'Steven, I found you someone, she will come by in half an hour to meet you.'
'O? That's fast,' he sounds surprised, Steven looks a bit displeased. The work pressure has almost come to a boiling point for a while now, but the "help" that his boss Herman Brouwer has arranged for him so far has actually only caused him more work, there were some stupid chicks among them! Or stubborn, or lazy. Often just out of school and looking for an easy administrative job, while they barely know how to hold a pen. And then that kid, with his piercings everywhere and nowhere, who was staring at his cell phone all day long, nothing really came out of his hands.
He had a hearty conversation with Herman about this earlier this week, it really can't go on like this anymore, he needs someone who has outgrown the adolescent stage and knows what working hard means, if necessary, without specific administrative knowledge, he'll teach him or her himself.
'And...?'
'No administrative experience unfortunately, but she is a hard worker, I am sure you will be satisfied with her. Renate her name is, Renate Brouwer. See you later Steven, I have to leave now!' Herman says, then the line's gone dead.
Steven is looking at the phone in amazement, Bróuwer? Renate Bróuwer?!
Three quarters of an hour later a whirlwind enters Steven's domain, all excuses that she is fifteen minutes late, oh good, he thinks wryly, at least she can tell the time, even if she seems not able to arrive on time. Everything went wrong, she explains, car refused to start, all traffic lights were red, bridge was open, rammed by a container freight ship, so she had to take a long detour.
Steven sighs internally, here we go again. Not even started yet and it's already all excuses, this promises disaster. And this time it's not going to be easy to get rid of her again, given her last name, she is either related to the boss, or even worse, he knows that Herman has a new fling going on, and given his eagerness to marry, there is a chance that he has now tied the knot. That would be number four, sigh, where does he get the courage from... Fortunately, Herman is smart enough to always marry on a prenuptial agreement, otherwise Steven would probably no longer have a job by now.
He looks at the new arrival, she looks absolutely nothing like Herman, fortunately for her, he always wonders what all those women see in Herman. She is tall and slim, blonde curls reaching halfway down her back, about twenty years old, he thinks displeased, hmm, that's young, too young to know what hard work is?
He holds out his hand and looks straight at her, 'Steven de Haan,' he says rather sternly, she looks back uninhibited and takes his hand.
'Renate Brouwer, pleased to meet you,' her voice is clear and cheerful.
'Please sit down, Renate,' he points to a round table in the corner of the large office garden, 'would you like some coffee?'
'Please,' she says, she takes off her scarf and coat, hangs them neatly on the coat rack next to the door and then walks to the coffee counter and sits down, her legs neatly together, a bit shyly pulling the hem of her skirt down.
The space is very big for a single employee, even for two people. Years ago, it was full of enthusiastic, driven colleagues, but the crisis had a major impact, and finally only Steven was left of the office staff. But lately business has picked up again, more and more orders are coming in, thank God, but it does mean that the burden for Steven is becoming a bit too much. Hence the attempts to get appropriate support, so far with very little success. And this lady certainly doesn't make Steven happy, especially when she tells him that she comes from healthcare, nursing staff no less.
'But I'm a quick learner,' she assures him, 'and I'll tackle anything.'
Yeah sure, he thinks cynically, we'll see. He starts to explain to her what will be expected from her and the amount of her salary, to which she responds unexpectedly enthusiastically, given the not exactly generous net amount that remains. The working hours are quite flexible, as long as she is there by nine o'clock at the latest and she makes her eight hours a day.
She promises to do her best, Steven freezes, he unfortunately misinterprets her roguish smile at this announcement, my god, he thinks, again someone who is going to cut corners and thinks she can get away with it because she has a pretty face...
Renate doesn't really know what to think of her new "boss", the second in command of the chief boss, so to speak, he must be about thirty years old, she thinks, and much too serious for someone that age. She sees fatigue lines around his eyes, typical of people who spend too much time staring at a computer screen, hopefully she can support him in such a way that he can take more distance from his work.
He's definitely attractive, black curly hair, dark brown eyes, impressive, masculine hooked nose and a wide mouth, which unfortunately she has not yet seen sporting a smile. There seems to be a permanent cynical streak surrounding it. Would he ever laugh, would he even have a sense of humor?
Well, let's wait and see, let's try to master the work first.
Renate declares that she can start right away, she will have to be trained anyway, so if he has time for that? Steven decides to accept the offer, the sooner he can return to his actual work the better, and answering the phone, which rings quite often these days, anyone must be able to do that, right?
'How would you like to be addressed, by the way,' she asks, half-jokingly.
'Eh, Mr. de Haan, or sir?' he suggests, apparently dead serious.
'Seriously?!' she asks mockingly, disbelief clearly visible on her face.
'Steven is ok too,' he responds timidly. That's more like it, Renate thinks grimly, heck, I'm not going to call a man who is at most four or five years older than me, sir, come on now! If it were a customer, of course, but a direct colleague, don't be ridiculous!
After he has installed her at her workplace and familiarized her with her computer and telephone system, he sits at his own desk to arrange her appointment and the like. She has handed him her passport so that he can make a copy for the ID registration. He is shocked, only now does he see that she is already twenty-five, and he thought she was barely twenty! Then he suddenly understands her reaction, the refusal to call him sir, and he feels like a bit of an asshole.
Steven decides to give her the benefit of the doubt, secretly hoping that she'll suck at it, so he can tell Herman that it won't work out. He deliberately gives her the simplest jobs and carefully keeps the more complicated work to himself. Still, she does her job well, she is meticulous and works quickly, Steven has to reluctantly admit.
She has been there for a week now, and Steven comes in after a visit to the dentist, Renate and Herman are standing together at the coffee counter. It sounds like they are having the most fun, Renate giggles, says something and Herman bursts out laughing.
Hm, Steven thinks, great buddies, those two, he doesn't like it at all. He thinks back to Herman's wife number two, or actually ex number two. As soon as she tricked Herman into marrying her, she had her eye on his job, which she would take over, under the guise of a "family business", which would save costs. While keeping Steven's salary for herself, of course, that seemed only fair to her. Steven had expressed his concerns to Herman. 'Won't happen, don't worry,' he had reassured him with a bold wink, 'she may have some very welcome talents, but a talent for numbers is certainly not one of them.' The marriage did not last long, however, wife number two turned out to be quite loose with the marriage promise, she turned out to be rather promiscuous.
Should he be worried about his job again?
Renate looks a lot like Steven's ex, she is the same type, at least in appearance, tall and slim, with blonde curls. And he doesn't exactly have pleasant memories of his ex. That makes it even worse to have to work with Renate, it keeps bringing up memories. Renate is of course not aware of this, and wonders why she regularly gets those sullen, angry looks, she isn't doing anything wrong, is she now, she still has to learn it all, right? Let him apply a pressure bandage or administer a painless injection and see how far he can get before his patients run away screaming!
During the first few weeks she feels like she does nothing but open envelopes, logging mail, answer simple emails and cross check outgoing invoices, it's boring work, and she also regularly finds herself twiddling her thumbs because Steven doesn't seem to want to delegate. Why did I agree to this job, she thinks frustratedly. What she enjoys most is answering the phone and welcoming visitors, interacting with customers, suppliers, architects and field service colleagues.
But although she has the feeling that she is starting to gain control over the fairly simple tasks, she only sees disapproval in Steven's eyes, he doesn't even like the way she answers the phone, she really can't do anything right. After she once again receives what she considers an undeserved reprimand from him because she did not end the phone conversation with a representative quickly enough, she blows up.
'What the hell is your problem,' she screams, 'I don't answer the phone properly, I write with the wrong color pen, I put the cups in the cupboard the wrong way up, I don't load the dishwasher properly and turn it on too quickly, how do you think that will come across to customers when they see that I first have to dig through the dishwasher, have to wash dirty cups by hand because there is nothing left in the cupboard, to be able to provide them with coffee? Do you think that makes such a professional impression?' Steven is silent for a moment. 'Well?!'
Steven opens his mouth in protest, a deep frown reveals that he is by now furious himself, but Renate is now so upset that her flood of words can no longer be stopped.
'It would help, dammit' she shouts, her voice cracking, 'if you would explain to me exactly what the hell you want from me!'
