Before I Ever Met You

“He hired me because I lied on my resume,” she says bluntly. “They found out pretty fast that my miraculous skills in Excel and PowerPoint were all bullshit. But then I just worked extra hard with the Tiffany charm and made up for it. There’s no way in hell I’m going back into that job market out there.” She jerks her thumb toward the window, as if the vile job market is lurking at the door.

I’m already enamored by her honesty. “How long have you been working here?”

“About five months,” she says. “But everyone in the office is kind of new these days. Including Will, as you know.”

I’m not sure I want to admit to Tiffany how little I know, but she seems to read it on my face. “Will controlled the LA office, right,” she says. “They deal mainly with visual effects. We used to do that too, though now we’re doing the animation side of things. But he moved back here last month, so even he’s a bit of a noob. As in newbie. As in the same as you and me.”

“Why did he move back?”

“He went through a divorce. His ex-wife is the general manager down there.”

“Ex-wife?”

Tiffany gives me an odd look and shoves the glasses up the bridge of her nose. “How much did your father tell you about the job?”

“To be honest, not that much. He just knew I needed work and said Mr. McAlister needed an executive assistant.” I pause. “The last few years I’ve been up north, and I haven’t really kept in the know about my father’s company. Or really anything.”

“Mr. McAlister,” she says with an impish smile. “That’s cute.”

I let out a soft laugh. “I remember him from when I was teenager. That’s all he was to me. My dad’s friend. A younger friend, much younger than my dad, but even so, when I was fifteen anyone above twenty was super old. He was probably thirty at the time? So yeah. An ancient old man to teenage Jackie.”

Tiffany raises her eyebrow. “Well I’m guessing he was married back then too. All I know is he got divorced a year or two ago and tried to tough it out, but I guess it was too hard. I can’t blame him. They’ve got a staff of like a hundred and fifty in the LA office, but when you’re working next to your ex all day that’s got to be rough.”

“How many work here?”

“About fifty. But we’re growing each day. The dinosaur movies, you know, DinoWars, are a real hit right now, so as long as Warner Brothers keeps doing deals with us, we’ll keep expanding. Maybe get some new clients. Hence all the new hires, some of which I still don’t know their names. Whatever. But I’ll know yours. Otherwise Ted will kill me.”

Ted’s my father. Will and Ted, the CEOs of Mad Men Studios, coined because apparently the two of them are mad when they’re together. Least that’s what the company bio said. In reality, I think that means they drink a lot in each other’s presence.

“He’d probably kill me for being late if he were here,” I point out. One good thing about today is that my father is away on business, so I don’t have to deal with the awkwardness of being around him on my first day of work.

“He probably won’t be here all week, so you’re golden,” Tiffany says. “He travels so much now that Will’s here. Heading down to LA all the time.”

I have to admit, it’s a bit weird to be around someone who knows more about your father in the last five months than you have in the last twenty-five years. I better start getting my shit together before people catch on that my father and I aren’t exactly close.

She glances at her computer. “Hmmm. I guess I should call Alyssa and tell her you’re here.”

“Who is Alyssa?”

“She’s the office manager. She’ll be training you, I think.”

“I thought my father . . . Ted’s assistant, Patty, was doing that.”

“She’s with your father traveling. It’s for the best anyway, Patty takes everything too seriously. Alyssa is a lot more fun—she knows everything and will tell you everything. Especially when she has a few drinks in her. Not that we drink at work.” And at that Tiffany cups her hands around a mug of coffee (at least I think it’s coffee) and takes a sip before placing it back down. The mug says something about Muggles, and I automatically know I’m dealing with a Harry Potter fan, which makes me like her even more. I swear those books got me and Ty through some pretty lonely nights up north.

Lonely, and scary. I shudder at the thought.

“You all right?” Tiffany asks, peering at me. “I supposed if I was the kind of receptionist I pride myself on being, I would have offered you tea or coffee or water by now.”

“No, it’s fine,” I say quickly. “Thank you.”

She studies me for a moment more and then hits a few keys on the computer. “Alyssa,” she says into the headset. “Your nine o’ clock is here to be initiated into the program.” She looks to me. “She’ll be right out.”

“Program?” I repeat.

“Joking,” Tiffany says brightly.

A curvy blonde woman in skinny jeans, t-shirt, and blazer appears in the doorway, a notepad in hand. She eyes me through her blunt-cut bangs and extends her hand.

“Hi Jackie, nice to finally meet you. I’m Alyssa,” she says, taking my hand into hers and giving it a quick shake. “Are you excited? Nervous?”

“Both?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll fit right in here, I promise.” She looks at Tiffany. “You’ve been nice to her, right?”

Tiffany just rolls her eyes. “Yes master.”

Alyssa grins at me, showing off a gap in her white teeth that reminds me of Ty. “I get to boss her around, it’s the best part of the job.”

“Ha ha,” Tiffany says before she answers a call. “Good morning, Mad Men Studios, how may I direct your call?”

“Shall we start with the tour?” Alyssa asks, gesturing toward the rest of the office. “Come on.”

I follow her out through the doorway and into a large rectangular space with high ceilings and exposed beams. Along the edge of half the room are classic offices, glass exteriors with wood doors, plus blinds for privacy. Across from a few of the offices are desks and a few cubicles. In the middle of the room are what look like long, white picnic tables, with a few monitors and people sitting in front of them. In the corner of the room are couches, coffee tables, and chairs, like some hip café. More people are strewn across them, some talking but most listening to their headphones and furiously typing on their laptops.

It takes me a moment to realize where I am, that this is my father’s company. Who the hell knew he would create something so fresh and urban? Though there are some classic features, this place definitely has a trendy slant with the iron details, the brick work, and the communal work benches.

“This is the belly of the beast,” Alyssa says proudly, “where all the administrative, communications, finance, and executives work.” She points across the room where a glass door leads down a hall. “Down there is where the so-called magic happens, where the animators work. I’ll show you that later, but I don’t think you’ll have much to do with them. So what do you think? I’m the office manager in case you didn’t know, so I pride myself on first impressions of this place.”