Justice For The Billionaire's Daughter

AT THE OFFICE

OLIVIA

Friday morning I get to work at around eight o'clock and as I alight from the lift I can see that Amos is already at his office. It was just yesterday that I learned that he had promoted one young clerk to become his secretary. Immediately I settle in my office my secretary tells me that Amos' secretary wants to see me and I wonder what could be cooking. I tell my secretary Miss Dollar to let her in.

A thin tall girl made even taller by her heels saunters in, walking like a model on a catwalk. She is wearing a charcoal gray business suit and a red chiffon top. She stops walking just a few inches from my desk.

“Good morning Miss Forrester. My name is Cynthia Greene, with an 'e'. I come to pay a courtesy call." I wonder what she means by courtesy call and she sees it.

“The previous occupier of my office left a very bad impression and I am here to apologize for my office." She goes on. I sit quietly watching.

“Everyone in the company talks about the ruthlessness with which Mr Marshall dealt with Beatrice and her accomplices. I am certain that if there was anyone else harboring some enmity towards you they have watched and learnt." She knows how to put her points across.

“I want to reiterate my complete, undivided and unswerving support. I'll not try to hinder you from accessing the CEO's office as my predecessor did." She adds.

“What I'm saying is that my office recognizes you as one of us. If you need me, I am at your beck and call." I think she has finished and I can now talk. I haven't seen what is in my in tray so I don't know how long I should entertain this girl.

“Well Miss Greene, with an 'e', I am happy for your word. I will definitely remember everything you have said. You can now go back to work." I say.

She bows her head then turns and walks away. She is such a cheeky character. I delve into my in tray and the first thing I see is a memo inviting all top leadership to a meeting with the CEO in the next thirty minutes. Fine, I say as I look into many more documents.

Efforts by my team are bearing fruit. I look at the figures and realize that in the few days I have been at the head of sales and marketing the orders are flying in fast. We may even exceed our expectations at this rate.

Miss Dollar serves me coffee and I immerse myself into my work, calling my agents, offering advice, pushing others to work harder and all the other stuff related to my work.

“Miss Forrester, the meeting is about to start..... " Miss Dollar pushes the door, just a c***k, and announces.

“Gosh! I had already forgotten. Thanks miss Dollar." I say to the retreating head. Quickly I get up, do a little straightening and rush to the boardroom. Other members are already seated, and as soon as I take my seat Amos walks in, followed closely by Miss Greene. She is carrying for him some files and she disappears immediately after placing them on the table.

“Ladies and gentlemen," he starts. He looks very serious and someone would easily say that he is not the same man I was out with just yesterday.

“I gathered you here to chart the way forward for our company. As these files show, we are doing well, but this is not enough for me." He says.

He opens the files and distributes the contents to us. They contain graphs and projections.

“This is where I want to see this company in the next one month. Is there anyone who thinks It's impossible?" He looks around the room but no one raises their hand.

“I have bumped into our sales and marketing manager Miss Forrester interacting with her staff, discussing on the way forward. How many of you have organized those meetings with their teams?" He asks.

Silence reigns in the boardroom, so silent you can hear a pin drop.

“From today, each head of department should emulate what Miss Forrester is already doing with her team. I will let her tell you about it. Miss Forrester please." He says, pointing at me.

This is nothing short of an ambush. I wasn't prepared to give a speech, but here I am now, with an attentive audience. Luckily, as managing director of our company I have addressed not only fellow employees but also the board itself, the top organ of the company. I pick up my file and move forward as Amos takes a seat.

I take a breath and look at my audience. There are about six men and four women. I remove copies of commitment forms from the file and place them on the table.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I must first thank our CEO Mr Marshall for this opportunity. I also thank him for attending our interactive session with members of my department.

Now, this is what we are doing, to increase the volumes. Every member of my team has pledged to get more orders, get more customers. They have agreed to sign these commitment forms, each of them indicating their target. Of course we don't expect a hundred percent projections but we hope for a substantial increase in the orders.

This now calls for a sync in the departments because we don't want a situation whereby the orders are exceeding the supplies. That's where other departments come in. For example, an increase in demand will push the procurement team to procure more goods and so on." I pass the forms around.

“If we can get everyone in this company to sign these forms, which are performance contracts by another name, we can go far in a short time." I conclude to a raucous applause.

“Can we do that?" Amos asks, taking back the floor.

“Yes we can." The answer comes from several quarters.

“Good. The human resource manager is here too. Maybe he should appraise us on the interviews they conducted the other day." Amos says as he sits down. From that point my mind switches from the meeting and I start fantasizing about the date we had the previous night. I can't believe that I have finally gotten hold of myself to the extent of going out for dates. The deaths of my relatives had completely ravaged me and I wasn't sure whether I was ever going to heal.

And Amos, I am grateful to him for making it happen. But now he looks serious, not the easy guy at the hotel yesterday. I have also noticed that there is a lady who is admiring him and this makes me feel bad. Why is she doing this? They are seated next to each other and they share jokes which makes them smile every other minute. They should be concentrating on the presentation that is currently going on.

But then I remind myself that we are not a couple and I don't have to be jealous. He is not mine yet so there's no need of me feeling as if he is. I get busy in my files but I can't just let him out of my mind.

When the meeting is over I realize that I haven't heard most of what other departmental heads have said. At some point I can recollect seeing the managing director speaking and I wondered what his job entails in a company with such an aggressive CEO, but then I got lost in thought again.

“Hi." A male voice says from behind and when I turn I see the managing director. I smile at him and he smiles back. He is an handsome guy.

“Hi." I say, changing my files to the left hand so that we can shake hands.

“I am Dwayne Jones, and I am the managing director. We haven't met before." He says.

“Yes, I know about you. It's only that we haven't met. I am..."

He cuts me short.

“I know who you are. I have seen your work and you are just brilliant." Other people have trooped out of the boardroom except the two of us.

“Oh, thanks. But am only doing my work." I say. I'm beginning to feel flattered by these compliments when I have been working for only a few days. I wonder what they'll say when the efforts I have applied start bearing fruit.

“Look, I know you have a busy schedule." He says when I start fiddling with my pen. I am afraid that Amos might somehow come back and find us talking. “Why don't we talk more some time later, over a cup of tea perhaps?" He asks. Now this is getting even more complicated.

“Look Mr Jones, I don't think we can do that today, or even tomorrow. I'll let you know when I will be free, but thanks so much."

He must be very idle because most of his work is duplicated by Amos, therefore he can have as much time as he wants to take out girls for tea.

“In that case I'll be patient." He says. If he is a wise man he should have known by then that his request has been declined in the most diplomatic way possible, but men can be adamant at times and I am certain that I will be hearing from him again.

I indicate my desire to walk out and he gets out of the way. We walk out together, but since his floor is a floor below mine, we part ways at the lifts.

“Have a good day." He says. I can see Amos far away in his office staring our way and my heart misses several beats.

“Same to you thanks." I say without even turning.

At my office I barely put the files back to the cabinets before the direct line from Amos' office rings. I pick it up.

“Hi Olivia. Join me at my office right now, will you please?"

“Right away sir."

The last time I visited his office I was stopped by an overzealous Beatrice but this time Miss Greene lets me in without much ado.

“There you are Olivia. Tell me, did I say or do something wrong yesterday?" He asks as he sits behind his desk.

“What do you mean? There's nothing you did or said that qualifies as bad. But why are you asking?" I am seated in a chair opposite him.

“You haven't talked to me since morning except for the official discourse we had at the boardroom, and now I see you getting cosy with another man. Then I wonder whether it's something that I said or did that made you mad at me." He says.

Another man? I just said a few words to the managing director. Is he getting jealous?

“The managing director was just discussing with me work related stuff. As for yesterday, it was fun, and you were just great."

“But I expected at least some greetings when you came in the morning. You can imagine my worries when you locked yourself up in your office."

“Sorry Amos. I was just busy." I say.

“Fine. Then what plans do you have this evening?" He asks. I need to choose my answer very carefully because this is yet another invitation to a date. Refusal will ruin his day, and acceptance will complicate things for me.

“Nothing much really. I just wanted to go home and watch some TV, and most likely sleep early to compensate for yesterday." I say.

“What about an invitation to dinner at our residence? Don't even think about saying no because you will be saying it not to me but to my father. I have already told him you are coming and he's already so eager to see you." He says.

“But... But I wasn't prepared for it." I say for lack of something else to say. I like the old man Mr Marshall. The man who took me in when I was at my lowest and gave me a job. I like him very much and I already miss the days we used to work together. He used to treat me like her daughter and I was somehow sad when I saw him leave the premises. I remember crying in my office when I remembered the good times we had, and worried about an uncertain future.

“Such an invitation is not easy to decline, seeing that I would like very much to see Mr Marshall again. We had a very good working relationship." I say.

“I'll take that as a yes. I wonder what I would have told him if you had declined because he is expecting you. I told him yesterday about our night out and he was angry that I didn't bring you to see him." Amos says.

“Well, that is fixed. I will be looking forward to that." I say.

“But that doesn't cancel tomorrow." He says, reminding me about the date we have, to the beach, the ocean.

“No problem. But don't you think a lady needs some time to wash clothes, do her hair or something?" I quip.

“I'll not bother you on Sunday I promise. You can do all those things and still get here on Monday as hot as always." That drains the blood from my face and he notices because I can see his sly smile.

“Look, I have to get back to work. When is the departure time?" I ask as I get up.

“We'll leave earlier than usual because I want to take you on a little tour of our farm." He stops when he notices my surprise.

“Yes, we have a farm where we keep some animals and grow some crops." He says. “After the tour we can then settle for dinner. It won't take much time so by nine o'clock I'll have taken you back home." He says.

“That's great." I say.

The day drags on slowly but I manage to clear my desk by four o'clock. Then I call Mr Shannon to tell him that I'll be coming home late.

“Yet another coffee date with Amos?" He asks cheekily.

“No, dinner at their residence." I reply.

“Well if I were you I'd enjoy to the fullest. Have fun my child. I'll be waiting for you by the fireplace. Make sure you come with an earful."

Just as I hung up Amos appears outside my office and I can see him outside the glass walls.

Time for another evening with him.