Isabelle and mr. Bête

Isabelle comes to the castle

Chapter 02

'He can't do this!' said Avery, head sales at Anderson Trading, while pacing back and forth through the main office. 'How could you agree to this!?'

'Because if I didn't you and everyone else would be standing in line at the unemployment office right now.' said Isabelle, dividing her duties for Liu and Jack.

Avery didn't like it, but she was right. And he didn't want to give up on his newly bought Mercedes coupé. 'Listen,' he said, putting his hand on top of hers. 'If anything happens, I'm here for you.'

She slipped away her hand and filed the last of her paperwork. 'Nothing will happen. And I can deal with stress by myself.'

'I know. I'm just saying, if you need to blow off steam, or go wild, I'm game.'

She rolled her eyes as she closed the cabinet, wondering when he will ever give up on her. 'I'll be fine. I'm off to see my father now and then I'll be gone to Bête.' she said and left for her father's office.

'Isabelle, my dear..' her father said and hugged her. 'I'm really sorry about this.'

She hugged her father back. 'It's not your fault. And I'm tough, he won't get me down.'

He pulled back and grabbed her shoulders, looking with pride at his youngest daughter. 'I'll bet you'll put him in his place when he goes too far.'

'Count on it.' she said with a wicked smile.

She said quick goodbyes to the rest of the employees, then drove off to her new temporary workplace. Very temporary, she hoped.

When the elevator doors opened at the top floor of the Bête building she looked at the glass doors in front of her. "Am I really doing this?" she thought, then knew she had no choice. She took a deep breath, let it out slowly to gather her confidence and walked through the doors toward the front desk.

'Good morning, Isabelle.'

Colette's pleasant voice felt good. 'Good morning, Colette.'

Colette handed a thick envelope to Isabelle. 'Here are your employee badges, keys and instructions on the alarm.''Alarm? I thought there was building security?'

Colette shook her head. 'You're able to come here because this floor is the only one freely accessible. All others can only be entered from the elevator with a badge and a code.'

Isabelle nodded. 'I guess I'll go settle into my position of new slave then.'

'Good luck.' Colette said as Isabelle walked into the office.

She found Samantha waiting at her desk with a mug of coffee. 'I though you might want something to start the day with.'

Isabelle smiled at the kind gesture. 'Thanks, I feel like I'm starting at my first job now, so I can definitely use it.'

'Mr Bête told me you could settle in until nine thirty, then he'd expect you in his office.'

Isabelle glanced at him behind his desk, his attention on several reports in front of him. 'The quiet before the storm.'

Samantha suppressed a giggle. 'Break a leg.' she said with a wink and left.

'Yeah, maybe his.' Isabelle said to herself, opening the envelope and going through the contents.

At exactly nine thirty, Isabelle knocked on Jean-Marie's door and entered. 'Good morning, Mr. Bête.' she said with a friendly tone since she decided she wouldn't let her feelings get in the way of business.