Chapter Two - Tease me Marcus

Out of concern, Cassie rushed downstairs and saw a crowd already gathered at the receptionist’s office.

At first glance, she thought she had been bullied. But on a closer look, she discovered that it was their job applicants at it again.

Emily, the receptionist, was not even as calm as she appeared. She would definitely talk back at anyone who gets on her nerve.

Little wonder how she was given that position, maybe it was because of the cute smile she wore. They had begged to see Mr. Grey but she kept saying he was temporarily unavailable.

She forcefully made her way to the front of the crowd feeling quite terrible already.

“Hey guys,” Cassie shrieked.

Immediately the other staff saw her, they dispersed to their various offices. She stared at them in amazement.

“I need you two to calm down” she added.

They turned towards her direction spontaneously and for some uncharted reason, they stopped arguing and faced her.

“Could you please sit while I attend to you two?”, she spoke slowly while making some wild expressions with her fingers.

“Ma”, the male applicant spoke, “we have been waiting her for over four hours now and all she does is fiddle with her phone and acting indifferent.”

She forced a smile and moved closer to them. She was dressed elegantly with a matching pair of shoes and the female applicant could not stop staring at her. At first, she was uncomfortable with the stares but she later assumed that perhaps, she was admiring her style of dressing.

“As a prospective staff about to be employed, you need not behave that way in a company you intend to work for. Except you both have plans to work somewhere else”.

“No ma’am”, the female applicant replied.

“I would have assured you that my boss will attend to you in a couple of minutes but that would be too dangerous”

As she spoke, their attention gradually left her to the stairs. She curiously turned round to her boss heading towards her direction.

“Good afternoon sir”, they both greeted in unison. He pretended not to hear them and continued with his steps.

“Miss Cassie Peyton”, he called out.

“Yes Sir”, she answered in fear, “When did it become part of your core duty to address my applicants?”

“Sir… Sir… I was only trying to help” she stammered.

“And who gave you the right to start speaking for me? Firing you right now will only be an understatement on my part. Back to work Miss Peyton!” he groaned.

She hurriedly ran up the stairs with her face down in embarrassment. What will those prospects think of me? She sat in her office feeling very furious. The meeting was about to begin in five minutes but she was already feeling tired and famished.

“If not because he pays very well, I’d quit this job right now ”, she said, clenching her fists on her laps.

Shortly, she heard footsteps approaching her office, she tiptoed and peeped through the window. It was her boss again.

“He must have sent them home”, she whispered angrily. She never wanted to be a workaholic, all she needed was an assistant and he still refused to grant her request. She stood there staring at him angrily until he was out of sight.

The only thing that made her move away from there was the signal she received from the secretary.

“The meeting!” she exclaimed, stamping her feet on the ground.

Slowly, she arranged some files on her desk and walked sluggishly to the conference room. Of course, she knew she was not late so she did not mind maintaining her pace.

To her surprise, everybody including her boss was seated already probably waiting for her to arrive.

“Gosh”, she muttered, she did not hear Mr. Grey passing by again. Even in her disloyalty, she knew she could still be loyal. She entered the hall feeling scared and bowed her head in shame.

“Miss Peyton!”, her boss called out, she stopped immediately turning to face him but her face fell in disappointment.

“I hope you know you have proven yourself unworthy to remain an asset in this company?”

She kept mute, that came out worse than she expected.

“Well, I want you to know that your expectations can always be cut off anytime, any day” he added, stressing the last word.

“I am aware sir”, she said and moved quietly to an empty seat behind the table.

The next few minutes of the meeting was blurred to her because she had lost concentration. The meeting began with an opening speech by their boss, followed by the secretary reading out the objectives and agenda of the meeting as well as taking down what was going on in the present meeting.

The copies of the agenda were passed round even when there was a projector displaying a larger copy of it for everyone to see. During the course of the meeting, Cassie wanted to remind her boss of his promise to get her an assistant but she chose to keep her mouth shut. She was not ready to be humiliated again, she had gotten enough already for the day. She did not participate in any of the discussions and thankfully, no one seemed to care.

Her boss finally ended the meeting with his regular speech.

“I want to apologize for the inconvenience or calumny, if any, that I may have caused today. I’d always prefer being arduous but please if you insist, humility pays.”

That seemed to be his best words because he never failed to mention it at the end of his speech.

The other staff dismissed to their various offices walking in groups of two and three but Cassie delayed a bit before joining them. She wanted to quit her job but kept having second thoughts about it, she was not ready to do something that would make her regret.

She briefly recalled how she went to different companies, knocking from one door to another, attending different interviews only to receive negative feedbacks. She remembered how happy and hopeful she was when she finally got a job and compared it with how far she had gone. She could not give up so easily, she had to bury every thought about quitting, especially when she had no backup plan.

But was she going to continue that way? Was that how he treated other staff or was it just her?

Her face was flushed again with anger.

She gently climbed up the stairs and headed towards her office. She could hear some silly noise coupled with shrieks of laughter from other staff.

While paying attention to every step she took, she saw someone standing in front of her office. It was Marcus, her intent worker.

“Cassie baby” he called out and chuckled before she even got closer to him. She smiled reluctantly.

“What brings you her Marcus? Are you here again to solve problems that aren’t yours?” she inquired and they both laughed.

Marcus was a sanguine, always smiling, cheerful and playful. He always cheered her up in situations like that in a way that seemed to be a mystery to her.

He found his way into her office before her and made himself comfortable while she kept on staring at him in surprise. He noticed it and smiled tenderly.

“Cass, you no longer have to guess why I’m here, do you? Relational small talks aren’t your thing but you see this four walls?” he continued, “it will make you start feeling like it’s a prison unless you go out and breathe some social interactions.”

Cassie burst into laughter. She probably could not find the right words for him so he slowly moved from where she was standing and sat beside him looking angry again.

“Oh! Come on! Don’t give me that face” he said fiddling with her hair. “Nobody dares to challenge you without seeing an iota of positivity in you. Chill babe, at least he didn’t fire you.”

Hearing that, she could not help but smile bluntly. “Marc, he didn’t fire me today, but what if he eventually does?”

Does that even make sense to you?” He replied, keeping a disgusted face. “Nobody fires a queen with a blonde hair”, he said while stroking her hair.

“You never stop flattering me”, they both laughed.

“You know your presence glitters my spirit” she chuckled.

“Oh! What a lucky man I am”, he laughed again. “Now get up, clear your desk and don’t ever put on that lugubrious look on your face again”, he said, heading to the door.

“Yes, daddy!” she smiled widely. “Thanks for coming around Marc.”

“Don’t mention, I'll be back again,” he yelled while slamming the door.

Marcus had always taken time to check on her since he was hired. He was always there for her and ensured that she was fine everyday before leaving. But why did he always do that? Was that just his nature or could it be that he was feelings for me? But he never said so, she wondered.

She fell back on the chair and stared at the ceiling for a while, one could think she was counting it except for the fact that she kept blinking continuously. She quickly grabbed her earbuds and wore it in her ears since she was feeling bored already.

She brought her laptop closer and started scrolling in search of a report she made earlier, she needed to copy it into her boss’ flash drive so he could analyze it before the next morning. She would probably have no excuse to give for her indolence if she chose to go home since she knew she would not look into a work related issue at home, so she had to complete all work projects before going home.

Since she was in a hurry, she mistakenly deleted the documents instead of copying them. Her recycle bin was full and could not store any recently trashed files. She tried to retrieve the document but to no avail, she let out a snort. She was literally going to spend the next few hours in the office to prepare a new report.

While typing, she kept musing on what happened earlier. She had never received a word of encouragement from her boss, all she got was a warning glare. She also wondered why her fellow workers did not approach her on normal note except on matters relating to work.

Do I really suck? She imagined.

At least, she was sure that she was not a psychopath.

Mr. Grey felt very restless in his office. He wanted to apologize personally to Cassie but he could not. Although most of the staff had left because they were done for the day, Grey slowly went out of his office and stood in front of her office contemplating whether to go in or not.

He hid by the transverse beam that supported the door of her office while peeping at her through the window. He had done all what he did because he wanted her attention and hoped she had not taken it personal. He watched in awe as she sat on her chair looking so relaxed and doing nothing at the moment.

She had always overstayed her working hours just to give him the satisfaction he needed and he did nothing in appreciation for that.

He planned to ask her out several times but brushed it off because he was afraid of getting rejected. No woman had ever said ‘NO’ to him and he had to make sure she would not be the first. He was not ready to face the shame of being turned down by a lady.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps on the stairs and rushed back to his office. He stood by his window anticipating to see who eventually showed up.

Unbelievably, he squinted at who he saw. It was Marcus, his younger brother whom his mother sent to work as an intern in order to spy on the behaviours of most staff. He stared at him in disbelief as he walked majestically into her office and thought, ‘what did he want?’.

Just then, he overheard sounds of laughter. He was instantly furious and wondered what was going on in her office.

Would Cassie stoop so low to fall in love with an intern? That was not the first time he saw them together, but he had never smelt a rat since he knew Marcus had a fiancée.

He paced around his office in pure agitation and bitterness. He felt his heart beating faster than normal and he started breathing heavily.

What he felt was more than just affection towards her. He wanted to see what she looked like beneath the chemise she wore. Even though he always liked his women slim and curvy, he would totally make an exception for Cassie.

Cassie was slightly chubby with the right curves at the right places and always looked enchanting. He wanted to cuddle her tenderly and greedily savour the taste of her.

With that in his mind, he could feel his blood riling up and pounding through his veins. He knew he would not be able to stand there and keep hearing them roar repeatedly with laughter. He kept himself busy for the rest of the day as a distraction to keep his anger at bay.

Working seemed to be his best comfort in situations like that but even though he indulged himself wholeheartedly in it, that was the first time in his entire life that it did not seem to work.

He felt more distracted from work and feeling very furious, he knew he had to do something else to reduce the outburst of rage that was burning within him.