The Man and His Assistant

(Okay)

Nathalie walked down the hall, her heels clicking every step. She reached Henry’s room. “Mr. Manchester?”

"Come in, Nathalie," Henry said, then continued talking to Jace, who was spending the day at the office.

Nathalie entered. “I have your-“ She noted Jace quickly. “If you’re busy, sir, I can go…”

"No, no. He's fine. What do you need?"

“The board of committees approved your request for a week off,” she replied, handing him a stack of papers with official markings on them.

(This good?)

"Wonderful. Jace and I can go on our holiday now," Henry smiled. Jace grinned.

Nathalie shifted, waiting to be dismissed.

"You can go now, Nathalie. Thank you for informing me of this."

She nodded and left, clutching her tablet to her chest. She sighed softly to herself as she sat down at her desk, then began to wok again furiously, getting as much work done for Mr. Manchester as she could.

Jace hopped up and stole Henry's computer to look something up. "Hey dad, look at this."

Nathalie typed away, her nails clicking and clacking on the keys tirelessly. Every now and then, she got a phone call. But it was mostly typing.

Even though Jace was showing him stuff, Henry found his mind wondering back to a certain someone.

Nathalie's fingers flew across the keyboard. She studied the screen and clicked around, making some brief edits.

Jace clicked his fingers in front of Henry's face. "Hey, Dad. Pay attention."

Nathalie sighed. Only 10 more pages to go. She could do this. Mr. Manchester wanted to be with his son, so she would do all of the heavy lifting for them.

Henry snapped to attention as Jace explained things that he wanted to do on their holiday. But his mind wandered…

A new email popped up. Nathalie clicked on it and read the message. She moaned and buried her head in her arms.

"Uh, Dad?" Jace's voice snapped Henry to attention. "We booked threes. On everything."

Nathalie raised her head and read the email again. Okay. She could get it done in time. If Mr. Manchester needed to have it done, she could do it.

"What?" Henry checked everything. "It seems that you are right. But it's too late to cancel the extra tickets now. We'll have to invite someone."

Nathalie took a deep breath and made several clicks on her computer. She typed several columns and arranged the rows perfectly. There. That’s fine.

"Oh, but Dad…" Jace complained. Henry just looked at him.
"Now, who should we bring?"

Nathalie hit submit and emailed the spreadsheet to Mr. Manchester quickly. "Now he has that…" she murmured to herself.

Jace racked his brain, as did Henry.

The email popped up on Henry’s screen while Nathalie was already busy with something else.

"Better check that," Henry said, taking his laptop from Jace.

Nathalie sighed, tapping her pen on the tabletop.

(what's the email bout)

(Just some spreadsheet for bills or whatever. The main thing is he sees her name, thinks of her, and wants to bring her along 😉)

Henry looked over what Nathalie had sent him. "I think I know who to invite."