The office meeting

After everyone had been dismissed from the daily briefing, Sasha went to her desk and prepared for the day, closing last night sales and reconciling the cash and sales books for majorly her pastry sales.

After 20 mins, Khalid, the general manager arrived at the restaurant and had David the supervisor and the head chef sent to his office.

Whatever they discussed at the time could not be heard outside of the office and shortly afterwards, David walked out the office and crossed over to Sasha's desk asking for her stock and sales book.

Sasha, easily understanding what was going on panicked a little but gave David her record books with confidence and walked to the bathroom to text Robert and Tom about the whole situation incase they were to be implicated too.

Unbeknownst to her, their phones had been seized under threats by David and switched off. So after getting no response from them having waited in bathroom for minutes, she walked to the kitchen to try see what was up with them but the Assistant head chef had been briefed and blocked Sasha off.

Sasha sensing trouble, found another workmate who had also been part of the side income deals but at a lower risk and asked him to shift her suit and shoes from the changing room to the basement of the building and have them kept with the security team outside.

She then confidently went back to her desk, sat and relaxed even when she expected the worst.

Meanwhile in the office, David, Khalid and Shah the head chef went through all the weekend sales and found a weak loophole to exploit for their justification. The loophole instead implicated Robert more but the three men wanted Sasha out as she had crossed them over into direct contact with the restaurant patrons and the son of the owner of the business.

After discussing among themselves on how to drop her through the plan, Khalid sent Shah back to the kitchen to monitor all operations and had David call Sasha to the office to begin the interrogation.

The manager after replying to her greetings, asked her to sit down and she did, her eyes on him with no wavering. Sasha had mastered eye contact ever since she had began working as a receptionist.

Khalid, proud of his authority, leaned back on his chair, crossed his legs and without waiting any longer, he asked Sasha about how much money she had stolen from the Sunday sales.

"where is the money you stole r from the company yesterday?"

Sasha, already aware that everyone knew she was making side sales didn't bother to cook up any story on spot. Instead she smiled, her eyes were crinkled at the corners signaling her willingness to have things discussed for the better.

"I only earned a tip from Mr. Sahil." Sasha defended herself, her hands in one position and her eyes steady in gaze towards Khalid the manager.

Khalid, forced a smile that didn't reach his ears and raised his eyebrows a bit to suppress the laughter that was killing him inside because Sasha was still trying to act smart instead of directly saying the truth.

The amusement on David's face then disappeared and he leaned forward, squaring his shoulders with his penetrating stare and asked Sasha to say the truth.

"Just tell me how much and I will forgive you." Khalid's tone shifted to above a whisper not wanting to draw attention from other stuff who were passing by as they prepared the place for the official opening hours.

Sasha expressions remained untroubled, there was no hint of defensiveness in her tone and her composure remained same but Khalid was getting a little unsettled.

"Sir, it was only Mr. Sahil's tip that I earned yesterday." Sasha reassured Khalid, her eyes shinning with the most sincere innocence which matched the radiance from her face.

Now since the office was under a surveillance camera, khalid didn't want the conversation to prolong as he himself was obviously still suffering from a hangover. He turned to David and asked his opinion on the Sunday's sales.

David already eager to share his part of investigations handed Khalid his own stock books and pin pointed out the number of sales Sasha was skipping but Khalid had his mind elsewhere.

After recollecting himself from whatever was musing him from the inside, Khalid leaned back in him on the table, braced his hands, looked at the watch and without warning, his expression changed to a disguised casual relaxed composure he had maintained earlier on.

"Am sorry Sasha but we will discuss this later in the future. So you can go home now until when I call you back on duty." There was no sympathy in Khalid's tone and no room for argument.

Sasha understanding Khalid's point stood up without pleading for any consideration.

"Thank you sir."Sasha replied to him, Her voice was firm, devoid of any bitterness and as she moved out of the office, her movement were unhurried. She pushed the door back and walked straight towards the changing room very much aware that khalid was firing her indirectly more so on the date of her paycheck.

"Follow her out and make sure she doesn't take a thing." Khalid ordered David.

A self satisfied smile tugged the corners of David's lips and his eyes could not hide the sense of triumph he was feeling. He stood up, thanked Khalid and walked out of the office to follow Sasha.

A satisfying newfound confidence filled David as he watched Sasha walk closer to the corridor that led to the changing.

"Excuse me miss." He commanded across the 7 tables that were ahead of him and near to the corridor Sasha was about to turn to, without hesitation, Sasha still calm in her composure, looked at him with contempt but did not pursue heading to the changing room anymore. Instead she stared at him as he walked closer to deliver his speech.

"Only staff members can access the changing room." There was an air of self assurance as David reminded Sasha of her status, his eyes then descended from Sasha's head upto the shoes she was wearing.