Those Angstrom Men!. Read Free

he’d think of a solution while he was away.
    Maybe he should just tell her the truth, that he’d lied about his name to have a chance for a normal courtship. Courtship? He’d just met the girl. That was a pretty old fashioned word, anyway, courtship.
    And he had that rule he’d made, that he never dated women who worked for him.
    Nine o’clock, Monday morning. Maggie walked up to the receptionist at Angstrom and Associates and asked for Rosemund White, the office manager.
    Rosemund was very welcoming.
    “So glad you decided to take the position, Maggie. Our last in-house editor left us in a hurry to get married in Scotland, and we’ve been looking for someone well rounded to replace him for about two months.
    Rosemund took Maggie round and introduced her to the twenty or so other people on the Executive Floor.
    She did not introduce her to Mr. Angstrom, just pointed out his corner office .
    “Mr. Angstrom isn’t in. He’s usually out,” Rosemary said. “You’ll have nothing to do with him of course. His P.A. Gloria looks after all his requirements. He travels a lot. Miles Green, who you just met, is his right hand, runs the place when Mr. Angstrom is overseas. Mr. Angstrom is sought after by conglomerates all over the globe. Why, we have clients in Hong Kong, Australia, the United States, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland as well as Britain.”
      Maggie nodded, and thought it was best she hadn’t been introduced, she’d be sure to blush and stammer in front of the formidable Mr. Angstrom.
    She vaguely remembered she’d seen Brian Angstrom at a charity event she‘d covered about three years ago for the magazine. He was tall, with receding white hair, and bushy eyebrows. He had looked very intimidating, she recalled.
    Rosemund led the way to Maggie’s own office. They went over the job description, and Rosemund gave her some good insight as to the literary talents of the analysts Maggie would deal with. She listened carefully to the guidelines Rosemund was giving her, determined to be an exemplary employee.
    Maggie settled into her desk and began to familiarize herself with the first proposal she was to edit, checking the accuracy of the information cited. She went over to John Taylor, the analyst who’d written it.
    “Mr. Taylor,” she began.
    “Call me John. We’re a pretty informal bunch here. I know why you’ve come to see me, lass. I’m not a writer, I’m an analyst. You just go ahead and rework it all you want. I’ll check it over when you’ve finished to make sure you haven’t made any significant changes to what I want to convey.”
    “Thank you, John. I should be finished by five.”
    “No rush, Ian is away this week, so he won’t be badgering me for it until Monday.”
    Half past ten, a friendly girl Maggie remembered as Amanda stuck her head into the cubicle.
    “Maggie, come and have a cup of tea with us...I’m Amanda, in case you didn’t remember.”
    “I remember,” smiled Maggie. “Where do we go?”
    “Staff canteen. Mr. Angstrom owns all the companies in this building and we all share the canteen. I think there are about a hundred employees all told.” 
    They were joined at tea by two other girls. Elizabeth was a P.A. and Linda a computer programmer. They were happy to fill Maggie in on all the men.
    “Almost all the men are married in our firm, except for Mr. Angstrom and Dan Foster, and he’s been going out with his girlfriend for two years now, so he’s not available for a bit of fun. He comes to the pub with us some Friday nights after work, but he only stays for one drink and then it’s off home to Lucy. Well, Peter in the mail room is single, but he’s only seventeen,” Linda smiled.
    “Not that Dan’s particularly good looking or clever, not like Mr. Angstrom.”
    “I heard about Mr. Angstrom’s business acumen from Rosemund,” said Maggie. “He is very impressive.”
    “Very,” agreed Elizabeth. “I can’t imagine any man looking like him getting to