Read Charity's Warrior for Free Online Page B

it was a good sign when Lena introduced me as his next assistant and he seemed thrilled. He told me he was looking forward to having someone competent on his team.
    How freaking bad was this temp?
    We went just about full circle around the entire floor. I was impressed they were that big when Lena informed me that this floor was mostly Management, HR, Finance, Sales, Research and Development, and internal IT, and that they also had the entire twenty-fifth floor right above us. We didn't go up there. Lena told me there was nothing to see, not for today. It was a maze of cubes, eleven of them were customer service and their supervisor, the other three hundred plus cubes were monitoring stations. The monitoring stations each had six monitors, which were each split into four windows, over seventy-five hundred client machines being audited at any given time.
    They were much bigger than I had thought.
    "Listen," Lena said, "usually we finish with paperwork, the background checks typically take three or four days, so the quickest we bring someone in after making a decision is one week. I'd like for you to start on Monday if you can. We'll get the paperwork done as a formality, but I imagine we won't find anything to worry about?"
    "No, there won't be anything," I answered, smiling. "And Monday is fine." It was hard to not be excited.
    "Great! Let's get you into the system," Lena said smiling back at me.
    My insides are buzzing. I want to scream. I want to call everyone and tell them I was going to make it.
    And I want to call Justin!
    We did my retina scan, which would begin working on Monday, and we took care of my building ID at the end when she came downstairs with me. Lena reminded me what papers, for taxes and direct deposit, I had to bring on my first day as we stood out front.
    She seemed more relaxed now, out here. She was pointing out all the good places to eat right in front of the building and lighting a cigarette.
    I didn't want to blow a good start, but I had to know how she and Justin were connected. It was eating me up. "So how do you know Justin?" I asked after a long, deep breath.
    "Justin?" she chuckled. "I think I've known him forever. We grew up together in the Bronx. He might tell you he saved me from some bullies, but, trust me; it was the other way around, at least that’s how I like to tell it." She laughed harder. "We've been close friends since."
    Her cigarette was almost half gone already.
    "How about you, how did you meet him? All he told me was that he had someone he thought I should meet, that was enough for me. His word is gold."
    "He saved me. And I mean that literally," I said, laughing at the irony.
    "Really?" Lena practically bellowed.
    "It's true," I said. "Some guy grabbed me from behind at a bar, choked me out and tried to drag me out the back door. Justin came running, knocked me out of the guy's arms and ran after him."
    "Yeah, that sounds like Justin," she said. "Did he catch the guy?"
    "No, he had a head start. Justin had to give up, but he came back and took care of me."
    Lena was on the last quarter of her cigarette, but she dropped it and stomped it out early. "I have to get back up, and I'm sure you have some calls to make. I'll see you on Monday, come in at nine and see me first so we can bang out the HR stuff and get you started."
    "Thank you," I said, shaking her hand for the second time today.
    I decided to walk a few blocks before hailing a cab, there is simply too much excitement rushing through me, and I need to burn some of it off. Calling my mother came first, she was so excited for me, and proud, I could hear it in her voice. I knew I could count on her to get the news out back home. Melissa, my best friend was going to be next, but my phone rang before I could dial.
    It was Justin's number.
    "Hey, Warrior," he said when I answered. "How'd it go?"
    "I got it!" I shouted excitedly. A few people around me looked and smiled politely.
    "Congratulations, that's awesome!" he said. "I