CHAPTER FOUR

During the night, I had heard Thea come in and check in on me but I didn’t turn. I was in no mood to answer any questions regarding work. Sleep came late but I was up again by 6am. Even if I was going to be fired today, there wouldn’t be any added reason to do it, I told myself.

I was at my building in no time. The structure loomed over me, regarding me as insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I held my bag tightly as I walked in. I was quite early as only the receptionist was in the lobby unlike the day before. I greeted her and she smiled in return. ‘phew! Okay. One down, many to go. I’ve got this!’ I tried to assure myself. 

I got up to my floor. No one was there so, I got around to the business of the day, going over files from the previous week and not missing a thing. 

While checking out the MOD project, Jeni came in. She was my team lead and I was going to be the bigger person. So, I greeted her first.

“Hi!” I smiled. She only raised her eyebrows in return and went to her desk. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. I wasn’t going to beg for forgiveness because last I checked, I didn’t do anything wrong. At least not to her but I didn’t want us to be on bad terms either. She had the power to make life a living hell as my team lead. I greeted once again.

“Good morning, Jeni.” I said, the smile staying longer on my face this time.

“I heard you the first time. I’m not deaf.” She scowled.

“By the way, you’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face here in the office after yesterday.” Her scowl slowly turning to a smirk. Surprisingly, she said nothing else and left me to my work.

Throughout the day, I waited for the other shoe to drop. I had bitten my nails to the bed and there was nothing else left to chew. Most people avoided me like a plague. Jeni gave me nothing to do and that left me with a lot of free time.

By the end of the day, there was a smile on my face when my phone hadn’t pinged. Even though it was pouring heavily outside, I didn’t even mind the rain. All I knew was that I wasn’t getting fired.

I looked at the time. It was 28 minutes past 4 and it was still raining heavily outside. The sound of trickling water triggered my bladder as I tried to find the restroom. I would’ve asked someone but most people, who had cars in the building, had left and the ones left were people like me which meant they were still revelling in yesterday’s gossip.

I turned around the corner and bumped into a hard body.

“Sorry!” We both said at the same time causing us to look at each other. 

My eyes squinted as my brain registered the figure standing in front of me. 

'Great just what I needed!'

“You.”

It was Mr Drey's friend from the night at the bar. 

"I don't think we've been properly introduced, dreamer girl."

I frowned at the name but I kept my tongue.

"I'm Joshua Tole, Kol's PA, but you can call me Josh. Lovely meeting you" I shook his outstretched hand. His smile only widened.

"Uhm, can you show me where the bathroom is?" I said, trying to avoid further embarrassment. 

"Just down the corner when you take a left. You'll see it immediately."

"Thanks!" I dashed out of his way and straight to the toilet. 

Now he'd think I was a weirdo. Just another thing to add to the list.

The toilet wasn’t hard to find. I sighed as I splashed water on my face feeling relieved from emptying my bladder.

I checked the hallway twice to avoid bumping into anyone. 

By 5, the rain had settled into a light drizzle that I could walk out in.

Just as I placed my foot on the side walk, a car ran past me right into a poodle of mud. 

The car horned like I was in the wrong. 

"Well fudge you too!" I yelled after it.

Fudging city drivers but I wouldn’t let it steal my joy. I was now an employee under Drestech.Co and I would find a way to fulfill my dreams one way or another. 

By the time I got home, certain parts of my clothes had turned as hard as brick.

"The f**k happened to you?" Thea shouted, looking at me from head to toe. I think she was more upset about the dress than about me.

"City drivers. That's what happened."

She grimaced slightly, understanding everything with just that sentence.

It took me a while to get every gunk out but when I did, I felt refreshed, albeit exhausted. Thankfully, Thea had ordered Pizza. Our Tuesday staple. 

While we sat to tear apart the food, Thea turned to me. I knew I couldn't avoid the topic no matter what I did. What Thea wanted to know, Thea knew.

"What?" I tried to play dumb.

"Well..." hinting me to speak further.

"Well what?" Her face, a mask of annoyance. I was slowly getting on her nerves and I enjoyed every part of it.

"For f**k sake Toria! How was it?" I laughed then I turned serious.

"My luck's really bad you know." 

"What do you mean?" Her right eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Remember the night at the bar?"

"Of course I do, weirdly enough. I particularly remember the good-looking jerk" I rolled my eyes. Typical Thea.

"Well, he's my boss. The actual CEO."

She smacked her hands together.

"No wonder he looked so familiar."

I was waiting patiently for the events of that night to kick in. 

"F**k!" She gasped in realisation.

"Yeah"

"Well, what happened when you met him?" Not wanting to repeat my tale of woes, I just told her that he didn't remember. 

"He didn't remember you?" She scoffed.

"Total cap. Even if I was drowning in tequila, I'd definitely remember you." 

"Well, he didn't so..." She didn't believe me but she didn't question me further. I told her about Jeni and I hoped to God they never meet. 

Two sirens would be available that day. One going to the hospital and one going to the police station.

Thea was crazy protective like that.

We both soaked up the atmosphere with a cup of hot cocoa and watched Friends till Thea slept off. She was always first to sleep off during a movie. There was no single movie I'd seen her actually finish. She only made it halfway and then she was gone.

***

The next day was typical and the day after that, even running to a week. I was no longer a newbie at work but Jeni hadn't still given me anything to work on. I hadn't seen signs of Mr Drey either and I wondered if it was a usual occurrence. 

I was tired of doing nothing all week so I confronted Jeni.

"I haven't had anything to do all week and I would like if I had something to work on."

I thought she hadn't heard me so I tried to repeat myself. Instead, she cut me off.

"Take this to floor 1 and submit to the secretary. Mr Drey asked for a progress report." She said without so much as looking at me.

I took the flash drive from her hands and walked to the elevator.

'When I asked for work, I didn't mean as a courier.' I muttered to myself. I sighed as the elevator dinged open for floor one. 

There was no one in the hall way. I tossed the flash drive up and down my palms searching for the secretary.

I was distracted with the tossing that I didn't notice a slight bump on the rug causing me to trip. The flash skittered across the floor. Having no idea where it skittered to, I searched around blindingly while simultaneously trying to soothe the hand that broke my fall. I turned towards the secretary's cubicle where I met a pair of black shiny shoes.

I turned up to look at it's owner.

"What on earth are you doing on my floor?"