Getting Organised. Carolyn Caterer
Читать онлайн книгу.
weed the garden, plant some new seeds for her vegetable patch and clean and tidy the house from top to bottom, as well as doing the washing that she had been avoiding for the past ten days whilst she had focussed on her lack of a job. She even managed to quite enjoy doing the ironing, something she had never imagined could be possible as she detested ironing and had managed to sub contract that out during her marriage without David ever knowing about it. The subterfuge had been worth it, if it relieved her of a task so tedious that she felt she would rather have her teeth extracted with no anaesthetic than spend an hour on the ironing. She wasn’t sure where this dislike came from but she felt it had something to do with watching her grandmother berate her mother for her sub-standard ironing skills in such a cruel way that she had vowed she would never learn to iron if she could possibly help it. Thus when she first lived on her own she had been very careful to only purchase clothes which required little or no ironing and negotiate with her flatmates to ensure that she never had to iron anything herself. She always knew that her excellent cooking skills would stand in her in good stead.
She left the house with such enthusiasm she almost tripped over a cat which was very annoyed to be disturbed whilst stalking its prey.
Climbing into her car, Abi switched on the radio and chose to listen to some soothing music to calm her down. She didn’t want to appear so enthusiastic that she came across to Imogen as being overly keen and excitable. She had got the impression from their meeting on Friday that above all, Imogen’s clients demanded a relaxing and safe atmosphere in which to relax while they were waiting. Idle chit chat was obviously not on the agenda and Abi began to wonder exactly what these clients were like, as so far they seemed to be swathed in mystery.
Half an hour later she was congratulating herself on only getting lost once as she followed Imogen’s written directions. Old Basing was a rather nice place she concluded. Nothing to draw your attention to it as it nestled near the Basingstoke ring road, but a rather pleasant find when you did get there.
The office itself was to be found on the top floor of an old house. In fact as she approached it Abi was convinced she must have taken a wrong turn and be heading towards a private house as opposed to an office, but she could see the names of another two businesses located there (an upmarket cosmetics company and a holdings company, neither of which seemed to be a hive of activity), although no mention of Imogen’s business was to be found.
Checking her appearance in the car mirror and applying just an extra touch of her nude lipstick, Abi smoothed down her skirt and walked into the building. She followed the hall past the stairs, made a left turn and walked towards the door at the end of the corridor. It was eerily quiet and she began to wonder if she was the only person around. If she was she wasn’t sure that she was enjoying the experience. Fortunately as she turned the handle and walked through the door she could hear Imogen’s voice a short distance away.
‘That’s fine, yes, I will expect you at your usual time. See you then. Goodbye.’
Imogen motioned to Abi to come in as she finished her call and then walked up to her and shook her hand warmly.
‘Abi, welcome, so glad you manage to find the place. I chose it for its discretion, which also means that people do have a tendency to get lost on their first visit. Once you know where it is though you never get lost again!’ Imogen was looking very much the professional in her well-fitted suit, though Abi was quite surprised to find her dressed in such a vibrant red with shiny black patent shoes. Imogen didn’t seem to notice the attention her attire was being paid and proceeded to encourage her to look around the room and make herself at home.
As offices went it was pretty luxurious. A desk with telephone and computer on it as well as a leather bound A4 diary that Imogen had been writing in when she arrived. Some smart wooden filing cabinets were located against the wall and other cabinets sat below the window sills. All the cabinets seemed sturdy and all had locks on them, indicating that the information contained inside was not to be viewed by anyone other than those trusted with the key. The view from the window was across the rear garden of the property and was extremely relaxing as the silver birch trees swayed slightly in the wind and the birds sang out to each other as the sun broke through the clouds.
The walls were painted in a warm cream colour and were adorned with what looked like some pretty expensive contemporary artwork. A table positioned to the right of the desk had a tray with china cups and saucers and a cafetiere of freshly brewed coffee and handmade biscuits. Abi had noticed a small kitchen as she walked along the corridor and was pleased it was located so conveniently.
Across from the desk against the wall that backed onto the outside corridor two brown leather sofas were located, divided by a table which had a few upmarket country magazines and a couple of psychology journals.
Finally, to the left of the desk was a door. She assumed that this was Imogen’s office. Seeing her looking at it Imogen ushered her forward and opened the door. It was another much shorter corridor with her office located about half way down. Again it was tastefully decorated, much in the same style as the office in which Abi would be located. No couch though. Abi was a little disappointed not to find this cliché lurking in Imogen’s office but decided that the last person who would be subject to clichés of any kind was Imogen. A large fire place set the room off nicely and to the right of this, next to the window was another door. All in all it was typical of a house of its era with plenty of space and high ceilings that had been tastefully adapted into offices.
Abi decided that she was going to like working in these surroundings very much indeed.
Imogen noticed the smile as it spread slowly across her face and grinned back at her.
‘So you like my premises then? That is good to hear. I have been very happy with them myself over the years and never felt any need to work elsewhere. It is secluded and quiet here and yet very accessible from the motorway and other main roads. It suits me and my clients perfectly. Oh and in case you were wondering, the other occupants are equally discrete and we rarely see each other if I am honest. Here take these.’ Imogen handed Abi a bunch of keys.
‘You will need them if you are to arrive before me and put the coffee on! Usually I will leave after you. Once my last client of the day has gone in you are welcome to go home. I can always book in their next appointment or they will call you later in the week to schedule something in.’ Imogen looked at Abi and hesitated a little before continuing.
‘I do hope that you won’t find it too boring here Abi. To be honest there really isn’t that much to do, but by welcoming my clients and sorting out the paperwork and my diary you will really be helping me and it is only four days a week so I suppose that is a bonus to have Friday’s off!’
Abi nodded in agreement. She could barely speak and really didn’t care how boring it was going to be. She would be able to do the work asked of her and, once the clients were in with Imogen and she had finished whatever tasks she had on her list that day, she was more than happy to pick up a book or do some research on the internet if there really was nothing else to do, but she couldn’t imagine that would be the case initially and indeed it wasn’t. As Imogen opened a filing draw Abi soon realised that filing really hadn’t been Imogen’s thing or that of any temp that may have worked here in the past.
So with Imogen’s first client not due to arrive for a couple of hours, Abi had plenty of time to get stuck in and start to organise Imogen’s filing system, or rather set up a system for Imogen who had obviously been throwing the files in the cabinets in a rather random fashion.. One thing Imogen did make clear was the importance of the privacy of her clients and that she did not expect Abi to take a peek at the files under any circumstances. Abi was the sort of person who valued her privacy and, as such would therefore give others similar respect when it came to theirs and besides, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t understand the kind of notes a psychologist would be making about her clients anyway. Best not to know so that she didn’t start judging any of them, she thought to herself. She was also pretty sure that if the clients were coming to see Imogen because they had weird phobias about cheese or something similar, she really didn’t want to know.
The cabinets were kept under lock and key and only Imogen and Abi held the keys to them. Imogen made it very clear