The Chairman's First Love

Chapter 2: Perfect Job

"Yes. I understand," Chloe answered slowly. She didn't care at all the sound of mockery inside Mr Benedict's question.

"So, to answer your question before. Yes, we will reject your application immediately if you are a married woman. The job that we offered isn't really suitable for women who are married," Mr Matthew added.

"Does it ever happen before? I mean... such a misunderstanding when a man comes to attack an employee because he thought his partner was cheating. Does it ever happen before?" Chloe got curious.

"Well... yes. It happened before. Once," Mr Matthew answered hesitantly. He didn't really want to open up about some shameful incident regarding the company.

"Last month, a man came to our company and attacked one of our board directors. He claimed that the director's secretary was his girlfriend. She was always busy and rarely answered his calls so he jumped to conclusion that his girlfriend was cheating on him with the director. It was a false accusation. The director was a married man with two kids and his secretary was actually one of his wife's distant cousins. Since that incident, we made sure to provide only single and unmarried secretaries and personal assistants for the higher-ups," Mr Benedict suddenly told the detailed story of the incident.

Chloe just nodded lightly in response. It was an absurd incident. The director that was attacked must felt very ashamed after what happened. She stayed silent as she didn't really have anything to say or ask anymore. Mr Benedict and Mr Matthew rearranged their papers and was preparing to leave the interview room. Before they went out, Mr Matthew gave the final brief to Chloe.

"We will inform the result of the interview in three days. If you pass this interview, there would be another final interview that you need to undergo. This is just a screening interview. We will only select three candidates to be shortlisted for the final interview," Mr Matthew said.

"That's all. You can leave now," Mr Benedict ended the interview abruptly.

As both the human resource managers made their way to the door, Chloe stood up immediately and bowed down a little to show her respect to them. She only left the interview room a minute after.

She slowly exited the building with a dull feeling. 'Aren't that just perfect? They need someone who is single and not into a romantic relationship, and I happened to be someone who can't trust men anymore. This job sounds perfect for me. I didn't have a life anyway. It's just money and money and paying my debt. Gosh... when will I be able to finish paying my student loan? My salary before was just barely enough to make end meets. I'm broke as f*ck. I need this job if I want to finish the loan faster,' she grumbled alone in front of the entrance of the company building.

She had been unemployed for three months. She was laid off by the previous company she worked for because the management was trying to cut some costs. Three days ago, she happened to take a walk around that area since there were a few corporate buildings there. She wanted to ask if there were job openings inside those companies.

Yet an unexpected thing happened to her that day. She came across a familiar figure of someone she used to know. She couldn't see his face so she didn't know if it was really him. She just felt strange that the back view of his body reminded her of someone who left her five years ago. She chased after him only to miss him when he entered the building she came out of just now.

It was the Zen Global Corp, a corporate building owned by a multibillionaire that had multiple businesses in a few countries around the globe. Their lines of business were countless. Chloe made a background check about the company and found out that it had two headquarters. One of them was in Country H while the other one was here in Country M, where she lived.

Anyway, that day when she tried to chase that man until he entered the Zen Global Corp building, she saw an advertisement in front of the company stating that they had a job opening for a secretary and personal assistant position.

It was a perfect coincidence since Chloe needed a job. The payment that the company offered for the position was quite high and that was basically the main reason why Chloe wanted it so much. She didn't even feel hesitant to try. She just went for it and sent her application. Whether she was qualified or not, she didn't bother to think about it. Surprisingly, she was actually qualified for the job and that was how she managed to get a call from the company, asking her to come for the screening interview.

"The only thing left for me to do now is just wait. Just three days," she mumbled alone while walking towards her car that was parked at the parking lots in front of the building.

Her body felt a bit exhausted. Since she was the last candidate for the interview, she waited the longest than the others. The interview session started at nine in the morning and only ended at four after midday.

As she was just about to start the engine of her car, her phone rang. She took it out from her handbag and saw Patrick was calling her. Chloe answered the phone immediately with a smile on her face.

"How was your interview?" Patrick asked as soon after Chloe picked up the call.

"Well... Fine, I guess..." Chloe answered half-heartedly.

Truthfully, she didn't think she did great. Being the last candidate, she got a lot of disadvantages. The interviewers skipped a lot of questions to speed up her interview session so they could finish quickly. Thus, Chloe didn't think that she even got the chance to shine a little.

"You guess? That sounded like bad news again," Patrick joshed at her.

"Hey, don't jinx me! I might get the job. Or not..." Chloe replied playfully and chuckled at the end of her words.

"Anyway, I'm off today. Do you want to meet up for a bit tonight? I'll go to your apartment and pick you up. We haven't seen each other for almost three weeks already," Patrick suddenly asked her to hang out with him.

Chloe was hesitant. It was not that she didn't want to meet him. It was just that last month, Patrick's parents forced him to agree on an arranged marriage with the daughter of their friends. After being pressurized too much, he unwillingly agreed to it with one condition. He wanted to be engaged for one year before he marry the woman. He made that condition to stop his parents from pestering him regarding the marriage arrangement for one year. It was quite effective, but then now Patrick was basically a taken man. So, Chloe felt like it was a bit inappropriate for her to keep meeting him since she knew well enough that Patrick was actually harbouring some feelings for her.

"Is it okay for you to meet me?" Chloe asked jokingly, didn't want to offend his feelings. She tried to remind him that he was someone's fiance now.

"Of course. I've known you for five years. Why can't I meet you so suddenly?" He replied in his normal tone.

"Okay then. Is seven okay? Seven-thirty? Or before eight?"

"Before eight then. I know you must need more time to get ready. I'll call you when I arrive, okay?"

"Okay," Chloe cut the phone call soon after that. Then she drove her car to head home.

***

The clock on the wall showed past six in the evening. Chloe was lying on her three-seater white sofa while watching a movie on the television. She took a bag of chips from the rectangular wooden coffee table in front of her and swiftly opened it. She slowly munched the chips one by one with her eyes focused on the television screen.

"Chloe, you should take a shower now..." she mumbled alone, reminding her own self. Living alone inside her tiny studio apartment had caused her to develop a new habit of talking to her own self when nobody was around.

Out of the blue, her phone that she put on the coffee table a while ago rang. It was Patrick again. Chloe quickly rose to a sitting position and answered the phone.

"Go take a shower now," Patrick instructed her as if he knew she was still lying somewhere inside her apartment.

"It's still early," Chloe protested like a child.

"You're going to take a long time drying your hair. Go now. Stop watching the movie, Chloe...." Patrick said more.

Chloe instantly laughed when he told her to stop watching the movie. He indeed knew her well enough that he could even guess what she had been doing without even being there inside her apartment. That was probably because she used to live inside his house about five years ago.

"Okay, okay. Such a nagger," she jokingly mocked him. She could hear Patrick burst out laughing at the other end of the line.

"I'm going to take a shower now," she said more.

"Hmm... I'll call you again in one hour. Make sure you're ready by then," Patrick replied.

"Yes, doctor," Chloe joshed at him.

"I'm hanging up," Patrick said slowly while chuckling at her.

"Hmm..." Chloe only responded with a meaningless sound and then she heard the phone call was cut promptly.

She stood up lazily, turned off the television and headed to the bathroom. Patrick was seven years older than her. He was like her big brother. Thus, whenever he told her to do something, she always felt a sense of obligation inside her heart to obey him accordingly.

Chloe took off her clothes and went inside the bathroom. She turned on the shower and went under it languidly. She shut her eyes and let the water from the shower run down her body naturally. Her mind unconsciously wandered to those moments when she first met Patrick five years ago.