Chapter 10: MAYBE I HATE HIM A LITTLE LESS
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Alex’s POV;
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It was only after I returned to the safety of my own office, the reality of what I’ve done finally dawned on me.
Oh no no no no!
What have I done? What have I done?!!! What the hell was I thinking?
Kate is gonna kill me! She’s gonna kill me, she’s gonna make it an extremely slow and excruciatingly painful one.
Maybe I should change my name, dye my hair green and move to Mars to save myself from the tragic consequences of her wrath.
I couldn’t focus on my work, my mind seemed to always pull me somewhere other than what I was working on.
A few hours passed and I was conflicted about whether I should sort out Nick and comfort him or if I should leave him alone.
Kate chose to walk into my office at that precise moment and I almost dropped my phone in a panic.
How am I gonna tell her what blunder I caused, and not only that but also about my unsure job status. Oh god kill me!
She was visibly upset and angry. Guess her ‘talk’ didn’t really work out so well.
“That Bastard, he looked so smug I wanted to punch him too. I totally understand why Nick did.” Kate fumed.
“I always thought he was bitter, but I never thought he was this bad.” I’m usually better at reading people, but then again, maybe he’s not a jerk to everyone, just a selected few, and that was somehow worse.
“I wish there was something I could do.” Kate mumbled. The only thing we could do now was to be with him and support him.
“Come on Kate…” I said “Let’s go see Nick” he probably needs us right now.
We both walked to his cabin and saw him putting his stuff in a big cardboard box. Carrie was there too, by his side and it was evident that we were all feeling pretty helpless.
A sad frown took over my face. Kate walked up to his side and offered him a small smile and Carrie left since she had a lot of work and a quick approaching deadline.
“Oh c’mon… I’m not dying” he says, trying to lighten up the mood but it didn’t really work. Instead, Kate slapped his arm hard and he cradled it over-dramatically.
I curiously reached out to pick up a small photo frame that he had just placed inside the box. It was a picture of a little girl, she was grinning cutely at the camera with two of her front teeth missing.
“My niece…Lily” he explains with a fond, entirely genuine smile on his face.
“She’s cute” I muttered, placing the picture back in the box. She might have him wrapped around her little finger.
The box even held a miniature tree and I turned to give Nick an incredulous look “A bonsai?”
“What? I like plants and a-art…” he defends himself weakly.
“Is this the reason you like… disappear every day for half an hour?” I asked, already sure of it.
“No…” he denied.
Kate jumped into the conversation “Yes you do, I saw you once watering the plant and taking care of it…you even talk to it!”
“Is it a crime to have Wreny?” He exclaimed, defensively. Please tell me he did not name it!
“No, but the fact that you talk to it is definitely crazy,” I said, and then proceeded to stare at the tree doubtfully.
“What do you even say to it?” I asked.
He quickly closed the tiny tree’s ears and says, “don’t say ‘it’ wreny will hear you.” He then looked at the plant and said “she didn’t mean it.”
“Maybe he has deep meaningful conversations about life and philosophy,” Kate said.
“What? No.” Nick scrunched up his face shook his head.
“No? Then what do you talk about? Are you photosynthesizing well? How is your chlorophyll?” Kate asked. Nick just rolled his eyes and ignored her as I tried not to laugh.
I picked up another picture frame, it was a picture of Nick with another man standing next to him with his hand over his shoulder holding him close, they were both at the top of a mountain in their hiking gear and smiling at the camera.
“Is this the boyfriend?” I asked teasingly, he rolled his eyes but answered.
“Yes, that would be him. Mark.” I smiled at how lovingly he said that.
“He’s handsome,” Kate said genuinely peeking at the picture and I agreed.
“Yeah, I’m lucky.” Nick smiled, his cheeks flushed red. Awww. Mark was the lucky one I thought…
After a short while we were all laughing and joking around, the sombre mood was slowly pushed to the back corner and we wouldn’t have it any other way. The workday came to an end, but none of us wanted it to.
But then, there was a knock on the door and James pushed the door open “Am I intruding?”
Nick went rigid and so did Kate, as we all stared at him. His face looked like it’s been under a lawnmower. He had a black eye, a cut on his jaw, a bluish bruise on the side of his left eyebrow and a bandage on the bridge of his nose. Wow, Nick sure did a number on him. I looked at Nick and saw he didn’t even have a scratch. Nice!
“How dare you show your face in here!” Kate seethed in anger (what’s left of it, I thought). Nick and I shared a worried glance, afraid we might have to physically hold her back.
His demeanour faltered as he spoke, “I just want to talk to Nick for a minute.”
He sounded so meek that I half expected him to pull a white flag out of nowhere and wave it at us while chanting ‘I come in peace’ over and over again.
“Go on…say what you have to,” I said, sensing that Nick really didn’t want to talk to him, but had no choice.
James could see that we were not about to leave the room and so he gathered courage for what he was about to say. Kate seemed about ready to attack him either way.
“I’m sorry” he finally said, and we were definitely not expecting it. “It was wrong and very unprofessional of me to fire you over some personal conflict, I sincerely apologize.” I could tell the apology wasn’t very sincere, it was something he had to say, but that didn’t stop us from being shocked.
We were gaping wide-eyed at him, with our faces painted in disbelief.
James continued when no one else uttered a single word “d-don’t do all this…get back to work, you have your job back. Well, technically it wasn’t even taken away from you since your termination letter was never approved…so.”
I stepped forward “If this is some kind of a sick joke, then I suggest you stop right now!”
“Joke? Why would I joke about something like this…?” He turned to look back at Nick, his face twisted in a scowl, and with that said, he left the room.
I took a few moments to sink in, but when it finally did we all ended up in a group hug.
Thank God!
Now I don’t have to deal with Kate’s relentless wrath. Or google how to move to Mars. Yay!
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The records were all finally rectified and I got out of my seat to print them out. Since I was sitting in a constant position continuously for a few hours, muscles in my lower back protested in pain.
I sent Nick home early, he had a stressful day and needed to rest. He was let off with a warning which was much better than losing his job.
My work for the day was far from done but I couldn’t wait to get home and fall asleep after taking a warm shower, but then all those thoughts evaporated when I remembered about the teleconference scheduled at 3 am.
Yay!!! Not.
After printing the paperwork I made my way towards Jensen’s office and knocked lightly on the door.
I heard his faint voice telling me to enter and I pushed the door to step inside.
“And here I thought knocking was not your style” Jensen’s amused voice greeted me.
I tried not to roll my eyes, since he was obviously referring to my ‘barging in’ inside his office, earlier today.
“Only when the situation calls for it…” I said as I walked closer and handed him the file, the smile on his lips grew. Am I seeing things?
He seems to be in a good mood. He took the file and kept it aside on his table without leafing through it, I frowned.
“Aren’t you going to-” I started to speak but he cut me off.
“You really would have resigned if Nick wouldn’t have gotten his job back” He looked straight at me with his fingers laced on the table. I didn’t understand if it was a question or a statement but I decided to reply.
If that would have happened, it would have been a case of violation of multiple rights, and I wasn’t going to just stay and do nothing.
“Well yes, I did say that…didn’t I?” I couldn’t tell why he was asking me this again, or why he was looking at me like he was seeing me for the first time.
“No matter what?” He questioned in an almost challenging undertone.
“I guess.” Why is he asking me this? What’s going on in his mind? “By the way, Thankyou” I blurted before I changed my mind or completely forgot about it.
I don’t know how he did it, but somehow he did and I wanted him to know how much I appreciated his help.
He smirked a little, “There’s no need to thank me, I was just doing ‘the right thing’.” Was he really mocking me? I could see that he didn’t mean it offensively, but excuse me if it’s hard to believe that Jensen Black is poking fun at me.
It was hard to conceal my amusement, “You have my gratitude nonetheless.” I knew he doesn’t meddle with such situations but he did this time because of my request. I was about to turn around and leave when he called and I stopped abruptly to meet his gaze.
“Alexandra….you should go home, get some rest.” He said, I gaped at him shocked at what he was saying.
“There’s a teleconference scheduled at 3 am…” I told him, “I might as well get it over with.”
“Don’t worry about that, it’ll be taken care of, you need some sleep and besides you look…. like a zombie who died twice.” He said flatly.
I rolled my eyes, of course, how flattering. Why am I not surprised?
Although maybe, I hate him a little less than I used to, even though it’s too early to say for sure.
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