= SARAH POV =
After breakfast, Heather took me on a tour of the café premises and explained where everything was and what was important to know about the large comprehensive house that Jun owned.
It looked like there were only three stories; however, from the outside, there was a façade making it look like three stories when there were actually five in total.
The two in-between stories, level 3 and level 4, were only accessible to staff. The third story was where Heather and her team worked, and the fourth story was an event space, which only allowed guests in through a private elevator.
The fourth level was split up into three event spaces. The first was a grand banquet hall that was rented out for weddings and large-scale speaking events.
Heather assured me that although they may need some extra hands to help with the decorations, they did sub-contract the decoration of the space to a trusted events management firm, who had been doing a wonderful job ever since their first event.
The second and third spaces were smaller, a flexible gym and a dance studio respectively.
Independent instructors in the area booked the rooms for their classes, and we even had an online bulletin that updated regularly to reflect the different classes that were being run on our premises.
After breakfast Heather and I took a private lift at the end of the hall up to the third floor, and we walked out into a brightly lit office space.
There were office cubicles, meeting rooms, and even a lounge area, just like in a regular office; you wouldn’t think for a moment that you were still in an old Victorian house.
“It is amazing how much the space has been transformed, right? I had Christina refit the entire house’s structure with steel pipes and beams before knocking down all the walls on this level and creating this open-concept space. However, Ms. Jun hates it; she never comes to Level 3, so if you ever need a quick getaway, come up to the office and she won’t follow you” Heather grinned and strode down the space between the cubicles, towards a room at the far end that had her name in big gold letters.
“Christina?” I piped up, unfamiliar with the name
“Oh yes, Christina, she is sort of like…a silent partner? Don’t worry, she doesn’t actually work here so it’s unlikely you’ll ever meet her. She is, however, the reason why we need to keep the budgets in order; a huge part of the start-up capital came from her, thus we need to keep the numbers in check so that she continues to reap the benefits of her investment” Heather explains as she stopped in front of her office, turning to me to explain who Christina was.
“Oh…an Angel investor then. Make sense, running an operation like this is very costly” I said as I processed the information about this silent partner.
Heather nodded and then turned. Instead of opening her own office door, pushed open the door right next to it.
“Moving on, this is the former Data Analyst's room. I hadn’t actually intended to hire a new one, split their work between myself on one other had been working, however now that you are here, you get to use it now, as well as shouldering the responsibilities attached to it. If you need to ask any questions, just walk over to my office next door” Heather explained, waving me in.
I walked in and gasped, it was huge. One entire wall was just a window that looked out onto the busy main street.
“Wait, how can I see the street? From the outside, I do not see this office at all,” I asked, surprised.
“Well on the outside is a perforated vinyl wrap that resembles the walls of the house. Late at night, it gets obvious if there is someone working here past office hours; however, during the day, it’s quite difficult to see through”, Heather explained.
My desk was a nice, sturdy oak desk with lots of drawers, and the computer I was to use was already set up, the Monitor was brand new and shiny silver, while the PC was tucked away securely under the table.
Heather then led me out of the office and showed me the pantry, and as other people started filing in, Heather brought me over to them to introduce me.
After formal introductions, I found out that Heather was COO, and there were several departments that Heather managed such as Accounting and Finance, HR, Marketing, Sales, Events Management, and the management of external partnerships such as the gym and the dance studio.
I was under the Accounting and Finance department, which was surprisingly small, only encompassing myself, Heather, and a quiet bespeckled man called Mr. Nakajima. He nodded and shook my hand after we were introduced and then gloomily trudged back to his desk, which felt like there was a dark cloud looming over it.
“Is Mr. Nakajima ok?” I asked Heather after she walked me back to my office.
“Oh, don’t worry; he is a skilled accountant; once he is done, not only is our record shining, but so is his countenance. We give him a big bonus every year, so we’ve managed to hold on to his talent since the start of the café” replied Heather with ease, knowing her staff like she knew the back of her hand.
As it was my first day, I didn’t have much to do, so Heather gave me the rest of the day off in order to properly delegate my workload after filing my paperwork into the system.
I popped by the cashier to have a quick chat with Amber, who eagerly grabbed a donut for me from their staff buffet table, and we chatted for a bit before I left for the day. After this morning’s chat, it seemed that Amber had warmed up to me a bit, which was kind of nice.
I nibbled on the donut while Amber rambled on about some of the customers that had annoyed her that day, and for a few moments, I completely forgot about my living situation and the debt I owed to Chris. I was simply, for a little while, just Sarah, an office lady working at the accounting department of a local café, and it felt really good, and normal.
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