“Mother still terrifies me”
1257 Words
Antony’s POV
“Stop the interview I have seen enough” I said as soon as Veronica came to me asking if she could call the next person on queue.
“You know we still have over ten people you have not bossed and scared away today” Veronica said.
“You could do that for me, I have really seen enough for today” I insisted. The last candidate really drained the last bossy energy I had left in me for the day so I guess it is time to call it quits”
“Your mother said you need to hire an assistant before the end of the week and that was last week. I don’t really want her to yell at me again it was too scary the last time” Veronica said.
“Don’t worry I would take a fall for this one, besides you know I don’t need an assistant” I said adjusting my suit jacket and getting ready to leave.
“She wasn’t convinced when you missed her 60th birthday due to over scheduling issues with our foreign investors” Veronica said.
She took a step back after saying that as she knew she was about to step on my toes and that would definitely not be good for her. She rushed to the door to dismiss the other people outside who were still waiting there turn on my orders.
“I am so sorry there a company emergency but we will get back to you via email to reschedule the interviews. So sorry for the inconveniences” she said while leading the rest of the candidates out of the reception and hoping no lawsuit follows suit.
“Just do as I say” I said in the stent voice to Veronica. The voice gets to scare everyone, well everyone asides my mother as I see my phone ringing on the desk and I began to feel palpitations in my heart.
I should get back to my office on the 4th floor as if she sees me in the HR department she would insist I came to Sabotage the interview just so I don’t get an assistant. But did I? I couldn’t be stuck with a dead brain in a banging body which I was sure Jayden wouldn’t resist hiring.
I sprinted from Jaden’s office to mine as I could sense that mother was in the building. Call it my seventh sense, six being a sense for top notch business opportunities. The elevator was wasting time and I sprinted through the stairs instead. This muscles did not grow over night, it took years of training, what was a few stairs I couldn’t climb?
I arrived at the forth floor panting and trying to catch my breath, secretly thankful for all elevators installed in the building. I was definitely out of shape as the CEO position had kept me out of the gym for as long as I could remember. Just as I feared, I got to the door of my office and I saw my mother’s personal guards standing outside.
“s**t!!!”
How do I explain to her why Jaden who is in charge of Human Resources is in my office while I conducted the interview for my assistant myself? I walked into the office and I saw Jaden smiling from ear to ear which was a signal that I should smile too. I wore the smile quickly.
“Mother!!!, it is nice of you to come and visit us at the office today, but I hate to see you stress yourself one phone call would have brought me to you” I said.
“ One phone call Anthony? A phone you claim to never see ring anymore” my mother said.
“Mother you know how busy work can get, you too sat on this very chair, and you know what it feels like to run this place” I said in my defense.
“That was why I understood the meaning of delegation and how to effectively use my subordinates and not carry all the burden alone. Something you find very hard to learn you lone wolf” she said.
Jaden had giggled at what mother had said but this was definitely not funny to me. Some people work best as a group while orders work better alone. How hard is it for people to understand this?
“where is the assistant you have hired? I sent over a lot of qualified applicants” mother said.
“You mean the whole list of applicants, you couldn’t even deem it right to sieve out a few hopelessly candidates” I said.
“I didn’t want anyone to be denied the opportunity of an interview. Not everything can be gotten from a piece of paper. Your father understood that when he founded this company ” mother said.
“So how was the interview?” Mother asked changing the topic. She didn’t want to talk about dad. It was clear.
“A lot of unqualified and even one rude candidate……”
Jaden made a throat clearing sound to inform me that mother was definitely addressing him as he was the one who ought to have conducted the interviews.
“It was okay . We had really promising candidates thank you so much for your help” Jaden said
“And ?” Mother asked.
“The assistant would start tomorrow” Jaden said.
Mother left as soon as she heard the good news of the assistant and I was left to kill Jaden freely in my office as I thought of ways to dispose his body.
“Are you insane?” I asked Jaden as soon as I heard the door close behind mother.
“What the hell man, how hard could it be to pick one person” Jaden said.
“I have really high standards unlike you” I replied.
“Well you could have as high a standard as you want but your mother expects you to have an assistant by tomorrow” Jaden said.
Jaden had left the office and asides the fact that he was my best friend well, my only work friend I would have laid off the incompetent man by now. I looked again through the list of candidates that I had interviewed hoping to salvage and pick one before going home today.
Picking an assistant should not be this stressful but my perfectionist lifestyle did not let me pick one without overthinking the whole thing. I saw myself still drawn to the last candidate’s profile, the one who had lectured me on qualities of a good assistant. I giggled while reading the very incompetent résumé and shabby work experiences. One thing was sure, she did make me laugh with the exclamations and the unique accent of hers during the interview, she was clearly Nigerian.
“Still here?” Veronica said as she walked into the office.
“Yes I wanted to made a final decision on the assistant before I go home” I said.
“So have you?” She asked.
“Yes” I said.
“Contact Karen Happuc Oluwatobi and ask if she could resume tomorrow whatever it takes” I added.
“You can’t be serious? she is the least qualified candidate on the list” Veronica said.
“I know” I said as I shut my MacBook and took my coat from the hanger ready to go home
This should be fun I thought to myself….
- Writer
