My phone rang in my arm as I froze in front of Mr. Duncan’s shocked response, a text light up my phone, ID says four leaf clover, ‘I sent Mr. Duncan to get you since you will be working on a project together.’ ‘Sorry.’ ‘Goodluck.’ I receive both texts back-to-back, but it is too late.
“Um…...” I heard Mr. Duncan’s voice snapping me back to reality, so I slammed the door in his face screamed my lungs out with embarrassment, before rushing to my room to change.
I take my very time to change, one because I need to make sure I am ready and level minded when I see Mr. Duncan again, two because I am really embarrassed of the whole thing, he saw my underwear, how am I going to get out of this?
“Fiona, there is a hot guy here to take you to work, apparently four leaves sent him.” Selby chimes, I let her in on what had happened, and she burst out laughing.
“Oh God this is gold, can I get a ride to work too? The awkward atmosphere is going to be better than lying to a Karen about being a manager.”
“Hopefully, there is no way I am seating at the front seat of that man's car.” I say making sure all my undies are not exposed this time. Let us get my customer service smile ready.
“Ah… Mr. Duncan sorry to keep you waiting.” I say he carved his lips into a smirk.
“Don’t worry I didn’t wait long.” That ugly smug how I wish to punch that ugly mug.
“Would Mr. Duncan mind if we drop off a friend at her place of work?” I ask hoping he agrees, and he nods yes.
I immediately hop at the back of the car not even making eye contact, and Selby laughs as she gets into the passenger seat. The whole ride consists of Selby talking to Heath about his money, yeah, she talked about his money all ride and he entertained her. We drove half an hour later, leaving an awkward silence that I prefer.
“I never took you for a lace girl” Heath mummers turning me into a complete vampire by the paleness of my face.
“Um… sir?”
“Nothing can’t wait to work with you, Gian sang you praises,” he says making me angrier, I know what he said before and he knows I know, I can see him smirk through the dashboard mirror.
“I am grateful for Mr. Easton’s trust in me,” I say gridding my teeth with anger, “I look forward to the kind collaboration with Mr. Duncan.”
We start talking about the project as he drives to the office, hopefully we never talk about my lace undies ever again. Apart from the terrible attitude he is not a bad person, well only business related.
“Mr. Duncan, you have come.” The obnoxious ex greets us when we arrive at the office who was ogling at his boss, seems I am unto something with this one, he is in love with his boss, let us just observe for now.
“Oh... Miss Lennon you are here too.” Carl says making me roll my eyes.
“Let me show you to the office you will be working at, since Mr. Easton has a personal engagement; I will be leading the project until he returns.”
Carl scoffs at my statement but I ignore him, professionalism is the key to getting through this, Clover’s husband needs to take care of my friend and the least I could do is hold a fort as a good assistant.
During the meeting I explain why partnering with us to create an even bigger and efficient boat with the help of Easton tech’s advance technology would make not only trading huge container by ship better, but we can also attract rich people on getting them quality ships for their vacations.
Carl is angry the whole time and disputes my every point with some dumb reasoning, but I know enough about what I am doing, I have been doing this job for 9 years after finishing my administrative course for one year I got immediately into job hunting, with this job as my first and only job since then.
“Why are you leading the project you are just an assistant?” Carl asks rudely, “you only have an administrative certificate how do you know about trade.”
“Actually, I just finished my Honors in Financial management,” I say angrily, since I have been working at Easton Tech for these 9 years, they had helped me take long distance learning degree in financial management which was fully funded.
“Ah... quite impressive of you miss Lennon,” Mr. Duncan says, “you know if you need a job that goes with you qualification you can give me a call, I am willing to double your salary from here.”
“Thank you very much sir, but Easton tech is my home, I am not willing to leave.” I firmly respond.
People think I do not earn enough because I don’t have a car or a house, with the car thing, it is because I cannot drive, I barely passed my driver’s license and Clover refuse to let me buy a car until I can drive safely (personal reason due to losing her father through car accident.)
With the house part, I just feel too comfortable at the place I stay to even move out, moving out takes too long. I have enough savings to retire early and even buy a home.
“Well gentlemen that is all for today, please contact me or Mr. Easton if you need more clarity, our technicians start working on a prototype next week, hope to see you all there.” I say bowing goodbye to them.
“Miss Lennon a word,” Mr. Duncan says, “Carl may you please go tell the driver to get the car ready?” He definitely was telling him to leave us alone, which Carl clearly hated, he hesitantly walked out of the room, and Heath made sure Carl was long gone.
“Name your price?” he mutters proudly.
“Pardon?”
“How much are you willing to jump ship, even if you want to be just an assistant Carl can be adjusted to a different department.” I could not help but chuckle at this attempt, he is not the first to try and poach me.
“Sorry sir, you do not understand, it is not financially motivated, I stay at Easton tech because it is my home.” I proudly recited the words I had been reciting for the past four years.
“But if you ever change your mind…”
“I know where to find you, though I doubt I will change my mind.” I say before bowing goodbye and leaving this annoying man, I can feel his eyes on me, they burn holes in my very skin.
After the long day of holding the fort for my boss, I rushed to see his wife who was now discharged to check what had happened to my friend.
“Okay you look fine, what happened why did you go to the hospital then.” I asked to bewilder; I had thought she probably would have been hurt.
“Well, we are okay.”
“Who is we?”
She gently puts her hand over her belly and rubs it, I could keep it in, tears started flowing like my eyes were a flooded river. She is pregnant.
“You are pregnant? Oh my god you are pregnant.” I was now on my knees crying, after so many years, four years of them trying, four years of me calling my friend to talk her out of her harmful thoughts. “Please don’t cry, you are making me cry as well.” Clover says in tears herself. “I am so happy, oh my god congratulations,” I say hugging her, “Oh, hugging you is safe right we will not hurt our baby?” “Of course, it is I really need a hug right now.” Clover says. We cried together in happiness on the couch, Gian blessed his soul cooked for us since our eyes were too swollen to see and we were tired from all the crying. Since it was late for me to leave, I stayed in the guest room that night. The next morning my mom, (Clover) woke me up after getting my bath ready. And all I had to do was bathe and get dressed as she had already ironed all my work clothes. “Good morning.” I say going downstair for breakfast. “Good morning, I see our little girl is ready for school.” Gian jokes,
“Babe?” Clover says approaching me, she knew when I was angry, I would be like an angry cat. “Don’t babe me, why are those two fools here?” I asked angrily, Selby burst out laughing again, ‘this is going to be a fun cruise’ she muttered happily. “Well remember when you left last week, because we assured you, we will be able to handle the preparations?” Of course, I remember I was given an early leave by Gian and decided to fly to Mauritius before everyone to check out the place taking Selby who was finally fired for messing with customers. I nodded to tell her I remembered. “Well, we could not prepare anything, everything was such a mess, my hormones were all over the place and morning sickness, oh the morning sickness we so infuriating” Clover burst into an emotional rant. “And you went to Mr. Duncan for help? You could have called me,” I ask folding my arms. “We didn’t ask him, and why would I disturb your vacation?” she says calmly, “well we asked Lucas, you know Lucas Davis,
“Hi, love, is something wrong,” he follows my eyes to his crotch, yep, I was caught staring. Our eyes meet and he smirks at me, but I cannot look away from his eyes. If I do, he will think I am embarrassed by looking at his thing so I just pridefully look at this man’s burning eyes. “Ahem” I try to compose myself, “well sorry for bothering your session Mr. Duncan but you are a bit too loud, can you keep it down a little.” “But I am not the one moaning, can I call her, and tell her she is too loud,” he asks making me more furious than I could ever be. “You are the one putting your thing in her so you should be the one to monitor her loud moaning voice.” I shout angrily, making use vague words while referring to their activities. He puts his finger on his chin as if he were thinking of some profound solution that would help the both of us. “Well, Fiona love, can I call you Fiona, or you are hating me because Carl broke up with you makes you hate
In his room just across from his bed is a small table with two pillows, a bottle of whisky, and cards. “Seat down there,” he points at one of the pillows, I give him a side eye. "You want to get me drunk?" I mocked him. “Come on I am bored, and I know you are bored too, so this guy at the bar suggested this game and I went and bought it,” he explained. “This better be a lighthearted game,” I give in and seat at the pillow, he smiles like a fool in love and seats at the other pillow. “So, the name of the game dare or drink, and pick a card with a dare, you do it or drink, and you do the same.” “Are the dares random?” maybe being a cat isn't for me, because I could feel a cold sweat. “Yes.” “Hmmmm…... I do not like whiskey; don’t you have wine?” I tell him before he quickly stands up returning with a bottle of red Chateau Margaux and a glass, he opens the wine for me and pours it while he pours his whiskey. “Getting drunk
I hear him cracking up, which makes me angrier. The situation I am in is very embarrassing, but I couldn’t get out of it until I collected enough thoughts to act with confidence. “Click.” I hear the click of a camera bringing me back to reality, I pick my face up from his crotch to see him with his phone up taking pictures, this jerk. I angrily look at his ugly face, and he continues to snap pictures of my face, a smirk adorns his beautiful, wait ugly face, like he is having a time of his life. “Ugh… Give me that.” I cross my arms and glare at him. “Come and get it, or you are afraid you will end up using my crotch as a pillow again?” “That was a mistake I tripped and fell, just give me my phone and delete those pictures in your phone.” “You are no fun you know that?” he says, handing me my phone, which was still in the conversation between Carl and I, with his ridiculous response. “Joke, hahaha, man you are so desperate, besides I am with a man I love, and we are both laughing
“What do we do?” I whisper to Heath, “if Carl sees me here, we are in big trouble.” I look at Heath who is lazily getting off his bed, he looks at me with the most tired eyes ever, like he was judging me. How dare you judge me, Heath Duncan? “What?” I condescendingly asked. “Do you love him that much?” “Love who?” “Carl, you seem to care for his feelings so much.” he asked condescendingly. “I just don’t want to ruin your friendships okay, ugh… why would I love that jerk ever again, I did love him once, once okay. Now think of something to get us out of this.” He smirks at me before answering, “let us continue what we were doing and forget about the fool knocking at your door, the next morning you will tell him you were asleep when he came.” He looked at me with the biggest smug, “problem solved,” he whispers to my ear holding my waist and pulling me next to him. I bite my lower lips seductively, maybe we should just resume what we were… “Knock-knock-knock.” Maybe not. “Mr. Dun
I woke up a bit later than everyone since I slept late because of someone, eyeroll, I had gone to the breakfast table to find everyone there but Esther and Clover. “Morning,” I greet, “is Clover having one of her crazy morning sicknesses?” “Yep, she yelled at me three times in five seconds,” Gian says amused, “that is a new record.” I chuckled, Gian was very understanding of Clover and this new journey she is going through, I smile as Esther comes to join us, without Clover. “Where is Clover?” I innocently ask. “I left her with her in laws?” I freeze at that statement; Gian’s family is not on this ship clearly because I would have known. “Which in laws?” I asked angrily. “Some old woman claimed to be her former mother in-law, she tried to get me to stay with her, imagine,” Esther rolls her eyes before feeling arms grab her collars. “You left her alone when she clearly told you not to?” I asked angrily, I know pretty well who th
“Good morning” I am startled by a deep voice in my bed, that I even tumble to the ground. “Ugh…, that hurts.” I murmur rubbing my sore butt that I landed on, I peek to the bed to see naked Heath on my bed. Oh yeah, I did make the bad choice of sleeping with him last night. “Get some clothes on, ugh,” I say standing up forgetting I was also naked, I quickly take the blanket to cover myself, Heath starts laughing, “don’t worry I don’t mind you not wearing any clothes.” He stood up to go to the bathroom not even caring to wear clothes, what did I even get myself into? “Ugh. I feel so sore,” I mutter, making him halt, “keep walking Heath.” He chuckles at my statement, “you really are cute do you know that.” Ugh what does he mean by that, I roll my eyes as I pick up his clothes up to throw on him. “Get dressed and leave Heath.” “Ouch, I feel used now, who knew my cute Fiona could be so heartless.” “Sorry for being so heartless poor