Think Outside the Boss - Olivia Hayle Page 0,12

this prepared in my life.

Eleanor leads me through a second set of doors, using her key card to get in. “You’ll get yours by the end of the day.”

“Excellent.”

She pauses with a hand on a divider, looking over a spacious office landscape with a handful of desks. Individual glass offices line the back wall. “This is your home for the coming twelve months. The Corporate Strategy division.”

“Home sweet home,” I say.

Snorting, she leads me to an empty desk, throwing out names as we pass. “That’s Toby, you’ll work closely with him. Here’s Quentin, he’s in charge of strategic implementation.”

Quentin gives me a sour nod and turns back to his computer. “Another fresh-faced MBA,” he comments. It’s clear it’s not a compliment.

“Exciteur only hires the best,” I quip back.

Both Eleanor and Toby chuckle at that. “Here’s your password,” she tells me. “Get settled in, get acquainted with your computer, and I’ll be back to give you your first assignment in an hour.”

And that’s it.

I sink into my new office chair and watch as she retreats to an office in the corner, the glass door shutting behind her.

“The ice queen,” Toby says beside me. I jump at his sudden nearness and he rolls back, a sheepish smile on his lips. “Sorry,” he says, reaching up to adjust bright-orange glasses. “Unlike Eleanor, scaring you wasn’t my intention.”

“She meant to scare me?”

“Intimidation is the name of the game on first days around here.” He shrugs, unfazed. “Quentin and I aren’t like that, though.”

“Don’t bring me into this,” Quentin retorts. With his ill-fitting suit and mop of ink-black hair, he reminds me of a certain perpetually sad donkey in a children’s cartoon.

Toby rolls his eyes. “He’ll warm up.”

“I won’t,” Quentin says.

“You always do,” Toby responds. “Don’t fight the inevitable. Anyway, welcome! What’s your name?”

I extend my hand. “Freddie.”

“Freddie?”

“Short for Frederica, but I never go by that.”

“Freddie it is,” he confirms, leaning back in his chair. A slim build, a shirt that’s designer, and an eager smile. “You can’t imagine how happy I am to get a new deskmate.”

“Was the last one bad?”

“He wasn’t bad, exactly, he just…”

“Kept stealing your pens,” Quentin says. “I told you to tell him off about it, Toby.”

My new deskmate shrugs. “Anyway, he’s gone now, and you’re here. Exciteur’s shiny new acquisition.”

I chuckle, crossing my legs. “Acquisition?”

“The company is aiming high. Every new hire is highly educated, young and hungry.” Toby winks at me. “Just like you and me.”

“All thanks to our new fearless leader,” Quentin mutters.

I type my password into the sleek new computer I get to call mine. “New fearless leader?”

“Oh, this is too good. Quentin, we have to give her all the details.”

“I’m not paid to gossip,” is his response.

Toby rolls his eyes and turns to me. “About a year ago Exciteur was purchased by a group of venture capitalists, Acture Capital.”

I nod. “I’ve read about this.”

“Right. Well, they put one of their own in charge of the company. I’m not saying the next bit to gossip, by the way. But we’re in Strategy, and that means we interact a lot with upper management.”

“Right.” It was one of the reasons I’d wanted this department.

“Well, the new CEO has… high standards.”

“He’s a demanding asshole,” Quentin adds, finally turning around in his office chair.

Toby looks over his shoulder, but the office landscape is unchanged.

Quentin snorts. “He’s not here. He’s never here.”

“That’s not true. I saw him speaking to Eleanor in her office once.”

“No, you didn’t.”

Toby shakes his head. “I don’t know why you don’t believe me about that. He has been here, at least once.”

“I believe you think you saw him speaking to Eleanor in her office once.”

“Why would that be so unthinkable?” I ask. I know the new leadership by name from my research, but I had no idea they were such characters. Clearly I have more to learn.

“He wouldn’t come down here in person,” Quentin tells me. “He’d send one of his minions, and they’d summon us to the thirty-fourth floor.”

“Just so I’m clear, we’re talking about Tristan Conway here?”

Toby glances over his shoulder again and Quentin shakes his head at the paranoia. “The very one, in all his venture capitalist glory. Since they bought Exciteur, he’s been slashing unprofitable departments and promoting others. There’s been a lot of personnel turnover.”

I nod, leaning back in my chair. “And we meet him in meetings a lot?”

“No,” Quentin says.

“We don’t meet Tristan Conway,” Toby continues, his arms moving as he gesticulates. “We get orders by Tristan Conway and the COO