My Boss Is My Tormentor.

6. BOSS

ROSE

Ryan Johnson took his time to look at me too. Down and up, his eyes roamed over me like a touch of feather. We stared at each other and it seemed like forever, but I knew it was only a few minutes then the moment was broken by my friend as she came by my side. "Oh my god. It's him." Natasha whispered in my ear but by the look on his face I knew he also heard her.

I straightened my back or I tried to with all the alcohol running through my system, ready to grab my friend and leave his vicinity. He was an arsehôle who had insulted me and then kissed me without my permission, and just right now he ordered me on the phone like I was his property.

"Hi, we met again." He said, extending his hand toward my best friend, his voice as smooth as silk. She quickly grabbed his hand and shook it, shook it, and shook it some more.

I didn't know why I did it but I grabbed her hand and pushed her backward then I stood between them, face to face with him. I asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I didn't know that I wasn't allowed in here." He shot back.

"Hey, I'm Nikhil, Rose's friend and you are?" Nikhil asked him as he came by my side.

Mr. Fancy pants looked at him then at me and in a nano second his expression changed. "I am Ryan. Actually, we've met before, in the morning,” He said, gesturing toward me.

Nikhil must have shown confusion on his words as Devil in blue started to speak again. Wow, I was full of new nick names. You go, drunk me!

"She came for the interview in the morning. I'm the founder and CEO of Ryan Arts&Commerce."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Ryan." Nikhil said, obviously pleased to meet him. "I've heard about you, you have an empire of business at such a young age."

But before Mr. Fancy pants could've said anything, Natasha said, "Oh my god, he is your boss." And this time I really wanted to strangle her as she pushed me aside and went straight to him. "Thank-you so much for your consideration, one would think that after the incident in the morning you would reject her without any interview."

"Excuse me," I interrupted, or tried to get her attention but it was obvious she'd other plans.

"She told me that she got the job but she didn't tell me that it was you. You are really very nice person." If she only knew how nice he was, I rolled my eyes at Natasha's choice of words.

"Yeah?" Ryan said with a raised eyebrow in my direction and when I looked up at him, he smiled his devilish smile and said to me, "I didn't know you were this eager to work for me."

I was not going to do this here, we can have this chat tomorrow in his office or in his hotel room or I would prefer not to have one at all. "I'm outta here." I turned toward the exit, and almost smacked face first into someone with my wobbly balance courtesy of all those vodkas.

I heard him saying in a bitter voice, "You should take care of your girl." There was some emotion behind his words. My drunk mind whispered it was jealousy but a sober part of it told me that I was a fool.

"Oh. She's not my girl. We are friends, best friends." Nikhil said and after a beat he added, "She's my girl. My fiancé actually. We are going to move in together that's why we were celebrating, Rose's new job and our engagement." I imagined, Nikhil was definitely holding Natasha to his side with starry eyed expression. They both were so in love.

"That's good, congratulations." I heard Mr Controlling say to my friends as I moved toward the exit, my steps were faltering but I kept going.

As much as I wanted to escape from his presence as he was making me feel strange things that I had never felt before, the floor dipped under my feet and I lost my balance, well, I was pretty good in maintaining my weight on one leg so I survived, but I only managed to take five more steps when everything started to blur in front of me and then so slowly everything blacked out.

The last thing I felt was his warm and strong arms wrapped around me. His woodsy scent surrounding me, mixed with something spicy. Mmmm, yummy. I should take this scent home.

I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. I tried to locate it through my closed eyes but when I didn't find it, I squinted my eyes open ready to face anything but as I fully opened them, I saw the ceiling of my bedroom. Okay. That was good, right? I was alive and in my own house.

I closed my eyes briefly, took a deep breath and then slowly let it out. I tried to relax so that I could remember what had happened but the person on the phone was relentless, it kept ringing. This time I found it sitting on the side table by my bed. I picked it up and saw that it was my best friend.

"Open the damn door." She yelled at me as soon as I picked up the phone.

"Well, Good morning to you too, Sunshine," I replied as I grudgingly left my bed to open the door.

When I came face to face with her, she pushed past me and entered into the apartment without looking at me and dropped down on the sofa. I looked at her expectantly, she finally gave me her attention and said, "Look at you. First day of your job and you are looking like shit."

"Thanks for not buttering it up," I said bitterly as I sat beside her. I was feeling like someone was poking needles in my head. Then you shouldn't have drank that much. Did I tell you how much I hate my inner voice? Wait. Inner voice aside, what did my best friend just said. Job. Oh god, did I...

"Your boss said that he'll expect you at eleven because of yesterday, the way you were celebrating." Yes I did, her next words confirmed it and she continued, "So you have one hour twenty minutes to get ready."

"How did I get here?" I asked the first questions of many.

"Oh. You don't remember that. You fainted and you were lucky that he caught you before you could have smacked your head open.” Natasha paused, thinking about last night as she added, “Nikhil said that he would drop you but then your boss, Ryan, he was so considerate he didn't want to have our plans ruined for the night, so he offered to take you home. He was so sweet and charming,” She ended with a sigh, looking starry eyed. If I didn't know about her love for Nikhil, I would have thought she was having second thoughts.

"Fine. I’m going to get ready. Do me a favor and make a coffee. Strong." I decided that I will go there and tell him that whatever happened last night, whatever job proposal I had accepted wasn’t going to be held as I was drunk. Or, maybe I should just accept the job for the time being until I find something new. As these thoughts ran through my mind I walked into the bedroom to get ready and plug in my phone for charging.

When I plugged my phone, it showed two new messages and one missed call. The number was unknown.

UNKNOWN: Good morning. I hope you're feeling better after yesterday's party.

Meet me @ 11:30 in my office. We'll go through your schedule and the WORK you have to do for ME. Wear something white. -Boss

And, there was the office address which I recognised as one of those fancy commercial buildings in Mumbai built in the posh area. I rolled my eyes before I put it back down, not paying any attention to the emphasis of capital letters on the two words and grabbed my blue shirt and grey skirt as I recalled saying it to him before, that I don't take orders well.

Let him see, he can't control me. He could be the millionaire and boss of thousands of employees but he doesn't get to order me around. I was doing this because I don't have any other choice. Don't you? One day I am going to kill myself just to get rid of this voice.

Thankfully, I managed to reach the office building on time and as I stepped out the car, I stared at the massive building standing tall in front of me. It looked like it was only made of glass, shinning and reflecting the bright light of sun. For a brief second, I wondered who did all the cleaning work for these windows because all the time they keep shinning. I could only hope that he didn't want me here to do it. Rolling my eyes at that thought, I stepped forward to cross the main entry of the building only to be stopped by a big hulk of a man.

The man stepped forward gesturing me to look on the other side, I looked up to find a middle aged woman glaring at me. With a frown, I looked down and when I saw what she was holding I quickly walked to her realising how stupid I was behaving as if I didn’t know these types of buildings have the best security settings. The woman quickly scanned my body, pressing harder than necessary and then gestured me to go on. What a b***h. Ignoring her, I entered the building and I was taken aback by the view I had. Oh my god. And I was sure my mouth was hanging open at that time, though I quickly gathered myself and took all of it in, in a more sophisticated way- with my mouth closed.

There was only one word to describe it, it was incredible, the floor, walls covered with paintings, huge sitting area in the right side and big reception area to left. It looked less of an office building more like a luxurious hotel. I moved forward to the reception area, and as I neared the receptionist looked at me as if I was some kind of cartoon character. I tried to be confident but at one point I had to look down at myself to see if once again I managed to make a scandalous appearance but I found nothing. What's her problem?

"How can I help you?" She asked as soon as I was in the hearing distance.

"I am here to meet Mr. Ryan"

"Mr. Ryan Johnson?" She asked me as if I was mistaken. When I gave her my best "get on with it" expression, she quickly asked me, "Do you have an appointment?"

"I.." What should I tell her, that he offered me a job that I declined, then we kissed and I slapped him. Then, at the end of the day miraculously I had a job again because he was a stalker. "Actually... Forget it." I walked away from her, silently cursing myself for even considering it. The vibration in my pocket brought me back from my thoughts, I looked at the screen and read the name, ‘BOSS’, and this time I was cursing someone else.

"Really??" I asked as soon as I picked up the call.

"Where are you going?" A deep silky voice asked, it was like a balm to my morning headache. No. Shut up.

"She was asking too many questions and I thought maybe I don't need this job that much to go through an interrogation," I said bitterly as I glanced back at the receptionist who was once again looking at me like I didn't belong here.

"Let me talk to her," He said easily as if talking to a child.

I rolled my eyes but complied and curiously asked, "What are you going to say to her?"

"None of your concern."

I huffed into the phone, wanting to give him a piece of my mind but I stopped myself, just barely. “Mr. Ryan wants to talk to you," I said as I held my phone to the receptionist, her eyes went wide and she quickly took the phone from me and turned sideways as if there was a secret between them, and very cheerfully greeted him but whatever he said to her was not good as her shoulders tensed and she very quietly answered, "Sorry, sir. Yes, sir."

She turned to me and said without making any eye contact, "Follow me."

.

A. Gupta