Mia followed Veronica through the maze, trying her best to keep track of the twists and turns this time so that she didn’t get lost on her way back to her assigned area.

Eventually, they reached a door with a touchpad next to it where she would enter a code. “This is your office. Your code has already been created for you. I’ll show you how to change it some other time, but for now, it’s 8236.” Veronica punched it in, and the door beeped, glowed green, and she was able to turn the knob.

Mia followed her into a decent reception area. She was surprised she’d have so much room. There was a desk with a bookshelf behind it, as well as a few chairs sitting across the room against the wall. The view out the window was spectacular. A few plants and some nice paintings and other décor decorated the area. “You’ll be able to change any of this if you want to.” Veronica gestured at the paintings and other decorations.

“It’s lovely,” Mia replied, taking it all in.

Pointing to another door on the other side of the room, she said, “That’s Mr. Whitaker’s office. Your passcode will work there as well, but you must always knock before you go in, unless he tells you otherwise. Even if he asks you to be there at a certain time, be sure to knock first.”

With a nod, Mia said, “Of course.” It seemed as if Veronica was really stressing this, and it made Mia question what might happen if she accidentally forgot to knock. She’d seen something in the contract about consequences for failure to perform, but it had been written cryptically, and she wasn’t sure what it might mean. She’d just assumed it couldn’t be anything too out of the ordinary—some sort of verbal reprimand, maybe a note in her file if it became too much of a problem. The way Veronica was speaking made her think it might be something else.

“If you’ll have a seat behind the desk, I’ll show you how the system works.” Veronica gestured to the chair behind the desk.

Mia sat her attaché case down on the floor next to the bottom drawer and sat down. The chair was very comfortable, and the desk was exactly the right height for her.

“It’s really very simple. If the phone rings, answer it by saying, ‘Whitaker and Whitaker’ and nothing more. You will never transfer a call to Mr. Whitaker. If someone is calling this phone and not his private number, that means it’s someone he doesn’t want to talk to, at least not at the moment. You’ll simply fill out this form on the computer to let him know someone has called, and that’s all there is to it.”

Veronica pulled up a form on the computer and showed her how to fill it out. It was all very simple.

“This is your logon information.” She showed her where she’d written it down for her. “You’ll log in each morning when you come in. Pull up this form so that it’s all ready if someone calls. Log in to your email, and that’s basically all you’ll do on the computer except for ordering lunch.

“This is Mr. Whitaker’s calendar. If it’s blue, that means he’s scheduled lunch out that day, and you don’t need to worry about it. But if it’s yellow, you’ll need to message him in the morning and ask him what he wants for lunch. It is very important that his lunch arrives so that you can give it to him exactly at noon. If it is even a minute late, there will be consequences.”

“Consequences?” Mia asked, raising an eyebrow. “What sort of consequences?”

Veronica let out a hiss of a sigh. “You did read the contract, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did,” Mia assured her. “But it didn’t say what the consequences might be.”

The other woman slowly shook her head. “It’s up to his discretion.”

“But what does that mean…?”

She cleared her throat. “I’ve never been Mr. Whitaker’s secretary. That’s up to him.”

Mia felt more than a little unsettled as Veronica went over the rest of her duties. It didn’t seem like much. No filing or copying. Just whatever Mr. Whitaker might ask her to do—bring coffee, make an appointment, find a file in the cabinets in his office. It all sounded fairly simple, and not nearly enough to fill her day. “What do I do if he hasn’t given me an assignment?”

“You sit here—and do whatever you want,” Veronica shrugged.

“Whatever I want?”

“Yes. His last secretary played a lot of solitary. Or shopped. You can always do online shopping.”

“Really? And… I’ll get paid for that?”

“Yes, well, it’s not really the time that it takes to get the job done that you’re being compensated for—it’s the demanding nature of the job when you are called upon to do certain required tasks.”

Confused, Mia stared at her for a moment. “I’m not sure I know what you mean. What could be demanding about answering the phone and scheduling lunch?”

Again, Veronica made that face. “I can’t answer that, dear. Now, where is the contract?”

Mia still didn’t know what to think, but she bent down and unzipped her case, pulling out the contract and handing it over.

Veronica checked through it. Nodding, she said, “Give me the other required documentation so I can send it to HR, please.”

Getting that out, Mia handed it over as well.

“All right then. I’ll get this taken care of and bring your documents back to you. Oh, the red light on your desk. I forgot to mention that. When it lights up, he wants you to come in right away.”

Mia looked down at the light she was referring to. It started to glow red, which meant Mr. Whitaker was ready for her. With a deep breath, she tried to swallow, but only choked a little as she looked at Veronica. There was apprehension in the other woman’s eyes as well as Mia stood and approached the door that led to Mr. Whitaker’s office.