CHAPTER SIX

She hadn’t even tried to be subtle to use my idea. She used the entire presentation verbatim, only changing my name. She obviously had no shame.

The finger tapping had stopped. Mr Drey’s eyes zeroed in on the screen. 

“What is this?” 

“Just something I came up with sir.” Jeni smiled nervously. As she should. The fudging liar. I hated that I could not swear without feeling uncomfortable but slowing, this girl was changing everything about me.

“You came up with this?” It was hard to tell what he was thinking but I assumed there was an atom of disbelief on his face. There were murmurs all around. People whispering quietly beside me. He changed the file in his hands to the one she extended towards him and flipped through. There was a slight relaxation of his brows. That must’ve meant something good.

“She did that? Wow. No wonder she’s the team lead.” Someone who was seated right next to me said. No, she didn’t. I did. Me. 

Mr Drey motioned for her to continue and the room quieted. She kept butchering my presentation as she went on. I would’ve done far better than she did because it was my work. My sweat.

“This is impressive...” I yipped with glee in my mind. He liked it. Not that I cared but he liked it. I schooled my facial expression to portray nonchalance.

“So, why is your presentation shabby?” A snort almost escaped me. I quickly covered it up with a cough, earning stares from across the room. Including his.

“Sorry.” I quietly said, looking away.

Jeni’s eyes narrowed on me before she turned to reply Mr Drey.

“I’m sorry sir. I only had a few days to do this so I could show you what I was working on. I didn’t have time to make a proper presentation.”

His facial expression didn’t change but he dismissed the rest of us, leaving her and Alfred.

‘Figure head team leads that just steal whatever their underlings do. If she had spent the amount of time she did changing everything to look like she did it, she’d have come up with a the perfect place to get her a non-choking, tear-inducing, allergy-arousing, environmentally-friendly perfume. Contaminating the air with her nasty musky scent. It was August for crying out loud.’

At this point, I was just rambling to myself not realising where I was going. I bumped into a hard frame on the wall. 

“Ow!” I rubbed hard at my forehead. A snicker tore my focus away from my forehead. 

“You!” My eyes narrowed at Josh. He could’ve warned me. Instead, he let me walk into a frame of - I looked at it again - an award being received by Josh himself.

“You really are clumsy.” I was tempted to flip him the bird so instead, I said something I shouldn’t have.

“Your boss tell you that?” I slapped a hand over my mouth. His eyes widening. What I didn’t expect was a loud laugh that echoed throughout the floor.

I scratched my temple with my index finger nervously as he calmed.

“I like you. You’re quick witted.” My face flushed a deep red from the embarrassment which only caused him to laugh more. 

“Actually, Kol said to bring you.” Kol, the first name I knew of him. Wait what? His words registering fulling in my mind.

“Why?” I chewed on my lip nervously. He only shrugged in response

“Why do you call him that?” I asked, feeling strangely comfortable around him.

“What? Kol?” I nodded 

“Well, Nicholas is a mouthful and he absolutely hates Nick. So, I call him Kol instead, except when I want to get on his nerves.” He shrugged. Not many people actually used their full names so, it was understandable.

“Isn’t that Kool?” I gave him a questioning look.

“That was a very terrible dad joke. You suck at things like these, don’t you?” He only laughed in reply, causing me to laugh as well. His friendliness was contagious and if I remembered correctly, the night at the bar too, he seemed quite friendly.

“I remember you from that night though.” I looked away from his peering eyes. My face reddening from embarrassment. “I thought you danced really well.” I lifted one eyebrow.

“I doubt this is a place for that kind of conversation.” I chuckled nervously.

“We’ll talk later.” We had reached Mr Drey’s office. We were too unfamiliar with each other to call him Kol. Besides, we were at work. He and Josh must be very close then, I reasoned because he didn’t even bother knocking. He just opened the door and entered first, his large body blocking my view of the office.

“How many times have I told you to knock first?”

“Dude chill! Even if you were pants down, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

“Ew!” Whatever Mr Drey was about to say died in his throat because I had said it, out loud.

Josh moved to the side, putting me directly in his line of sight. His suit jacket was off and his shirt sleeves were rolled up midway to his elbows. My mouth watered at the sight of his veins peeking out a little on his forearms. I caught myself midway thinking and shook my head to dispel inappropriate thoughts. I was fond of that lately when I was around him.

I took my eyes off him and took a look around his office. It was typical. No signs of life, as one would expect from someone like him. Just a floor to ceiling glass window, a huge black desk and chairs. There was a laptop opened a fraction on the table, leading me to wonder if what Josh had said earlier had to do with it.

Josh found himself a comfortable spot on the lounge chair while I stood nervously, waiting for someone to say something, anything. I couldn’t look Mr Drey straight in the eyes so, I looked everywhere but him.

“Have a seat.” I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I sat down in front of him.

“Did you know she’s actually clumsy in real life?” My head snapped to Josh behind me. 

‘what is wrong with you?’ I mouthed to him. He only smirked in response Mr Drey cleared his throat, forcing my attention to go back and forth.

“I don’t think you’re needed for this meeting, Josh.” He looked pointedly at him.

“I think it’s imperative that I join you.” I had a feeling he was using ‘imperative’ for the first time judging by the way he dragged the word. Also, he seemed almost proud for using the word. This earned a short chuckle from me. He grinned at that. I rolled my eyes and turned around. The look on Mr Drey’s face wiped the smile off my face. I adjusted myself and turned serious.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” Josh perked up at that as he walked towards me, trying to understand what was going on.

My face contorted in a frown. I ransacked both hemispheres of my brain, wondering what exactly I’d be meeting him for in the first place. We parallel lines that had no direct business with each other.

“No, I don’t think so.” Giving up when I came up with nothing. He widened the top part of the laptop and turned it to my face.

“How about this?” The colour on my face drained.