“Ellen, she’s my personal assistant and I can’t fire her because of how you feel
about her. It’s unethical”, Erica said to her.
“You can fire her for luring the managing director to bed and causing problems
with one of your biggest clients”,
“You must be very stupid and delusional to think that we’ll do that. Why are we
paying attention to her threats? What’s she going to do? Break a contract signed
by her grandmother? You’ll be feeding us millions if you even try to tamper with
that!”
“You think I can’t cook something up? Try me”, Ellen said to him.
“So you want us to fire her because I’m in a relationship with her? How does that
make sense? Your grandma would be so disappointed with how you’re playing
with your family’s business”.
“You played me first!”
“You were not willing to cooperate or listen to the terms which would benefit
your company a lot. All you wanted was to sleep with me and I knew that doing
that would get the papers signed quickly. So yeah, that’s business when you’re
dealing with low minded people like you”.
“Richard! Stop it”, Erica yelled at him and Jessica just stood there, with her legs
shaking. She didn’t know what to do or say.
“Keep talking and you’ll see this whole contract go down the drain and I’ll mess
with your big clients too and get them to pull away”.
“Wow, I guess sleeping with you for the next month will make you stay put
right?” Richard asked her and she glared at him.
“Don’t speak to me that way! I’ve had enough of this. If you don’t get this slut
fired and get Richard to shut his mouth! My family and I are out!” She exclaimed.
“Ellen, I…” Erica started to say but Richard interrupted her.
“You don’t know who you’re messing with?” He said, taking out his phone. “I
didn’t want to do this but since you want to go so low, I’ll do the same”, he said to
her and he played a recording of the conversation they just had.
“You recorded our conversation?” She asked, glaring at him.
“Say one more word and I’ll send this to your grandma. I’ve got her on Facebook,
and she’s actually online right now”, he said, showing it to her.
“Richard, you…”
“You still talking? You better turn around and leave! And stay out of the contract
and my company’s business or this would get to your grandma, your parents and
your whole freaking family and they’ll know how you played with their
company’s interest because of your sexual desires”, he said to her and she glared
at him.
“I hate you!” She said, glaring at him.
“Same here baby”, he said to her and she walked away and pushed Jessica out of
her way.
“Jessica don’t bother coming in, just go home”, Erica said to her.
“What? Why?” Richard asked.
“I’ve had enough drama for today and I need sometime to access this whole
situation to see if I still want her here”, she said to him and she faced Jessica.
“Go home Jessica”.
“Erica please”, Jessica said to her, tearing up.
“Jessica I didn’t want to do this to you but everything is getting too messy and I
have to sit and think things through before I let you back in”, she said to her.
“Erica just let her go to her office and then you can think things through”, Richard
said to her.
“Richard, stay out of this! You know if it was someone else, I would have fired her
but Jessica had been good and loyal to me and that’s what’s making this decision
difficult”.
“She didn’t do anything, I made this mess. Don’t put this on her”.
“Richard stay out of this! Jessica you may leave now”, she said to her and she
walked into her office.
Jessica turned around and she walked towards the elevator.
“Jessica, I’m so sorry. I promise, I’ll fix this”, he said said to her and she ignored
him.
“Jessica”, he said, touching her.
“I swear to God if you touch me one more time to, I’ll use the back of my shoe to
break your skull!” She said, glaring at him and he backed off.
“I’ll fix this Jessica”, he said to her and she walked into the elevator.
When she stepped out of the building, she took a cab and she went back to her
house.
She arrived at home, climbed her bed and cried out her eyeballs.
“God please fix this for me. I don’t know what I did to deserve all this. I just got
into a relationship that I thought was going to make me happy and turn my life
around but it made things worse”.
“Please help me out. I don’t want to lose my job, I love my job and I love my work
place. I want to go far and excel massively. Please do something. Please”, she said,
crying and she drifted off to sleep.
In the middle of her sleep, her phone rang and it was Dean.
She ignored it and went back to sleep but he called again and she decided to pick
it up.
“Jess, how are you? Are you feeling better?” he asked her.
“Yeahh, I’m okay”.
“You don’t sound okay. Are you in the office? he asked.
“Yeahh”, she said, lying to him.
“Okay, I’m on a lunch break and I got us something to eat. Come to the car park
and let’s eat”, he said to her.
“Uhmm, I don’t think I can I…uhmm. I’m a bit busy”.
“Are you sure you’re busy. You sound like you were sleeping when I called”.
“No, I wasn’t”.
“Jess, I don’t like how you sound. Please come down so that we eat and talk”.
“I’m not in the office”, she said to him.
“Are you in the design room?”
“I’m home”.
“Home? You still not feeling well?”
“I was semi fired”.
“I don’t understand. You know what, I’m coming over right now”, he said to her
and he hung up.
She tossed her phone and closed her eyes. She tried to sleep again but her eyes
were not cooperating.
So, she stayed awake and she thought about everything that was going wrong in
her life.
Few minutes later, she heard her doorbell go off.
She got off her bed and walked sluggishly to the door.
When she opened up the door, Dean walked in.
“Have you been crying?” He asked and she didn’t say anything to him.
“Oh Jess, what’s going on?” He asked, worried.
“Hmmm”, she said to him and she shut her door.
“My life is just messed up”, she said, walking to her couch and she sat on it.
“Oh don’t say that”, he said, walking up to her and he sat by her.
“What happened? Tell me, maybe we can figure something out”, he said to her
and she didn’t say a word.
“Jess”, he said, poking her and she turned to face him.
“I lost my virginity to Richard who was cheating on me and I’m at the brink of
losing my job”, she said, forcing a smile.
“What are you talking about?” He asked and a part of him was angry that she lost
her virginity but he had to keep his cool for her sake.
“Hmm”, she said, looking at him and she told him everything.
“Wow! I really wish I could punch him right now! I’m so sorry that you went
through this Jess”, he said to her and she teared up.
“Come here”, he said, pulling her closer to him and he comforted her.
“Hopefully, you’ll get your job”, he said, comforting her.
After a while, she stopped crying and she sat up.
“Don’t you have to get back to work?” she asked.
“I can go back when I feel like”, he said, smirking.
“Mmm, perks of being a senior IT officer?” She asked and he wiggled his brows.
“Good for you! How’s it been like?”
“It has its good and bad side. Now I’ve got a lot more burden on me and I have to
think on my feet especially at the official meetings. At some point, I almost peed
on myself when I couldn’t figure out something at the meeting”, he said to her
and she chuckled.
“Wow!”
“Yeah and also, people have been hating on my new position. Some of my
colleagues don’t feel like I deserve it and some of them try to treat me like a kid
because they’re older but I just laugh it off. They’ll have to deal with it till their
hair turns grey”.
“Yeah, they have to”, she said, chuckling.
“And also, I have a new secretary and she gets on my nerves!!!”
“You have a secretary?”
“Yeah the job comes with one”.
“Wow! That’s awesome”.
“No, it’s not. She’s always doing too much. Serving coffee when I don’t ask and
she’s always asking a lot of questions and she’s always in my face!” He said to her
and Jessica laughed so hard.
“She’s just doing her job”.
“She’s over doing it!”
“You should be grateful. Do you know how difficult it is to find someone who’s
enthusiastic about their job and always in your face?”
“Lisa said the same thing!” He said to her and her face changed.
“Because it’s true. Speaking of Lisa, what was she doing here the other night?
How does she know where you stay?” Jessica asked.
“She was worried about your whereabouts and she texted me on Instagram. And
I assumed that you’ll be either here or Richard’s place, so I sent both locations to
her and she came here first and then I met her when she was on her way out”.
“Oh she was looking for me?”
“Yeahh and she needed to pee so, I took her into my place to pee. Then we got
into a conversation and we got carried away”.
“Wow, she forgot about me”, Jessica said, chuckling.
“I assured her that you’ll definitely be at Richard’s place”.
“Mmm”.
“Yhup”.
“She’s such a sweetheart for her to come all the way here”, Jessica said to him.
“Yeah, she is and she’s very funny. She made my evening”.
“I see. You know that she likes you right?”
“She does?”
“You couldn’t tell?”
“No, I’m so oblivious to these things”, he said, face palming. “Anyway, I made it
clear to her that I wasn’t looking to date anyone right now”.
“Why did you say that to her? Did she ask you anything?”
“She asked if I was dating”.
“Mmm. And you’re not looking to date again?”
“Yeahh, I want to focus on my new job and build myself up”.
“That’s great”,
“Yeah and Pastor Raymond encouraged me to do that till I’m ready for the whole
marriage thing and then I can probably start dating. It’ll help me to get stable and
help me to do the whole abstaining thing”, he said to her and the word abstain,
triggered her emotions.
“Mmm”, she said to him.
“You don’t think it’s a wise decision?” He asked.
“Oh, it is! I just wished I heard that before I got into this whole situation with
Richard”.
“Hmm”,
“I guess I was just being foolish. What was I expecting when I moved into his
house? And then I got into the pool with him, I’m just…”
“Jess, it has happened. I’m also mad that it happened because I know how much
you cherished it but it’s happened. You’re both humans and some of these things
can’t be controlled. That’s we are actually supposed to flee and all that. So now
that it’s happened, you have to think of the way forward”.
“I can’t believe you’re the one lecturing me on this”, she said, chuckling. “It used
to be the other way round”, she said to him and he laughed.
“It’s better when we can both do that for each other. I also think that you need a
female friend who shares the same value as you. Someone other than your
younger sister”, he said, teasing her.
“I think I’m okay with Priscilla”.
“I’m sure Priscilla wants an older sister and not someone she has to give a pep
talk to everyday”.
“She’s not complaining”.
“She doesn’t have to, you have to realize that yourself. I love that you can confide
in her and all that but I think it should be both ways and also more on your side.
You’re her big sister, start asking her questions about her own life and get her to
confide in you and not you always confiding in her. I’m sure a part of her wants
that”.
“Who made you so wise? Or am I really speaking to Dean?” She asked, teasing
him and he laughed.
“I understand what you’re saying and I don’t even know how things turned out
this way”.
“It’s because you two are really tight and she’s more of the talker”.
“Yeahhhh. Anyway, I’ll see what I can do about it”.
“Jess!!” Dean exclaimed.
“What is it?” She asked, confused.
“The food!” He said to her and she facepalmed.
“You’re so dramatic”.
“It was intentional”, he said, wiggling his brows. “I’m going to get the food”, he
said to her and he left.
Jessica relaxed on her couch and she waited for him. As she was waiting, she
heard her phone ring and she walked into her room.
The call was from Lisa and she picked up.
“Jess”, she called out in a worried tone.
“Lisa, what is it?”
“I don’t know what’s happening. Mr Day packed the stuff in his office and he left
and people are spreading rumors that he quit and some are saying he got
transferred and I don’t even understand what’s going on. He didn’t say a thing to
me, I don’t even know if my job is secured or not. Do you know what’s going on?”
She asked.
“I…I don’t know. Let me give him a call and I’ll get back to you”.
“Okay, thank you”, she said to her and she ended the call.
“Jesss”, Dean called out and she walked into her living room.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, when he saw the look on her face.
“I don’t know what’s going on but I think Richard either got fired or he quit”.
“How can he get fired from his own company?”
“His parents have the final say and I think it’s possible that they fired him. Oh my
God! Could it because of me? I think Erica told them everything. If Richard has
been fired, then I guess I’m done for”.
“Don’t jump into conclusions. Pick up the phone and call him”.
“No way”.
“This is about your job, Jess. Put everything aside and call him”, he said to her and
as she was about to call him, she heard a knock on the door.
She quickly walked towards her door and when she opened it, she saw him
standing there.
“Can I come in?” He asked and she stepped aside for him to walk in.
“I’ll be in my place if you need anything”, Dean said to her and he left her
apartment with his own food.
“Hey”, Richard said to her.
“Did you get fired or what?” She asked him.
“Not really. I spoke to my mum about everything and she gave me an option that
one of us had to leave to prevent further drama that will cause problems for the
company”.
“What? She said that? Why will she want someone who’s making money for the
company to leave?”
“I told her how I felt about you and Erica had already told her so much about you
and your work ethics, and I sort of came up with the idea because her problem
was that she didn’t want us both in the company and she wanted you out or
transferred to another company but I knew how much you wanted this job, so I
asked for the transfer”, he said to her.
“No, you don’t have do anything for me, stop forcing this narrative of you caring
about me because you don’t”.
“Jess, I didn’t come to argue over how I feel about you. I know how I feel and
that’s that. I came to relay the good news in person”.
“Mmm. And so where are going to?”
“The real estate company and I think I actually prefer that”.
“You sure?” She asked him.
“Yeahh”.
“And what happens to the company. Who’s going to take your place?”
“My parents are working on it”.
“Hmmm, how does Erica feel about it because I knew you were her backbone
although you two argued all the time”.
“I don’t know. I just passed on the information and I left”.
“Hmmm, okay. Thank you”, she said, bluntly.
“You don’t have to thank me. I messed things up and this is my way of fixing it”.
“For my job, I agree. But for our relationship, there’s nothing that you can do to
fix it. I can’t be with someone who cheated on me and lied about it on several
occasions”.
“I’m really sorry Jessica”.
“Richard, stop. Just stop apologizing. It’s not going to solve anything. Just stop”.
“Hmm, alright. So you’re not coming back home?”
“This is my home. I’ll come for the rest of my things this weekend”.
“Alright, I’ll be expecting you”, he said, smiling. “Good bye Jessica”, he said to her
and he left.
