CHAPTER 4: The biggest boss

To say that my day had taken an unexpected turn was nothing if not the biggest understatement of the century. One moment, I was depressing over being rejected by the father of my child and the next moment, I was signing documents that validated me as an auditor at NNT cooperation.

When Russell had said the position had already been occupied, I couldn’t hide my disappointment because I thought I had done really well during the interview, but apparently, there was someone who had done much better than me. Still, that did not mean that they needed the job more than me because God knows I needed that job, and that person whoever he or she was had gone and stolen it from me.

I wanted to mind my business and keep my thoughts to myself. Besides, I knew that it went against some sort of policy to disclose the information of employees except when extremely necessary but honestly, curiosity was gnawing at my insides, and when I couldn’t take it anymore, I blurted out the question which I knew that I was not supposed to ask.

“Who got the job?” I asked, stopping suddenly in my tracks, and effectively causing him to stop in his.

“Excuse me?” He returned, looking completely clueless.

“You heard me.” I replied, and I hated how entitled I sounded. There was no guarantee that I was going to get the job, but I had been so engrossed in the idea of working at NNT that I had completely forgotten that there were other applicants who were just as deserving as me, and that was why the idea of losing the position stung so bad.

“Actually I didn’t” He replied honestly. “My mind was rather…” His eyes dropped to my belly for a few thoughtful seconds before he finished his statement with the word, “…occupied.”

As the realization of his words dawned on me, I couldn’t help but stare at him in shock and surprise. He was actually thinking about me, and my baby. Was he worried about us? And if he was, why? He didn’t have any responsibility towards us, and I was definitely not having expectations from him, but the fact that he was still thinking about me, even though it was just out of common courtesy, made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

“So what was your question?” He asked again, distracting me from my thoughts.

“Oh yeah, uhm…well, I just wanted to know who had gotten the job.” My voice no longer sounded as confident and confrontational as it did earlier. Rather, it sounded more meek and barely audible now. I half expected him to shut me down and tell me that it was none of my business, or that it was against company policy to reveal such information, but instead of doing that, he looked straight at me and said,

“You of course.Who else?”

He said it as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, no care that my ears were literally ringing in bewilderment. I wanted to feel excited, be happy that I had just bagged myself a job at none other than NNT, the most prestigious organization in the state, but that was the problem, It felt too much like someone was playing a prank on my poor heart.

“What do you mean. I don’t… I don’t understand. I thought…” I stammered, stumbling over my words like a total idiot.

“Look, don’t overthink it okay? NNT needed a new auditor, you applied, you were qualified, you got the job, end of story.”

“But I…I didn’t even complete the last stage of interviews. I, I…” I trailed off, remembering how I had embarrassed myself in his office earlier, and why the interview had ended long before it even started.

“I’m sure Bridget must have mentioned to you that the final stage of the interview was pretty much a formality. I had already gone through your CV, quite impressive I must say, and the interviewing panel had nothing but good things to say about you so there you have it, congratulations.”

“But…” I tried to protest but he was simply not having it.

“Can you drop it already?” He started, cutting me off before I could say another word. “My stupid brother got you pregnant and has refused to do right by you. The least I can do is ensure that you have a job so that when that baby eventually comes around, you would at least have enough to take care of yourself and the baby.”  

I could tell that he felt guilty about what his brother had done to me and he felt responsible for some reason, and although he was trying really hard to hide it, it was obvious that he was angry and upset at his brother, and I hated that I was putting him through all that emotional stress. He didn’t deserve to suffer for his brother’s mistake, and he most certainly didn’t deserve to be stuck with me and my load of baggage.

“You don’t have to feel responsible for me.” I muttered, moved to tears at his concern, my voice barely louder than a whisper.

“But I do.” He replied helplessly. “So for God’s sake just take the damn job and do your best, but don’t over exert yourself because I’d hate if something happened to you or to your…”He trailed of, glancing once again at my belly before his eyes met mine again. “Anyways, do you think you can do that?” He asked, sounding exhausted and given everything he was doing for me, the last thing I wanted to do was to offend him, and so I nodded.

“Yes. I can do that.” I said with a sniffle, wiping away a stray tear that had somehow managed to escape from my eye.

“Good.” he replied just as we arrived back at the office.

“Wait here.” He ordered, leading me towards a car and asking me to wait inside while he went to grab some stuff from his office. I didn’t know much about cars but I knew an expensive car when I saw one and Russell’s car was not cheap.

I sat upright in the car as I waited for him to return. I was so afraid of leaning back because I wouldn’t be surprised if a little bit of sweat could ruin his expensive leather and since my cup was already quite full with the stunt I pulled back at his office, I had to tread or rather sit with caution.

It took a full thirty minutes before Russell finally returned and I couldn’t blame him. In fact, I felt sorry because I knew that it was mostly my fault that he had to close from work early, probably leaving a ton of unfinished work behind.

“I’m sorry. That took much longer than I hoped it would.” he apologized a soon as he was seated in the driver’s seat, and I assured him that it was fine. I wasn’t even in position to complain so there was that.

“So where do you live?” He asked fixing his seat belt, and turning slightly to face me.

“Uh, clove avenue.” I replied, “Up on 13th.”

I wanted to tell him that he really didn’t have to drive me home but as he stuck the key into the ignition and started the car, my words got buried in my throat, and if he noticed my awkward sitting position I couldn’t tell because he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he typed my address into the GPS and soon enough, we were on our way.

The silence as we drove was so thick, one could cut through it with a chain saw, and not only was the silence loud, it was awkward as hell. I contemplated turning on some music just to lessen the awkwardness but again, I wasn’t trying to ruin something on his car that was probably worth a fortune so I kept my fingers to myself.

“So, the processing of your employment contract has already begun and they would be ready for signing tomorrow. So come to the office at about 8. Bridget would be waiting for you. she’ll tell you what to do and where you need to be.” He stated after about 5 minutes of awkward silence and I was thankful for the conversation because in all honesty, the silence was starting to kill me.

“Got It” I replied, just as a thought suddenly occurred to me, and as I pondered over it, I couldn’t help but be a little worried.

“Bridget and the other employees…” I began, not sure how to phrase my next question. “Do they Know?”

“Know what?” He asked, eyes fixed pointedly on the road ahead of him.

“Well, that you singled me out for the position.”

“Are you worried that they’d think you got the job because of your connections and not because of your skills?” He asked with an amused smirk, glancing at me for a split second, probably to gauge my reaction before refocusing his gaze on the road.

“Well, it be nice if my new colleagues didn’t undermine my abilities simply because I know the big boss.” I replied truthfully.

“Actually, you know the biggest boss. And if anyone tries to look down on you or on your abilities, all you have to do is give me a call and they might not have a job the next day.” I knew that he wasn’t bluffing but I didn’t feel very reassured, especially since I had no intentions of running to him every time someone was mean to me. More so, I would hate it if someone had to lose their job because of me. Besides, I didn’t even think I deserved such privileges. I had already troubled him with too much of my baggage. I couldn’t add more to the pile.

“But if it bothers you so much.”He continued. “Then you’d be happy to know that nobody knows that you have any direct connections to me.”

“Then how…”

“Turns out the board was going to pick you anyway.” He explained. “Like I said earlier, your performance was quite exceptional and apparently, I wasn’t the only one who was impressed. NNT would be lucky to have you on our auditing team.”

Well, that was a relief, and although I didn’t believe him entirely, I decided not to dwell too much on it. At the end of the day, he didn’t have any reason to lie to me, or to try and protect my feelings. If it came down to it and people started looking down on my abilities, I was sure I could handle my own problems by myself.

Still, I was happy that Russell was starting to cheer up a bit because upset Russell was not fun Russell. The whole conversation with his brother seemed to have soured up his mood and I felt partly responsible. But now that he was relaxing a bit, the guilt was slowly wearing off.

Eventually, we took a turn into my street and I suddenly realized that I didn’t want him to know where I lived. I couldn’t explain it but for some reason, I felt embarrassed, not of where I lived, but of him seeing it. A man like him probably lived in the penthouse of a luxurious building somewhere in the city center and in comparison to my beat down condo, my life appeared a little sad and pathetic, which it was, but he didn’t need to know that, at least not anymore than he already did.

I knew it was a petty thing to do but when we came by a small restaurant around the corner, I asked him to drop me off there. When he asked me why, I told him I was meeting up with a friend.

It was obvious that he didn’t believe me one bit but he didn’t press further, and for that I was grateful. Before I got out of the car, he gave me his phone number and asked me to call him if anything came up, and I took it, thanking him for everything even though I had absolutely no intention of ever calling him.

That night, I could barely sleep out of excitement about my new job, and the sun was barely up before I started preparing for my first day. I picked my best outfit and then changed three times before I finally settled on the perfect one. Like Russell had promised, Bridget was waiting for me as soon as I arrived at the head office and she was really kind as she gave me document after document to sign. I climbed several flight of stairs, visiting several offices in order to register in all the necessary departments, and that process was not fun. I spent the most time with HR and accounts and I really couldn’t wait for it all to be over.

I honestly expected the process to be a little less tedious but by the time I was done filling the last few forms, I was about ready to head home because to say I was exhausted was a massive understatement.

Unfortunately, Bridget informed me that I had one last stop which was to have my photo taken for my ID. As I followed her to the photo room, I knew for a fact that my picture was going to turn out terrible because of the exhaustion but since I had no choice, I conjured my best camera-worthy smile and hoped for the best.

I was told I could start work proper the next day, and as I exited the NNT building, all I could think about was falling on my bed and getting a well deserved rest because damn if I didn’t deserve it.