Lucky Penny [h.s.]

2.

Penelope.

My knuckles came down on the glass door of Carlo's office, and he grumbled something under his breath which I took as a sign to enter.

He hardly ever closed his door but was in an exceptionally horrible mood today, so I was careful as I walked in and closed it behind me again gently, "Hi."

My boss, Carlo, was the CEO of the Vivienne Westwood company in London. While Vivienne herself was in the States most of the time, he kind of took over locally and managed the company here. All day, he had been in a terrible mood since fashion week was coming up next week.

Fashion week was basically the busiest week of the year for us, and it was an event that Carlo had been working towards for months and months and months. As did we. A shipment of cardigans had gone wrong this morning and I had been working all day on fixing it, meaning that now I still had to catch up on some administrative work.

"Yeah?" He breathed tiredly as he looked up from his computer.

"Hi, is it okay if I take off? I'm going to continue working at home, but there's no reason for me to still be at the office tonight."

"What time is it?" He frowned before glancing at his computer, "It's only four?"

"I know, but I have to pick up my roommate who finished work now. His car is in the garage. And like I said, I'll continue working but just from my desk at home." I explained as I stayed by the door and Carlo let out a sigh, "Fine. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright. Call me if you need anything."

He mumbled something once more and I took it as my cue to leave. I shot Felix a look, who shot one back. We had both been walking on eggshells today since our boss was snapping and barking at everything that moved, and he had been taking his frustrations out on us.

"Lucky you." Felix complained as he watched me pack up my things. I breathily chuckled and shook my head, "I'm nowhere near finished working for the day, so don't worry. I'm with you in spirit."

"He's only got me to yell at now." My colleague pouted. Felix was Carlo's second assistant that he hired a couple months back. The work had become too much for me, simply because Carlo constantly expected more and more and my job was much wider than purely assistant-work or administration. I had picked up little jobs around the office for months now, so he finally decided to relieve me of some of my workload and hire a second assistant.

Felix was a forty year-old bald man with very colourful glasses and an eccentric sense of style. He usually wore bright colourful suits that he somehow pulled of perfectly. There was no one in the world who could look good in what he wore, besides him.

Another thing about Felix, was that he was a very flamboyant gay man. I had tremendous fun with him to be honest. When Carlo told me my colleague would be a forty year-old man, I definitely had my doubts. After all, I was supposed to work with him for over eight hours every day, so I was a little nervous of sharing the office space with someone I hopefully got along with.

Felix and I were a match made in heaven when it came to our friendship. We bonded over fashion of course, and I was pleasantly surprised when he invited me to his house after one week of working here and he made me a delicious paella and we sipped beer all evening while watching old seasons of America's Next Top Model.

I shot him a wave as my heels took me out of the office and into the elevator, down to the parking garage. I was eternally thankful for the underground parking space that the company rented, since the heatwave outside couldn't reach my car – which had no air conditioning.