The Tech Billionaire's Assistant

In the heart of the bustling city, a grand building stood towering above the surrounding skyscrapers. The steel frame and reflective panes formed a giant silver monument that passerby stopped to admire in awe. The employees who entered and exited the building were dressed in crisp, starched, professional attire, signaling that they belonged to the magnificent structure and the grand going-ons of the corporation it housed.

Except for one young woman. Her only thought as she darted through the building’s revolving doors was if the building had a bathroom.

“Excuse me, miss?”

The young woman stopped and turned towards the front desk, where a uniformed man stood with a raised eyebrow in her direction. He took in her red oversized, wrinkled hoodie, black leggings, and ragged converse. Her thick eye glasses were black with turquoise polka dots. Her dark, curly hair was in a simple form of woven cornrows running from the front of her head to the nape of her neck, the ebony black of her hair shimmering against her dark brown skin.

“Can I help you?” he asked, with a politeness that didn’t quite reach his expression or tone.

“Umm,” she said, pulling down her frumpled hoodie. “I was just…umm…I’m from IT.”

Something the twenty-seven year old had learned from years as a programmer, simply claiming to be from IT could get you anywhere. The desk attendant gave her a once-over but didn’t comment on her appearance. Good thing IT people were known for looking sloppy.

“Name?” the attendant asked.

“Octavia,” she said, “...Wilde.” She added. “Octavia Wilde.”

The attendant nodded brusquely and pointed to a corner where a small sitting area was set out.

“Please have a seat while you wait.” he instructed.

“Sure,” Octavia replied dismissively, “where’s the bathroom here?”

The attendant pointed in a direction and Octavia sped off.

“Crisis averted,” Octavia sighed, opening the door to a wide space. Like the rest of the building, the women’s bathroom was white and clean. Octavia barely glanced at her reflection in the wide mirror standing over a row of black granite sinks and countertops before she dashed into one of the stalls.

Just as she was about to leave, she heard the door open and the click-clack of heels as someone entered the bathroom and then a stall near her.

Octavia cursed silently. She had hoped to get in and out without having to interact with anyone. She hurriedly exited her stall and jammed her hands under one of the automatic faucets.

But Octavia stopped when she heard the sound of muffled tears coming from the occupied stall. It was soft but unmistakable.

Octavia paused and walked to the door of the stall.

She tapped softly on the door, “Hey…are you okay?”

The sniffling abruptly stopped. “I’m fine,” a voice said hurriedly.

“Are you sure?” Octavia said.

The lock clicked and the stall door swung open. Octavia stepped back in surprise as a young woman stepped forward. She couldn't have been much older than Octavia herself. She had an earnest, innocent look to her, with her wide eyes and short dark brown hair. She was wearing a prim button up light blue blouse and black pencil skirt with black pumps. But what struck Octavia was her splotchy, tear stained face.

The girl only glanced at Octavia before walking over to the mirrors where she dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Octavia asked, moving towards her, “ Should I get someone?”

The girl managed a weak smile as she glanced at Octavia in the mirror reflection. “No. Thank you. I’m fine. I just…I just…” her face slowly twisted into an expression of utter despair as more tears trickled down her cheeks. “...I just made the biggest mistake of my life! I’m ruined!” she crumbled into a mess of sobbing.

Octavia grabbed some tissues in the corner of the sink countertops and handed them to her.

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Octavia said, “Tell me what happened.”

After a minute, the girl’s tears subsided. She gratefully took the tissues from Octavia.

“My name is Octavia,” Octavia said.

The girl sniffed. “I’m…Lauren.”

“Nice to meet you, Lauren,” Octavia replied. She gave her an encouraging smile, “You want to talk about what happened?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Lauren said hurriedly.

“Talking about it might make you feel better. And I’m a pretty good listener.” Octavia prompted.

Lauren seemed dubious, but eventually gave a small sigh. “It’s over. It’s all over. Everything I’ve worked for. Gone. Just like that.”

“Sounds serious,” Octavia remarked.

Lauren’s eyes clouded in desperation, “It is. I finally got the job that would lead to everything. I finally got a chance to make something of myself. And it was going…well…okay. And then I”—she choked on a sob—“and then I blew it!”

“What happened?” Octavia asked.

“I wasn’t paying attention. I was so stressed out with all the other things I had to keep track of.” Lauren stared at Octavia through glazed eyes, “and…that’s when I did it,” Lauren said.

“Did what?”

Lauren’s head drooped. “I…I…I deleted his entire itinerary.”

It took a minute for Octavia to register the words. “You did…what?”

Lauren gave a weak shrug. “I deleted it. His entire itinerary for the whole month—gone. I was trying to add the presentation at the World Technology Summit next month. But I was also on the phone with the magazine editor trying to schedule an interview and photo-op. And I was supposed to delete the invitation to the charity event next week.” She threw up her hands. “One click and poof! All gone.”

While Lauren rambled, Octavia had been piecing together what she could.

“So you deleted your boss’ itinerary?” Octavia said, “That sucks. But I’m sure you could just make some calls and re-create it, right? Someone else must have access to it.”

Lauren was already shaking her head.

“He’s…he’s very private. Only his secretary and himself have access to his schedule. She told me—Adelaide, his secretary—she told me to update the itinerary while she went with him to a business meeting. She’d said they’d be back by about three o’clock in the afternoon. I was supposed to finish up a bunch of things and have the new report ready by then. And then I did that.”

Octavia reasoned, “It doesn’t sound so bad. Maybe if you explain it to him and this Adelaide person, maybe they’ll understand. They might be annoyed by that, but, come on, it’s an honest mistake.”

Lauren’s eyes, stricken with a sudden fear, shot to Octavia’s face.

“He doesn’t tolerate mistakes. Honest or otherwise. I’ve seen him fire people for much less.” She shook her head solemnly, tears again welling up in her eyes. “Once he finds out about this—I’m done for. I’ll never be able to work anywhere else ever again. People who get fired by him leave in disgrace and live in disgrace for the rest of their lives.”

While Octavia felt that kind of drama should be reserved for TV, she withheld that opinion from Lauren. Instead she said, “Did you talk to anyone in the IT department? Maybe they could retrieve it.”

Again, Lauren shook her head.

“I tried that. Once something gets deleted off his personal system, it’s gone forever. That’s how he does things. When it comes to his information, only a few people have access to it, and it’s guarded by the strongest security. Even his itinerary.”

Lauren sighed and picked up her phone. She glanced at the screen, the numbers reading 2:27 p.m.

“It’s no use. When he gets back, they’ll find out, and I’ll be fired.” She bit her lip nervously. “I really needed this job. I really wanted to be good at it too. I worked so hard. Now it’s all over.”

“Can you get me access to the computer you used?” Octavia asked.

Lauren was silent for a moment in thought. She then replied, “Yes, I think so. I could get you a visitor’s pass, I guess. And get you up to the office. But…why?”

“I think we can still fix this. Let’s go,” Octavia said, gesturing for Lauren to show her the way.

Octavia followed Lauren out of the bathroom. She got a temporary pass at the front desk before Lauren led her to an elevator which they took to the top floor.

The elevator opened up to a floor ablaze with white fluorescent light, formations of gray cubicles on one side and empty conference rooms on the other. A few people walked by hurriedly or sat at desks staring intensely at multiple screens. But thankfully, they all seemed too busy to notice Octavia.

Lauren led Octavia to a clean, spacious office with a single desk and chair against one wall.

Octavia sat down at the computer monitor on the desk after Lauren logged in and pulled open the cursed itinerary.

Octavia quickly scanned the program.

“See?” Lauren said nervously, “It’s all gone.”

“Looks like it,” Octavia agreed, clicking through a few of the tabs. “Let’s see what we can do here.”

The only sounds to be heard for the next few minutes were Octavia’s fingers on the keyboard and mouse.

Lauren stood behind her, arms crossed around her middle, biting the nails off one hand as Octavia worked.

Octavia’s eyes narrowed in determination as she stared at the screen, clicking through different prompts at times and stopping to enter a command on the keyboard.

Seconds ticked by. Minutes. The silver clock on the wall opposite where they were displayed the shift in time with its blinking numbers.

“Done!” Octavia said suddenly.

Lauren’s head snapped up. She stared eagerly at the screen.

“That’s it! You did it!” Lauren exclaimed.

Octavia looked proud of herself. “Yup. You’re right about him using the best stuff. Had to jump through flaming hoops to find a cached version of the itinerary. But here it is.” She stood.

Lauren looked ready to cry again, only this time tears of joy. “I…I don’t know what to say. I think you just saved my life!”

Octavia shrugged. “It was nothing.”

Lauren said, “I have to pay you back…somehow. I don’t know what but…I’ll do something. I have to!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Octavia waved her off as she slung her book bag on her shoulder.

“Wait!” Lauren called out before Octavia left, “I don’t know your name, or how to find you or anything!”

“Octavia Wilde,” Octavia said, “and honestly, that was nothing. Don’t worry about it. Don’t you have some report to finish before 3 or something?”

Laura gasped and looked at the clock before dashing back to the computer.

Octavia found her way to the elevators, took one back to the ground floor, and started toward the exit.

Her phone buzzed so she pulled it out of the pocket. She scanned the message on her screen as she went through the doors of the entrance and started down the steps.

With her fingers flying across her phone’s touch screen, she didn’t notice the figure starting up the stairs of the building. She mindlessly took what was supposed to be the last step off the granite stairs to the sidewalk. Then there was the collision.

“Oof!” Octavia exclaimed, her phone tumbling out of her hand.

With the careless speed at which she was descending the steps, she ended up ramming into a man.

Their collision hardly budged him, but Octavia’s body swung past him and she toppled onto the sidewalk in an unladylike pile. As she lay lying on the ground, it took a few seconds for Octavia to realize what had just happened. But the voice that spoke next yanked her out of confusion.

“Can’t be bothered to watch where you’re going?”