“She has three kids,” Julia said as they each had a cup of coffee during a brief break.
“Divorced?” Jane asked her, curious, and Julia shook her head.
“Widowed. And her kids are young, a girl, eleven, and two boys, six and nine. The little one was just a baby when her husband died five years ago, at forty-three. He had an aneurysm and died while he was jogging. He was a publisher. She was an editor and used to work for him, and she quit when she had her kids. I think she stopped working for about six or seven years after she got married, and then he died, with no money and no insurance, so she had to go back to work. She couldn’t get a job that paid enough as an editor, so she came to work here. Bob Benson knew her husband, so he gave her a job, and now she’s number two on the literary side. She needs the job to support her kids. She’s totally professional and never misses a day, even when they get sick. A lot of people who work here don’t have kids. Employers are always afraid that people with young children won’t be reliable, but she is totally committed to her work. She never talks about her kids. It’s all about the writers she represents. Francine Rivers has two teenagers and works hard anyway. Allie Moore doesn’t have kids. You have to be dedicated to your job here, and willing to work long hours and drop everything when one of our clients has a problem or a crisis. People with kids can’t do that, especially single mothers. Hailey is as dedicated to her writers as she is to her kids. She’s all about business when she’s here. She doesn’t stay home with sitter problems. I don’t know how she manages, but she shows up no matter what goes on at home. She’s good to work for, you’ll see. She’s very fair.” Julia showed Jane around the rest of the office then, and pointed to a project she was working on, and a slew of foreign book covers she had to send to Phillip White to approve. He was Hailey’s biggest author, a huge bestselling success. “He hits one out of the park every time,” Julia said, describing him. Jane knew who he was and liked his books.
By the time Hailey came back from her next meeting in the conference room, which Julia had set up for her the way she liked it, Jane had been shown where everything was in the office. Julia was neat, efficient, and organized, and anticipated Hailey’s every need, after having worked for her for several years.
“I have to be a mind reader sometimes, although not often, and hope I guess right. I try to anticipate what she’ll want so she never has to ask for anything. If she does, I’ve failed.”
“She’s lucky to have you,” Jane said with genuine admiration for her. “I don’t know how you keep it all straight.”
“You’ll get used to it. I’ve been doing this for a long time, it seems like a lot at first, but you’ll get into a routine once you know her. She’s very clear and straightforward in her requests. She’ll tell you what she needs. Just do what she says. Don’t put a spin on it or try to improve it. Listen, and follow her directions. That’s what matters most. Don’t decide you know a better way or a better system. You’ll guess wrong and screw it up that way. And if you don’t hear or don’t remember something, ask her. That’s what she wants. Don’t be afraid to ask her questions. Better that than to guess wrong, especially if you don’t know her well. Your asking her questions just saves time in the end.” It made sense. Hailey sounded like a practical person from everything Julia said. “You’re the first assistant I’ve had,” Julia said with a smile. Bob Benson had created a job for Jane after Hailey had told him that her assistant could use some help. She was swamped.
“What about you?” Jane asked her. “Are you married? Do you have kids?”
Julia laughed in answer.
“Hell, no. Being an assistant is like being married. I’m married to her life and my job. I love it. I don’t have time for a husband and kids. That boat sailed without me years ago. I’m fifty-one. I used to want to be an agent, but decided I’d rather be an assistant. Fewer headaches. And Hailey deals with the really crazy writers herself, so I don’t have to. It’s a perfect job, and there’s a lot of satisfaction in it, if you do it right.” Jane knew she wanted more than that in the long run. She didn’t want to be an assistant forever. She either wanted to be an important agent one day, like Francine and Allie, or Hailey, or own a magazine or a small publishing house. That was still her dream. She wanted to run her own business and be her own boss, not work for someone else. “No guts, no glory,” her favorite business school professor had said, and she liked the concept. She saw this job as a stepping-stone to bigger things, and she intended to learn all she could while she was here. She had big dreams. This was just the beginning to her. If she was going to make sacrifices in a job, like long hours, hard work, and a lot of stress, she wanted to do it for herself. She didn’t want to still be an assistant at fifty-one. With her father’s help to get her started, once they agreed that she was ready, Jane was sure she could go far. That was why she had gone to business school. She wanted to be Bob Benson or Dan Fletcher, not just a member of someone’s staff. But this was fine for now, and it sounded like fun, even if stressful at times. They were all busy, and the nature of the business included pressure.
Hailey kept Julia occupied until lunchtime, and Julia gave Jane several projects she could handle on her own. At lunchtime, Jane ordered a salad from one of the restaurants they used to have lunches sent in. She went to the kitchen to get a fork and a soda out of the fridge, and was about to go back to her office to eat while she worked, when Dan Fletcher appeared. He caught her when she had the refrigerator door open, and scraped past her so he could rub up against her. She wanted to turn around and slap him but resisted the urge. Instead she turned around and looked him in the eye. For a second, he looked like he was going to grab her. There was no one else around.
“Is there a problem?” she asked him, momentarily oblivious to the fact that he was her boss and one of the two owners of the agency.
“Not for me. I understand Bob and your father were classmates at Princeton. We’ll have lunch and you can tell me about it sometime.” He pretended not to see the look of fury in her eyes, and his hand brushed her bottom as she walked past him. He was bold to a shocking degree, and apparently got away with it. No one dared call him on his behavior because of who he was. She went back to her office, shaking with rage. Julia saw the look on her face and was worried.
“Something wrong?”
“How the hell does that lech get away with it? First he squeezed by me, so he could rub up against me, and then he put his hand on my ass.”
“Oh. Dan. He does it to everyone. Just ignore him,” Julia said with a shrug.
“I’m not going to ignore him,” Jane warned her. “I’m going to call him on it if he does it again.”
“He’s harmless. He’s married with kids,” Julia said, as though that made a difference.
“I don’t care. That’s sexual harassment,” Jane reminded her.
“He’s the boss.” She said it as though that absolved him of everything.
“That’s my point,” Jane said, and dug into her salad. “I’ll call a lawyer about it if I have to.” She was still seething, remembering his rubbing past her in the kitchen, his body pressed against hers. He was disgusting.