IMOGEN MARK
"Ouch," I whined, rubbing the bump on my forehead. "Nikita," I called my best friend who was sprawled carelessly on the bed.
Nikita Bend obviously heard me but chose to ignore me; she winced and turned around, covering her ears with a pillow.
"Nikita!" I snapped, wearing a frown.
She groaned, muttering cuss words to herself before she succumbed to roll over again and sat up straight, pulling her knees to her chest. "What the heck is your problem?" She frowned, raised her arms above her head to stretch, yawning loudly.
"Is the bump on my head so noticable?" I asked, rubbing the bump gently.
She stopped yawning, fluttered her sleepy eyelashes for a while then stared at my forehead. She didn't say anything. After a few seconds, she burst into laughter, holding her stomach for support.
"Jeez, Imogen. How the hell did it get so big?" She laughed boisterously.
"Really? Is it that big?" My eyebrows furrowed in worry.
"Oh, you bet your ass it is." she continued to laugh.
A frown appeared on my face. "You're so dumb. Can't you say it in a nice way without laughing like a moron?" I hissed, turned around and headed to the vanity mirror to scrutinize the bump. "Ow, this is so bad. How do I go to work with this?" I whimpered.
"What? You can hide it with your hair." She said.
I pivoted so she could notice my glare. "Would that work?"
"Well… duh!" She shrugged, rolling out of the bed and slid her feet into a pair of bunny slippers by the edge of the bed.
I twirled back to the mirror. In the best way I could, my hair brush assisted me in hiding the red bump with my shoulder-length blonde hair.
"Nikita?" I called again, whirled around to face her.
She had taken off her nightgown, ready to go to the bathroom. "Is it better now?" I questioned hopefully.
She peered at my forehead once more. "I guess so." She shrugged.
"Grrrr, you're no good." I groaned.
"I know." She giggled. "Are you seriously going to the office wearing that?" She pointed her index finger from my head to toe.
"What's wrong with my dress?" I raised an eyebrow.
"It's too… revealing." She squared her shoulders. "It's only a few inches below your butt and shows an indecent amount of your cleavage."
"Duh! Kade Ricardo doesn't have a problem with it so whatever." I rolled my eyes, picked my bag from the vanity chair. "I've gotta go now, bye."
"Yeah, he's dumb. Bye." She waved.
I held the doorknob, ready to leave but she stopped me by speaking, "you're going with Lila, right?"
"Sure, do you need something?" I raised an eyebrow at her.
"No," she shook her head negatively but I could sense that something was fishy.
I squinted my eyes at her but brushed it off my mind, opened the door and left the bedroom. I hurried to the kitchen, packaged the remnant of last night's cookies into my bag then left the house.
***
Lila Austin, my second best friend, and I arrived at 'RICARDO International' where I worked as the Billionaire, Kade Ricardo's secretary. It was the best thing of my life to be so fortunate to be his secretary.
"Thanks for covering up for me yesterday," Lila reiterated when we got into the company.
"Silly, it's okay. What are best friends for?" I nudged her shoulder gently. "You've done a lot to cover up for me as well."
"Sure." She smiled. "How's Nikita now, you said she's sick?"
I chuckled. "That was two weeks ago."
"Oh…" she muttered.
We wrote our names in the attendance book then got into the elevator. Just when the elevator doors were about to close, someone stopped them and— Jovi Brett, Kade's friend, walked into it, permitting the doors to close so it could transport us to the 65th floor.
Jovi scanned me from head to toe with total irritation. What was her problem? "Slut." She muttered but my ears were sharp enough to pick it. What the heck?!
I scoffed, ignored her in order to avoid creating a ruckus. As it seemed, she was probably Kade's girlfriend and I couldn't risk picking a fight with her and losing my job.
Lila held my hand and shook her head. "It's okay, ignore it." She heard too?! I simply nodded in response.
After we waited in total silence, the elevator doors dinged then separated. I was the first to step out of it with Lila behind me.
"I'll see you at lunch." She smiled, took out the key to her office, from her bag, inserting it into the right hole.
"Yeah, sure." I forced a smile at her. I was still so furious from hearing Jovi's word. Was she insane? Just because I dressed like— well, not so decent to work, didn't make me deserve to be called a slut.
"Hey!" Jovi's voice caused me to automatically stop walking. "Let Kade know I'm around and will be with him shortly." She said.
I didn't bother to look at her, neither did I say a word. I only nodded and continued waking.
I reached my office which was literally in Kade's office but separated by a wall and door.
I exhaled deeply, gave a slight knock on the door. I could've entered into it since I had the right to but I had to be careful.
"Come in," Kade's thick voice vibrated through the air from inside.
I pushed the door open and shoved myself into the office. Kade was comfortably seated on his chair behind the huge mahogany table with his laptop, mug of coffee, flower vase, and other files on it. He had his eyes fixed on the laptop in front of him.
"Good morning, sir." I greeted with a polite bow of my head, resuming walking to my office. I remembered Jovi's words. I could easily not tell him but what good was it going to be.
I pivoted. "Kade," I called. Still, he didn't raise his head from the screen. What was his deal this morning? He had never been this ignoring. "Jovi said to tell you she's around and would be with you shortly."
"Jovi's here?" He snapped his head in my direction. Dummy!
"Yes." I nodded.
I was about to take my leave but he stopped me by calling, "Imogen,"
I narrowed my eyes unintentionally. "Yes?" I responded before quickly adding, "Sir?"
"Come over." He wiggled his fingers, indicating that I walked to him.
Muttering cuss words internally, I ambled to him, my heels sound filled the room as I walked. All I wanted was to sit comfortably in my office chair and do fun things before I started the day's work.
"Why are you late today? Again." He questioned, sitting up straight.
Was that seriously what he had to say? "I'm sorry." That's what I said most of the time when he asked me the same question.
"Okay. Let me get to my main point." He exhaled, rubbing his palms together. His eyes scanned the table like they were searching for something.
"Main point?" For some reason, I felt nervous at that.
He picked up a file then opened it. He glanced through it shortly, raised his head from it, "you're fired!"
"Fired!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Kade, you can't fire me!" My eyes instantly became tear-filled. This job was all I had to sustain myself. "Wh—why— what did I do?!" My bag fell from my hand.
"No, you didn't do anything." He shrugged, glanced at the file once more.
My head moved around in confusion. My hands were vibrating as I tried to think of what could possibly be the reason for it. "Why then are you firing me?" Tears streamed down my face, obviously ruining my makeup but I cared less about that.
"See…" he trailed, scratching the back of his neck. "You definitely didn't do anything wrong. Jovi, my girlfriend, is facing some financial crisis with her family and she wouldn't accept money from me directly so I'm making her my new secretary because she's fit for the job." He grinned. I swear I felt like scraping that stupid grin off with a butter knife.
A frown appeared on my face. "That doesn't make so much sense to me."
He frowned too. "What? I get to decide, not you."
My sense jerked back to life. Without thinking twice, I dropped to my knees, joined my palms together. "Please I beg of you, Kade— Mr Ricardo." I called him formally for probably the first time in forever. "You can give Jovi some other job like your Personal Assistance or girlfriend representative." I didn't even know what the hell I was saying.
"What the hell are you doing? Get up." He ordered.
To make things more dramatic, I bowed my head and wailed, shaking my head negatively. "No! I won't. Please, this job is all I have for now to sustain myself."
"Why are you being so dramatic about th—" he paused. "Wait, did I say I'm firing you?"
I slowly raised my head up, confused. "Yes?"
"Oh." He chuckled. "I'm not firing you, I meant I'm TRANSFERRING you. My best friend, Hames Hendrix is in need of a new secretary and wants you so I'm transferring you to him."
***
"Transferring me? That's… I…" I was totally lost of words to say."Now stand," he smiled.In an instant, I rose to my feet, picked my bag from the floor. "You mean Hames Hendrix, CEO of 'HamIX International'?" My eyebrows furrowed unintentionally."Yes," he nodded, narrowed his eyes at me. "Do you have a problem with that?""Yes!" I didn't mean to snap at him but I did. "He's been here a couple of times and I swear he doesn't seem like a nice person at all. He's always so arrogant, rude and—" I was cut off."It's okay. You'll have to adapt to him." He shrugged, opened the drawer of his table and took out a brown e
Quick A/N: I made this chapter long, which means more words to read. I'll try to update it sooner. Don't forget to leave your comments, they're really motivating 😊***"Nikita, are you crazy?!" I snapped at her."What's your problem? I can't drive you to work everyday, I also have things to attend to with my personal life, now get out of my car." She unlocked the doors."Why'd you stop driving mid-way? HamIX International is still way far away from here." I grumbled."That isn't my problem, you know?" She smirked at me. "You can walk to the nearest bus stop which is twenty minutes away then go with a public bus."
~ HAMES HENDRIX ~"Can I leave now?" Miss Mark asked, obviously looking so stressed out from the day's work.I glanced at the wall clock. It was 2 hours past working hours. It wasn't my fault I had tons of things to do than close so early."Have you planned my schedule for next week?" I raised an eyebrow at her."Uh— I'm almost done with it. I'll submit it tomorrow." She said, scratching the back of her neck and avoiding my gaze. I was glad she adjusted to my style of working, else it was going to be a huge problem if she still continued arguing with me."Okay. You've postponed my appointments for tomorrow, right? It has to be a free day for me."
~ IMOGEN MARK ~I had woken up this morning as early as I could. I couldn't bear to get into trouble with that asshole of a boss.I had worn a knee-length grey pencil skirt with a black shirt tucked into it and a grey blazer, with a pair of matching white stiletto heels and a white handbag which had fake diamond designs around it. My shoulder-length blonde hair had been dyed into black last night with hair extension to make it fall all the way down to just above my butt. My thin lips were covered in thick wine lipstick, making my electric blue eyes seem like they were shining brighter than ever.I didn't bother to depend on Nikita for a ride to work but hired a taxi driver to pick me up every morning.With a grin on,
"You've been so busy with work since you started working for that asshole. Now it's Saturday, get your lazy ass up!" Nikita yelled into my ear, pulling me up by my shirt."Kita, I've got to sleep." I groaned, flipping over to bury my face in my fluffy pillow."Girl, you're crazy. You've done nothing but sleep all day long. It's 2pm!" She shouted and slugged me.My eyes popped open at that. I turned to her. "Seriously? How's that even possible?" Not believing her, I shifted to reach for my phone on the nightstand. I checked the time and it was indeed 2:14pm."I've missed you, bitch. Let's party or do something fun!" She squealed, hopping off the bed. "Be ready in half an hour. I already made b
"Miss Mark," Hames called. "The Manager of 'Friz and co.' will be here in a few minutes. I hope everything is ready?""Uh— yeah, sure." I scratched my arm, dropping the files on his table. "I'll send the remaining part of it to your email."He hummed a response. His fingers drummed on his laptop keys really fast, forming the beat of a song.Seriously? He hadn't said a thing about last Saturday. He was really going to ignore it? I felt his gaze on me so I raised my head to stare at him."What do you want?" He questioned crankily."Nothing." I shook my head."If it
"You can leave now, Miss Mark." Hames said with a dismissive wave of his hand.I glanced at my wristwatch and it was three hours past my closing hour, if I even had one. "Thank you so much, Mr Hendrix, for releasing me at such an early hour of the day." I said sarcastically with a fake smile.He raised his head from his laptop, leaned back in his chair and intertwined his fingers. "Oh, really?" He scoffed. "Why don't you wait till it's not so early and do some more work."My eyes widened at that. I wore a grin at him, shaking my head. "No, thank you. I'll be leaving now." I nodded then turned around and took my leave. A frown returned on my face as I shut the door. "Stupid man." I hissed.A young m
"Wow, you're leaving for work so early?" Lila teased. "Your new boss has done more good than bad to you."A small smile tugged at the corner of my lips. I was in no mood to argue with her. "Silly." I stood in front of the oval-shaped dressing mirror, adjusting the collar of my pink button down shirt."Gosh, you're also dressing like you're going to work and not a club." She looked truly dazzled, buttoning her shirt."Silly." I chortled, brushing my hair and tied it into a ponytail."Why did you change the color of your hair? I liked it blonde and shoulder-length." She walked to the nightstand and poured herself a glass of water, pulling its brim to her lips.