The Offices of Hale & Hale - Round 1 - Stiles
- by @chubby-derek-and-friends
Stiles took a deep breath and let it all out before as he stood in front of the glass doors for the Hale & Hale offices. He did his best to calm and center himself, giving himself a quick once-over in the doors’ reflection. At 23, Stiles was interviewing for his dream job as “Happiness Producer” for Hale & Hale, a position he felt he was born to have, and at a company he really wanted to be a part of. His gray suit wasn’t tailored but it was still cut well enough to show off his trim waist and broad shoulders. Stiles knew for a fact his ass looked great in the pants he was wearing, and his hair was actually behaving for once instead of sticking up like a porcupine. If ever there was a day when Stiles needed everything to go right, this was that day. Steeling himself, Stiles pulled open the front doors and confidently strode across the marble-tiled lobby to the front desk. His messenger bag swung heavily against his thigh. A young man with dark hair and a crooked jaw sat smiling up at him from behind the desk, while a smartly-dressed blond man with razor sharp cheekbones stood to the side of the desk. The blond seemed to tower over Stiles and was smirking at him as if Stiles had just done something amusing. “Hi, welcome to Hale & Hale,” the brunet greeted. “Hey, uh, hi, my name is Stiles Stilinski? I have an appointment with Ms. Lydia Martin?” Stiles replied, his voice a little higher than normal. “Oh yeah, definitely! Lydia’s expecting you. I’m Scott, by the way, and this is Isaac.” The sitting man smiled broadly and Stiles couldn’t help but feel like the enthusiasm in his tone was kind of puppy-ish. The blond nodded at Stiles blandly, then looked back at Scott. “That explains the deep breathing exercises,” he said. Stiles froze, just now realizing that they could probably see him through the door before he came in. Scott shook his head at Isaac and then smiled more warmly at Stiles. “Don’t let him get to you. When Isaac interviewed with Lydia he was so nervous he dropped a cup of coffee down his shirt before the interview. He had to cover it up with his scarf.” Scott chortled as he said that last part, making Isaac frown at him. “I told you, I just liked that scarf and wanted to wear it. I didn’t spill anything!” Isaac protested. Scott chuckled, “so then why did you smell like dark roast the entire time you were here?” “Cologne,” Isaac replied, trying to look imperious. “Yeah, sure,” Scott dismissed. Isaac rolled his eyes and then looked back at Stiles. “Come on, I’ll show you the way to Ms. Martin’s office.” Isaac turned and headed off toward the elevators. “See you at lunch, Scott,” Isaac called over his shoulder. Stiles hurried after him. “Good luck, Stiles!” Scott called after him. Stiles turned and gave him a smiling salute, before spinning back around just in time to dash into the closing elevator Isaac was in. “Whoa, that was a close one. These elevators must close pretty quickly, eh?” Stiles said, moving to lean against the back wall. Isaac hummed non-commitally, his focus on the cell phone in his hand. Stiles nodded and looked around the elevator. It was a polished gold color with a deep red carpet and refined accents. The simple elegance made Stiles’s heart pound a little harder, reminding him that he was actually here, at the place he’s dreamed about working since he’d first read about their offices opening 6 years ago, when Derek and Peter Hale decided to revive the family business. Stiles gulped at the thought of running into either of them. “So any advice for my interview, one nervous guy to another?” Stiles asked. Isaac looked up at him, a bored expression on his face. After a moment, he said, “Don’t drink any more coffee.” Stiles laughed, then stood up straight as the elevator slowed. He shook out his sleeves and made sure his jacket was smoothed down. When the doors opened, he followed Isaac down a brightly lit, tastefully decorated hallway and up to a small waiting area. An Asian woman sat behind a desk that faced the area, her focus shifting from her computer to Isaac as they approached. “Hey, Isaac! How’s it going,” she asked bubbily, a beautiful smile breaking across her face. “Hey, Kira. I’ve got Ms. Martin’s interviewee here. Stiles something,” Isaac answered, his attention barely leaving his phone. Stiles barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Oh, yeah, hi, you must be Mr. Stilinski! I’m Kira Yukimura,” the woman said, rising and holding out her hand to Stiles. “Please, call me Stiles,” he responded, shaking her hand. Kira’s warmth was a drastic contrast to Isaac’s indifference. “I’ve got to go, Kira, Derek’s breathing down my neck. You got it from here?” Isaac asked, glancing up from his phone. “Of course! Thanks, Isaac,” Kira said. An idea sparked in Stiles’s head as he recognized the tense line of Isaac’s shoulders. Immediately Stiles flipped up the flap of his bag and pulled out a package of cookies he had gotten from one of his friends’ bakeries. “Hey, Isaac,” Stiles called as the taller man started walking away. He tossed the cookies to Isaac when he stopped, thankful when the blond was able to easily catch them. “Thanks for the advice, man. Have a great day!” Isaac looked down at the bag of cookies in his hand, then back up at Stiles. He blinked for a second, before turning and continuing on to the elevators. When he turned back to look at Kira, she had a Cheshire Cat grin on her face from watching the exchange. Stiles simply shrugged, “he seemed stressed, like he could use a cookie.” Kira laughed, “of course. Come on, I’ll introduce you to Lydia.” She gestured for him to follow her then walked down another short hallway to knock on a door with “Lydia Martin, HR Director” on the name plaque. “Come in,” came a voice from inside the office. Kira opened the door and leaned in, “Hey, Lydia, Stiles Stilinski is here for his interview.” “Of course, send him in, Kira. Thank you,” the voice answered. Kira smiled back at Stiles and gestures for him to go ahead. “Good luck,” she whispered as he walked past her. Stiles wasn’t sure if everyone here was either really nice, or if they really thought he’d need the luck. He walked in to the office that was styled extremely tastefully. Everything was elegant and somewhat expensive looking. The red headed woman sitting at the desk was styled in the same way, her appearance giving off the image of a classy executive with years of experience, even though she looked to be about the same age as Stiles. “Mr. Stilinski, thank you for coming in today.” Lydia stood and offered her hand to him. Stiles shook her hand firmly. “Thank you for having me,” he responded. “Please, have a seat,” Lydia gestured to the chairs in front of her desk. Stiles slid his bag from his shoulder and sat down on the edge of the chair. “So, Mr. Stilinski…” “Please, call me Stiles.” Stiles interrupted her. Lydia raised an eyebrow, but then continued, “…Stiles. What do you think you can bring to the offices of Hale & Hale that another applicant could not?” Stiles smiled and took a deep breath. This was the easy part. —- Several hours later, Stiles walked into his apartment and closed the door, leaning back against it. He felt wiped and emotionally drained. The interview had lasted for well over an hour, which most websites would seem to indicate was a good thing, but Stiles wasn’t so sure. Lydia Martin had been every bit the ball buster Stiles had expected, and he respected her for her ability to pick up on everything he didn’t say, but he also was pretty sure she didn’t like him. Yes, Stiles had the occasional bout of acerbity, but he also could be professional when it was required. Not that Lydia seemed to think anything about what he did was professional. Lydia had asked him to plan several events for a corporate environment before the interview so they could discuss his planning choices and experience. Stiles had decided to plan three events at varying levels of casualness to show off his wide experience and connections. Growing up with one parent who was a professional chef and another who was a police officer meant that he knew half the restauranteurs in the city and most of the people he would need to get a permit approved quickly for any sort of public venue. But Lydia seemed to question every single choice he’d made, from the food to the locations to the entertainment…nothing had seemed good enough. Stiles had maintained his cool, calmly explaining his reasoning behind each choice and also giving some of the alternate options he’d put in the plan as well, but nothing seemed to please Lydia. At the end of the interview, Stiles had felt like a balloon that had been punctured and left to deflate. Moving from the door, Stiles took off his bag and dropped onto the couch. He felt around in the bad for a minute before remembering that he’d given his cookies away to Isaac. Stiles groaned. A ping on Stiles’s phone alerted him to the reminder he’s set so he would make sure and send a thank you email after the interview. He almost felt like it wasn’t worth it, but Stiles would be damned if Lydia Martin got to him, so Stiles immediately pulled up the draft he had made previously and added a few things from the interview before sending it off. Rubbing his face, Stiles got up to start taking off his suit when his phone started ringing. He didn’t recognize the number. “Hello,” Stiles answered tiredly. “Hello, Stiles, this is Lydia Martin. Do you have a moment?” Stiles immediately sat up straighter, a pang Of hope flashing through his system. “Yeah, yes, of course.” “Good. Stiles, we here at Hale & Hale would like to offer you the position of Happiness Producer,” Lydia said. Stiles gaped, pulled his phone away to look at it, then put it back up to his ear. “…really?” Lydia chuckled. “Really, Stiles. You performed extremely well in your interview, handling the stress of your choices being questioned and explaining your reasoning very calmly and thoroughly. Your connections are quite extensive and your experience is varied as well. And you even sent a thank you letter after what had to have been a very difficult meeting.” Stiles huffed in surprise. “But do you know what really put you over the top, Stiles?” Lydia asked. “I…um…” Stiles stuttered. “The cookies, Stiles. You saw that an employee of Hale & Hale was having a difficult time and you acted to improve their day, at your own expense. You’re exactly the kind of person we want working as our Happiness Producer. Though of course you won’t have to spend your own money for us.” Stiles was speechless. Seriously? That had been the thing to put him over the top? “Stiles? Are you still there?” Stiles realized that he’d been quite for too long. “Yeah, yes, sorry, I’m still here! Sorry,” he rushed out. “Good. So when can you come back in and discuss everything?” Lydia asked. “Um, whenever you need me to.” Stiles answered. “Is tomorrow alright?” Lydia asked. “Tomorrow’s perfect.” “Good, then I will see you at 10 o’clock. Congratulations, Stiles.” “Lydia…Ms. Martin…thank you. Thank you so much.” “Don’t thank me, Stiles, you set yourself up for this success. Now you get to show us all what you can really do.” Lydia said. Stiles laughed. They ended the phone call, then Stiles leaned back against the sofa. He couldn’t stop the series of involuntary fist-bumps that followed, though he did resist literally crowing. He was going to be working at Hale & Hale! —- Stiles raced through the front doors of Hale & Hale, ignoring the blond kid sitting at Scott’s desk and dashing into the closing elevator. The huge bakery box in his arms barely cleared the doors in time. Stiles sagged against the elevator wall, gasping for breath. It took him a moment to notice the dark-haired man in the elevator with him. “Holy shit you’re Derek Hale,” Stiles blurted out, eliciting an eyebrow raise from the other man. Derek stared back at the gasping young man for several moments, before responding. “And you are?” “I’m…I’m Stiles Stilinski, Sir. Your new Happiness Producer.” Stiles said, finally starting to catch his breath. His heart was still racing at being in the elevator with the incredibly handsome CEO. Derek was someone Stiles had admired for years, both career-wise and aesthetically. To be this close to him on his second day of work was…a bit of a shock. “Derek,” the man said. Stiles blinked. “Call me Derek, I hate it when people call me sir.” Derek said. Stiles brain caught up with the conversation and stiles nodded, remembering an article he had read about how Derek didn’t like honorifics in the workplace. “Oh, yeah, sure…Derek. Can do, si…dude.” Derek’s eyebrows furrowed, but he didn’t respond to the comment. “Is that for the meeting?” Derek asked instead. “Oh, yeah,” Stiles said, shifting the box in his arms. “The bakery I ordered them from had an issue with their delivery driver so I had to run out and get them myself and then there was an accident on 3rd so that slowed everything WAY down and I basically had to run the last block because I wanted to make sure that I was here on time for the meeting, although I doubt they would start without you so running into you here was actually incredibly lucky for me so…thanks?” Derek blinked at the onslaught, his eyebrows rising toward his hairline. The elevator dinged and began to open, causing Derek to walk out. He kept his hand pressed to the doorway, though, standing off to the side so Stiles could exit. “Thanks, Dude,” Stiles said, making his way to the conference room. Derek huffed behind him as they both entered the room, already full of people. The chatter stopped as they entered, probably due to Derek’s presence more than Stiles’s. Stiles carefully placed the box in the middle of the conference table, doing his best to avoid knocking over any coffee mugs or papers that were already there. When he opened the box, the smell of the freshly baked muffins inside began to waft around the room, eliciting a hum of approval. Many people moved forward to take one. “Everyone, this is Stiles Stilinski, our new Happiness Producer,” Lydia introduced, leaning forward to gently pluck a muffin from the box. “Stiles, that is Jackson Whittemore, our lead council, and his assistant Theo Raeken” Lydia gestured to a sandy-haired man who was looking over the muffins with distain, and a darker-haired younger man behind him, who waved with a smirk. “…that’s Danny Mahelani, our head of IT,…” The Hawaiian man already had a muffin crammed in his mouth as he hunched over a laptop. He gave Stiles a dimpled grin and a short wave before returning to his computer. “…that’s Peter Hale, our CFO,…” The slightly older, highly fashionable man snatched a muffin from the box, raising an eyebrow at Stiles before ignoring him to peel the muffin cup. “…Derek Hale, our CEO,…” Derek nodded at Stiles. Stiles waved back. “…Chris Argent, our COO,…” The bearded man nodded as well, picking up two muffins and handing one of them to the woman standing next to him. “…Allison Argent, head of Research,…” The woman next to Chris smiled at Stiles as she began nibbling at the muffin he’d handed her. “…Vernon Boyd, our heads of Security, and his wife Erica Reyes-Boyd, head of Promotions…” The tall, dark man and scary looking blonde both gave Stiles passive nods as they munched on their own muffins. The blonde winked. “…Scott McCall, in charge of our inter-office communications,…” Stiles and Scott both waved at each other before Scott enthusiastically took a bite of muffin. “…that’s Mason Hewitt, one of our interns. Our other intern, Liam Dunbar, is manning the front desk,…” The young black man waved enthusiastically from the corner of the room. “…And I believe you know Isaac, Derek’s assistant.” Lydia motioned last to the tall blonde as he came scrambling into the room with an arm load of files. He quickly began passing them out to people, not really acknowledging Stiles except to hand him a folder. Once he was done, though, he did take two muffins and then took up a position behind Derek as he tore into them. “Uh, hi, everyone.” Stiles said. “Welcome, Mr. Stilinski,” Peter said, his tone slightly oily, “Please, have a seat.” Stiles quickly sat down in the chair next to Lydia. Looking around the room, Stiles silently did an inventory of names and tried to make connections in his brain. He made it a goal to re-introduce himself to everyone in this room, and to get I know all of them. He picked up a muffin for himself as Derek stood to begin the meeting. “Alright everyone, so as you know…”