A BOSS WOMAN

Sophie's POV

Sophie's eyes peeled open when the pound in her head intensified. She let out a loud groan, her voice coming out muffled and tired. A loud yawn burst through her lips and she had to place the back of her right palm over her mouth to muffle the sound.

Squinting her hazy sight around the room, she jolted up at the black and red-themed room. Her eyes widened in confusion for a second. This was not her room. This was not her house.

She could have started panicking right there and then if her eyes hadn't strayed toward the wall and recognized the large picture frame occupying a large part of one of the walls.

It was a picture of Joyce with her.

The picture was taken at one of the numerous parties they had gone on to when they finished college, so it was a few years old. They had been fresh into the world, wide and enthusiastic about everything. But even then, the duo had always loved parties. Anyone staring at the picture would see that parties worked out properly for them, especially with their widened grins and glimmering eyes.

Sophie exhaled at the picture, relief clouding her. But she let out a loud groan right after when her head started to pound again. Climbing out of bed, she didn't allow herself to think of the reason she was at Joyce's house and not hers. She refused to think about it as she shoveled that memory where she had tucked the others. 

There was a long pile of unwanted memories tucked away like that.

A small yawn yelped out of her and she held her head with her two hands, cursing herself for drinking so much. 

“I would never drink like that again. God, my head hurts.” She groaned, her eyes stinging with unshed tears.

But she knew as soon as those words were out of her mouth that she was shitting herself. There was no way she wasn't going to drink anymore. It was her coping mechanism, drinking and forgetting her sorrows. There was no way she was letting that go.

She paddled to the large bathroom, still holding her head. She almost doubled over when she walked in as she rushed toward the sink to release the bile that had risen in her throat. When she opened her mouth, she retched out every single drink she had taken the night before.

Breathing heavily, Sophie clutched her stomach after the episode just as a light knock came on the door. A short hiss escaped her lips and she turned in the direction of the door, exhaustion rolling in on her.

“Babe, are you okay?” Joyce called out from the other end, her voice laced with worry and sleep. They had not returned home until about four in the morning and now she was up at seven again.

“Go away, Joyce.” Sophie barely managed a reply as she turned on the faucet and watched as the water rushed out. She scooped water into her hands before pouring it into her mouth, rinsing it off all the remains of her vomit.

“Okay. I know you are in a terrible mood. I didn't get that much sleep either. The good news is that we didn't wake up with our pictures all over the tabloids so we are safe.” Joyce rambled without care, unusually loquacious.

“Whatever,” Sophie grunted.

“I dropped Advil with a glass of water for you okay? I'm going to go get dressed for work.” Joyce's voice faded away as Sophie turned off the tap.

She managed to strip off her clothes before getting into the tub where she had a moment to scrub herself, clean, and relax too in a way. She finished up in a short while, shorter than she wanted and she strolled out with a large towel wrapped around her body. 

The first thing she did was to chug down the Advil pills with an entire glass of water. As soon as she had that flushed away, relief clouded her and she felt slightly better than she was a few minutes ago.

Sophie grabbed her bag of lotions which she had specifically kept away in the room. She had spent as much time in that room as she had spent in her two-month-old house. That place used to be her haven before she rented her own space. Her haven from her father's wicked wrath of discipline.

After applying every skin care product she had in the bag, she pulled her other bag out and took out the clothes she had in it. She immediately selected her underwear and outfits for the day. Sophie put them on along with her heels before strolling toward the vanity mirror to comb her hair.

Within a few minutes, she had completed her dress-up routine. Sophie wasn't a vain person but she loved taking care of herself as much as she enjoyed going to parties. She loved looking good, never to be caught unawares. She was the unnamed socialite of the year.

She adjusted her red matching pantsuits which she had pulled on. The outfit was very professional, especially with the crystal stilettos she has on and the red bag. Her long curly strand of white hair was combed to dangle down her back while her lips were coated in striking red lipstick.

Sophie looked more than good and she knew it.

At a very young age, she had come to realize how beautiful and endowed she was which was why she always took special care of herself. It was like breathing to her. She loved red way too much than she loved to admit. It was probably the reason why Joyce had painted the only spare room in her house the color red mixed with black.

As she grabbed her white see-through glasses to complete the professional look, her phone began to ring. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the bed to grab the phone where it had been kept for her. One glance at the screen, as she fixed the glasses on, was enough to alert her.

But before she could answer the call, it stopped ringing.

Sophie frowned and zipped up her bag of perfumes which she had made use of earlier. Once she had it kept away, she diverted her attention back to her phone. It started ringing again and she answered it immediately.

It was her assistant calling, Kristen.

“Yes, Kristen?” She mumbled as she began to walk out of the room, slamming the door shut.

“Morning, Sophie. I've sent you a bunch of texts.” Her assistants' worried voices flooded in through the speakers.

“I was busy. Is there a Problem?” She mumbled.

Of course, there was a problem. Sophie knew that Kristen only ever called when there was an emergency.

“The board meeting is in two hours. We are yet to finalize work on the documents.” She reminded her boss. Sophie stopped abruptly on the stairs, eyes widened in shock.

“Why didn't you tell me before now?” She screamed, aloud. That turned out to be a mistake because her head almost got split into two.

“I reminded you before you left the office yesterday but you insisted that you were coming back.” Kristen reminded her.

Oh, shit!

She mumbled internally. She had meant to go back to the office after the date but Iris Falcon had pissed her off so much that she had lost sense of direction. She hissed in annoyance at him. At everything.

“Okay.” She gulped. “You know what, get everything ready. I'm on my way down.” She informed her.

“Alright, boss,” Kristen said before the line went dead. Sighing, Sophie climbed the remaining stairs down into the living room. Joyce was seated on the couch, fixing the strap of her heels.

“Good morning, Joyce.” Sophie smiled a little at her best friend. Now that she was a bit better, she felt sorry for the way she had spoken to her the day before and earlier that morning.

Joyce glanced up with a smile. She was done fixing her shoes so she got on her feet, looking gracious in her work pants with blue blazers. 

“Morning, Sophie.” She smiled.

“Sorry about last night and this morning.” Sophie sighed, still feeling terrible. She was always doing that.

“It's okay. How are you feeling now?” Joyce asked as she started to adjust her wristwatch.

“Terrible,” she groaned. Joyce didn't feel that way because Nick had been there to stop her from going overboard with the drinks.

“Sorry, babe. Nick is out. Do you want coffee?” She sympathized.

“Nah, I gotta go. Board meeting.” She sighed and walked over to the glass table at the center of the room to grab her car keys.

“Oh, good. You are giving me a ride.” The brown-eyed giggled in relief. She hated driving.

“No, I'm not. It's an emergency so there's not enough time to drive you to your workplace on the other side of time before driving to the office. I'm already late.” She pouted which made Joyce frown.

“Order an Uber if you can't drive.” Sophie snickered before wrapping her hands around her quickly in a hug. She released her friend and parted her hair before rushing out.

“Drive responsibly,” Joyce called out after her but she was already rushing to catch the elevator.