[6 Give It A Chance]

All eyes were on me in this quite big meeting room as Liam introduced me as his new personal assistant. Some looked amused, some looked like they didn’t care, and some looked irritated. I could sense rivalry coming from a group of three people standing on the corner. That was something I hated the most.

“She will start working tomorrow with us. Please help her get used to things around and don’t intentionally trouble her,” Liam sounded more like giving a warning instead of just asking. “You may return to your posts.”

While people were leaving, Joel stayed with Max. They came approaching me and Liam who called them.

“Boys, I need your help to teach Bianca about everything in the studio. She has to know how things are so that whenever I’m absent, she can always take my place,” he gave his orders.

“I’m actually having a break now, so I can teach her,” Max replied.

Liam nodded. “That sounds good.” He then turned to me and was about to touch my back but I dodged again.

“Um, I’m-- I’m so sorry,” I quickly apologized. Gosh, I’m doomed. “I didn’t--”

“Liam, I think I’ll take her to lunch first because I made her come with me before she could grab a meal,” Joel cut in, covering my shortcoming. “She’s probably starving now.”

There was no word said by Liam for a while. He was seemingly studying me with his sharp eyes. “I see. That’s why her hand was cold and just now she wobbled,” he made a conclusion.

“I knew it. A graceful-looking woman like you are wouldn’t act arrogantly,” Max added.

What is happening? They didn’t think negatively about me? I registered a smile hesitatingly on my face.

“Starting tomorrow, you can’t come with your stomach empty, Bianca. I want you to really focus on your work,” asked Liam. “Now you can go with Joel.”

“Thank you, Mr. Camp--uh, Liam,” I corrected myself quickly.

Liam nodded and then left the room before the rest of us did. We went separate ways at the exit.

While walking past the open room where a lot of people were sitting at their desks, I saw the same group of three women in the meeting room stared at me sharply. They were talking to each other and I was sure enough that it was about me. Back in New York, I had experienced such a thing at the workplace and I successfully won their heart. This time, I would do the same thing to them.

Across the street was a small restaurant and that’s where Joel took me to. According to him, this was the most favorite place for workers around this neighborhood to have lunch. As we entered the door, an old lady greeted loudly from behind the cashier counter. She gestured to a girl next to her and she came to us right away.

“A table for two?” she asked. After Joel confirmed with a nod, she led us to a table near the window. “Would you like to see the menu first? Or can I take your order now?”

Joel looked at me and said, “I know what to order. Do you want to see what you’d like to order?”

I didn’t think long. I basically could eat anything. “I’ll just have the same one you order,” I said.

“No allergies or special diet?” he asked again.

“Only peanuts.” That’s the only thing I couldn’t stand eating. I would get pimples here and there if I accidentally swallowed even the tiny one.

“Okay. Then 2 Flame-Broiled Chicken please,” Joel mentioned his order.

The girl took down our order on her small note. “They come along with a glass of lemonade for each. Do you want to order other drinks instead?” as Joel and I shook our heads, she confirmed our orders once more and then left to get our order.

“Hey, thanks for helping me out back there,” I initiated a conversation. “I really appreciate it.”

“Nah. It wasn’t a big deal. After all, I was just saying the truth. Right?”

I nodded.

“So, how did you like this company at a glance? Oh, thanks,” he responded to the same waitress who came and put two glasses of lemonade on the table. He pushed one glass closer to me.

I shrugged. “It’s too quick to say anything about it, but it was just surprising that Liam accepted me as his personal assistant very fast,” I expressed my thoughts.

“It is never a surprise that he can make quick decisions. He knows what he does,” Joel informed me one thing about my future boss, which I considered beneficial. “What surprised me is that he let you address him by ‘Liam’ instead of ‘Mr. Campbell’. So far, it’s only me and Max who can address him so at work.”

I frowned. “Oh, wow,” I briefly commented.

“Excuse me,” the smell of the broiled chicken was tempting as the waitress put our orders on the table. “Enjoy your meals.”

“Thank you,” Joel and I echoed each other and the girl left.

My stomach couldn’t wait to be stuffed with this chicken. I could feel it’s thundering inside now. I was thankful that it didn’t make any audible noise. It would be embarrassing otherwise. After saying grace, I took both the knife and fork to start eating.

“Bianca, just so you know, you have to be strong on your first days. I can already see you’ve got some rivals back there,” he successfully stopped me from chewing. “Those ladies are known for being troublemakers.”

“So why do they still work there?” I raised my fork as I asked.

“Because they make the most money for the company,” his answers somehow sounded unbelievable. “You’ll deal with them very often because they are the faces of the company.”

“Um, I’m lost.”

“Let’s say, they are the ones who get the deals with producers and investors,” he explained while stuffing his mouth with a big slice of chicken. His mouth was definitely huge.

“Hold on. Shouldn’t it be Liam’s responsibility?”

Joel took some time to finish chewing until he opened his mouth again. “Yes, but those girls are the keys,” he continued. “He always takes one of them in turn when he meets investors or producers.”

“Hm, so why does he need me if he has them? They seem to be like his personal assistants,” I was completely baffled.

“Because they are only the faces of the company, not Liam’s personal assistant. They don’t arrange his schedules but work for something else,” he stressed the last two words.

“Like what?”

Joel scratched his left temple. “Oh wow. You really don’t get it?”

I shook my head.

“Hostess,” now he went bluntly and I somehow regretted hearing it.

I suddenly lost my appetite. Thank God there was only a little leftover. I drank my lemonade to the last drop. “He’s not going to do the same thing to me, right?” This fear suddenly came rushing in.

He didn’t respond right away. There was confusion displayed on his face.

Dang it. “I see. That’s the reason why he easily accepted me as his personal assistant, I guess?” I clenched my fists. “If so, I’d better come to him now and turn down this job. I can’t take it.” I got up from the chair and stepped out of the table.

Joel quickly grabbed me by the hand. “I can’t say ‘no’ because I truly have no idea what he’s going to do about you, Bianca,” he spoke frankly. “But if he ever uses you for something else other than being a personal assistant, I’ll be the first to take you out of this company and be responsible for you. You can keep my word.”

I looked down at his hand and he let go of my hand. “I hope I can trust you,” I decided to give it a chance. After all, I really needed a job to survive.

“Let’s go back to work,” he said and I agreed.

We went to the cashier and the old lady smiled seeing us coming. “It’s twenty-four bucks,” she said.

I was about to take out some money from my purse but Joel said, “It’s on me.”

“Thanks,” I replied.

We headed back to the office and went straight to the studio which was on the second floor. There Max was talking with somebody whom I might have seen earlier and when he saw us coming, they stopped talking.

“Hi there,” Max smiled at me. “You’re ready to learn something?”

I wasn’t eager as before, but I managed to put a smile and nodded. “I’m a fast learner so don’t stop explaining unless I ask you to. Besides, I’m pretty familiar with recording equipment,” I went straight to the point.

“You are? I didn’t think Liam mentioned your experience in a recording company when I talked with him a while ago,” Max commented, his eyes wandered for a while and went back to me.

I shook my head. “No, this is my first experience working in a recording company. I just have some home recording equipment back when I was in New York,” I briefly explained.

“Really? Do you make music too?” Max showed his interest in hearing more as well as Joel and the other guy.

“Sort of. But it’s just something simple. I never have enough time to focus on it, though. First things first,” I didn’t know how, but this conversation was fairly interesting to me.

“So you have at least recorded one piece of music?” Joel kept this conversation going.

“Hm,” I nodded.

“Can we listen to it?” he asked again and the others agreed.

I shrugged. “Shouldn’t we focus on work first? You know.”

Max got up from his chair and said, “I’m in charge here. I can choose what can or cannot be done. Now I want to use ten minutes to listen to your music before we continue working. Now please, take a seat,” then pulled it backward, giving some space for me to step in.

I did as he said.

“Now, you have it on your phone, I believe?” he made a guess and I nodded to it. “Let me plug the speaker cable into your phone so that we all can listen to it clearly.”

I let him do as he said, then opened my music gallery. I chose one of my raw music to be played and the melodies of the electric piano filled the studio right away.

The three of them listened to my music in silence. I was pretty nervous thinking if they liked it or not. Nevertheless, their expressions described it all; eyes were closed, fingers were moving and tapping against anything near them.

“That was amazing,” Joel was the first to compliment. “This might be a raw recording, but you got the soul, Bianca.”

Max nodded repeatedly. “The thing is because you know how to mix your vocals and music so that with simple equipment, you can produce such nice music,” he added.

I smiled, feeling so amused and relieved at the same time. “Thanks, guys,” I said.

“If you allowed me, I’d like to help you make a better arrangement,” from Max’s eyes, eagerness was obviously seen. He seemingly wished that I would accept his request.

“Maybe later?” I grinned in hesitation. “It’s almost ten minutes now. You guys have to teach me.”

Max sniggered and elbowed Joel. “Your girl is definitely a hard worker,” he commented. It was unclear whether it was a compliment or something else.

I cleared my throat. “I’m nobody’s girl,” I responded.

“Oops. I’m sorry. Bianca. That was a jest. Please don’t take it personally,” Max said. “Well, now let’s get you to understand more about how things are here. Oh by the way, Harris, you could leave.” He sounded like he just realized that this guy had been there with us all this time.

After Harris left, both Joel and Max sat on my left and right side. They explained to me about the huge mixers, how music was recorded and went through some mixing and mastering stages, the workflows and how they mostly dealt with the artists. I really enjoyed it. Probably this would be the place where I’d gladly go to every day at work.

After the learning session, I stayed in the studio until two in the afternoon. Joel insisted on taking me home but he had to finish something first. That’s why I waited while talking with Max a bit more about his plans for arranging my music. We agreed to work on it whenever we were free or didn’t have any tight schedule. For this reason, I could set aside the negative thoughts I got from the last conversation Joel and I had back at the restaurant.