Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
“Is that something I need to worry about?” she asked, looking at him uneasily.
“Probably not, but it’s never a bad idea to be too careful. Just keep it closed unless you’ve been notified beforehand that there is an official meeting,” Drake suggested.
A hum made her turn back to face the computer. A man who had to be former military filled her screen. “Turn on your camera, please, Aurora, so we can continue your orientation.”
“Of course, Brandon,” Aurora said, fumbling with the slider to allow the camera to function as she waved Drake away. What a pain! I’ll never use that.
“Thank you. Daphne set you up with all the general employee requirements. Now, you and I will get you caught up with the team. You have been selected to join my team for a very specific reason.”
“Yes?” she asked.
“During your time at the university, where did you intern and what was your main focus?”
Aurora named the company and added, “I worked with one of the teams dedicated to moving paper and other format records into searchable electronic ones.”
“Perfect. What formats do you have personal experience in handling?”
“Microfiche and microfilm,” she reported, feeling a little embarrassed by the lack of glamour in the two old-fashioned storage types. She’d started in paper, but her allergies to mold and mildew had caused too many problems.
“We do not have an expert in those two storage forms.”
“Wow! That works out well,” Aurora said, feeling relieved.
“It does.” Brandon hesitated and obviously abandoned that thought as he continued. “Usually, our team works together at the Boulder branch. I understand you will work from home.”
He seemed to have a problem with her being at a different location. The memory of the swooping, attacking black dragon kept her from volunteering to travel to work with the team. She also knew the mate bond between herself and Drake was too strong to allow her to leave his presence. Just going down the hall to the bathroom had felt icky. She couldn’t imagine what would happen if she got on a plane speeding away from him.
“I’m afraid working in Boulder would be impossible for me at this point. I give you my assurance you will find my work ethic and job skills are top-notch. I will give one hundred and ten percent of my efforts to this job.”
“It’s not my call, but I will monitor your performance. The first shipment of microfiche will arrive at your location tomorrow, they tell me. Do let me know if you don’t receive it. Your job is to convert those images into a computer format. You will find the file-naming sequence listed for you on a reference page in each box. Follow those instructions exactly.”
“Yes, sir.” She had the unpleasant impression Brandon mistrusted her experience and thought she had been given this job for another reason.
“To help you learn our filing system, you will complete a training exercise next. You will have an hour to consolidate images into files. Being precise is more important than speed, but the ability to handle the load of files we need to process is vital. At the end of one hour, the images will disappear from your computer. I will review your work and will return to discuss any improvements that need to be made when you start the process tomorrow.”
“Sounds good.” Under her desk, Aurora crossed her fingers. Please let me do well. Firefly appeared at the side of her laptop. The gold dragon looked confident in her abilities. Aurora looked up to see Drake walking away.
“In your office mail, you will find an email from me. Open that and begin.”
A touch to her stuffie’s belly helped Aurora push her nervousness away. To begin, she downloaded the direction sheet and sent it to her phone before opening the first file. Working steadily, Aurora took care to refer to the document on her phone as she named each file. She strove to follow the directions she had been given precisely. Thirteen files did not seem to fit in the neat descriptions he had given her. She placed those in a file to get more information about and kept going.
When her screen when blank, she sat back, blowing out her breath. Reaching up, Aurora rubbed her forehead, trying to ease the tension away. When that didn’t work, she exhaled a long breath as she grabbed Firefly and cradled him on her lap under the cover of the desk. That had been intense. Her muscles relaxed slowly as she squeezed Firefly.
Brandon reappeared in a few minutes and asked, “Aurora, you skipped several files. Why did you not address them? What did you do with those?”
“Each file didn’t fit the type of record the directions were geared to handle. Instead of wasting time with those, I put them in a separate folder…”
“To ignore?” Brandon cut in to guess.