Charlie was sweating under her work attire. It was the first time she ever wore pants and suits and went into a tall building to work. Her sense of smell heightened, the pungent smell of the carpet and the air conditioning somehow stronger than the few times she went there before.
She noticed the buzzing noise of people hurrying to get to their offices, the sound of their steps entering the elevator, and finally the silence inside as they waited for the ‘ding’ to get off on their floors.
She braced herself as she arrived on the 24th floor, took a deep breath and straightened up her shoulders. Everyone on that floor seemed to recognize her, they greeted, wide smiles spread across their faces. She did a good job in appearing confidence though she was trembling inside. She has no clue of what’s waiting for her on the other side of the door. Her heart raced as she knocked.
“Come in!” Maxine’s voice was stern. It was all work from the way she sat behind her desk. Her glasses were slightly lowered as she measured her from top to bottom. “Oh good, you’re early,” she made a hand gesture for Charlie to close the door behind her, and come in to sit across from her.
As soon as she sat on the chair, it was business and no play. Before starting each day, Maxine went through a list of things she had to do that day. By the end of that day, every single point in her agenda would be ticked off, or the day just doesn’t end. She did a three person’s job. She said that women should do twice if not three times as much as men to be in the same position. That’s what she had been doing since she started in the industry.
Following Maxine Roberts footsteps on the first day of the internship was overwhelming. She went into meeting after meeting across the city, took notes of everything to learn about how the business worked. Maxine never left a room without achieving a step forward on everything she worked on. She checked on every progress, determined the next goal, she read every report and corrected every mistake.
It was almost 9 PM when Charlie was in the car with Maxine to go home. Tommy called to check in how her first day went, he told her he was coming home late again, his shooting won’t wrap up until 12. Maxine looked out the window, pretending she wasn’t listening in.
“My nephew is coming next week,” Maxine said after Charlie hung up the phone. “He was in Spain for the past couple of years, he started this project of his called ‘The Night Film’ … a new kind of cinematic experience … it’s independent filmmaking, very creative,” she smiled proudly. “He’s going to start the project here too, it was pretty successful in Spain … you could learn a lot from him and his project.”
Charlie nodded, she was instantly interested, “What’s the project about?”
“You can ask him directly when the time comes … all I know, it’s a real-life documentary of the nightlife… they edit it into a movie in sequence, Goldstone is a perfect place for it, I think, he wanted the experience first and went to Barcelona to do it … I’ll introduce you to him if you’re interested.”
She was very interested. Her life in Goldstone was getting more interesting by the day. She was almost sure she had made the right decision to follow her heart.