Chapter Text
9 am Start. Shit.
The first thing you noticed as you entered the huge luxurious office was the receptionist who greeted you warmly as you stepped through the large glass doors on the ground floor.
“Good morning Ma’am, is there anything I can assist you with today?” she asked politely, her dark brown eyes gazing up at you as you moved closer to the pristine white receptionist desk. You shrugged your workbag over your shoulder gingerly as you walked over to her, carefully dodging the odd office employee who was striding through the reception to their designated office space.
“Yeah... I uh, it’s my first day here. I’m-”
“Oh you must be y/n!” she interjected with feigned enthusiasm, which wasn’t hard for you to not notice, as her smile almost immediately dropped another second later as she flitted her eyes down to her computer screen to check you in. “Give me one sec whilst I get your paperwork together ...” she muttered as the computer screen scrolled upwards and downwards in the reflection of her eyes.
You took this moment of pause to survey the reception around you; the building itself was immaculate. The floors of the entire entrance were a beautiful soft beige stone that complimented the white and oak wood-paneled walls. It was bright and open, and the receptionist’s desk was a stunning contemporary counter made of white paneling and the same wooden boards that adorned some of the accented walls. Your eyes drifted to the balcony of the first floor which overhung over part of the ground floor. On the balcony, you could see a couple of doors that led to one or two offices, a meeting room by the looks of it, and a printing room. The same doors were also mirrored on the ground floor, in addition to a kitchen, and separate bathrooms. There was a multitude of smartly dressed employees bustling around the office before the 9 am start.
You wondered to yourself which office you would be situated in, as when you were being interviewed over zoom and skype telephone calls for this job, you never actually got to see the office or even your new boss for that matter. The two interviewing calls you had, had been with someone called Ethan from recruitment. He seemed friendly enough, handsome, and spoke extremely highly of the woman who would be overseeing you -
“Alcina Dimitrescu will be late this morning, however one of the team will pop down in just a moment to grab you.” the woman suddenly said, her pale pink fingernails drumming against the top of her desk impatiently as she looked back up at you from the computer screen. “You can wait over there whilst these forms print” She nodded towards a white sofa situated in the corner of the reception.
You looked down at her name tag and back up again to her seemingly tired smile. “Thanks Mia.” you smiled, hoping to get a friendlier response out of her, but nothing.
The wait on the sofa wasn’t too long. Within 10 minutes, someone called Bela had arrived from one of the upstairs offices to escort you through to the main building. She was extremely kind as she held out her hand to introduce herself. You took it and shook hands as she warmly presented herself as one of the team leaders of the division you would be working in.
“Certification is such a passion of mine, and I’m certain it will become yours also.” She chimed as she led you up some stairs to the first floor.
Bela was certainly dressed to impress; she wasn’t in full corporate attire but the navy pantsuit she wore was a striking contrast to some of the dull clothes other employees wore throughout the building. You were simply in a black work skirt with a shirt tucked in at the waist, simple heels and a black blazer. Compared to Bela, you felt like a tree stump. Especially with her luxurious blonde hair that was obviously freshly blow-dried, silkily swaying over her shoulders.
“So you’ll be working with me and a few others delivering the Organic Certification for Food and Wine, to a number of our top clients… you’ll be allocated a portfolio of clientele you’ll need to look after.” Bela smiled warmly as she pushed open one of the office doors, holding it wide so you could enter first. “I’m sure you’ll pick it up quickly.”
You nodded as you stepped into your new office; it was clean and white. To your left was a white leather sofa and a coffee table neatly arranged in a segregated corner made of frosted glass, in a sort of ‘made up’ front foyer to the office room. You could see through the frosted glass a number of desks behind it and around 9 people typing away at their computer screens. To your right was a filing room with hundreds of neatly stashed files arranged perfectly on a multitude of shelving units. You wondered how many client files were in there - must be thousands.
Bela led you past the filing room and through towards the back of the office, where in one corner was a small meeting room, and on the other side a plush looking private office with a door made of solid mahogany wood. Your inquisitive eyes darted to the bronze nametag stamped onto the door: Alcina Dimitrescu. Ahh, so this is your boss’s office. She must make a fortune with a door like that.
“So you’ll be working here opposite me for a while” Bela chimed as she led you around the office to a desk situated closest to Alcina’s door. The desk was immaculate and backed onto another desk which was obviously Bela’s. Between each of the work stations in the office was a glass partition to give each worker some privacy by segregating each desk into a little cube. You smiled as your eyes scanned over the brand new laptop already open waiting for you at your desk, and some documents already laid out for you.
“Gosh, this office is really something…” you chuckled in bemusement as your eyes scanned around at all the people typing quietly away and chatting with one another here and there. A few were gazing up at you with warm smiles, and you immediately mirrored back a smile in return. You popped your bag down on the floor under your desk and sat yourself down in the computer chair tucked under the counter. The chair immediately hugged you from behind and was immensely more comfortable than the chair you worked in at your previous job. They clearly had a lot of money here.
“We’ve done extremely well over the past 15 years.” Bela began, pulling her office chair out of her cube to join you so the conversation could continue. She scooted herself next to you at your desk and handed the papers that the receptionist had printed out for you. “These are just some starter forms for you to fill in - impartiality bits and pieces, Oh!” she said, quickly wheeling around to her cube and back again, a sticky note in hand. “These are your usernames and passwords. The password will need to be changed the first time you login so please feel free to change it to whatever you please. Just dont forget it, or IT will be on your case!”
You took the paper note and laughed quietly as you stuck it down to the desk beside your keyboard.
The first couple of hours in the office were simple and easy. Bela showed you around to the team to introduce you; there were so many people but the only names you could remember were of the other two young women who sat in the cubes next to you and Bela; Cassandra and Daniela. The two girls were hilarious and extremely easy to get along with. Cassandra seemed quieter and more reserved than Daniela, who obviously was a bit of a younger colleague than the other two.
You smiled and laughed at their jokes and it was made evident quite quickly that a little joke in the office was that the three women you had been acquainted with were Alcina’s ‘daughters’, due to all three of them being there at the company the longest.
“It's quite funny actually.” Daniela giggled as she bit into an apple as she twirled around on her office chair. “I think… How long have we been here?”
“11 years.” Cassandra responded, not taking her eyes off of her own screen.
“And counting!” Bela chirped in, peering over her cube at you. “I think us being called her daughters is quite cute. She has been like a mother to us, if you think about it.”
‘Oh hell yeah.” Cassandra nodded, finally breaking away from her laptop. “When I first started, Alcina took so much time to teach me the basics. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know where i’d be.”
“She seems lovely.” you responded, taking a quick glance over behind your shoulder to her closed office door. You wondered to yourself what she would even look like. From everyone except Mia down on reception, you’d heard nothing but praise about this woman. “You don’t get many bosses that take the time to teach you things.”
“No… she unfortunately isn’t like that now.” Cassandra smirked, looking back to her computer screen for a moment as another email popped into her inbox. “When we started, the company was much smaller and there was much more time for her to invest in us.”
“Doesn’t she ever come into the office?” you asked, casually pretending to do some work on your screen as you chatted to the three.
“Oh definitely.” Daniela nodded, spinning around again on her chair. “She doesn’t ever leave this place. Some of the team joke she's secretly a vampire that never sleeps.”
You chuckled to yourself quietly as you quickly glanced over at some of the papers in front of you.
“She does love her blood red wine.” Daniela giggled with a mouthful of apple. “Every time we sign on a new client and they’re a vineyard, or even a distillery, she’ll go out of her way to visit the company once everything is signed.” Daniela leaned forwards in her chair towards you to then whisper “she’ll always come back with a freebee or two, so keep your eye out.” she smirked, giving you a little encouraging wink.
“No way.” You laughed in awe. You couldn’t imagine the prestigious client’s and places Alcina must have traveled to. Clearly the woman had taste if she was a red wine drinker, that was for sure. You yourself preferred red wine to white, so immediately your impression of your boss had increased somewhat.
“Just watch her temper.” Cassandra said after a small pause. “She didn’t used to be like how she is now, but she doesn't like mistakes, or complaints so watch yourself.”
“Right, gotcha.” you said, making a mental note to yourself that you certainly didn’t want to get on her bad side, especially as the new employee. “Is she a shouter?” You joked, your smile quickly dropping at the look of Cassandra’s face as she looked back over at you.
“y/n, just don’t even try it. You see that woman in the green shirt over there?” Cassandra nodded over to a frail looking woman sitting by one of the windows. Her skin was flecked with freckles and her gray hair was gingerly pulled back into a scraggly bun on the back of her head.
“Yeah… what about her?”
“Well, a little while ago, she almost lost us one of our biggest wine merchants. Alcina flipped and called her into the office.”
“Ohh.. if you ever get called into there y/n…” Daniela echoed on the subject, twirling around again. “Rumor is she drains your blood and uses it as her wine.”
“Daniela stop being stupid.” Cassandra quipped, raising one of her arched brows at her with a stern expression. “You know she’d well and truly smack you one if she ever caught you saying stuff like that.”
‘Smack you?” You queried, suddenly feeling a little concerned over the remark. Surely Cassandra was joking and wasn’t being serious.
“No no!” Daniela retorted, shifting her bum in her seat as if the conversation was about to get interesting. “She has been physical. Once.”
“What?” You snatched your head up from looking at the papers. “You’re joking.” you said bluntly. “How is that even allowed? Didn’t she get fired over that?”
“Okay firstly Daniela, she didn’t hurt anyone.” Cassandra said, rolling her eyes as she pushed herself away from her desk as she stood up to stretch her legs. She tilted her head from one side to the other, stretching out her neck steadily. “ She threw one of the bottles of wine at her.”
“At who?” You asked with a concerned frown, completely stunned at your colleagues' flat line tone. You could feel your stomach churn in your gut unsteadily as your colleagues continued without care or concern.
“Her.” Daniela nodded to the same woman as Cassandra had before, continuing the conversation now, in a hushed tone. “She called her into the office for a ‘chat’ and within 5 minutes, Alcina had thrown one of the bottles of wine against the door as she was leaving.”
“Shut up..!” You whispered, your mouth slack and hanging in astonishment as you turned your head back around to the door to look at it carefully for reference. “How the hell didn’t she get fired on the spot?!”
“Miranda, the CEO wouldn’t dare.” Bela said, pulling a large folder against her chest as she stood from her chair. She wrapped her arms around it as she held it close, and started walking towards the filing room. “y/n, let me show you to the filing room quickly, before these two talk you out of working here.”
You nodded and immediately stood from your chair, pushing down your skirt which had ridden up your thighs slightly from sitting for so long. Stupid skirt kept doing that.
As you made your way back through the office into the filing room, a couple of people nodded you a polite hello as you passed them. Gosh, everyone was so nice here.
The room that Bela led you into was without a door and inside, it was crammed floor to ceiling with white ring binders stacked neatly onto shelves, alphabetically from A-Z. There must be hundreds of clients, possibly thousands as your eyes swooped from left to right as you followed Bela to the back of the room and round the corner to one of the last shelves. She inserted her ring binder and began to speak to you in a low voice.
“Listen, forget what they’ve told you… she isn’t that bad. She-”
There was a sudden bang of the office door outside as it was flung open; the handle denting itself into the wall from the sheer velocity of it being swung open with a dull thud.
“I need a damn coffee, please.” The word ‘please’ seemed to be strained through gritted teeth, as you could only hear the voice of what must have been Alcina Dimitrescu as she entered the office. You could hear a couple of footsteps scutting around outside and your eyes immediately snapped to Bela’s as you both stood silently in the filing room. Bela pressed her index finger to her lips as she listened to the footsteps, her eyes fixated on a corner of the ceiling as she tried to decipher the scene outside.
“Daniela darling, did you speak to Peter regarding his overdue invoice?”
“Already paid, Alcina.” You could hear Daniela answer quickly, her voice not wavering at all.
There was a pause as the only thing you could hear was the gentle tapping of keyboards clicking away as the team tried to continue typing. Alcina’s voice was deep and rich like melted chocolate. It was authoritative yet soft at that moment, but you could tell if she were to raise her voice, it wouldn’t be as kind sounding.
“And you Emma… did you sort out your issue with IT yet?”
You could hear Alcina’s heels clicking on the floor as she progressed further into the room, her voice growing slightly fainter as she made her way to the back of the office to her door. She continued to ask a couple of colleagues questions and they were all very prompt to answer. She was polite yet authoritative, and you could tell everyone outside knew how important it was to have an answer ready for her, as no one stuttered a response when queried an issue.
You could feel your heart hammering inside your chest as you could sense the tension from the others outside the room, and from Bela also who continued to hold her finger against her lips lightly.
“She’s not happy.” Bela whispered as she finally tore her eyes from the spot in the ceiling, back to yours. “When she starts asking questions before even asking how everyone is, you know she’s had a bad meeting…. So don’t cross her, if you can help it.”
“Gotcha.” You whispered with a small nod, as you continued to watch as Bela started to scan the shelves for another file. It didn’t take her too long to pull out another folder, and then another, and another.
“Can you help me, I’ll need to scan a couple of bits in for the database.” Bela grunted as she tried to reach for one of the higher folders above her. You watched helplessly as she only just managed to pull it down by her fingertips, her balance almost tumbling as she had to balance herself against the wall so she wouldn’t have fallen over. “Fuck sake…”
You couldn't help but laugh a little to yourself, and she in response threw you a playful glare. “Oi you, I thought you were on my side!”
‘I am!” You laughed, grabbing the folder from her hands to aid her. Bela certainly was your favorite from first impressions. She was kind and helpful, but not overbearing. And she knew the right place and time for when it was acceptable for a laugh or two. “Honestly, I’m just being an idiot.” You joked, causing Bela to turn away from you to hide a smirk of playfulness on her face. It was evident she wasn’t usually this warm to many people.
“Dick…” she whispered, picking up the folders she had collected and walking over to a scanner situated by the opposite wall in the room. “Come on, i’ll show you how to scan and where to send it to.”
The process wasn’t difficult and within 5 minutes you had picked up everything Bela had shown you, with ease. She watched you finish the job, her arms crossed over her chest with triumph that her training was clearly paying off due to how quickly you had mastered the task.
“Awesome.” She said, grabbing the folders to place them back onto the shelves once more, but this time she hesitated, turning back to you. “You can do it this time. Gotta make sure you know your A’s from your Z’s.” She joked.
You both laughed quietly, as she handed you the files and you quickly stored them in their proper places.
“I’ll leave you to crack on and scan these ones” Bela finally instructed, handing you a long list from her pocket. “I promise once this is done I’ll train you on something a bit more interesting.” She winked, heading out back into the main office, leaving you alone with just the files to keep you company.
You held the list of clients tightly in your hand, looking over at the various client names needed for scan and upload to the database. Immediately you began, spending just enough time to not feel as though you were rushing through the job and making mistakes.
Your mind started to wander as you stood at the scanner. So far the day had been going well, but that voice… part of you was so apprehensive to place a face to that tone. You’d always been a sucker for a woman with authority, and Alcina’s tone just oozed power and dominance in the office. Part of you was worried for a moment that she would be some small dumpy woman, but you quickly figured she was tall as her strides sounded long and each footstep she had planted on the floor seemed to have such a gap between each elongated stride, she could easily be 7ft tall at this rate.
“Where is Y/N?” Your head snapped round as Alcina’s voice suddenly rang out from the otherside of the wall, her voice speaking your name so precisely. Immediately, your chest tightened with anxiety as you felt your breath escape your lips with a sharp inhale. Oh God.. now’s the time to meet her.
“She was filling with me, I think she's busy in there just finishing up.” You heard Bela answer, your breath stilled with apprehension. “She shouldn’t be too much longer.”
“And how is she getting on?” Alcina asked in a hushed tone, however you were still able to hear her conversation, but only just, due to a couple of colleagues now having their own conversations in the office.
“She's doing really well so far, she’s lovely.” Bela said, and you couldn’t help but smile to yourself in triumph over the small victory of having at least 1 person thinking you were useful for once.
“I want her to join me when she is finished”
“Are you sure? You don’t usually have any time to speak to the new recruits, Alcie.” Bela joked, and you could tell that the relationship between Alcina and Bela wasn’t the same for everyone in the office. Alcina scoffed playfully and you could hear her tut in retort.
“I do, for this one. I picked her myself so I want to make sure she is taken care of.” There was a pause as Bela didn’t answer. Your body tensed as you apprehensively waited for someone to respond. “Personally.”
There was no answer. The only next sound you heard from the office on the other side of the wall was the gentle click of Alcina’s door as it was closed and the latch locking into place. With a heavy feeling in your chest, you quickly picked up where you left off with the scanning and within 10 minutes, you hesitantly exited the filing room and headed back to your desk.
A number of eyes were watching you in the office as you returned to your seat, and you tried desperately to ignore the odd comment you could now hear from one or two people towards the back of the office as they watched you carefully.
“Why is she so special?”... “What did she do before, again?” These were only a few of the bitter comments you could hear as you made it back to your desk. Clearly, some of the others in the office were a little jealous that Alcina would purposefully request you in her presence. Almost like royalty.
Purposefully ignoring Alcina’s door, you plopped yourself down into your chair, and straightened a couple of strands of your hair on either side of your face, trying to act as calm as possible; even though you nervously were anticipating the moment of dread of meeting Alcina - the impending doom.
You could smell the faint hint of a thick and full-bodied perfume still lingering in the air from when Alcina had entered the office. The smell was luxurious and expensive… and certainly was very pleasant. Almost like wine as it invaded your senses and wrapped around your brain like a thick blanket.
As you sat at your desk you purposefully ignored Bela’s friendly gaze, as you turned your attention to your laptop. Someone had been sitting in your seat as it felt higher than usual, and laid on your desk was a single gold plated pen. That wasn’t there before…
It was heavy and was engraved boldly with ornamental swirls and floral motifs, and as you picked it up and turned it in your fingertips slowly, you noticed the pristine words engraved on one of the sides - Alcina Dimitrescu.
She had been sitting at your desk.
You quickly looked over the rest of your papers on the worktop, immediately feeling embarrassed over the mess you had left it in before you had been escorted by Bela to the filing room. Fuck.
“She wants you in her office, Y/N” Cassandra said after a little pause, you looked up over at her and gave a weak smile, displaying your obvious nerves. “She’s fine, she won’t bite.”
“Promise me?” You joked, pushing yourself off from your chair as you hesitantly made your way over to the large mahogany door to her office, her gold pen in one of your hands. You raised your other hand tentatively as you lightly tapped the backs of your knuckles against the door; Your eyes never left the girls as all three stared at you, each one smiling with warm support.
There was a chilling silence from the other side of the door, but within moments, you heard that voice again, sounding itself so perfectly from the other side of the dark wood.
“Enter, little one.”