I was busy signing the annual finance report when my phone rang. Picking it up absentmindedly, I responded, "Hello."
"Good evening, Miss Montelebalo. Can you kindly spare a minute to my client, Stav Trajano? He says he is an old acquaintance of yours," Stav's voice responded from the other side.
"I am sorry. But Miss Montelebalo is a little busy because her last assistant left her to deal with dimwits," I replied, fighting the smile that was appearing on my lips.
"Aw. Darn it. My client was really looking forward to talking to her," he said.
"Well, in that case, maybe she can spare a minute or two." I bit my lips, and closed the files, leaning back in my seat. "How is your first day going?"
"Awful. There are hundreds of pending projects, unread files and postponed meetings that I have to deal with. I haven't had a free minute since 8," he replied.
"Sounds exactly like I expected." I chuckled. "Luckily, your last boss was kind of a Sata
It had been two weeks since I started working at my company and talking to Alice was the highlight of my days. It was our little ritual. After returning from the office, I would text her to ask if she was free and then we would talk for about twenty minutes to half an hour before going to sleep. There had been some harmless flirtatious exchanges between us, but I wanted to make things official. So I was planning on visiting her as soon as I was done with all the pending projects and asking her out."And guess what, I actually fired an employee today. Me. Sweet, innocent me. I never thought I'd fire someone one day but that idiot just pushed the wrong buttons at the wrong time," I huffed."Am I a bad person if this news makes me happy?" I heard her click her tongue. "I mean, now you can understand why I do such things.""Well..." I trailed off. "Kinda.""See, I am not the devil now, am I?" she asked."For me, you will always be the devil." I chuckle
When Stav stopped responding to my texts and calls, a series of weird emotions happened. The first day, I was agitated. I thought he was probably busy and made excuses to myself for his lack of response but it did nothing to calm my racing heart. The second day, I was anxious because I thought I did something to earn that reaction. The next day, I was worried for him. I thought something had happened to him but his Facebook profile said he attended an event last night. So apparently, he was alive and kicking. And then the day after that, I was furious.It had been two months since then and it's safe to say, I was still furious at him.Most of the time, I kept myself busy so I wouldn't have to think about him. Because whenever I did, my hands itched to go to him and strangle him for his stupid behaviour. He avoided me like a plague and the worst thing was, I didn't even know why.Right now, I was inside a cab, on my way to a meeting from the hotel. Kaye was sitti
Ignoring Alice when she wasn't around was hard, but ignoring Alice when she was around me was my own personal hell. The minute I saw her, all the reasons for ignoring her sounded so trivial and all I wanted was to go to her and listen to her voice.For the last two months, I had been anxious. My sleep wake cycle was disturbed, my head ached most of the time, my heart beat faster than it should, my stomach was a mess. I thought it was because of the extra work stress but when my eyes landed on her, a sense of euphoria swirled through me and all the anxieties were settled, all the aches were cured.I wanted her to talk to me, to scold me, to glare at me, but all I got was a cold greeting and it left a bitter taste in my mouth.I couldn't exactly blame her for the cold shoulder she was giving me. After all, after being AWOL for two months, I stole a project from her the day we met again. And Alice wasn't someone who took such things lightly.I tried to expla
Once the elevator door closed behind Stav, we were alone in the small space with nowhere to go. He stepped towards me, his signature scent filling the air. I took a step back, recreating the space between us but he seemed to have ignored my attempt and continued walking forwards until we were standing forehead to forehead."I am sorry," he whispered and his breath tickled the skin around my mouth."Well, so am I." I flashed him a humourless laugh. I was angry, so angry that I wanted to rip his stupid clothes off. What the fuck? No, that's the opposite of what I wanted. For all I cared, he could wear another suit over this one."I didn't want to hurt you," he said."Well, you did a pretty good job at that." I glared at him, crossing my arms in front of my chest before his heat could seep through me and lower my defenses."Let me explain why I didn't call you back. It will make you hate me less." His voice was filled with grief and desperation and a
I woke up with a strong arm tightly wrapped around me and a heavy weight on my chest that turned out to be Stav's head. My eyes searched for the clock which showed that it was almost midday, which meant we had slept for twelve hours straight. That was the most I had slept in days and apparently, so had Stav."Hey." I brushed his hair to wake him up. My cheeks were flushed at our position, the way our legs were intertwined and his mouth was resting in the valley of my breast, using me as his own personal cushion."Stav," I whispered, grazing his back with my fingernails.He stretched on top of me and then lifted his head, staring at me with his pearl green eyes."Come with me," he said, giving me a peck and then rolling off me. "I want to wake up like this daily. In fact, take me with you.""What about your company?" I said, playing with the dark lock that had fallen on his forehead."Ugh. Why do you have to remind me?" He groaned, kissing my
Another month had passed.Another month of drowning myself in work to avoid facing the fact that I was all alone. Another month of being heartbroken, and mentally and physically stressed. Another month of trying to distract myself by taking different hobbies like Pilates and gardening in my free time.I missed Stav, so much that it was killing me. I remembered two weeks ago, when I finally caved in and ended up calling him. We talked for about an hour and that's when I realized how correct he was. Listening to his voice made it harder to stay away.Sundays were comparatively better. I spent the afternoon in the academy and the rest of the day doing different chores. I had befriended all the other students in my class and it was refreshing because they didn't know me as the tyrant CEO.As far as work was concerned, there was nothing to talk about. I had grown used to having Stav in the office and in his absence, the whole office felt dull and drab. It was
It was almost 2am. After taking a bath and fueling myself with caffeine, I returned to my home office to continue working. With this new decision I had made, things were going to be really hard for the next few months. The work load was going to triple, but I would happily do it if I could be with Alice at the end of the day."You are still working?" I heard Dad's voice. He was standing near the doorframe, watching me with curious eyes. Mom and Dad came to visit me a few days ago but I couldn't find enough time to spend with them."Yes, Dad. I still have these reports to review," I said."You shouldn't have made the decision of moving the head branch to Philippines right now. Things are going to be really hard for you. You should have given yourself some time to settle in," he said."Don't you think I know that?" I passed him an exhausted smile. "I need to be with her, Dad. It's killing me not being near her.""You love her, don't you?" He chuckled
The minute I saw Dustin dressed in a three piece suit, I immediately realized that this was a mistake. It was never supposed to be a "friendly" dinner. And then there I was, dressed in blue jeans and a button down black shirt, with my hair tied back with the help of a bandana."Where are we going?" I asked him nervously."Your favourite restaurant. Delilah's eatery," he said."I don't go there anymore, since I came to know that the owner, Delilah is homophobic and racist," I replied and an awkward silence prevailed inside the car."Oh, I didn't know that. Where do you want to go?" he asked.Somewhere casual, so this won't turn into a date."Let's go to McDonald's," I offered.He laughed out loud at this."I am serious. I am craving a cheeseburger," I added."Wait, you are kidding me. Right? We can go to some nice burger place. What about Emily's?" he asked."Fine." I sighed in defeat.There was no way out o