The Inevitable Lies

Chapter 5

"What do you mean by missing?"

"No one was able to reach him since yesterday." Mr. Jones replied, precipitation visible on his forehead even though the hotel is perfectly air conditioned.

I reached for my phone and tried calling Caleb's business number, the only one I had at the moment but there was no answer.

I ticked my tongue in annoyance.

"We'll deal with this later. For now, ask someone from room service to prepare a snack so we give it to Mr. Lau and his men as an apology. We don't need any bad mouthing."

Mr. Jones nodded his head. "And I'll check in with that translator. I honestly don't know why she hasn't showed up till now."

"Yes, yes. We needed to know what happened before Mr. Frost comes back." I replied as we both made our way back to the elevators.

"Mind I ask you Miss Olsen, i didn't know you spoke fluent Chinese. When did you learn it?"

Mr. Jones question brought back funny memories, and remembering those days with Caleb itched a spot in my heart.

"Well, seeing as how China is a rapidly growing country economically, I thought it would be a smart move to learn Chinese in case they invaded the whole world." I shrugged my shoulders.

Mr. Jones let out a small chuckle. "Well, you're right in that. They are taking over the world."

I settled on a small following chuckle as we both entered the elevator.

I tried reaching Caleb's cell phone again but for the second time it came back unanswered.

Where the hell was he?

I pressed on the fiftieth floor button waited for the door to close.

"Are you going back down to the lobby?" I heard Mr. Jones ask from behind me.

My eyes remained glued on my phone as I shook my head. "No, I have to go find where Mr. Frost was or at least try to reach Mr. Pears. I'm sure he'll know where he is, if not being with him."

"Um-hmm." I could hear Mr. Jones agreement with having to look his way.

Luckily, the elevator went up first and I was quick to leave, while Mr. Jones made his way downstairs.

"Make sure to tell me when the snack is ready and going up to Mr. Lau." I managed to instruct before the doors closed and once again Mr. Jones was nodding his head at my words.

I felt good being a person in charge.

I made my way to Mr. Pears' office and I was immediately met with his secretary sitting on her desk in front of his office.

"Yes, how may I help you?" The overly feminine looking girl spoke as she looked up at me from her computer.

Her ginger hair was tied up in a high ponytail, her green eyes were hidden behind thick rimmed, black glasses.

"Hi, is Mr. Pears in his office?" I asked even though i knew the answer.

"No actually. He had a family emergency last night and had to make a quick trip to Catskill Mountains." She replied in a friendly tone.

Catskill Mountains? I never saw him as a countryside type of guy.

Catskill Mountains was a two hour drive from here so hopefully he'll be back soon.

I was about to reply but she was quicker. "And you are?" she looked at me sceptically.

"Oh, I'm Kate Olsen, Mr. Frost's new secretary." I introduced myself, extending my hand for a shake.

She put her hand in mine as she stood up. "Constance Ritz."

"Nice to meet you Constance."

She replied with the faint smile as she went back down to her original position.

"Do need me to relay a message to him?" She asked and I shook my head.

"We're having trouble with one of the guests and I couldn't find him or Mr. Frost."

She scrunched up her face at me. "Aren't you Mr. Frost's secretary? Aren't you supposed to know where he is?"

I sighed heavily. I'm supposed to, yes. But I don't think Caleb sees me as the secretary he would tell everything to. Of course I couldn't tell her that.

I let out an unsure laugh. "Turns out Mr. Frost likes to keep to himself a lot."

"And where's Mr. Jones? He's the one responsible for these things. Why are you involved?" Her tone came out accusing and I sensed anger rolling off.

Again, she was right. But she had no right to get mad at me or accuse me of doing what i do.

"He's fixing it. But that guest is chinese and for some reason, the translator wouldn't show up." I tried to ignore her tone and the look she was giving me and replied as calmly as possible.

But the red head scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, and I supposed you're very fluent in chinese."

I mirrored her crossed arms. "I am, yes."

Her eyes fell to my face again and her face fell as I looked at her with a confident stare.

My phone started ringing in my pocket, cutting our staring contest.

"Hello." I replied the unknown number.

"Miss Olsen, this is Edward Jones. I was calling to tell you that the snacks for Mr. Lau and his men are ready and a boy from housekeeping is on his way up."

"Great, thank you so much Mr. Jones. Can you please send me the extension to Mr. Lau's suit?" I asked as a final request.

"Yes, of course."

I gave Constance one last look as i hung up the phone, before heading towards my desk.

My phone dinged with a message and i quickly called Mr. Lau's suit phone.

"**"

[Hello.]

"***,*********"

[Mr. Lau, this is Kate Olsen.] I spoke.

"******. *******"

[This is not Mr. Lau. I'm his secretary.] The man on the other line replied and the image of him getting scolded by Mr. Lau this morning popped into my head.

"*,*,****"

[Oh, hi Mr. uhm...] I sang out.

"***"

[Zhen Long.] He finished.

"***. "

[Mr. Long.] I repeated out.

"*********,*************,********. *********"

[I just wanted to inform Mr. Lau that the hotel has prepared you some snacks as an apology for the trouble earlier. I hope you all like it.]

"*****,********************"

[That's very kind of you Miss Olsen. I'll be sure to relay that to Mr. Lau. Thank you very much.]

I sighed in relief once I hung up with Mr. Long, thankful that so far, everything is working out fine.

My mind zoned out to the trouble we'll be having if Mr. Lau's stay exceeded the four day threshold. The Littles won't be so happy.

I was alerted back to reality with voices coming from the distance. I looked up to see Caleb and Mr. Jones coming towards me, or more like towards Caleb's office.

Caleb was obviously fuming as he speed walked closer with Mr. Jones trying to keep up with his pace.

I stood up from my place.

"To my office. Now!" He fumed in my face.

Why in God's name was he mad? He was the one who suddenly disappeared. He should be thanking me for fixing the problem, at least temporarily.

Keeping my mouth shut, I followed him and Mr. Jones into the office, shutting the door behind me.

"Problem listing." Was all Caleb said for Mr. Jones to start talking, explaining the whole problem.

"And how exactly did a double booking happen? Weren't we always careful and updated the system to make sure that problems like that wouldn't occur?!" Caleb's veins were popping in all sorts of places and unlike before when we were married, I didn't dare take a step to calm him down.

Mr. Jones kept quite with his head bowed down, not knowing what to say.

"Did they book through the site?"

Mr. Jones nodded his head. "Yes sir. They made the reservation for one of our second level rooms, for three people."

"Why would an important man like him book a room with both his men?" Caleb asked more to himself.

"He's afraid sir."

Mr. Jones' words caught both Caleb and I's attention.

"What do you mean?" Caleb was quick to ask.

"From what I've researched, Mr. Lau is being targeted by a chinese mob so he doesn't go anywhere far from his secretary and bodyguard."

"Who's the one responsible for managing the site?" Caleb asked.

"Monty Greenwoods."

"Get him." Was all Caleb said for Mr. Jones to vigorously nod his head and leave the office.

Once Mr. Jones left the office threshold, I turned to Caleb was he was quicker.

"What the he*ll were you thinking?!" He yelled at me with fuming eyes.

"Excuse me? I saved your hotel's as*s!" I replied with as much anger, not wanting to hold back.

"Mind your language with me Miss Olsen and don't you dare raise your voice at me. You've done more harm! What do you think Mr. Lau will say when the Littles come? What do you think will Mr. Little feel about us giving someone else his suit!"

"What did you want me to do then? Book Mr. Lau at the lobby? Oh, I'm sure he'll find the lobby couch very comfortable." I replied sarcastically.

"That doesn't concern you at all! You don't get to make any decisions around here." Caleb fumed out.

"Oh yeah, and where have you been exactly to take those decisions?" I faced on.

Caleb didn't know how to reply but his stare gave it all up.

Anger, hatred, you call, he's feeling it. And honestly, I couldn't care less.

"Get out." Caleb finally spoke with a low, held back tone. "And keep in m ind that you'll be fully responsible for all the trouble to come."

"Sure Caleb, just go hide back again."

"Out Miss Olsen!" This time, he was straight out yelling. "And it's Mr. Adrian Frost and dare you not forget that." He had taken a couple of intimidating steps closer. His red face, fire blazing eyes and threatening voice gave no space for replies.

I kept my gaze for a second before deciding against it. I turned out and was quick to leave the office.

Not a single fibre in me wanted to fight him anymore.

The whole day moved about very coldly. Caleb wouldn't look me in the face and preferred telling me what tasks he wanted me to do through e-mail. This was not how a secretary-employer relationship is supposed to be but we worked with what we had.

A big part of me contemplated about just quitting and searching for a job somewhere else. I was sure this wasn't the only or biggest fight Caleb and I would have, and I didn't know if working in conditions like that was good for either of us.

Making my mind up, I went back to work silently.

Mr. Jones was soon making his way back to Caleb's office, with a blonde man following behind, whom I assumed was Monty Greenwood. His hair was a messy mob on top of his head. He was wearing those harry potter glasses and looked like he wore his clothes in a hurry. He even had his laptop between his arms without a case and I could see it's lights still turned on.

"He's inside?" Mr. Jones asked and as they got closer, I could see clearly the pale look on Monty's face.

I nodded my head in reply. "Yes, give me a second."

I knocked on the door three times before opening the door. Caleb's desk chair was facing the wall, but his hair, showing from the top confirmed Caleb's presence.

"Mr. Frost, Mr. Jones and Mr. Greenwood are here."

"Let them in." Caleb spoke out, keeping his face glued to the wall.

I motioned for the two men outside to enter the office and I made sure to close the door after them.

Unluckily, I wasn't able to hear anything from inside. I remained seated in my place, curiosity eating the life out of me.

Soon enough, Mr. Jones and Monty stepped out of the office, making their ways directly to the elevators. I could see Mr. Jones talking to Monty and the poor guy was doing nothing but nod his head.

I sighed for no apparent reason and looking at the clock, I noticed it was lunch time.

I went to a bakery nearby, settling for their cheapest sandwich before heading back to he hotel.

I still didn't have enough money to pamper myself with a full on meal and whatever I had, I saved for Ash. I don't know what life has in store for me and I must be prepared.

I stood in front of the massive building and sighed once again.

I decided to stay out in the open for a little and fetched out my phone. I noticed that I had three missed calls from my mom and a new message from an unknown number.

'Congratulations on your new job bestie, can't wait till you get back home, I sent you a little surprise.'

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

Bestie?

My only best friend here in town in Dannie, and I already had her number.

I dialled my mom's number and on the second ring she answered.

"Mom, what happened? Are you and Ash okay?"

"Yes we're okay. But someone broke into the house Kate. And uhmm......there's blood everywhere."

Her words sent my heart to the pit of my stomach and I felt the my mind shutting down.

Was this the surprise that the sender of the message spoke about?

All I had in mind was wanting to go home, making sure with my own eyes that my mom and Ash were okay.

I was about to make my way inside, throwing any ego and any prejudice I had towards Caleb and beg him to let me go home without having to explain everything to him but a familiar voice stopped me.

"Who is Ash?"