Chapter 6

Nia's POV

He fired her. 

Because of me he fired her.

Everyone looked at the commotion in front of them with wide eyes. They continuously shifted their eyes between my boss firing an employee and back to me. I myself could not believe what I was witnessing.  

"But sir I was simply asking a question. I simply demanded a reason why I lost is that so wrong?" Penelope pleaded. 

"There you go again. What do you mean 'demanded', what gives you the right to demand anything from me." my boss interrogated. 

Her mouth opened and closed like a goldfish unable to come up with a response that can save her job it seemed.

This entire thing was giving me a mini panic attack.

I was now walking towards them in hope that I could resolve the issue.

I stood in front of both of them and cleared my throat to catch their attention.

Mr. Andrews turned his head to look at me and raised brow, as if asking me why I was there.

"I am honestly gonna be fine with her working here I don't have an issue you don't need to fire her; I swear it's okay." I pleaded for her.

"Did I say you're okay?" he asked looking at me dead in the eye.

"No sir but-"

"Then you're not okay." he interrupted.

"But sir-" I tried again. 

"As I said Ms. Greene please leave. You're fired." Mr. Andrews once again interrupted. "Meeting adjourned everyone get back to work and Ms. Richardson follow me." he announced.

He was already walking towards to the elevator before I could answer while everyone was scattering trying to get back to work.

I rushed to catch up him and almost tripped over my feet. 

We quietly rode the elevator and when we got back to the office, he opened the door and gestured for me to enter. I was too scared to argue so I simply did what I was 'told'. 

I thought we were just gonna forget what happened seeing as he already spoke and said what he needed to, but he of course had different ideas. 

"Ms. Richardson what was that." he asked way too calmly.

"What do you mean sir?" I replied innocently.

He looked at me as if I'd grown two heads and an extra hand.

"Do I need to explain or are you going to stop playing dumb and explain yourself because from what you could clearly see I am not in the mood." he answered clearly annoyed.

I nervously shifted from one leg to the next. 

"I just didn't see a reason to fire her. I mean she barely did anything except ask a question, which is a human's right. Plus, one of your reasons for firing her was because of me; but I genuinely wouldn't be uncomfortable working here even if she was. After all I spend most of my time in this office so the chances of me seeing her is slim." I explained finally breathing.

He let out a breath and looked at me before taking slow steps towards me. His presence intimidated me so much I found myself taking a step back for each of his step forward. Soon I was practically sitting on my desk with nowhere to run while he stepped closer leaving only an inch of space between us. I could smell his scent and the green specs in his eyes were now more noticeable, but those dimples were nowhere to be seen on his serious face.

"I don't care what you think. She questioned your ability which is questioning my ability and I will not have that." he spoke slowly. 

His eyes never once left mine and his breath fanning my face only made focusing harder.

He slowly pulled away giving me the ability to breathe again.

"Now get back to work I need my files and documents in order we'll soon be very busy with planning so chop chop Ms. Richardson." he ordered.

I quickly scurried behind my desk and sat down. I took my water bottle and practically gulped it all down. 

He was so close. Like really close and that's all I could think of. That's all that seemed to be in my head. Forget work I could only pay attention to my boss.

I slowly took some deep breaths in hope that could get some oxygen to my brain and send out whatever poisonous gas that was making me think this way. I was slowly getting back to normal and slipping into auto pilot and once again was hard at work.

Thankfully Mr. Andrews made me go home early stating that I needed to rest. And boy was I happy I don't think I could take in anymore deep breaths at the rate I was going I was gonna use up all the oxygen needed for mankind.

This day was a roller coaster. Now on to do what I always do when I have a weird day at work. 

Tell Claire.

I walked into our apartment and closed the door behind us. I called out for Claire ready to spill my guts to her. I needed to talk to someone about what happened.  

"In here," she called back from the kitchen.

"You will never guess what happened." I started walking up to stand beside her at the counter. 

"I'm sure I won't, so tell me." she said pleadingly turning to face me.

That was all the go ahead I needed and told her everything.

"So, you won?" she asked at the end of my story.

"Yes, but is that all you got from the story?" I questioned.

"No of course not, but I'm just so happy that you can go wit h me." she explained. 

"Now on to more important matters, your boss is in love with you." she stated as a matter of fact.

"What, no he's not, he's just protective of his reputation that I kinda hold as his assistant." I corrected.

"So, his reputation led him to firing a worker without understanding her worth to the company based on what she has done for the company but rather her insulting you?" she asked tauntingly. 

"Well...umm. I mean-" I sputtered out.

"I rest my case." she said smug.

She looked at me and smirk and walked out of the kitchen leaving me there to ponder over her impossible accusations. My boss would rather die than date me or any employee of his.

Not to mention he has many options. Way too much to count if you ask me.

I wouldn't say I'm ugly on the contrary I've always been proud of my looks and confident with my body.

My strawberry blonde hair flowed down to my back with effortless curls. My hazel eyes were a beautiful color that I've loved since childhood with my plump rose lips which required no type of gloss or lipstick to make them stand out as one of my best assets. I wasn't 'short' but I wasn't tall either I suppose. I had long legs with what was considered an hourglass figure I attained from years of working out. 

I can see why a normal man would look my way but not my boss that had more women than he can count.

I huffed in annoyance and left the kitchen to go take a shower and head to bed. I had a lot of work for tomorrow.

I walked into the office the next day completely brain dead. I could not sleep thinking about what Claire had said.

I'll admit I did have a tiny crush on my boss. He's handsome and when he's working, he's so attractive. I mean who wouldn't have a crush on him. But did I ever think he would think of me in such a way. Never.

But because of Claire I became like a high school girl with a crush playing all the what ifs in my head.

As soon as I got to the office regardless of how brain dead I was I needed to throw myself into work to ensure I didn't think about my boss.

I was helping with the decision making of the events for our profit raise since they were my idea.

First, we decided on hosting the VIP event first.  We set out to decide on how they would receive the points. We settled on the idea of giving out something similar to credit cards that they use to collect the points. That was the easy part especially since we already knew how much we had to make since they list of the VIP members was already in front of us. Now we had to design the card and that was left to designing department. 

Next, we had the small event to include our other customer; the competition. There had to be a page created for interested participants to send in their videos and pictures. That was left up to the IT department.

All in all, my main job was just to say yes and no to things and get Mr. Andrews' approval on them in the end. 

It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. 

Mr. Andrews deciding on the prize for the competition already made it even easier. He decided he was gonna give away an entire set of our newest designs for free. I knew if I was one of the participants, I would do everything I could do to get that.

"So, Ms. Lady Boss what do you plan on doing for your week off?" Martha asked as she walked me to the elevator. 

"I was planning on going to a resort with Claire." I confessed.

"I'm jealous." she faked sobbed.

I chuckled at her theatrics and pressed the door for the elevator to open.

I got on doing a small wave goodbye to her and headed up to where the occupant of my mind was. 

Now that Martha mentioned the time off, I need to ask him about it. 

Maybe sometime away from him may be good for me.

I knocked on the door waiting for him to tell me to come in. When he did, I pushed the door open and walked to stand in front of his desk.

He looked up at me and cleared his throat. "Before you start your report, I need to tell you something. From this moment on, you are no longer required to knock before you enter. That will only be for normal workers." he announced.

I nodded while my heart skipped a beat.

Does that mean he didn't think of me as just a 'normal worker'.

Focus Nia.

I brought myself back to earth made my way to my desk to start on my report. After finishing it I brought it to his desk to be examined. 

He took it from my hands, his eyes tracing over it contents. He nodded handing it back to me.

"Good work. You already know what to do so I'll leave it up to you." he replied.

He returned his attention to the papers on his desk until he realized I didn't move from in front him.

"Is there something else?" he asked returning his attention to me titling his head to the side like a confused puppy.

I'm trying to focus but I can't do it when he looks that adorable. Dang it.

I took a deep breath in and let it out to get my senses back.

"Sir about my week off-" I started.

"Forget about it." he interjected.

"I'm sorry?" I replied.

"You're needed here so you won't be getting that week off." he announced.

"But I won the competition and made plans I don't understand, that's unfair." I argued.

He looked at me his face hardening and rose from his seat. He took slow steps from behind the desk to stop in front of me.

"Unfair?" he repeated. "The contract you signed says otherwise. It clearly stated that you have to be working here for 6 months before you can get time off and it hasn't even been 2 months." 

"But-" I tried to defend.

"No buts!" he yelled.

I jumped taken aback by the sudden raise in his voice, but it also made me angry too.

Why won't he let me leave. I'm having a mental battle with myself because of him. I need to get away from him.

"Why do you want this time off so badly anyway. Is work that hard?" he asked. "Or do you now have a boyfriend?" he interrogated his jaw clenched.

I kept my mouth shut refusing to answer. Which set him off.

"Answer me!" he demanded.

"I need to be away from you. Away from everything that surrounds you. Everything that makes me feel like this about you!" I yelled back frustrated.