11. A kind friend

MIRABEL

"This is wrong! What the fuck have you done? I asked for you to arrange them all accordingly to how it should be but somehow you managed to make it worse. The details is evident and all you have to do is arrange them like you do in school. What is wrong with you!" Giveon shouted at me, throwing the papers all in my face.

I swallowed the knot that formed at the back of my throat. To say I was tired would be an understatement. I was more than tired. I was exhausted and frustrated. Since morning I've been going all over it and trying to fix it but it's like every time I present it to him, it just gets worse.

I was holding myself from crying because I was close to crying. He was shouting and now I didn't know how to pick it all up and restart because I'd done it every way that I could. 

Would it make me a bad person that I was recording him while he shouted at me? After the third time that he shouted at me, I chose to record him.

"You are so dense and dumb. I can't even stand you.  If you can't work then quit!" 

"Get out of my sight! I don't want to fucking see your face." He spat out. 

I walked out of the room with tears in my eyes. I hated Giveon. I hated him so much and wanted to make him pay for how he had treated me. It was lunchtime and I couldn't leave because I had to work on the documents. 

Giveon left the office some minutes ago leaving just me to deal with my struggles. 

"Hey." I heard Beauty's voice.

I lifted my head a little to see her. She had a smile on her face and I'm guessing she came to check on me when she didn't see me.

"I texted you, for no reply and I also called you," she remarked.

I picked up my phone to check and confirmed that she did call and text but I kept my phone on silent so that I could focus on work and finally give Giveon what he wanted.

"My phone was on silent mode," I replied.

"What's wrong? Are you alright? You don't look fine?" She asked concerned and at that moment I felt like crying more.

"You seem to have lots of work. What's wrong?"

"Somehow I'm doing everything wrong," I voiced out quietly. "He has been complaining and insulting me all day, complaining about how bad I was doing with the job but I don't understand what I have done wrong. He won't tell me what to do," I explained.

"Calm down and breathe," she said politely and I do as told, wiping the tears in my eyes. 

"What are you dealing with? What does he want, maybe I can help."

"I don't know. This morning he dumped the documents with me and asked me to do something about me. He didn't tell me what to do and somehow every time I did it the best possible way that I could, he ended up complaining, thrashing the documents all in my face, and asking me to redo them." 

I exhaled deeply afterward, trying to catch my breath.

"Let me see." She came over to where I sat to see the documents for herself. 

"This is for the new project. It just needs proper arrangements on what is to come first and what should be after it so it's easy for better presentation. For example let’s say you have a doll, there’s the head, shoulder and the body right? Everything has to be arranged according for better execution.” she explained.

How was I supposed to know that? I've never worked here in my life before and somehow I'm supposed to be a genius in that field. 

"But he should have directed you on what considering you are new to the job," she added.

"Give me a minute," she gestured for me to stand up from my seat so that she could sit.

"I'm going to see what it is I can do so if there's anyways you've arranged it short and for scolded let me know okay?" She said and I nodded my head in understanding.

Somehow the way she arranged it was so different from how I did it and she removed some unnecessary details too. Somehow she didn't do what I did and was able to adjust it.

She was efficient and seemed like she knew what she was doing. I felt grateful at that moment.

"All done. I think this shouldn't be a problem anymore," she said.

I felt glad and pulled her in for an embrace. 

"Thank you so much. You don't know how much this means to me."

"It's fine. What are friends for? Now this is done, let's go have lunch…" she looked at her wristwatch. "We have less than thirty minutes and you don't want to return after the CEO or you might as well kiss your job goodbye."

I placed the printed documents all in one place before taking my bags and leaving with her. 

While having lunch, she suddenly brought up the conversation about her ex-boyfriend and how he won't let her be although she plays a role in why he wouldn't let her be.

"And what could be that role?" I asked inquisitively.

"Sex." She whispered.

"Sex? I don't understand. You said he wants you back but you don't want it back but somehow sex is the problem?" 

"Not necessarily that," she sighs. "Let me explain for you."

"When I was with Max, he disrespected me a lot and I lost my confidence."

"Then don't bother taking him back then," I suggested.

"I don't want him back."

"Then what do you want?"

"I want him to be my friend with benefits."

"And why is that?"

"It's because of the sex as I mentioned earlier," she says. "He's good at it when it's rough and hot."

I couldn't picture what she said in my head because I'd never been in that situation before. I've never had a boyfriend. I was bullied in high school and when I finally thought I'd be able to live better, I had to work till I stopped just to make ends means and then my mom fell ill and everything just got worse.

But besides that, I've never had any man walk up to me telling me that he's interested in me and sometimes I begin to wonder if I was unattractive because it didn't make sense that none ever came to me.

"I love BDSM and somehow Max is the only one who does it right. After I broke up with him, I tried hooking up with other men but the sex wasn't good. They couldn't fuck me the way I wanted. I felt nothing but emptiness." she explained. 

I didn't know how exactly to react to her because I was inexperienced.

"You cannot relate how can you?" A low laughter escaped her lips.

"It must be good having a man that treats you well and fuck you right," she mentioned.

"Are you talking about me?" I asked, slightly taken aback.

"Yes, you. Or you don't have a boyfriend?" 

"Let me correct that," I chuckled lightly. "I've never had a boyfriend."

"What!" She gasped in shock, getting almost everybody present in the cafeteria's attention.