“Let me mess around with this for a second.” Lexi pressed different buttons on the keypad, and then started opening drawers and doors on the copier until she pulled a snarled piece of paper from between the rollers of the copier. “Okay, that was the easy part.” She laughed, tossing the blackened paper into the trashcan.
“I don’t mean to dump this on you, dear,” the woman sat down on a nearby chair and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration, “but I’m on deadline.”
“Trust me, it’s fine. If I count one more box of pens or package of tape, I’ll scream. This is actually a welcome distraction.” Lexi slipped the flash drive into the slot and again went to work on the touch screen of the copier, trying to retrieve the PowerPoint. “This might take me a few minutes.”
Lexi scrolled through the help screens and reached for the instruction manual.
“That’s fine. Would you mind if I ran back upstairs? I have my presentation materials spread out in the lounge, and all I need is for someone to set a coffee mug on my storyboards.”
“I’ll be fine,” Lexi said with a smile. “How many copies do you need me to make of everything?”
“Lexi, you’re a lifesaver,” the woman mumbled as she scribbled out a long list.
“I’m sorry, I’ve met so many people this week—I forgot your name.” Lexi looked down at the floor as her cheeks blazed crimson with embarrassment.
“It’s fine, dear. It has been a while. I’m Mrs. Dee, nice to see you again.” She held out her hand, and Lexi quickly shook it and smiled, happy to finally have a face to go with the voice on her answering machine.
“Nice to meet you, too. Give me a few minutes to get this figured out, and I’ll bring up the copies when I’m done.”
“I can’t thank you enough, dear. I’ll be upstairs organizing the rest of the presentation so I don’t make a fool of myself tonight. Thank you.” Mrs. Dee dashed out the door. A hint of her perfume lingered in the air as Lexi began the intricate task of outsmarting the copy machine.
Soon, Lexi was victorious in her battle with the large piece of office equipment, and pages began flying into the printing rack. When the whirl of the gears slowed, Lexi grabbed the first crisp stack of papers and began looking through the presentation out of curiosity. It was an ad campaign for a new shoe line that had a great deal of buzz on the west coast because of the famous celebrity who designed the sneakers. When Lexi hit the third page, she found a spelling error.
“What the heck?” She went back and began pouring over each page of the presentation, thoroughly examining each word of the text, and found not only spelling errors, but switched slides that gave the presentation an awkward flow.
Lexi glared down at the papers, biting her lower lip as she struggled with what to do next. Should I go fix it myself or tell her first? She’s pressed for time …Without another thought, Lexi jogged down to her desk, slid the flash drive into her computer, and began editing the misspelled words in the presentation. As she typed, she cradled the phone on her shoulder and dialed the extension for the lounge.
“Yes?” A stressed tone cut through Mrs. Dee’s voice.
“Sorry to bother you. It’s Lexi.”
“Oh God, the copier isn’t working.” Her rising voice reflected her panic.
“No, I got that to work, but there’s another problem.”
“Kill me now. What is it?”
Lexi heard papers shuffling on the other end of the phone. “Well, there are spelling errors, one in the brand name that’s particularly obvious.” Mrs.
Dee cursed softly. “And then some of these slides are jumbled.” Lexi immediately froze. She’d never asked who actually made up the presentation.
If it was Mrs. Dee, then she’d basically just told her that she thought her presentation was terrible. Lexi tried damage control. “But then again, I have no idea what I’m talking about. I’ll just fix the errors and leave the prese—”
“That idiot!” Mrs. Dee snarled. “Lexi, dear, please fix the presentation however you think it flows best. I have a phone call I need to make to the person that dumped this pile of crap in my lap.” The line went dead.
Get to work, big mouth, Lexi told herself as she quickly spell checked the remaining slides, and then shifted some others around to what she thought would make the presentation flow better from the client’s perspective. With only minutes to spare, she ran back to the supply room, printed out copies of the slides, and collated them into presentation bundles. She also printed out a condensed version of the entire slideshow before her revisions and one after so Mrs. Dee could quickly look between the two versions and decide which she wanted to go with.
As Lexi stuck her head through the door to the lounge, Mrs. Dee ran over and hugged her fiercely. “I cannot thank you enough for catching the mistakes and getting everything done so quickly.” Mrs. Dee beamed as Lexi handed her two different papers.
“The first one is the original, which I left on the flash drive as-is, after fixing the typos, of course. The second one is just what I thought might help make things flow better, but if you don—”
“This is fabulous! I love how you moved the history and other ads in the market to the beginning. And did you change the background, too?” Mrs.
Dee’s eyes quickly scanned the sheets of papers as she took in all of the new images.
“Well, as I was reading it on my computer, the background was distracting so I thought simpler was better in this case, especially when the proposal is so flashy to begin with. Let the product stand out, not the background of the slide.” Lexi tried to explain the reasons for the changes without casting a negative shadow on the other person’s work.
“Well, I’m sold. I’m going to use your slides. Give me one of these presentation packs for Mark. I want to leave it on his desk with a note so he can see what a high-quality presentation should look like. Well done, dear.” She shoved the last of the papers in her briefcase, slid the shoulder strap of her laptop case on her arm, and headed for the door. “Welcome to Hunter. I knew it would be a good idea to hire you.” With a wink, she disappeared out the door.
“Good luck!” Lexi called out after her. “I saved the new version as plan B.”
“Got it.” Mrs. Dee’s faint voice drifted down the hall.
With a proud smile, Lexi went back to the supply room, turned out the lights, and then headed back to her desk to leave for the night and meet up with Hope at Moon for a well deserved drink … or ten.