Chapter 3

"Shit. Shit. Shit." I chanted under my breath as I slipped into my crisp black shirt. It was my first day at work and I didn't want to be late at any cost but for some reason, my alarm didn't work.

"Easy up, man." My roommate and best friend Isaiah said as he noticed me frantically combing my brown hair.

"You don't know her, Isaiah. She will literally suck the soul out of me if I am late." I said and picked up my car key, wallet and other essentials.

"She couldn't be that bad." He commented and earned a scowl from me the very next minute.

"That bad? She is a monster. A monster." I said and looked into the mirror for one last time before leaving.

"Damn, you look hot." Isaiah said and then handed me a peanut butter sandwich.

I chuckled at his words and gulped the sandwich down in three bites. After that, I rushed downstairs to the parking lot of the building where my car was parked. Sitting inside my car, I glanced at my watch. There was still twenty-five minutes before 8 and if all went right, I would be there in fifteen minutes.

With that thought, I started my car but the happiness didn't last long. "Fuck." I cursed when I encountered the long line of cars stuck in traffic on the main road. "Why God? Why me?"

I tapped my feet in anxiety, imagining Alice Monetelebalo her rage on me. There was no way in hell I could reach the office before 8 so I prepared myself for the worst. What was the worst? She could fire me.

There were other jobs, jobs where my boss won't be a blood-sucking vampire. So yeah, maybe it was a blessing in disguise.

Five minutes sitting there in pure agony, the cars finally started moving and I released the breath I was holding. Once out of the main road, I increased my speed and drove to Montelebalo Group of Industries.

Parking the car in an empty spot, I scurried inside with adrenaline pumping in my veins. The sight of a closing elevator made me run faster. The opening was getting narrower and narrower and it was about to close when I reached it and used my arms to make enough space for me to enter.

"Oh God! Thank you. Thank you so much." A groan of happiness escaped my lips as I was finally inside the elevator. Now, I won't be late and the devil would not have any excuse to insult me.

"You are late." A voice reached me and I rotated my neck to look at the woman standing in another corner of the elevator, her head lowered into a file.

"I..." I checked my wrist watch and it was still five minutes before 8. "I am not. I am here exactly at 8."

Hearing this, she shut the file in her hand and turned her head to me. She looked angrier than yesterday, if that was even possible. There was a big frown etched in her forehead and her nose was all flushed.

"If I ask you to be here at 8, you are supposed to be here by 7. If I ask you to be here at 7, you are supposed to be here by 6. Understood?" She asked.

"But---" I stopped when she raised her eyebrow. "Yes, I understand."

The rest of the journey to our destined floor went awkwardly. Once the elevator stopped, I sighed in relief but it was short-lived as I heard her call me. "Follow me."

Without uttering another word, I followed her into the hallway. Just like yesterday, a pin drop silence prevailed on Alice's arrival. She walked past everyone, radiating the aura of confidence and self-assurance, commanding their respect and attention.

Unknowingly, my eyes settled on her back. Her dark brown hair was curled with perfection and falling down her shoulders in layers. A little lower to them was her small waist accentuated by the red body-con dress she was wearing, and the waist was spreading into her nicely shaped behind. Finally, my eyes rested on her long legs, legs that suddenly stopped moving without any warning and I ended up bumping into her.

Before I could back away, she turned around and glared at me, with her face inches away from me. Her rage filled eyes threw daggers at me but all I could think was how beautiful she looked up close. She had flawless olive skin and wide set hazel eyes. Her nose was slightly crooked but her plump lips and high cheekbones made up for it.

"Stav," she said my name and I shook my head to clear these thoughts.

"Yes." I asked.

"Did you forget to wake up this morning? It's your first day and you are already making it hard for me to tolerate you." She scowled and I looked around to see everyone already staring at us.

"It won't happen again." I said, faking confidence.

Her jaw ticked at this and I feared if she would beat me up with her killer heels. Thankfully, she didn't. "It better not." She said and started moving forwards. This time, I made sure to keep my eyes on the back of her head and not any lower.

She stopped in front of an office that had her name on the nameplate. "This is my office and that one if yours." She pointed at the average sized room built right next to hers. "You will find my schedule and my last secretary's planner in your desk drawers. I want you to have a look at them."

"Okay." I said. It wasn't that much work. This means she wasn't one of those people who gives a lot of work to their workers just to assert their dominance. All I had to do was endure her harsh words and I was good to go.

"Where are you going?" She asked as she watched me enter inside my office.

"To do the work." I said the obvious.

"Do you think that was your work?" She let out a dry chuckle and I gulped. "Do you actually think you will be paid thousands of dollars for just this? After doing what I just told you, you are supposed to call Mr. Ymar Lim and ask them about our meeting. Then, you are supposed to look for all the projects of this past month and present me an analysis on the outcomes. Then, you will prepare the conference room for our monthly budget meeting and after that, you will personally go to the heads of all departments and ask for their feedback on our new yearly finance policy."

For a moment, my mind numbed on hearing all this. It was my first day at work and it was supposed to be light and easy. Who am I kidding? It's the monster  we were talking about. Did I honestly expect her to go easy on me?

"Can you repeat?" I asked, pulling out a notebook from my bag.

"I have better things to do." She said and walked into her office.

I am so screwed.

•••••••••••

By lunch time, I had looked at the schedule and planner, arranged a meeting with Ymar Lim, prepared the conference room for the meeting and met all the department heads. The only thing left was the analysis on all the projects of this past month.

On my way back from the finance department, I was breathing heavily. I haven't taken a break for a single moment and my head was close to exploding now. There were so many files, so many meetings to arrange, so many things to do according to the planner and schedule. And it was just my first day.

Once out of the elevator, I sat down on the first bench that caught my attention and took a long breath.

"Hard first day?" A feminine voice reached my ears.

My eyes followed the source of the voice and landed on the woman sitting on a desk in front of me. She had her light blue eyes fixated on the computer.

"Something like that." I replied.

"I'd say it gets easier but it doesn't." She replied.

"I figured that out." I passed her a wide smile. She was beautiful but in a more typical way; blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin.

"Shaira. Shaira Mae." She introduced herself.

"Stav Trajano." I smirked.

"Stav," she repeated under her breath. "You better get back to your office Stav. Miss Montelebalo has her eyes everywhere."

"Yeah, you are probably right." I said and stood up to go back to my office. "Nice to meet you. I thought only robots work here."

She chuckled at this. "Join us on Friday. It's club night. I'll introduce you to everyone else."

"Sure. I'll be there." I said and then exchanged my number with her.

With slow steps, I walked towards my office and I was about to enter inside when a voice stopped me. "Are you done with all the work?"

Turning my head to Alice's office, I shook my head in no. "The analysis is yet to be done."

"Oh. I thought you were already done with it, because you obviously had enough time to gossip around." She said and Shaira's words rang in my ears. She really had her eyes everywhere.

Instead of replying, I just smiled in return. It was time for a little experiment because I can't spend my days here shitting my pants every time she screams at me.

"Do you have any idea how much I hate tardiness?" She said and then her eyes widened. "And why the hell are you smiling?"

"I am not." I said and kept the smile on my face.

"Stop it. You look creepy." She said and I nodded with another smile.

"What is wrong with you?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, an action that made her cleavage more prominent.

"I read somewhere that it's hard to scold a smiling face." I said and she scowled.

"That's so not true. I can even rebuke a kid. Try me." She replied with a blank face.

"You are probably right." I said, widening my smile.

She glared at me, the look in her eyes enough to make anyone wet their pants. The sane part of my mind advised me to wipe off my smile before I received a slap on my face but I kept my expressions the same.

"Get out of my sight. Go take a break or something and don't show me your face for at least an hour." She said and walked past me into her office. A corner of my lips lifted at my small victory, and I decided to go to a nearby Chinese place for lunch.

Stav 1. Alice 0.