A Beautiful Struggle Read Free

also, to give you a rundown of the things
we like to do here.”
    I sat silently listening to her chatter on
about Friday drinks and other various social activities that come up throughout
the year. I told her that I would try to make it to the next Friday night
drinks but wasn’t really sure if I had anything on yet.
    “No worries, it would be great if you came
even if it was only half an hour,” she smiled.
    “Ok, I’ll make sure I at least do that,” I
said feeling the pressure to fit in.
    “So um, this is your first job is it?”
    “Yeah, very first,” I admitted.
    “I am sure you will like it here, there’s a
pretty good group of people around. I mean, you get your cliques like you do
everywhere but mostly people are pretty nice. I’ll see you around, if not, on
Friday ok?” she said as she turned to leave and practically bounced out the
door.
    “Sounds great,” I called after her, smiling
weakly. I really didn’t know if I was a Friday night drinks person, but I
figured I had better show my face if I wanted to make any friends here.
    After I got a little more work done I left
the library to go and get a coffee at morning tea time. There were two PA desks
outside the offices in front of the library door, and one of the girls, a
small, slightly rotund girl with a friendly face and dirty blonde hair tied up
in a bouncy ponytail, got up as I approached.
    “Hi there, I’m Kayley,” she said in an
Irish accent.
    “Katrina,” I replied and we shook hands
briefly.
    “I’m Greg’s PA. He's a bit creepy,” she
whispered.
    “Is he?” My eyes skittered around
nervously, I wasn’t really sure I should be having this conversation.
    “Yeah, sometimes I go in there to drop
something off, and he is under his desk.”
    “Ok… doing what?”
    “Exactly! That’s the part I find creepy.”
    I laughed, my concern ebbing away, as we
started to talk about how long she had been working there and what some of the
other girls were like.
    When we reached the kitchen, I met Anne and
Carl, who were the filing clerks, as well as Albina and Joanne, who were both
PAs as well. I couldn’t help but notice that most of the people in the break
room were all support staff. Any solicitors who came in made their coffee or
tea, uttered some small talk and then left.
    Kayley must have noticed me looking around
and read my confused expression. “They don’t really associate too much with all
of us Plebs. The younger ones do sometimes, but they generally just talk to
each other and hang out in their offices.” She handed me a cup for my coffee,
and we moved along the line of people waiting for the water heater. “Although I
wish this one would hang around a bit more,” she added as her eyes moved to the
doorway, I looked around as Elliot walked in. He nodded and said hello to a
couple of people but mostly stood there quietly, waiting for his turn for
coffee, tea or whatever his chosen refreshment was.
    One of the other PAs moved towards him and
started a conversation. I was stupidly standing there, openly watching him when
he realised and looked at me, stopping mid-sentence for just a beat, this
however, caused the girl who was talking to him to glance over her shoulder at
a now red faced me. She squinted her eyes, shooting daggers in my direction,
flicked her long honey streaked hair over her shoulder and continued her
conversation with Elliot.
    Kayley leaned into me and said, “He’s
pretty delicious huh? The one talking to him is Beth, she’s his PA and thinks
she has dibs on him. But every woman here is lusting after the man. He is
devine! Just look at that body! And the hair, the eyes! I could go on,” she
sighed.
    I tore my eyes away from him and tried to
focus on Kayley, “Priya told me there’s a 'no dating' policy here.”
    “That doesn’t stop anyone,” Albina added,
eyeing Elliot up and down like he was a piece of meat, “It wouldn’t stop me if
I got a chance with him anyway.” She let out an