It was my first day on the job, the first day of my year in industry for my degree course and, though it may seem strange, I knew no-one in the company, the job had been arranged by the college. All I knew was the company was a publishing house, I had to report to a Mrs. Fenner and that I was to be working as an editors assistant, my course tutor in 'Reporting' had said that the job would be an eye opener, I hadn't understood the wink he gave when he made the comment. So here I was at the address I'd been given, I was two hours early and the reception was locked, there wasn't even a security guard in sight and I wondered how long I'd have to wait for some-one to come along. An hour later I was relieved to see a body moving around through the tinted glass of the doors, tentatively I rang the bell, there was a rattle followed by a click and a rattle then the door swung open.
"Yes?" a rather dishy female of about twenty-five asked.
"Uh," I faltered, "I'm starting work here today and am supposed to report to Mrs. Fenner."
"I see," she smiled "you'd better come in."
I followed her into the reception, to my surprise there were no pictures or covers on the walls that would give a clue to the type of publications the company did, but I had to admit that the reception was made up to relax a person. The woman went behind a glass topped, fronted and sided reception desk, opened a book, read an entry and looked at me.
"Your name?" she asked.
"Andrew West." I replied moving closer to the desk.
"Well Andrew," she grinned, "I am Candy, as you can see I work on reception."
"Pleased to meet you." I smiled a little shyly.
"You certainly are eager," Candy said with a grin "how long were you waiting out there?"
"Ahum, an hour." I coughed.
She laughed and picked up something from the desk that she held out to me, it was a badge, which read 'STAFF', taking it, I clipped it to my jacket pocket.
"I hope you don't mind me asking," I said nervously "but what does the company publish?"
"You really don't know?" Candy said in a surprised tone.
"Uh, no." I muttered, "You see, the college made all the arrangements."
"Well I won't spoil it for you," she laughed "Caroline, Mrs. Fenner that is, will explain it all to you."
None the wiser I sat in one of the comfortable chairs and waited, I must admit that the wait was not unpleasant as the chairs were all positioned so that they faced the glass reception desk, the view of Candy's stockinged legs was enough to make time pass unnoticed, especially to an eighteen year old virgin like me. About half an hour passed and people began to walk through reception, a high proportion of them were female, but this didn't strike me as odd in any way, each of them greeted Candy in a cheery, friendly way, it seemed that everyone was happy to work here. Just before nine a very attractive woman in her mid-thirties walked into the reception, said a cheerful good-morning to Candy and looked across at me.
"Are you our new boy, Andrew West?" the woman asked with a charming smile.
"Uh, yes." I replied getting to my feet.
"A pleasure to meet you." the woman smiled even wider "I am Caroline Fenner, but call me Caroline, you'll find we are all very informal here."
Candy stifled a laugh which puzzled me, Mrs. Fenner, Caroline, looked at Candy in puzzlement, Candy whispered something and Caroline laughed.
"Candy tells me you don't know what we publish, is that right?" Caroline asked me.
"Well, yes." I replied defensively "The college made all the arrangements, but they didn't tell me anything about the company."
"You'd better come along with me," Caroline grinned "I'll give you the guided tour on the way to my office then I'll explain what we do over a cup of coffee. Candy, can you arrange for a name badge to be at my office in say twenty minutes."
"Will do Caroline." Candy smiled "I'll see you later Andy."
Like a puppy dog I followed Caroline into the heart of the building and along a corridor, she pointed out the canteen, the staff shop and gym before stopping at a pair of lifts. From the outside I knew that there was four floors to the building including the ground floor, when the lift came Caroline pressed the 'B' for basement, the doors closed and the lift smoothly descended.
"This," Caroline said loudly as we stepped out of the lift "is our on site printing area, we have two other sites solely devoted to printing our publications. Most of the operation is computer controlled so we only have seven people down here, you'll meet them all later I'm sure."
She stepped back into the lift with me right behind her, this time she pressed for the 1st floor, the lift ascended smoothly and the doors opened onto a bright, cheerful corridor with doors along its length.
"This floor and the one above contain our studios" Caroline said as we stepped out of the lift "where we do all our interior photography, each studio has it's own facilities like changing room and bathroom. Let's have a quick look in studio 4, it should be unoccupied at the moment."
She led the way to a door about half way along the corridor and walked into the studio, I suppose it was like any other professional studio, lots of lights, cables all over the place, cameras, fake scenery and props. There wasn't really a lot to see, though I was puzzled by one or two things, like the main prop and scenery seeming to be a bedroom set, there being video as well as still cameras and, most puzzling, the array of whips and chains and handcuffs. The changing room was large and airy, one wall was taken up by a closet containing various skimpy costumes, some so skimpy that they couldn't really be classified as clothing, still following Caroline I looked in the bathroom, it was large and to my surprise was fitted out with photographic lights.
"Well" Caroline asked as we walked back to the lift "what do you think?"
"Impressive," I replied, "how many studios are there?"
"Eight," she smiled "four per floor. The rest of the space on these two floors is taken up by photographic developing labs, editing and viewing rooms, but they are all in use at the moment so you'll have to see them later."
The lift doors opened and we stepped in; Caroline pressed the button for the 3rd and last floor, the doors closed and the lift hummed upwards.
