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Extended Work
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| Confessions of a site secretary - Part 8(a) | |
| By teddy | ||||||||||||||||
| 05 September 2006 | ||||||||||||||||
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Any feedback will be much appreciated. Thanks. There’s been already two weeks since I started on the new site. And I don’t like it here at all. I really miss the other one and wish I could’ve stayed there. I think it would’ve been much easier to put up with Mark’s silly harassment than with all this lot here. If there weren’t all the other reasons for which I left I would probably ask Mark to take me back. Unfortunately, I’m bloody stuck in this poxy place. Right from the start when I first stepped into the reception area of the site offices I had this disagreeable feel about the place. Everything looked so sober and unfamiliar. I was waiting in the queue formed along the reception desk to get my swipe card when I saw this guy crossing the room, late twenties, true not bad looking, but with a gross arrogant expression smudged all over his face and a big chip on his shoulder. I disliked him instantly. He stopped for a second to talk to the receptionist that was doing the cards. ‘You should hurry up. I don’t want to see all these people still waiting here when I’ll come back. This is not a fucking surgery waiting room, it’s a building site.’ ‘Charming.’ I thought. He threw a quick look over the queue and his eyes stopped on me impertinently measuring my body from head to toe. I could notice his mouth attempting an imperceptible rude smile. Involuntary my eyes defied him while my eye brows rose into a ‘What the fuck are you looking at, twat?’ He didn’t like that, he was probably expecting me to blush and reply with an embarrassing smile. Not me, mate, sorry to disappoint you. After I got my pass I phoned up Vic, Dalen’s manager on site. ‘Vic, hi, it’s Adi, your new office administrator. I’m downstairs in the reception.’ ‘Oh, hi, Adi. Have you been inducted?’ ‘Yes…and I got my card already.’ ‘Ok, I’ll come and pick you up.’ ‘Thanks.’ Vic seemed nice. Too nice perhaps. He looked like he was lacking that sort of toughness one would expect to find in a builder. ‘Hello, nice to meet you.’ he shook my hand five minutes later. ‘I hope you will like it here.’ ‘I bet I won’t, mate.’ I kindly smiled at him. Meeting him was far different from my first encounter with Mark. I remember my first day on Beaurex site. ‘I’m looking for Mark Taylor, Dalen’s site manager.’ I told the girl sitting behind the reception desk. ‘He’s over there.’ she pointed to the office next to the entrance. A big ‘Logistics Manager’ sign was displayed on the door. I timidly knocked not knowing what to expect. That was my first day on a building site. ‘Come in.’ I heard a husky voice shouting from inside the office. ‘Vlas, just do what I’ve fucking asked you to do and stopped fucking questioning my decisions, ….’ I heard the same voice shouting into a mobile phone as I stepped in. ‘One second.’ its owner raised his thumb when he noticed me. So I waited. ‘Listen up, you wanker, who the fuck is in charge here, you or me?’ the guy, who I assumed was Mark, carried on screaming his head off to his interlocutor. ‘For fuck’s sake, just stay there, I’ll come to see you in a second…and I swear to God I’m gonna smash your stupid ugly face when I’ll get hold of you…fucking cunt.’ he cut off the conversation throwing his mobile on the desk in front of him. ‘Hmmmm, this is gonna be entertaining.’ I thought. ‘Hello, love.’ his mood instantly changed when he looked at me again. ‘Hi, I’m Adi.’ ‘Oh ok. Listen, I need to go on site to sort out these fucking useless cunts…so just make yourself at home,.. this is your desk. We’ll go through with what I need you to do when I’ll come back. There is some coffee and tea over there if you want…see you in a minute.’ And that was that. I saw him again about three hours later. With all the swearing and shouting there was something amusing about Mark, which I quite liked right from the start. ‘I’ll show you around. Adi.’ Vic offered politely. ‘We don’t have our own office here. Because we’re the logistics contractor we’re seen as part of the managing team so we sit with them upstairs.’ ‘Oh, great.’ I thought unpleasantly surprised and definitely not impressed by the privilege. Up in the main contractor’s office, he showed me my desk. ‘This is yours.’ It was placed right in the middle of a huge unwelcoming room amongst many others. I instantly longed for the small shabby office I still shared with Mark until not long ago. ‘And that’s mine.’ Vic pointed to the desk opposite. Then he introduced me to few people. I assumed they were the ones I would mostly have to deal with. ‘Shelley, this is Adi, our new administrator.’ he said to a thirty and something acidly looking woman. Shelley was O’Connor’s secretary. She examined me for a second, uninterested, and then forced herself into grinning at me. ‘Hello. Welcome on board.’ ‘Thanks.’ I returned the fake smile. I didn’t really like her either. There were few others. Minutes later I couldn’t even remember their names or faces: to me they all looked the same, I mean, miserable gits. ‘Vic, what the fuck is going on outside? You were supposed to have the welfare skip exchanged this morning. It is overflowed and if, it doesn’t go asap, then be ready to call the pest control tomorrow.’ I heard a somehow known voice approaching us. ‘Sorry, Harry.’ I saw Vic’s face getting all embarrassed ‘I’ll phone the supplier in a second.’ ‘Who the hell is this prick?’ I wondered as the guy that I had the eye confrontation with earlier in the reception stopped in front of us. ‘Oh, Harry, this is Adi, Dalen’s new office person on site.’ ‘Ok, cool.’ he cut Vic short pretty much ignoring me. ‘Now go and sort that skip out, will you?’ Then he turned around and left. ‘Who is he?’ my eyes questioned Vic’s humiliated face. ‘Harry’s the logistics package manager for O’Connor.’ Vic instinctively answered. ‘He’s basically in charge of us.’ ‘Now, that’s fucking great, it can’t get any better than this.’ I pitied myself. ‘What a prat!’ I had a bad feeling that he was gonna give me a hard time. And I was right. Every time there is a problem on site with our guys he comes and complains to me. It looks like he’s teamed up with Shelley …’cos she does the same thing. ‘The receptionist didn’t bring the mail upstairs in time this morning. There is no toilet paper in male’s toilet. The reception area is in a mess and we have visitors this afternoon. Can you ask the cleaners to give it a quick wipe again?’ she makes everything look like it is all my fault. ‘Look at this.’ she dragged me into the female’s toilets the other day to show me three paper towels lying on the floor and few drops of liquid soap splashed on the sink. ‘For God’s sake, woman, this a fucking building site not a pharmacy. You can’t always have everything in perfect order. Especially when you’ve got five hundred people walking about.’ I told her in a much more polite manner of course, picking up the mess from the floor myself and wiping the soap of the sink. ‘No big deal, see?’ my eyes grinned at her. But she wouldn’t have it. And I bet she thinks that I’ve got an attitude problem by the way she disapprovingly looks at me. Just like the other prick actually. ‘I need these signs done asap. Make sure they go up on the wall straight away.’ ‘Do this, do that, why is this, why is that, how come this hasn’t been done…’ is all I hear all day long. And if I’m really lucky and he’s in a good mood then he might slip in an apathetic ‘cheers’. Fucking idiot! If I didn’t need this job badly I would tell him to stick it where the sun ‘don’t’ shine. Under the circumstances though, I can’t really afford that. Vic doesn’t help much. ‘They are the clients, we have to keep them happy.’ he excuses his over obedient attitude. Yeah, I know that, but there is a big difference between doing your job and being Harry’s bloody servant. If it’d been Mark, he would’ve told him to get stuffed long ago. Mark wouldn’t take any shit from anyone, client or not. But it is not only that. Every time I am around, Harry makes sure that he entertains his colleagues with dirty jokes and silly comments about women. Or bragging off about his birds. ‘Ok, Harry, you proved your point, but I don’t really give a flying shit about your sexist views.’ I insolently ignore him every single time. And I think that really irritates him. And I must say that makes me extremely happy. I actually think that in his arrogantly bastardly way he fancies me. I can tell that by the libidinous way he looks at me. I caught him many times staring at my breasts – it is true, they are getting bigger by the day - when talking to me. I bet he would try it on if my attitude towards him was different. Under the circumstances he wouldn't dare because I think he intuits that he has no chance. ‘You can dream about it as much as you want, sweetheart, it doesn’t really cost you a penny.’ my eyes challenge him. * It looks like my life is getting more and more entertaining. ‘Adi, I need to see you.’ Mark phoned me up one morning about three days ago. He sounded quite agitated. ‘Mark, I thought we talked about that already. It is not a good idea.’ ‘No, there’s something I need to tell you. I’m afraid I might have done something stupid. I’ll come and pick you up after work.’ ‘Mark, what have you done? Tell me.’ ‘I can’t talk now. I’ll be there six o’clock.’ And then in the afternoon I got another much unexpected call. ‘Who’s this?’ I wondered looking at the unfamiliar number displayed on the screen of my ringing mobile. ‘Adi, hi, it’s George.’ I heard coming from the other end when I answered the call. ‘Now what the hell does he want?’ I got absolutely dumbfounded when I heard his voice. ‘Oh, hi, George.’ I replied after few seconds. ‘Adi, I was wondering if I could see you. There is something I would like to talk to you about.’ ‘Is everything alright?’ my heart shrunk apprehensively for a second thinking that something might have happened to Paul. ‘Everything’s fine. It’s just that I really need to discuss something with you.’ ‘Hmmm, what could it be?’ I wondered. ‘Did Paul ask him to phone me? Nah, Paul wouldn’t use intermediaries if he had something to say. Then what the hell does George want?’ ‘I don’t know, I’m quite busy actually.’ I told him feeling a bit reluctant to consent to his request. ‘Please, Adi, It won’t take long.’ ‘Oh, ok.’ I agreed. At the end of the day, although he told Paul about Mark – to be fair, I cannot really blame him for that, I would’ve done the same if I’d been him – he is a nice guy. ‘Would tonight after work be alright?’ he asked. ‘I’m afraid I can’t do it tonight.’ ‘Tomorrow then?’ ‘Ok. I’m not on Beaurex site anymore though. ’ ‘Yes, I know. I’ll meet you outside your offices around six. Is that ok?’ ‘Yes.’ Now, that was strange. How on earth did he know where I was? Somehow I had this bad feeling that the whole thing had something to do with Mark. ‘Let’s go and sit down somewhere.’ Mark said after he gave me a big warm hug when we met later. ‘You’re looking good, girl. Let me see, is your tummy showing off yet?’ ‘Get lost.’ I pushed his hand as he tried to lift the bottom of my top. We went to the pub nearby, the only one we could see around actually. ‘Go and sit down. What do you want to drink?’ he asked. ‘Just an orange juice for me, thanks.’ As I sat down at an empty table I noticed few people from O’Connor drinking at the bar. My ‘friend’, Harry, was with them as well. He seemed very surprised to see me there. And even more surprised when he saw Mark coming over with the drinks. ‘Who the fuck is that prick that keeps staring at you?’ Mark noticed his insistent looks. ‘Oh, he’s O’Connor’s logistics package manager. Just ignore him, he’s a fucking idiot.’ ‘Is he giving you a hard time? ‘Cos if he is I go and sort him out right now.’ ‘Leave him alone, Mark. I don’t want any trouble.’ ‘Now, go on, tell me, what happened?’ I asked. ‘Shit! You’re not gonna like it, babe. Promise not to get upset?’ ‘Oh, com’on, Mark, just tell me what you’ve done.’ I impatiently demanded. ‘Ok.’ he nervously looked at me. ‘Is it really that bad?’ I worried. ‘Last night I went to the Header.’ he started. ‘One of the lads from Beaurex is leaving so he invited us all to the pub. I was already quite pissed when I noticed that the architect was there as well…’ ‘Who? Paul?’ I interrupted him as my heart stopped beating for a second. ‘No, not him, the other one, his mate, what’s his name?’ ‘George.’ I was right, George’s call had something to do with Mark then. ‘So I went over to say hello.’ Mark carried on. ‘He didn't seem too pleased to see me. “Listen” I said to him, “I know you grassed me up to your mate that I was banging his bird,” ‘ – Mark threw me a quick apologetic look ‘As I said, I was quite drunk’ – ‘ “but there are no hard feelings, ok? Let me buy you a drink.” “I’ve got one, thanks.” he refused me at first but then I think he realised that, in the state I was in, I wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I bought him a pint. He asked about you. I told him that you left…well, you’ve been moved to another site. “How come?” he was curious to know why. “Well” I said “since she found out she was pregnant she didn’t want to see me no more.” “Adi pregnant?” he seemed very surprised. ”Is she gonna keep the baby?” “Apparently so.” I replied. “Are you going to support her?” he asked. “I would” I said “but if she doesn’t even want the father’s help then she would definitely not have mine, would she?”… ‘ ‘Mark, tell me that you didn’t…’ I looked at him anxiously anticipating what was about to follow. He avoided my eyes and kept looking in his drink. ‘I’m sorry, babe, I was drunk.’ ‘I can’t believe you could be so fucking stupid.’ I said to him angrily. ‘I trusted you.’ ‘I was fucking pissed, Adi, I didn’t know what I was doing,’ ‘So you’re telling me that every single time you get drunk you start mouthing off about me and the baby? Who else knows then?’ ‘No one, I promise. I haven’t been to the Header since you left …until last night. I wouldn’t tell anyone else, you know I wouldn’t, but seeing him there really wound me up.’ ‘Great.’ I said still upset. ‘If I decided that Paul should know about the baby I should be the one to tell him, not you or George.’ ‘Oh, com’on, sweetheart, don’t be angry.’ ‘Now I know why George phoned me up today. He wants to see me. To talk about this I suppose. You can be such a fucking idiot sometimes, Mark.’ ‘I know.’ he gave me a remorseful look. I can’t really stay angry with him. ‘Oh well, shit happens.’ I gave him my forgiveness. ‘See what George has to say first. If he asked to see me that means he hasn’t told Paul yet.’ ‘I still can’t understand why you don’t want to tell the bloke about the baby, Adi. You will need help, it’s not gonna be easy, trust me.’ ‘Don’t you think I’ve gone through this in my head thousand times, over and over again?’ I replied annoyed. ‘But, com’on, Mark, you tell me, how can I possibly tell Paul about the baby? He wouldn’t even believe it is his. And let’s say I’d convince him in the end, what if he doesn’t want kids? And even if he does why would he want any with me? And if he doesn’t want this one then what am I going to do, eh? How I can possibly have his child against his will, you tell me….and I want this baby, Mark, there is no way I could get rid of it.’ I felt tears jamming my eyes. ‘Oh, babe, don’t get upset, please.’ he came closer and put an arm around me. ‘Everything’s gonna be fine, you’ll see. Just go and talk to George tomorrow, find out what he’s got to say.’ His phone started ringing. He looked at the screen: ‘I need to make a phone call, sweetheart.’ he said while blocking the incoming call. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’ That must’ve been his wife. Seconds after he left I saw Harry approaching the table. He sat himself down without asking: ‘Boyfriend troubles?’ he sneered at me. He was drunk. I was too upset to be bothered so I decided to ignore him. ‘You’re very pretty, Adi. You know that, don’t you? I wouldn’t mind having a go if you let me.’ he said as the back of his right hand touched my face. I froze. ‘Don’t fucking touch me.’ my eyes swore at him. He didn’t take any notice though. His hand moved slowly down on my neck and carried on further. My hand stopped his just above the top edge of my bra. His face was wearing his usual insolent smirk. On impulse I grabbed Mark’s pint and threw the whole of its contents right at him ‘Fuck off.’ I verbally emphasized the gesture. He instinctively jumped up of his seat. ‘You fucking bitch!’ he yelled at me as he watched the beer dripping down his clothes. ‘Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?’ I heard Mark’s voice exploding from behind. A second later his hand grabbed Harry by the front of his shirt and pinned him against the wall. ‘Listen up, you cunt, if you’ll ever bother her again I swear to God I’ll fucking beat the crap out of you.’ Harry’s face frowned with fear and I must say that moment I really felt sorry for him. ‘Mark, leave him alone.’ I intervened, ‘he’s not worth the hassle.’ I saw the other guys from O’Connor approaching the scene. ‘What’s going on here?’ one of them asked. ‘Nothing.’ Mark said calmly pulling Harry from the wall and pushing him towards them. ‘Your mate here had a little accident. You might need to change his nappies, it looks like he pissed himself.’ he carried on pointing to a big wet mark spread out on Harry’s trousers. ‘Now, com’on, Mark, that is your beer, not the one he drank earlier.’ I smiled quite amused. They left the pub immediately after. I don’t think Harry would’ve fancied spending another minute in the same room with us. ‘David wants to see you.’ was the first thing a smirking Shelley told me the next morning when I got to the office. I think she knew that I was in trouble. David is the top guy on site, I mean the Project Manager for O’Connor. He is about sixty, tall, slim, lots of white hair on his head still. He always says hello but doesn’t talk a lot. And I cannot recall seeing him smile. He looks a bit intimidating to be honest. ‘Is he free now?’ I got myself ready to face the storm. ‘Well, you can wait here. He’s got Harry inside at the moment but he shouldn’t be too long.’ ‘I don’t want her on this site anymore, David.’ I could hear Harry’s voice piercing through the thin walls that separate David’s office of the main one. ‘Well, I didn’t really like it here anyway.’ I comforted myself. After a minute the door swung open and Harry came out. He threw me an overconfident ‘you’re finished, madam’ look when he saw me waiting there. ‘Come in, sit down.’ David said as I stepped into his office. ‘I’ve just had a very serious complaint made against you from one of my managers. He wants you off the job. Now, before I take any decision I want to give you a chance to explain.. Harry says that you and your boyfriend attacked him in the local pub last night for no apparent reason. I know that the incident happened off site and outside working hours but it still involves my staff, therefore, it needs to be sorted out.’ ‘Fucking idiot.’ I wasn’t gonna let Harry get away with it. ‘I’m afraid that Harry forgot to mention the most important part of the story, Sir….’ I was determined to tell him everything as it happened. Including me throwing Mark’s beer at the git.. ‘I’m sorry, it was an instinctive reaction. And obviously when Mark caught him verbally abusing me afterwards he lost his temper. ‘ ‘Wouldn’t you?’ my eyes pleaded his opinion from a gentleman’s perspective. ‘Hmmm, this is not what I’ve been told. Harry implied that you had perhaps too much to drink and made a move on him while your boyfriend was outside. Obviously he got carried away but then you backed off and threw the drink at him. And when your boyfriend came back he got jealous and attacked Harry.’ I looked at him shocked, finding hard to believe that someone could be such a lying bastard. ‘I’m sorry, sir, but this is ridiculously untrue. First of all, Mark is just a good friend, not my boyfriend. And secondly, all I had to drink last night was orange juice. I do not drink alcohol because I’m pregnant. And I find absolutely ludicrous for someone to insinuate that a woman in my situation would try to chat up some guy in a pub.’ ‘I am really sorry, I didn’t know that.’ he looked at me very surprised. ‘Congratulations.’ Now, I wasn’t really sure if I should be congratulated or pitied. I did thank him politely though. I suppose the news must’ve put a big question mark on Harry’s account of events. An hour later he came to see me. ‘Listen, I’m sorry for last night, I was a bit drunk. No harm done I hope.’ he unwillingly apologised. ‘Yeah, no worries.’ I looked at him impassively. I knew what all this was about, I think David managed to put some sense into him: one single word from me to the Union guys and Harry could’ve ended up in a big pile of shit. Plus harm the company’s reputation. A heated feud’s been going on between the Union and O’Connor for a quite long time and this would’ve been a big opportunity for the former to take advantage of the situation. However, being at the centre of a dispute is the last thing I need. And I don’t really want to cause any troubles. (to be continued)
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