agency. Either that or the front door of the building was the portal to another realm, the realm of the beautiful people.
In any case, I felt more and more out of place with every person I encountered, and wondered if my lack of supermodel looks wasn’t the real reason they didn’t want me there, rather than my lack of a penis.
“Hi, I’m Angela. Nate Douglas’s PA, but most people call me Angie, I got your SOS.” I grasped her outstretched hand.
“I’m Noa Hale. The instruction manual James left me said to contact you, though I’m not quite sure why. Thank you so much for coming.”
Her smile was broad and clearly genuine, exposing a set of the most perfect teeth I’d ever seen. What the hell?
“You’re so welcome. I’m just sorry I wasn’t here sooner.”
“Oh, that’s okay, really. I just messaged you like three minutes ago.”
Her laughter tinkled like perfectly manicured nails on priceless crystal glassware.
“No, sorry, I just meant that on a normal day I would have come to greet you on arrival, and show you the ropes, rather than you having to wade through that epic tome all alone. I couldn’t this morning though, as the day got off to a very busy start, and not in a good way.
I’m still in the thick of it, actually, and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. Still, I thought I’d better come and help you out, anyway. I bet nobody has even shown you where the restroom and kitchen are, right?”
Raine had only spoken a handful of words to me, none of them friendly, and the only other person I’d had any interaction with was Angela’s boss, and he’d been less than pleased to see me, so I definitely hadn’t been given the office tour.
“No, but that’s okay, you’re busy, I can figure that stuff out.”
“The hell you can. It’s rude, and not the impression I want you to have of the place.”
“I guessed, because I’m only a temp...”
“Not the point. Come on, let’s walk and talk. I need caffeine. I’ll fix us some coffees, and I can fill you in on what you need to know about working for Raine.”
I was really beginning to dread whatever it was she was about to tell me. Why the fuck did I need an SOS in the first place?
Once she’d fixed our coffees on the café-quality machine that looked like it was worth more than my car, Angela turned to me with a long sigh.
“So, here’s the thing. Working for Raine is like... it’s like training to be a commando and being a nanny, all at the same time. Only the toughest survive.”
“Really? I mean, I’m just here for a week, so I figured—”
“Whatever you figured is guaranteed to be wrong unless you’ve met Raine before. Like, think about it. Why do you think that they didn’t manage to find a replacement for James before he left? Five days might as well be an eternity where Raine is concerned. Most have lasted less than five hours.” What?
“Oh.”
“Yeah. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the guy is a creative genius, and I’m not using that word lightly. He’s off-the-charts talented. It’s just that as with many talented artistes”—I couldn’t be sure, as I didn’t know her well enough to read her properly, but I strongly suspected that the way she pronounced ‘artistes’ was dripping with sarcasm—“he’s a little...” She scrunched her face as though she smelled something bad. “...difficult. Actually, scratch that. He’s a lot difficult. And rude. And arrogant. And... well, you get the idea.”