5. A PREY

 I was puzzled as to why he wanted to see me in his office at first so I stood there pinching my fingers against each other until a tap sound coming from a pen jerked me back to reality. I looked up to see the bubble gum lady staring at me.

“Are you not going to see him?” she threw at me and I realized that I was standing there instead of going to his office

My right hand found its way to my hair to scratch my itchy scalp, “I’ll go now” I smiled at her but she only returned the gesture with a frown which I didn’t read much meaning into.

On getting to his office, my jaw almost dropped. It was a paradise, every view was magnificent. I could see everything going on outside and even beyond the premises of the company.

“Wow” I found myself exclaim as I marched in to his table where he leant on the table with his back turned to me.

I stood in front of his table for close to three minutes, contemplating if I should announce my presence or not and he also didn’t budge or say anything, only his cologne filled my nose.

Everything that might have happened between us still remains unsolved but right now, I have to give him the due respect of being my boss, my pride was hurt but it wouldn’t feed me. I never knew swallowing one’s pride would be this painful but I guess the pain will fade away with time.

“Ehmmm.. Stan..” I wanted to call him by his name but quickly swallowed it.

Brushing my fingers against each other to keep calm, I tried again. “Mr. Stanley, I am here” I called out, my voice still shaky a bit.

He finally turned to face me and kept staring at me, something about him had changed. He had this fondness in his gaze when we met and even up till the moment we ended up on the bed together but now, his eyes were empty as if we were strangers who had no relationship of any kind.

“Miss Petals, welcome officially to our company. Since you are filling in for the position of chief editor for team one, I trust you know what you are in for. This week will be for your assessment to see if you are capable of leading the team or not” he started, his voice as icy as a cold sea

I only worked as a junior reporter for about three years before I was suddenly cut off at my last job, I didn’t even work as an editor yet not to talk of chief editor. I thought he was only boasting when he offered me that position to entice me but now that it was real, I was covered in sweat in no time.

I suddenly cut in “Are you really serious about giving me the chief editor’s position?” some moment of silence ensued before I dragged out a tiny “S…ssiii..rrr” in addition to the question I asked earlier

“What? You don’t think you can handle it?”

“It’s not like that but…” I argued

He cuts in, “Should I take it away then? You haven’t stayed for long so that would be fine”

Sharply, I defended myself. “No! I will try my best”

“Try your best? You have to do your best” he stated firmly and I had no choice but to agree.

“Bring me some samples of your work in the next one hour” he commanded, throwing a book he wanted me to edit at me.

Never in my life did I ever think that one hour would be so small. I was working tirelessly as I read through the marked places in the book and started working on editing and collating them together. I never knew I could type so fast, my hands were moving as if they were being controlled and finally I was done in the time frame.

It was then I noticed that everyone had gone out for their break, I was the only one remaining in the office.

“They didn’t even pretend to call me” I mumbled but soon got over it as I walked to submit the report to Stanley who was also busy away at his table.

“Mr. Stanley, I brought the report” I announced this time around and he worked for some seconds more before stopping to attend to me.

Flipping through only two pages, I found the report lying at my feet with a loud thud. A deafening yell followed from his end as he raised his voice.

“What is this? You call this trash a report? An intern wouldn’t even write that not to talk of a chief editor. Rewrite that and bring it to me in the next two hours” he growled at me and didn’t even give me the chance to say anything before adding a sharp “Get out”

I almost tear up, he was being mean at me for no reason. He could have been nicer and more precise about what he wanted from me. I went ahead to redo the work and brought it to him but he kept canceling them.

I didn’t do anything tangible on my first day of work or even go for my break because he kept rejecting every work I brought. He didn’t even state what was wrong and that was getting me angry, I only held back from yelling at some point.

Glancing at the orange shaped clock on the wall, I saw that it was already some minutes to eight in the night. Everyone had gone home, leaving me and Stanley in the office. A crack sound emerged from my neck as I stretched it before taking the last piece to him for the day.

“Here it is” I placed it in front of him and he flipped through it to the end

“Miss Petals, I am disappointed in you. Is this the best you can do? You really have no skills as a journalist and that is why your previous company dropped you” he criticized and my anger limit broke.

Even if I was lacking, he didn’t have any right to mock me that way. Was it because I was caught in his net thanks to my desperation? I didn’t have to go through this in his hands just because I wanted to have a job.

“Fine! I am not up to your standard and I am not sorry for that. You seems to want to take your revenge on me this way but I cannot stand it. If at all, any of us should be unfair and mean to the other, it should be me and not you. At this point, I don’t even want to see that disgusting face of yours anymore” I spat out angrily, jerked off my employee ID card and threw it at him in anger.

I was about reaching for the door’s handle when he suddenly said “Make sure to wire the advance payment back to the company’s account before you leave” and my legs froze.

That darn advance payment. I had even forgotten about that.

Immediately I received the alert of the advance payment that was tagged as bonus, I had taken care of every necessary quarters and didn’t even have up to a thousand dollar left. I made sure to clear every debt and even made some advanced payment without thinking twice, I never knew something like this would arise after all.

“About that, I will find it and send it back to the company” I answered, my tone a little bit sober this time.

His hands slid into his pocket as he walked closer to me near the door. As soon as he was in front of me, he started getting closer than necessary and my legs backed down automatically as I moved back until my back was against the cold glass.

Stuttering replaced defined words in my mouth as I struggled to get a hold of the situation.

“What.. what are you doin.. doing?” streak of sweat running down my temple

“There is no next time, you either pay back the money now or you take your tag and submit your report to me tomorrow morning”

My eyes glued to his, I was trying to maintain my strong pose but that face was my weakness. Also it would be reasonable to continue working than run around to gather money from where I know not.

I slowly reached out for the tag and received it from him before he suddenly brushed my messy bangs aside.

“Petals, if I were you I wouldn’t want to let this opportunity slip away. You know what went down between us before you landed this job” he stated, a smirk dancing on his lips.

I was struggling to find what to reply him with when a sound suddenly came from the office and we both turned to see who it was but the door closed at that moment as the person disappeared quickly.

No one needed to tell me, Stanley has made me a prey.