Chapter three- The bad- no the not so bad news

"I know by now, everyone has heard the rumor going around the office that Retro-Corp has been sold so, I'm here to clarify the issue." He began, his spectacled eyes seeking everyone's out as we all held our breaths in anticipation. "The rumors are true. Retro-Corp has been sold-"

The poor man was cut off by loud groans and cries of despair.

I run my hands across my face, blocking everything out and openly welcoming my thoughts. God, what was I going to do now? After I had graduated from my master's program at NYU, dad had offered me a job, but I had gently turned him down. The man owned a chain of hotels all across the US, and not only that, he had multiple stocks in several giant companies across the country, and I was sure he had found me a job that I was going to love, but I didn't even let him finish. The thing is, I desperately wanted to achieve something on my own... something that I could say with confidence was mine; built from my own toil, from my own achievement and dad had understood me perfectly.

You may not understand, and may call me ungrateful like mama had but that's quite alright... each man to himself after all.

I wondered what I was going to do now...

Perhaps, I could ask my sister Ana to pay me to babysit her kids, but then I brushed the thought off as soon as it came to mind. Knowing Ana, she'd probably bully me into doing it for free and doing it forever and as much as I loved Ronnie and his little sister Adriana, I knew I wasn't ready for that kind of responsibility yet.

Hell, if I was, like mama would have had her wish granted by now...

I'd have been married and just about ready to pop out my fourth child or something. For now, it was pretty awesome playing the cool aunt, while their mum took the award for being the bad guy.

Plus, I could bail out whenever I felt like it, and let me tell you, that happened a lot but, it was mostly when baby Adriana had done a number two I honestly didn't want to take care of.

Very wicked of me, I know... but hey, no judging.

On a more serious note I was quite worried, but I slowly felt hope seep back into my chest. I was easily going to get another job... I had impressive credentials after all so, what was I so worried about?

Who knows? It might even be a better position than I had currently.

"You're dismissed." I faintly heard the MD say completely coming back to my senses when everyone stood up, seats scrambling noisily. I followed Lauretta out of the conference room in a daze, heading towards her cubicle this time, and collapsing on her swivel chair in a heap. She settled in the seat opposite me gracefully, a relieved smile on her face.

"Well for someone who could be losing her job any moment from now, you sure have a pretty nice smile on your face." I muttered absentmindedly, reaching for one of the many pens messily scattered on her desk and trying to put it in my mouth.

Trying being the keyword here. She snatched it from me before I actually could.

With a roll of her eyes she said, "What are you talking about? Weren't you paying attention during the meeting?"

I grinned sheepishly. "Uh... let's just say I blanked out after you're dismissed."

Lauretta laughed. "Goodness! You have an attention span the size of a needle, honestly! I wonder how you managed to graduate with first class honors." I laughed along, pretending to be slightly annoyed.

"Hey! Take that back! Of course, I know how to pay attention... but it must be something very important else I can't make the effort."

I nodded smugly, when Lauretta asked, "Oh really?" proudly continuing, "Oh yeah. Take the meeting for instance... why should I pay attention when I already know the outcome? So that he can-"

"Mia--" Lauretta called out in an attempt to interrupt me.

I barely noticed. "-feel better about himself, and feel like he ha-"

"MIA!" She tried again, louder this time.

I glared at her in irritation, what at all was she going say that couldn't wait for me to end? "What?!"

"We're not being fired." She stated simply.

"Wait, what? But the MD said--" 
"If you had been paying attention, you'd have heard him continue that it was only true to a certain extent." She cut me off, shaking her head in exasperation when I still failed to comprehend.

"The company has been sold alright, but our new boss isn't firing anyone... especially if they're doing their jobs as they should and are not slacking off." She finished.

I felt my heart leap with joy.

I wasn't going to be fired... none of us was!

God I could kiss literally anything, even a frog for this turn of events, and I didn't even like reptiles. That was how happy I was.

I stood up and stretched lazily, turning to Lauretta with a small smirk on my face. "Well, I better start heading to my office... Don't want the Sales Ninja chopping my head off for being unproductive." She laughed loudly. "You're so mean sometimes."

"Meh. But you love it." I teased. "I'll see you after work, don't miss me too much." I called out as I stepped out of her cubicle and made my way to my office.

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