Chapter 7: NIGHTMARE COME TRUE
*****************************************************************************
Alex’s POV;
***************
Kate was out for some business and that meant there was no one to remind me about lunch. I ended up working through lunch hours and now my stomach was craving food like never before.
A knock on the door pulled my attention away from my computer screen that displayed a boring datasheet, Olivia was standing in the doorway looking as beautiful as ever, “I see you’re busy.” she smiled with a hand on the doorknob.
I ushered her in, with a vague hand gesture and got to my feet to greet her properly, “It’s okay, come on in.”
We both settled on the couch, she denied the coffee that I offered to make, instead, she said. “I got something for you since you worked straight through your lunchtime.” Shooting me a fake disapproving glare, “Seriously Alex stop, you’re making us all look bad.” I laughed.
She pulled out a box from the brown paper bag she carried and handed it to me. I opened the box to find beautiful macaroons and cupcakes staring back at me. “You’re a goddess,” I said to Olivia, making her chuckle at how serious I was.
“Go ahead… I already had lunch.” She didn’t have to tell me twice, I picked up a chocolate cupcake and took a bite happily.
“So what brings you here, other than saving me from starvation.” I mused.
“I just dropped in to say goodbye.” the fun-carefree atmosphere suddenly disappeared.
“You’re leaving already?” I couldn’t disguise the disappointment and shock I felt at that moment.
“Yeah, everything is officially yours now, I know you’ll take good care.” she smiled encouragingly.
“I hope so.” I chuckled, trying not to feel emotional at her departure.
“I won’t ask what happened during the meeting yesterday with you and Jensen, but I’m sure you’ll win him over soon, just like you did everyone else.”
“You noticed that?” I cringed, and he might have told her all the details.
She laughed lightly, “It was kind of hard not to.” Maybe that whole thing wasn’t as discreet as I thought it was. I tried not to let on that I’d heard her and Jensen’s conversation yesterday.
“Wait, what do you mean ‘everyone else’?” I was positively confused.
Olivia rolled her eyes this time, “Like you don’t know…. everyone else is smitten with you, all the agents think you are perfect for this job and they are looking forward to working with you.”
This was news to me and after what I heard last time this was definitely good news, “That’s nice to know” Hearing her say this made me happy and gave me courage. So they genuinely liked me, they all weren’t just being nice because I’m new and their boss. Maybe that too…
“Anyway, I’ll get going now, my ride is waiting…” She picked up her purse and prepared to leave, “All the best to you.” We hugged before she left and I felt like I would miss a dear friend.
*****************************
A week flew by with my same old boring schedule, the only remarkable change in my day was instead of warm, approachable Olivia, now I had to report to fiendish, grumpy Jensen Black and that’s the single most awkward thing I have to do all day. It’s like all my nightmares were coming true.
When I finished working on the file he had assigned to me, I went to his office to brief him. He lacked the general friendly warmth that I felt in the presence of Olivia or anybody else for that matter, he just nodded without looking at me, pointed out a few mistakes and updates he wished to make coldly and then dismissed me like I was a kid in the Principal’s office.
He treated me like I was an imposter, and with his confidence and arrogance, he almost made me think it too….but I had more faith in my abilities, even though sometimes I doubt myself, I believe in myself far too many times to forget it, even after all the things I overheard that day, and even after it replayed in my mind over and over again. I still had confidence in the quality of my work.
I silently despised him for his frosty behaviour and wished he should have been the one to leave the city instead of sweet Olivia.
The small farewell party everyone threw for her was the last time I saw her before she left to move to a different part of the country. I doubted I’d see her again anytime soon.
The pile of work on my desk dwindled to nothing, and hardly ever a new file came to sit on my desk for longer than a few days. This led to a lot of acquired energy and no direction for its application making me hyper-reactive to every single thing. I sat in my chair and stared at numbers all day, it was boring but not too stressful.
I tried not to get too offended that Jensen never really discussed anything with me like Olivia used to do, he never asked for an opinion or what I thought about a certain business opportunity. He held many meetings and I was hardly ever asked to attend and even if I did attend I felt like an outsider looking in.
Whenever I tried to give a suggestion he would dismiss me or have an entirely different outlook that opposed mine. I was tired of dealing with him and his grumpy act.
I even had a lot of free time at hand and I couldn’t understand why this was the case since everyone else seemed conveniently busy.
This mystery was solved soon enough when I went to the Chief’s office to inform him about a potential investor only to find him swamped with tonnes of work, his table was cluttered with piles upon piles of books, files and other documents. His nose was stuck in a file while he occasionally stopped to jot down notes with one hand.
“Mr Branson called, he seemed interested in the new development project and wants to schedule a meeting with you soon,” I informed him.
“Okay, I’ll take care of it.” Mr Black said. “You may go.”
I didn’t move from my place, urging him to look at me. “What do you need?” He asked me, in his usual rude tone which pushed me over the edge, and suddenly the conversation took a very different turn.
“I need you to tell me why there isn’t anything else for me to do other than analysing worksheets, and can I ask why you’re trying to take on all the work alone.” I was offended and I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret.
“Because I can’t slow myself down by fixing other people’s mistakes, I might as well do it all myself. You don’t know how certain things work around here Ms Brook so just stick with what you’re doing.” He said sternly and went back to his work as if this conversation was over.
I didn’t miss the jab directed at me when he said ‘other people’s mistakes’.
This conversation was far from over, “If I continue with what I have, I’m never gonna find out how things work around here, excuse me if I’m trying to be of help and learn, and I’m sure you’re not slowing yourself down with this amazing plan of yours.”
He regarded me with a gaze so grim I thought I crossed a line by talking back at him in a sarcastic voice.
Instead of yelling at me, he surprised me by pointing at a file on his desk and said, “You can work on this client… and I don’t want any delays.”
I picked up the file and walked out, still a little unsure as to what just happened in there. So Jensen Black can be reasonable at times, good to know.
Nick and I worked extra time, trying to come up with new ideas and making drafts for the work that I was newly assigned by the boss himself, the deadline loomed far too close and things weren’t working out so well, but I couldn’t complain because I literally asked for it. Gods help me now.
I got to know Nick a little better though, he seemed nice, with his nerdy behaviour which was dorky yet cool.
*********************************
The next day, I woke up to the loud sound of the commotion, feeling sleep deprived and tired from working late. Gosh, I forgot how exhausting employment could be.
The loud noises pierced through my sleepy haze, making me groan at the unfair reality. Not again! How the heck do they manage this in the early mornings? I really should move to a new place soon.
I ignored the things Kyle and dad would have managed to come up with and got dressed for work.
As soon as I stepped out I was almost brutally attacked by a mob of paparazzi outside the house, instinctively I hid my face and closed the door in one quick motion. What the heck?!
Did Kyle accept a new movie recently?! Oh, forget it! I used the back door and managed to escape safely.
I don’t know exactly what he had done this time, but it was obviously Kyle’s doing.
He’s so dead!
I managed to get to the office on time, which was a miracle in itself. I’d rather not face the wrath of my boss on being late again, thank-you very much.
I remember quite clearly what happened last Tuesday.
Flashback
I was in a hurry and visibly cranky as I walked into my office 20 minutes late. Oblivious to the person waiting for me there.
“Looks like your alarm clock didn’t do its job today.” Said a male voice, halting me in my shoes as I attempted to put away my jacket and ended up dropping it on the floor.
I attempted to speak, but anything I could say sounded like an excuse, so I just closed my mouth and stared at him, dumbfounded.
Seeing as I wasn’t giving an explanation as to why I was late, he changed the subject and said “I’d like the report on that architectural firm…” He said and I looked down at my cluttered desk in an attempt to find the report. “And there’s a meeting with a group of developers this evening, clear your schedule.”
I walked up to him and handed him the file he asked for, which I was, fortunately, able to find. “Anything else?” I asked calmly.
He shook his head and started to leave, but before he could completely walk out he added “hope you’re thinking of staying late to make up for the lost time.” This made me wanna growl at him, but I controlled myself instead by gritting my teeth and cursing at him after he was safely out of earshot.
              ***
I shuddered thinking of that day, and how I hoped there wasn’t going to be a repeat of that awfulness.
I took a moment to settle myself and then opened the file which Nick had left on my table, I went through its contents and a frown made its way on my face.
Damn it!
What a great start to my day.
I’ve been working on this client since yesterday morning and all I’ve gotten is a huge fat headache. It’s already the second day and I’m nowhere near completing the task given. It was a deal about some of the company’s liquid assets, and the client was particularly uncooperative.
There was a knock on my door and I muttered a loud “come in” without looking up.
“Good morning” Nick greeted me.
I smiled but mumbled a disheartened, “Not so far.”
Nick saw the familiar file in my hands that was the bane of our existence and said “tell me about it.”
He understood how difficult this task was since we both had stayed back late last night and worked on this whole thing. I told him to send our shortlisted draft to the client but according to the file in my hands, they blatantly rejected all our ideas.
Efforts wasted!
I sighed.
“The Garfields have always been difficult to deal with but they are still one of the most important clients for this company,” Nick tells me.
“Difficult is an understatement” I commented and Nick chuckled.
“It’s hard to believe that this task is given to you, I mean no offence but since this is your first client and all, usually Mr Garfield’s files are handed to Olivia, but that’s just because she’s the only one who can get it done.” He said as a matter of fact and I grew confused.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“Because she’s friends with Mrs Garfield.” He said as if it was obvious, I nodded as I completely took in what he was trying to say, and also very clearly understood why I’ve been given this task.
Boss Man just wants to watch me suffer and fail, can’t give him that satisfaction now can I? I need to go get the past client records from the record room.
“So? What now?” Nick said, pulling me out of my thoughts. Now what? That’s a good question.
“Now….we start again, from scratch, I need to create a task force for this, Nick, bring me the marketing and advertisements team’s performance records from the management committee,” I said.
“Okay, anything else… ” He asked.
“That’s all for now, although, you’ll have to gather all the task force members for a meeting this evening, so tell everyone to be prepared to work overtime, wait, will they be okay with this on such short notice?” I asked, doubting my plans.
“They’ll have to be, and don’t worry, most of them are working overtime anyway.” He said.
“That just makes me feel worse…. alright, we don’t have an option right now,” I mumbled. “Oh and, bring in the three best sales agents, tell them to drop everything else and attend the meeting.”
“On it!” My assistant muttered as he swiftly walked out and then in less than a minute returned with various files and catalogues.
It’s gonna be a long day.
On my computer screen, I clicked on the library icon that took me to the client profile and relationship records and it surprisingly asked me for a password when I entered the client’s name in the search tab.
I frowned but thought nothing of it, I entered my login password and then a message popped up “incorrect password”. When this happened for the third time I got annoyed and decided to investigate.
I went to the third floor where the records room was situated, it was basically a big library of all sorts of books about business and client relations. The restricted section of the records room was the entire left side, separated by a glass wall.
There was a card slot to the side which certainly indicated a door. I fetched my employee ID and slid it through the slit.
“Access denied,” an electronic and robotic voice said.
What?! I frowned.
I repeated the card processing again and the same voice greeted me “Access denied”
What the fuck!
Maybe something was wrong with my card, I’d never used it for this door before, maybe some update is to be made.
I contacted the manager and he told me that I don’t have access because of how long I’ve been with the company.
“It’s company policy, clearance can’t be granted before your six months probation period is over.” He said in his weird Russian accent and left.
I walked back to my office feeling deflated. Only Jensen and Olivia have that kind of clearance, Olivia is gone and Jensen won’t help me. Great! So basically I had no access to that entire database. Fantastic.
I slumped in my chair, feeling drained.
But suddenly I remembered something… Quickly I opened the bottom drawer and pulled out the notebook that Olivia had given me before she left. It had a lot of important information and notes, significant contacts and more importantly all kinds of access passwords.
Nick walked into my office and informed me about the meeting “It is scheduled at seven o’clock, I’ve circulated an email.”
I looked down at the notebook in my hands and then at him. “Excellent.”
I went back to the library icon on my computer… Let’s try this again, shall we?
I entered the user ID and password and smiled when the page loaded with no restrictions.
But then looking at the mountain of information I sighed. One thing about starting from scratch….it’s no fun.
********************************
The task team consisted of six members. Carrie and Robert were from advertisement, they both are really good real estate stagers and usually worked together.
Maxence, Jack and Emma were the three best sales agents, their record was quite impressive and after meeting them it became clear why.
Max was charming with his cute smile, green eyes and blonde hair had a really polite and agreeable personality. Jack was the geeky looking guy, with rectangular spectacles and a great sense of humour. Emma was dark-haired, petite and sweet with great persuasive skills and they all seemed sure about everything they said and very trustworthy.
Aiden was a marketing specialist, and he was joining us to help with various marketing strategies that will appeal to the clients.
The meeting went on for almost an hour and everyone was made to understand their task thoroughly. I had printed out all the information I could find on the clients and we were trying to understand what exactly would match their expectations.
There was no room for mistakes and we didn’t have much time and required quick results. It was stressful, to say the least.
After the meeting and working for 3 hours straight, we had managed to shortlist a few places which seem close to what the clients were looking for and now I just had my fingers crossed.
The following day I came to work early and dove back into my mountain of headache, also known as a pile of reports.
My table was cluttered with previous records which I needed to study in order to understand some kind of pattern in the client’s preference from the last deals, and I slowly started undoing the chaotic mess.
Nick knocked on my door and then barged in with a phone in his hands, my eyebrows perked up with curiosity to see the urgency written all over his face, “what’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s Mr Garfield” he holds out the phone for me and I grew confused, Nick apparently understood my perplexed eyes as he explained “he wanted to talk to the person in charge”.
“Hello, Mr Garfield” I greeted him politely. “This is Alexandra Brook, the sales executive from Signature Heights…how may I help you?” I asked.
“I need to know if there is a place available as per my requirements, I don’t want to waste my time,” Mr Garfield asked in his flat tone. He continued before I could even utter a word “Miss Brook, this is a long term investment for me and I’m not going to settle for anything less than the very best” he said simply annoyed.
“You have nothing to worry about Mr Garfield, I have personally shortlisted a few places which I’m sure you’ll appreciate, it’ll be worth your time if you decide to take a look” I spoke politely all the while hoping he’d listen to me. Oh, come on! Say ‘yes’ already!
After giving it a quick thought he agreed and I high-fived my confused assistant who had no idea what it was that made me react that way, after exchanging formal goodbyes he hung up and I stared at the phone with annoyance. He sure is a tough nut to crack.
“Why were we talking to him directly? We were communicating through his agent all this while right?” I asked Nick.
“I heard he fired his agent.” He told me.
My eyes widened, “Woah, talk about overreacting.”
Nick left after that taking the phone all the while smiling at my silly behaviour.
Get to work Alex! My inner voice ordered, and I followed. I emailed him the catalogues along with their addresses and sent them to my task team as well. I was depending on the sales agents entirely and I decided to head out and see for myself.
When I pulled over at the side of the beach house, I couldn’t help but stare at the place awed, it was magnificent, the house was white with a brown roof and it complimented the blue sea and light sand perfectly. It was named blue Orion by the previous owners, and even though the vibe completely changed the name still stuck.
It wasn’t a giant, just about the right size actually and I absolutely loved it. The catalogues have done it no justice. The property value was sure to go up, so whoever claims it would be making a profit.
This was the beach house closest to Mr Garfield’s demands, and since he’s a VIP client, I chose everything very meticulously.
This is it right?
I hope this works out.
While walking inside the house I earned a few curious glances from Max, he was clearly in the middle of his job, I decided not to disturb so just smiled and moved along. The interior decoration I noticed was beautiful and had a homely feel to it, which made me a little bit optimistic but I stopped myself from feeling hopeful just yet.
I recognised Carrie from the office, she was really good at her job from what I gathered after a few conversations, she stood in the kitchen and talked about something with two people who I assumed were Mr and Mrs Garfield. Carrie was a very experienced real estate stager, one of the best in the business and I smiled at her when she looked at me.
Mr Garfield was nothing as I imagined, instead of a middle-aged man with I hate everything attitude I realised that actually, he was quite young and clearly had the whole loving husband thing going on for him by the way he kept looking at his wife.
Mr Garfield asked something at which Carrie good-naturedly shook her head in denial and he instantly had a sore expression, not so much impressed by what he was hearing, whereas his wife had a small smile.
I decided it was time to enter their conversation, with a smile I walked closer and politely said “Hello.”
Carrie looked up at me and then decided to introduce me “I’d like you to meet our sales executive, Ms Alex Brook”
I shook both their hands, Mrs Garfield enthusiastically introduced herself “Hi, I’m Carol”, while Mr Garfield seemed like he couldn’t care less even though we talked on the phone earlier today.
“So, what do you think about the place?” I asked Carol, hoping for a positive response.
“It’s beautiful,” she said, genuinely.
“It could be yours if you want it,” I said jokingly- not really, I was not joking, I was very serious. Please buy this place even if it’s tonnes of money!
Mr Garfield walked to the other side of the house and Carrie followed him, helping him explore while I and Carol stood here talking.
Carol laughed and winked “I just might”. She is so not helping.
I looked over Carol’s shoulder and caught Carrie’s gaze who was giving me the ‘help me’ eyes.
Carol followed my line of vision and saw what I saw, and then sheepishly turned to me “He’s giving you a hard time isn’t he?”
“No, it’s not that-” I started to say but she cut me off.
“Don’t sugarcoat it, I know how difficult he could be,” she said laughingly. “It’s my fault actually, a few days ago Adam asked me how my ideal beach house should be and I described it to him and now he would settle for nothing less.”
I grinned, a part of me awed at how cute of a couple they were and suddenly I didn’t find him as arrogant as before, he was just being a loving caring husband, a bit too choosy but caring nonetheless.
“He decided to just give you a beach house out of the blue?” I asked, just making conversation.
“No, it’s our anniversary next week,” she told me.
“Really?” that is so sweet, I smiled and congratulated her in advance.
She nodded “I didn’t want anything but he insisted”.
If Kyle was here he would just melt into a puddle of mush to see these two, he’s a goofball and a hopeless romantic at heart.
Mr Adam Garfield walked towards us with a frown. Oh no, what did he not like now?
Carol gave an ‘I’ll handle it’ look and went to talk to him, he visibly relaxed, and then they both approached me, “Apparently the garden is too small” Carol told me and rolled her eyes, I laughed, and Adam sulked. What the heck am I seeing?!
Carol laughed with me and suggested, “Don’t mind him, he’s weird like that”.
“Some respect honey?” Adam jokes, not offended even the slightest, that surprised me. He clearly adored his wife and who wouldn’t she was beautiful with her olive-green eyes, sandy blonde hair and her cheerful personality.
We then moved on to check the other places that I had shortlisted, it was just a tiny list of three. None of them really interested Adam but Carol was a whole different story, she loved to explore but she was completely attached to the first place. It had the perfect view of the sunset from the bedroom, a small yet cosy garden, a rooftop pool (although I don’t see the point of having a pool where there’s a whole beach at your disposal) and many other elements.
“So?” I asked them, mentally crossing my fingers.
“All of them are nice…. but I have my heart set on the Blue Orion” Carol grinned heartily. Oh, I knew it!
Her husband chuckled looking at her, I turned to him expectantly hoping for positive feedback as well and he started to speak “Well…actually it is just-“
Carol cut him off “We’re taking it!” she finished.
“We are?” Mr Garfield turned to his wife and was surprised.
“We are.” She confirmed.
He smiled, but nodded anyway, “I guess it’s settled then.”
Yes! oh, I love Carol, she’s so sweet.
I suppressed the urge to whoop and fist pump as it did not seem very professional, although no one could stop me from doing a mental happy dance.
“Great! Let’s go and finish the paperwork, I don’t wanna work tomorrow” I casually said to Carol and she agreed for my sake.
We all made our way back to the head office of signature heights, after asking them to wait in my office, I talked to my assistant Nick and told him to bring in the documents related to that property. His smile was huge.
“Should we tell the others?” He asked I agreed
And so we went to the conference room where my task team was waiting anxiously for the verdict. Max was drumming his fingers on the glass surface of conference tables. Emma was pacing on the side, wearing a path down in the conference room. Jack was leaning on the wall with his arms crossed staring into space. Others were sitting soundlessly looking worried and on varying levels of distress.
Emma noticed me first and froze mid-step, before quickly approaching me, everyone else soon followed, their eyes looked at me hopefully. “So, what happened? What did they say?” Jack voiced out what everyone was thinking.
I couldn’t help the smile, “Done deal guys, we did it.”
Their expressions changed from anxious to astonished in seconds, and soon enough hollers and cheers filled the room as we all hugged and high five each other, it was a great feeling.
“Let’s go for dinner someplace nice, my treat,” I told them and everyone agreed enthusiastically. Absolutely thrilled about the celebration.
Nick rushed out to deal with the papers, as everyone settled around the table, the distressed environment now long gone and replaced by a much lighter mood.
They have been our regular clients and so it didn’t take long for the paperwork. When I held the file in my hands which was practically screaming ‘work done!’ I had an evil smirk on my lips as I walked towards the CEO’s office.
This should be good.
I knocked but didn’t get an answer so I simply pushed the door and entered.
“Did I tell you to come in?” He said in a curt voice, not bothering to look away from the computer screen which currently held his attention.
“Seriously?” I muttered to myself and rolled my eyes. ‘Why you gotta be so rude?’ I mentally sang, but then stopped before I did something stupid, like singing it out loud.
“What brings you here Ms Brook?” He asked in his business tone.
“About that important customer you assigned to me, I would-” I had started to speak but he cut me off.
“I don’t want to hear any excuses Ms Brook” for the first time he turned his eyes on me.
I was about to correct his assumption but he spoke up again “There’s nothing I can do to help you with it, if you’re here to ask me to extend the deadline then I’m sorry it can’t be dragged any further, my hands are tied,” he said, not at all sounding ‘sorry’.
Tied hands huh? Well, then I would love to dump you inside the ocean and see you sink like a stone. Wouldn’t that be fun?
“Uhmm…Actually, I want you to have a look at these documents” I handed him the file “These are the property documents of the beach house which Mr Garfield has recently bought, all other legal procedures regarding this asset are in order and he’ll get the official authority by tomorrow. I just need your signature for wrapping it up”.
He flipped through the pages with a frown on his face, and when his eyes landed on Mr Garfield’s sign he looked up at me dumbfounded opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water and cross-checking between the signature and task assignee, for a whole minute or maybe two minutes. Dude?!
“Signature” I reminded him, “or should I come back later?” he picked up his pen and robotically signed his name almost absentmindedly like he still couldn’t believe it.
He probably expected something completely opposite like me blowing up the whole deal and causing a complete disaster followed by utter humiliation which would upset the clients and then he’ll give me an Eiffel tower long lecture before throwing me out. Well, so did I.
Guess he didn’t know that I take my business seriously. I smirked, took the file from his outstretched hand and asked in an irritatingly polite manner “Is there anything else for me to do Mr Black?”
“Uhm…” He tried hard to think. Brain dysfunction? Well, that’s new. “No, no nothing.” he cleared his throat.
And so I walked away with a mischievous grin.
That was fun.
—————————
Today was turning out to be pretty spectacular, I spent most of my time outdoors exploring beautiful beach houses, my first deal was a huge success and to see my boss’s dumbfounded expressions, that was such a cherry on the top.
I couldn’t wait to go home, it was a Friday evening and I had a very tight schedule for my weekend which consists of hangouts, resting and lots and lots of sleeping.
My dad had arranged something complaining that I’m not spending enough time with him, and my mom would kill me if I postponed our shopping plan one more time.
Nick knocked on my door just as I was preparing to leave and told him to “com’on in” He walked in wearily and told me that Mr Black is looking for me.
I stopped frozen in my position but then a loud groan escaped me “what does he want now?!”
Nick raised his eyebrows both amused and surprised at my outburst.
I turned to him sheepishly and said: “that was meant to be inside my head”.
“Noted” His eyes were laughing at me as he struggled to keep his expressions in check.
Slumping my shoulders dramatically I walked out and made my way towards the CEO’s office.
I knocked and entered, He was busy with some papers and didn’t bother looking at me.
“What can I do for you, Mr Black?” The sarcasm in my words was painfully evident and so he was forced to shoot me one of his infamous glares. I felt honoured.
Slowly his lips lifted up in a smirk while he continued glaring at me. Evil, he seemed to be pure evil. Why was he smirking?
“It’s not much,” he said and after a moment, he then stood to his full height buttoned his suit jacket as if ready to leave but before going anywhere he gestured at some files on the table, in front of me and by some I mean “four”, four fat ugly files.
“I’d like the summarised drafts of these on my table by Monday morning” he ordered and with that said he walked away as if he owned the place.
Oh wait, he does. Darn it!
My jaw was on the floor and my eyes followed him, wide with shock. There goes my weekend. As soon as I recovered from the shock of the moment “Wait!” I cried in protest before he stepped out of the doors and disappeared.
It surprised me when he actually stopped and turned back around to face me. “What now?” He said annoyed as if I was wasting precious moments of his exorbitant life by making him wait here.
“How can I get this done by Monday? I can’t work on weekends!” I protested.
Jensen frowned at me “That’s not my problem, figure it out,” he said and was about to walk out when I spoke up again.
Ignoring his frown I said, “Oh come on, try-n-understand don’t you have plans with family and friends?”
“No,” he said plainly.
“You may be a loner, but that’s not the case for me” I blabbered but then quickly shut my mouth when I realised what I was saying. What the hell Alex? How’s that gonna help?! I improvised, “Sorry, I mean-” he cut me off.
“No, excuses, I want this to be done by Monday” he finished in his no room for argument voice and then turned to walk away. This time I didn’t try stopping him, it wouldn’t have worked in my favour anyway.
“Yes Sir!” I muttered and couldn’t help the bitter mocking tone that slipped into my words. I picked up the four extremely heavy files and walked out carrying them with me to the parking lot.
Woah, I was sweating. Guess the files should count as a workout.
I glanced at my watch and saw that it was time for dinner. Trying to hide my sombre mood because of the added workload, I picked up my phone and walked back to the building.
I met with my task team in the lobby and we all went to have dinner at a restaurant. Nick was suddenly so much more animated, he completely changed from his uptight assistant self and joked around casually, it was nice to spend some time with them without a care in the world and the time flew by.
*********************************
Do voteâ and comment💬 if you like the story.
Thanks for reading💙
-Vinee
Comment