Like many workplace newbies during their first week, Lisa felt she was too inexperienced and too inexpert. As soon as she completed her training in the first week, she was able to perform her Job as an Assistant directed by Peter effectively.
Peter was the CEO of the company with a team of five assistants or assistant managers, and he was an educated, amiable and decent man. Lisa found that all the team members were lovely and humorous after getting along with them for several days.
Despite what had happened in the first day, Lisa considered Ella a good friend and a dependable companion. Ella's job was somewhere between a secretary and a personal assistant.
The executive office was next to the Finance Department, so they shared a tea room in the top floor; which was a small room had tea making facilities and other refreshment facilities but was not furnished with tables and chairs as a common room.
It was a typical working day; Lisa was going to the tea room to get a cup of refreshing drink during lunch break, then she heard the conversation.
"Have you heard that Joseph had broken up with Marry last week?"
"I am not shocked; do you know which one is Marry?"
"The fifth or the forth, maybe, that we know of. He is such a playboy."
"It seems that Joseph can't keep a girl for more than three months."
"let's take a wild guess who will be the next one, I am thinking of Alice from Sales Department."
"No way. Alice is a smart girl and she already has a boyfriend."
There were three ladies couldn't be stopping gossiping and laughing with cups on their hands in the tea room, Lisa recognized two of them from the accounting as soon as she came in, but she could not remember their names.
The ladies paused and looked at Lisa while she was drinking.
"Good afternoon." Lisa greeted them with a wave and a broad smile.
"Good afternoon, Lisa." Said the taller one who had long fair hair with a violent pink dress, greeting her courteously.
"What is so funny?" Lisa could not care less about the gossip; but she also knew that people on the job often develop close relationships with coworkers as they came to share gripes, jokes, gossip and satisfactions.
As a newbie she needed to tried to cultivate good relations with her colleagues. Perhaps her expectations of lunch conversations and water-cooler gossip were a legacy of the last time she was in that kind of office environment.
She pretended to be interested in the conversation although she was not.
"Have you met with Joseph yet? He is the head of the cell-project department right now." said the one next to Lisa who was as tall as Lisa; and her long black hair was swept back in a ponytail with casual clothes.
"I'd only met him once in the meeting room; What's with him?" Lisa asked.
Upon the utterance of this sentence, the three ladies exchanged a quick and meaningful look.
Soon the taller one took a slurp from her cup of water,it was like she had a huge announcement;since she leaned forward, whispering conspiratorially to Lisa.
"He is very famous at our company because he loves to date coworkers and breaks their hearts. And he only hooks up with the incredibly beautiful ones. You know what I mean, right?"
"Office romance, are we not allowed to date someone in the office?" Lisa asked rhetorically.
"It is not against the company's regulations, but the ladies he had dated would depart their job because they cannot handle seeing him every day when the relationship goes south."
"Did Joseph ask them to leave the office?" Lisa was curious.
"I don't think so, He just dumped them and broke their hearts."
Lisa soon learnt about the intrigues and scandals that went on in the company, Joseph played an important role in these dirty stories since he was a ladies' man or a player. People lived in this small city for their whole lives were old-fashioned about relationships and marriage, but they had an insatiable appetite for affairs about the famous.
"Is he rich?" Lisa finally got to the point.
"It was said that he owned several prosperities here and abroad, and his family owned a company was worth billions of dollars; but his staff revealed that he was very stingy and hated spending money."
"The richer,the meaner; it seems that he is a notorious guy." Lisa made a conclusion.
"Lisa, you are pretty and in good shape. You must have a boyfriend." the lady remained silent quickly change the subject.
This was the first time Lisa had met her, she was very nice-looking with short hair, wearing a long floral skirt which was nothing more fashion than it. There was a great deal of her sincerity and earnest in her soul that Lisa could not resist to tell her about everything.
"Not yet, but I've never thought about dating anyone with who I worked." Lisa added: "Sorry, who you are?"
"Jenny, I am an accountant from the Finance too.What a pity, a smart guy was asking about you." Jenny Said significantly.
"Thank you, but I am not interested."
Lunch break was over during their entertaining chitchat, Lisa said her farewells and left. What a relief! She was deeply concerned that there would be rumors about her due to what happened at the first day in the meeting room; maybe someone would spread tales about her in an attempt to devalue her work; but it was not mentioned ever since.
She could breathe a collective sigh of relief and went back to her desk.
There was no admittance without a security pass, she put her key-card that gave her access to the office. There were five desks in the office for them and a separate office for Peter that people were allowed inside with Peter's permission, each individual office had been provided with a terrace garden which became its private, informal breakout zone.
Lisa passed near Ella's desk, Ella was dressed in a white, tight-fitting shirt which looked great on her, she was the same age as Lisa so they had a great deal in common to talk over.Lisa stopped for a small chat with Ella.
And she finally knew the name of the ladies who were talking in the tea room; afterwards they arranged to meet after work to do some sports. Both of them spent most of their working days sitting in a cubicle behind a desk.
It was time to work out, Lisa was finishing her work on schedule and she was about to go straight to the nearby gym with Ella, when Peter came out of his room followed by Alex.
"Lisa, could you please help Alex to update all the statistics to the latest?" Peter called her.
"Sure, it won't be long." Lisa reseated on her chair, she knew Peter was talking about the report that she had sent to him earlier.
Alex was an assistant manager with experience and seniority among the five of them, he had a formidable list of qualifications which commanded authority. He was an outgoing person, not so shy with people and worked well with coworkers, that others could pick his brain to deal with intractable moments. And his cubicle was next to Ella's, Lisa was thankful that she was so lucky to have such easygoing company.
Lisa texted Ella to go first and she would see her at the gym later, it was getting dark and late when Lisa completed the files, Alex took over the file so she went to the gym in a hurry. The gym was in the other building which one passage could take them to, it was about ten minutes' walk.
In order to get to the gym as soon as possible, she cut through the small park so that it would help her to save some time.
There was no story without coincidences, a small crowd had gathered around in the park under the streetlight. They stood there blocking her way so Lisa went to watch out of curiosity, then she saw that an elongated familiar shadow was drawled under the direction of the light.
It was Joseph, he was fighting aloud with a lady, it must be Marry.
"Marry, we are splitting up and we are not getting back together. please leave me alone." Joseph's voice was calm and emotionless.
"But I love you, I just wish someday and somehow we can be back together." The girl was bowing her head and weeping. She was wearing a long red skirt which her size was camouflaged, she was trying to hug him, but the skirt restricted her movements.
"I hate to part on such bad terms. But It's over." Joseph turned his back, leaving the crying lady behind.
It was like watching an old-fashioned break-up scene in a TV drama. Lisa decided that she should just slink away, even though there was barely time for her to escape unseen.
Joseph was going to leave when he saw Lisa in the crowd, Lisa paced with her hand covering her face, not knowing what to do, presumably to stifle his noticing. He gave her a significant glance and walked straight towards her.
"Lisa, what a surprise. Are you going to the gym? I want to go there too, I thought maybe we could go together." Joseph acted like nothing had happened.
You bet!
He must be a member of the gym too. If you enroll at a gym that's miles away, you won't be visiting it as often as you should.
"look, I am sorry, I didn't mean to spy. I need to go."
Then Lisa took to her heels without any delay and soon out of sight in the darkness, if this was a hoax, it was one that Joseph was fully blindsided by. Lisa ran like hell and kept going forward, thinking nothing and sweating until she arrived at the gym building.
To this day, Lisa still could not understand why she did it.
"Let's have a dinner party this weekend." Peter announced in the team meeting. It had been almost a month at work, time went so fast, even though what Lisa felt was just like more months passed. On Sunday Peter invited them all to go out in order to run up a nice tab and rest with relaxation. Alex told Lisa that it had been a long time since they had dinner together, so Ella booked a well-known restaurant which was famous for its tasty cuisine for lunch online in the Centre of the city. Lily was the third lady as another assistant manager in the office, she was a few years older than Lisa and Ella and she was happily married. However, like all the other working moms, achieving work life balance was the ultimate question for her. William was a lot of fun to be around with, he took advantage of good opportunity to go on business trips with Peter and gained his favor. And his wife was in the Sales at the company. The restaurant was decorated in an elegant and contemporary style whic
Life is starting to back on track after things calm down, the question is so simple, and yet Lisa couldn't answer it. The two parties reached a secret agreement that the subject was never mentioned again. It's a Saturday, Lisa is having breakfast with Joseph when the phone is ringing, it's Ella on the phone who is recently pregnant with her second baby. "How is Ella?" Joseph is asking when Lisa is putting down her mobile. "She experiences sickness, again the pregnancy is very similar to her previous one, she can take care of herself, I believe that these are some of the things she can do for herself.By the way, I am planning to visit her next weekend." Lisa is sitting back at the table to finish her toast. "I am going to a business trip next Friday. So when are you going to tell her about us?" Joseph raises an eyebrow. "She is not one of your exes, does it matter? She was the first one who said we were meant to be a couple. I want to know why you never called or texted me after yo
The whole city had a festive holiday atmosphere because December was coming, but not everyone approved of the festival. Ella was one of the rare individuals who won't enjoy a holiday season at least a bit, for she was being single after a terrible break up last year. Holidays were difficult days for singles. Lately Ella was obsessed with blind dates, she aspired to meet someone for the New Year kiss, sometimes Lisa had to accompany her per her request to set up a double date. On Sunday morning, it was so early and Ella was all dressed up and waiting on the living room to attend another blind date party. Lisa decided to rid herself of the burden of the secret that she would like to confide all her secrets to Ella. "Ella, there is still much time. Can we talk for a moment?" "Ok, you are freaking me out a little, just spill it out." "I am still a virgin and I can't be into a serious relationship with a man emotionally or physically." "Oh, I knew. On our last double date, you were do
"Did you see the pictures she had been uploaded?" Within about a week, rumours of Joseph's new lady friend swept through the company. From what Lisa had heard around the water-cooler, the soon-to-be-a-girlfriend of Joseph was a reporter of the local television, she was a real celebrity in town dressing fashionably and appearing well-groomed. The routines of work could sometimes make it seem like a dull and deadening life, it was important for them to have a topic. It was a gossip-filled society, but each person reacted differently towards gossiping. For Lisa, she liked the collaborative and relaxing environment and she wanted to get along with her colleagues. Lisa was definitely in her element doing her job, being able to ride a bicycle to work with Ella was an added bonus of the job. To her surprise, she met Henry on her way a few times. Whether she was at the senior staff meeting, eating at the café, or run into Joseph in the elevator or any circumstances, not saying hello or ign
On a typical day's shooting of the company, the crew would come in and rig the equipment and help to put sets together, it was Lisa's job to accompany them through the whole tour. At half past nine in the morning, Lisa meet the crew members in reception and she led the way to Peter's office.Rose was not there, Joseph would pick her up and host her personally per their arrangement.The first leg of the day's journey was the interview of the CEO, a talk with Peter of how he became a CEO of Hixcth and the industry-level trend in terms of market dynamics and product development in the future.To some extent, the talent of the top manager usually determined the company's future prospects, and in Lisa's opinion that Peter was the best leader anyone could ever dreamed of.Peter had just celebrated his 23 years' service with the company, it was his first and only job after he got his PHD in economics. And he maintained consistency of his personal life and his work life, his wife Melinda was
Lisa is sitting on the terrace of his penthouse, making a pretense of watching the sky Garden restaurant. It is one of Joseph's properties, there would be no need to worry about neighbors peeping is just one of the perks of being living on the top floor.Over years Joseph develops a few harmless eccentricities, some is partly a matter of personal style. For example, he likes being naked every time walking out of the bathroom.He is standing at the door, wearing nothing not even a damn towel.Joseph catches his underwear thrown him, shaking his butt cheeks while putting it on.One reason he loves about Lisa is that she cannot hold a secret, it is all over her face if she has something in her mind. He is not going to leave her alone, he reaches to hug her tightly and kisses her cold lips."Now can you tell me why we need to hide from Ella? It is my day off so I have a whole day, Lisa, do not try to dodge the topic. ""All right, she had a secret crush on you. Did you know……""Lisa, I am
"What's up?" Joseph sent Lisa a message which created an intersection between two parallel lines, life indeed was full of coincidence. Everything was in a thorough mess for Lisa after Ella left the country with her newly husband. The new girl Janine who covered for Ella was a scheming girl and she did not get along with Lisa at all, but the guys in the office seemed to like her very much. And Lisa did not want to find a replacement as a roommate. It was a humid evening on work day, she had nothing better to do when a message came in, it was Joseph. It was a message even more casual and meaningless than any words, yet, somehow, it was a consolation. By the time she was unable to find anyone else to talk with, Lisa replied immediately, he was a talkative guy and she struck up a conversation with him. They spent hours talking about their dreams, how she wanted to see the world, his of being a new CEO in the family business. Sometimes those that put on the happiest of faces all the t
"Adieu! Adieu! Janine." Lisa hoped not to see her again. It took two days for the work handover, then Janine was transferred to Marketing because Peter thought her skills might best be used in the new department. Lisa had been so busy that she had neither the time nor the inclination to think of other things, though she had to work harder than before, she felt no fatigue. Suddenly the air in the office was as fresh as ever, with Alex and William in the office treated her as before like Janine had not been there. It was not that Lisa did not hold grudges against them, she just did want to struggle and only Peter mattered. It wasn't until Ella had gone that she realized, for her at least, being friends with colleagues didn't emerge as a priority at all. Life was once again very hectic but empty. At the start, Ella chat with Lisa online very often, lately they did not talk at all, Lisa took it for granted that life moved forward. She was very concerned about Leopold, she initiated