"No." Adam shook his head, even though she couldn't see him. "Log onto the portal and do your trainings." With a look at his schedule, he remembered his employee meetings. "I have appointments in the next few minutes. Don't call." Adam pulled out the device. He didn't need her right now and he needed to get ready for his meeting with Emma and Paige. Then it was Dan, then Menken and his author Ashman. He still needed to finish reviewing the Villenueve contract.
 
Tsuki wished the device was in her hand like a proper phone so she could stare at it in bewilderment. Instead, she just shook her head. She turned her mind to work and tried to ignore her new surroundings. Nevermind that she was in a completely unfamiliar place. There was work to be done, and that was of utmost importance. So she did her best to focus and not pay any attention to the soft murmurings of the people around her as she tried to work.
 
Emma and Paige walked to Adam's office, paperwork, and contracts in hand.

"I can't believe we have to do this now," Emma grumbled as her heels clacked on the tiled floor in the office. The halls and Adam's office were covered with carpet. Emma and Paige's section was in the back part of the office. "We should be given more time to write and perfect the contract."

"And convince George to side with you," Paige added. Emma huffed and turned up her nose slightly. Paige chuckled a bit, then she saw the newly filled cubicle at the other end of the office across Adam's office. "Agatha's cubicle is filled."

"Hopefully with someone less of a flirt," Emma muttered.

"And better perfume." Paige stood on her tiptoes a bit and saw the head of the short young woman from yesterday. "She got the job!" Emma joined and leaned over.

"That poor girl." Emma sighed. Paige rolled her eyes.

"Let's go congratulate her." Paige dragged Emma to the girl's cubicle. "Hi! You got the job!"
 
Tsuki dragged her nose up from the paper she was reading and smiled up at the pair. They were familiar... Oh! Right, she'd ridden on the elevator with them. "Hello! Yes, I got the job. I'm just settling in and reading all of... this," she waved a hand at the paperwork, "and reading all of this," she waved a hand at her computer. "There's a lot to this!"
 
"It's quite a bit of information to process." Paige chuckled. "So if you need any help with it all,"

"Or need a break from him," Emma muttered as she crossed her arms. Paige elbowed her. Emma stepped away and avoided the blow, but she stayed quiet.

"Don't be afraid to ask us even though we work in the back." Paige held out her hand. "I'm Paige Johnson."

"Emma Henderson." Emma waved.




Adam tapped his fingers on his desk as he glared at the door. Emma and Paige should have been in his office by now. If they were late, he might not have time to get a snack or work on the contract. He would give them another minute.
 
"Thank you for the offer! I'll probably take you up on it. I'm Tsuki Belle," Tsuki smiled, introducing herself. "You can just call me Tsuki, though, it's fine." She shuffled a few papers on her desk awkwardly, not sure what to say. She wasn't used to office gossip or really interacting a lot with her coworkers beyond the civil chit-chat.
 
"Well, it's nice to meet you Tsuki." Paige smiled and dropped her hand. "When you have lunch, please come get us. We'll give you a layout of everything."

"And we usually eat with Lucas and Fifi," Emma added excitedly. "If anyone can give you tips on how to deal with the beast in there," Emma jutted her thumb to the office door across the hall. "It's Lucas."




Adam huffed and his leg began bouncing. Where were they? He grabbed the Bluetooth device.

"Tsuki!" Adam growled, not irritated with her, just irritated in general.
 
"Thank you! I will take you uuuuhhh-ah!" Tsuki winced, touching the earpeice. "Yes, sir?" She asked, trying to sound professional despite the ringing in her ears. Why bother with this ear thing? He could leave the door open in his office and just yell.
 
"Get Paige and Emma into my office, now." The growl vibrated his throat and chest. His teeth poked into his lip, piercing it a bit. A little blood dripped from it and the pain made him realize how not normal he was being. He took a deep breath and wiped his lip.

"And make sure they have the notes from their meeting yesterday." With his order addressed, he pulled the device out of his ear and waited. Well, he continued rubbing his barely bleeding lip and fumed.

His control should be better, especially after the break yesterday. What was wrong with him?
 
Tsuki sighed and took the piece out of her ear long enough to rub the injured appendage. This was going to take some getting used to. Carefully, remembering her chairs peculiarities, she pushed the chair back and stood. "Paige, Emma, Mr. González wants to see you in his office right away. He seems to be in a bit of a hurry," she explained a little brusquely. "Also, he asked that you be certain you have the notes from your meeting yesterday. At least I think that is what he said. His voice was a bit... loud."

She hoped they would not take offense at the shift in tone. Friends at work were all good and well until you had to boss them around on behalf of your boss, and she had no idea how exactly one was supposed to handle that sort of situation. She never really had friends at work before. Everyone came and went too quickly, and she was always the senior girl making sure the others behaved properly. That didn't exactly earn friends even when you were trying to be friendly.
 
"Oh!" Paige jumped a bit and Emma took on a glare. "Of course, let's go, Emma." Paige grabbed Emma's arm to pull her away. Emma stayed.

"I think you'll do just fine." Emma sneered.

"Come on, Emma." Paige rolled her eyes and pulled Emma again. This time they walked away. "At least she's actually doing her job," Paige whispered.


"But she could at least be a bit more friendly." Emma huffed.

"It's her first day, give her some slack." Paige patted Emma's arm lightly. "She might surprise us."



Paige and Emma finally entered Adam's office.


"You're late," Adam growled. A tangy scent struck the air as Paige and Emma froze.

"We, um, we were just meeting you're new assistant." Paige stuttered. Emma nodded and closed the door. Adam let out another breath and tried to relax.

"I see." Adam knew it would be good for Tsuki to know people in the office. Paige had been here the second longest (Glen the longest) and while Emma was arrogant, she was efficient and knew the business. "Well, keep building rapport with her. She's a willing worker."


"Of course, sir!" Paige smiled. Emma huffed, but nodded.

"Good. Now let me see your notes from yesterday."
 
Tsuki sat back down with a sigh. It sounded like she'd offended at least one of them. She hated the thought, but in this job, she'd rather be a terrible friend and a good worker than a great friend and a lacking worker. She needed this job. She could take some harshness and unhappiness at work if it meant she was taking her paycheck to the debt collectors.

Speaking of work... she forced herself to focus back on the computer. Just a little more. She was going through these with surprising speed. She had expected to be stuck on this for a couple of days, but so far she was understanding things fast and getting everything right. At least she thought she was getting it right. Her new waking nightmare was that she actually didn't understand a single thing.

FInally, she finished her last assignment and stretched with a groan. And almost fell out of her wobbly chair. She caught herself and stood, checking the time. Just a few minutes until lunch. So. What now?
 
So far, his day had been much more productive than yesterday. Emma and Paige had a new contract and were trying to get in touch with Dabija. Her style fit the story and he hoped she was available. Dan finally got a sample of the next draft and sent the galleys to editors and began editing it himself. And Lionel was getting the book orders from the digital book he published and ensured that the DRM was still in effect. Both looked very promising. All in all, his development editors were cooperating. Adam ran his hand through his hair.

Now he only had to work on Villeneuve's contract and media rate. Adam groaned as the words swam in front of him. The rate and the numbers stayed the same, but the words describing it, none of it was sounding as persuasive as he needed it to be. Adam threw the papers to the side with a yell. The papers flew around wildly as he panted. He felt the growl in his chest. Rubbing his face roughly, told him that his facial grew too. With a few deep breaths through his nose, he decided to check on Tsuki. He was still being productive towards the deal by focusing on her instead of the stupid proposal, or the infuriating contract.

Throwing any loose paper in his way to the side, he logged onto the employee portal. Tsuki was online and had gone through most of the trainings. From the basic Sexual Harassment training to the basics of publishing 101. Adam hummed as he got the Bluetooth device.


"Come to my office."
 
Tuki was nearing the end of what she was pretty sure (hoped) was her last training pamphlet. She had no doubt she'd have to refer back to some of this a lot, but she felt she had a pretty good grasp of the broad spectrum of things. Except for this last bit. This last bit looked more like a vocabulary glossary for a test or something.

"Running head, second serial rights, self-publishing, slush- slush pile?" she paused, staring at the word. "Slush pile? I thought that was what I tried to avoid in the winter. And I thought it was one word, not two."

Then Mr. González's voice chirped through her earpiece. "Come to my office."

Tsuki made certain the microphone was off before muttering, "Come to my office, please. Is one extra word so hard?" But she hopped off her chair and straightened her skirt before finding her shoes. With how her feet dangled, her shoes had kept falling off, so she'd finally just kicked them off and let it go.

She marched across the hallway and tapped smartly on the door before opening it. "You wanted to see me, Mr. González?"
 
“Yeah,” Adam muttered as he sifted through her information. His nose wrinkled at the rise of her subtle scent. He sniffed again. Her scent was, nice and soft. Not overpowering or with a base of alcohol, but with something that also made the scent clear. He almost sniffed again, but he had to focus. Gritting his teeth, he focused back on Tsuki’s results.

According to her training results, she would make a great publisher reader, an honest eye. Maybe he could have her sift through the short stories for the Rose Hill series, maybe.


“I see that,” Adam couldn’t continue when he looked up. “You’re not wearing shoes.” That was why her scent rose. And maybe he needed a break or something because she smelled really nice. Like bury his face in a pillow and sleep in, nice. He hadn’t done that in a long time. He rubbed his face, trying to stop himself from taking another whiff of her scent. He could feel his facial hair become a bit fluffier. He put his head in his hands.

“Go put your shoes on.” Adam’s whine was muffled a bit through his hands. He hated the whine that escaped him, but it hurt to hold himself back. The part of him that was not normal really wanted to find and rest in that clear, nice, soft scent. The part no one should see, especially a new employee.
 
Tsuki looked down in shock. "Oh, sorry, I forgot." She slipped out briefly and slid her shoes on before returning to Mr. González's office, frowning in concern. He was literally whining. Were her feet that smelly and no one told her? Or was it just an excuse to get her out for a minute?

She plucked up her courage and asked, "Mr. González, are you feeling alright? You seem a bit... distressed," she said cautiously.
 
As soon as she left, Adam uncovered his face. It had felt hairier and his canines poked into his lip. With a few deep breaths, he composed himself, but the damage was already done and his lip was bleeding. He could already hear his father's reprimands.

A González knows how to control himself. El burro sabe mas que tu!

Adam wiped his lip roughly, trying to wipe the words from his mind. The patter of Tsuki's shoes coming closer had him relax a bit. Her scent was muted when she came in.

"Mr. González, are you feeling alright? You seem a bit... distressed," Adam blinked at her. He was distressed, but none of his employees asked that anymore. That's just how he was.

"I'm fine." Adam bit out. He looked away from her honest eyes. "Just fine." The second time saying it didn't help convince him. This was why he focused on work. If he could work, he was fine.


"I want to go over the trainings with you. I see that you are almost through all of them. Were they too easy for you?"
 
He certainly didn't look fine. It looked like he'd bitten his lip until it had bled, and most people who were "fine" did not do things like that. Still, she knew better than to push. He didn't want to talk to her, and why would he? He had no idea if she was even good employee material yet.

The training... his question sounded like a trick. Should she say it was difficult? Or just fine? How did he want her to take it? She had no idea, and lying probably wouldn't get her anywhere, so she went with the good-old fashion truth.

"I am used to reading things like that," she said carefully. "It was fairly simple to follow, but I will have to refer back to a few things until they become second nature. Like the vocabulary and things like that. What is it you would like to go over?"
 
The lingo was always tricky with the newcomers to the business, Adam thought as he hummed. He knew that for someone inexperienced, it would be doubly hard. "We'll run over a few things. Get them wrong, redo the trainings." Adam rubbed his chin. There were only a few questions he believed were mandatory for all his assistants to know. Three exactly. The lingo was unimportant. He kept glancing between the computer and Tsuki because every time he looked at her, it seemed as if her scent rose. He began to bite his lip again, his leg bouncing. He tried to focus on just her, not her scent, and ticked off his fingers as he spoke.

"Whattypeofpublishingcompanyarewe? Whatisthedifferencebetweenapublisherandaneditor? And, whatistheBCdefinitionofpublication?"
 
Tsuki blinked at the sudden rush of words. What had he just said? How was she supposed to answer if she couldn't understand the question? She took a deep breath and tried to answer the three questions in order.

"You - we - are a hybrid publishing company
"The main difference between an editor and a publisher is that publishers are the head of the company who decide if a manuscript is worth publishing as well as dealing with other financial aspects of the company. "An editor is respoonsible for checking the manuscript for errors.
"The definition of publication is, 'distribution of copies to the general public with the consent of the author.'

Tsuki paused and took a breath. She'd taken her time telling him the answers to his machine gun questions, but that was still a lot to say!
 
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