Chapter 13

Three days later, the ride from Red's apartment to JC Cole's building was long, and she already dreaded the idea of her first meeting with the rest of the executive employees. And though she was grateful for the opportunity and had almost toppled over when she'd gotten the acceptance phone call, her chance at the Software Specialist department would come. She just needed to work her way up. But how could she concentrate when Charlie had been under her head for the past two weeks?

Two weeks, but it felt like two years.

She had never been this stressed before. Charlie was highly demanding, bossy, and fickle-minded. One moment he wants tea, the next coffee. Then, in a blink, he would demand the papers that had already been signed and ask to rewrite them and resign again with their constructor. Red was overwhelmed by the job.

Though she had always prided herself on being a resilient and composed individual, working with Charlie had tested her limits like never before. "What a dick!" She thought to herself.

In her previous job, she had encountered challenging bosses and demanding clients, but none had been quite as vexing as Charlie. From the moment she started working with him, she realised that her professional life was about to take a tumultuous turn.

Charlie was the boss with an impressive track record, and the company's success seemed to rest heavily on his shoulders. However, his management style was far from what Red had anticipated. He was bossy, often giving orders without considering the practicality or workload involved. His decisions were fickle and frequently changed, leaving Red and the rest of the executive team in a state of constant flux.

Yesterday, he demanded a cup of tea, and the next minute, he insisted on coffee. While this might seem like a trivial matter, it was emblematic of the unpredictable nature of working with the father of her child. It was a constant battle of 'not trying to poison his coffee'.

No wonder Gabby left. She thought to herself.

Charlie's inconsistency extended beyond beverage choices; it manifested in his decision-making processes, project priorities, and even his interactions with colleagues. It was like he was doing it on purpose. Like he was trying to make her quit. What made matters worse was his tendency to procrastinate on important matters until the very last moment.

Not that she was jealous, but really? In the middle of a very important contract, he would call one of her many women and have very loud sex in the office. "Who does that?" She murmured to herself as she entered the elevator.

There were occasions when the team had worked diligently on contracts and agreements, only for Charlie to dismiss them at the eleventh hour, requesting revisions or changes that seemed arbitrary. It was frustrating and demoralising to put in hours of effort only to have their work discarded like it meant nothing.

Red tried her best to cope with the stress and keep her emotions in check. She attempted to find patterns in Charlie's behaviour, hoping that understanding his moods might help her anticipate his demands. She also worked on her communication skills, trying to express her concerns and opinions more effectively. However, every effort seemed to fall short as Charlie continued to throw curveballs her way. It felt like he hated her for a reason.

The constant pressure to deliver according to Charlie's ever-changing whims took a toll on Red's mood. She found herself losing sleep, feeling anxious about work even during her off-hours, and struggling to maintain a healthy work-motherly life balance. The once joyful and passionate Red was now overwhelmed and drained, with her enthusiasm for the job waning.

The situation became even more challenging as Charlie seemed unaware of the impact his actions had on the team. To him, it might have been just another day at the office, but to Red and her colleagues, it was an emotional rollercoaster.

She knew that she needed to make a decision. She couldn't continue down this path indefinitely. She had to find a way to address the situation, whether it meant talking to Charlie directly or not. Could she do that?

One look from him, and she would cower like a mouse.

Nonetheless, she was thankful that he didn't recognise her, but there was a part of her that was disappointed. And yes, working with Charlie Cole was exhausting, frustrating, and scary.

But does she have a choice?

No. So for now, she had to make sure she kept this $85,000-a-year job.

Red was over a half-hour early, so she made a donut stop and bought enough sugary goodness for the entire floor. The receptionist, an auburn-haired girl around her age named Kelly, was already behind her desk, typing away, when she came in. Red offered her a donut, and her timid eyes scanned me as if she were trying to sell her an unregistered gun.

"They're good. I promise. Tommy and I used to come all the way from the other side of the city every Saturday just to have them." She smiled.

"People are not nice here, though," Kelly said nervously. "Well, I am. So..." she shrugged. She plucked a chocolate-glazed donut. "Thank you, and by the way, Mr. Cole should be here any minute," Kelly said between moans of pleasure.

Entering the executive hallway, her friend Allen muttered behind her. "If you're here at the executive department, the tech doesn't treat us as real IT specialists."

"Really?"

Yes, and the toilet seats in this place get more respect than our beauty. They also get better asses, I'm sure. There are literally no hot people here on the executive floor."

"Just old, cigar-scented bosses?" Red asked with a smile on her face.

"Yes,dear, just old, oily-ugly faces."

"But this job offered kickass health insurance and free gym facilities. In short, if I could marry this job, I would make sure it was happy and give it a foot massage every evening."

"True." They chuckled before going to their respected office. It wasn't an actual office, but a cubicle on an open-space floor: beige on white and clinically depressing uniform white dividers, but very good leather office chairs. Each cubicle had four desks. She'd share hers with Justin's secretary.

Red dumped her mismatched backpack under a chair that faced one of the desks without photos and knickknacks and looked out the window. She had a direct view of the waterfront and the biggest hotel in the city. And to her left, however, was a massive painting of her boss. Looking at the abstract painting, she sighed. Still, Red couldn't believe that she'd spent the night with Charlie. Six years later, it still felt surreal that a man she didn't know at the time had been inside of her multiple times. Even stranger was the sharp pang of regret that pierced her chest every time she thought about the money she'd stolen from him.

Yes, she did; it wasn't much, but she did it for him to believe that she was really a stripper and she needed the money. Though she vowed to never do it again and tried to tell herself that the entire night had been out of character for her, yeah, she had Tommy. Did she ever regret having him?

No. Never. Tommy was her life, her everything. And she would do everything to be able to give him everything he needed.

Gary, Justin's secretary, arrived twenty minutes later. He looked like the lovechild of Kurt Hummel from Glee and your best friend's hot brother, and he dressed like Willy Wonka. The deep green velvet blazer he had on today would've looked like a crime scene on anyone else. He waved his hand theatrically as he entered, his eyes still curtained by his huge Prada shades. He sipped his Starbucks as he ushered Red around the massive hallway, which was beginning to fill with personnel. The executives's accountants and secretaries nodded grimly at them as they passed them by.

"Gary, where are we going?"

"Silly, we have a monthly meeting at the executive meeting room. Be aware; don't inhale the ugliness of the old bosses, but only with our Justin and Charlie, yeah?" Gary said with exaggeration.

"Oh…"

"And Red, dear? Feel free to erase every single person and face I've introduced you to from your memory and use that space to remember software's director, Daphne Roger's beauty ritual, because none of them talk to us or acknowledge our existence. Our beauties were illegally and brutally deported from heaven to here." He fell into his executive chair and ran his fingers through his raven hair. "This made Justin and Charlie extremely difficult to work on, but we still manage. Justin is a dear, but your boss?"

Red frowned. "That bad?"

"Indeed, I may be gay and would die to have a man like Charlie, but with his bossy attitude, there's no way I'll survive a day with him. And today? Get your panties hooked because it's a red flag day."

"What's a red flag day?"

"Charlie's moody today."

"Oh," she bit her lips before adding, "I mean, what happened?"

Gary sighed. "Justin lost something important."

"What did it have to do with us?"

"My dear, that something is my boss's fault, and he is the best friend of your boss, and every time the oldies look at us, they see Justin's mistake."

"Oh, I don't want to know anymore." She reached out and squeezed Gary's hand, just as Eva and Allen strutted in.

"What's HR personnel doing here?" Gary raised his brow at the two.

"Beats me... but my boss told me to come here. I don't know why," Allen replied with the same annoyance. If no one knew about them, they might think that they were enemies, but really, Gary and Allen were twins.

Eva smiled and asked, "Is this dress up as a bipolar nurse or nun day?" She scowled at Red's white dress.

Red opened her mouth to explain that she was about as fashionable as her keyboard when she broke into a grin, and Gary laughed from his desk, shaking his head.

"Oh God, Eva, I didn't have the heart to tell Red that. Thanks for voicing it out loud." Gary wiped fake tears from the corner of her eyes.

Red raised her brows. "Which part is more disturbing to you guys, the thrift-shop blouse or the fact that I don't have any skirt to match this boring blouse?" she poked at her lower lip.

"I'm pretty sure that's the part where you look like a nun." Eva swiped her gaze along Red's body. "How many times do I have to tell you that you can borrow my clothes? We are one room apart; you can just knock on my door, you know."

Red smiled. "Ah, thanks, Eva, but Tommy wasn't in the mood earlier, and I don't have time to—"

Yeah, yeah, okay, enough with that." Gary swivelled his chair to his Apple screen, double-clicking the envelope icon. "Speaking of disturbing things, Charlie will be making an announcement today, so maybe it's a good thing little Miss Congeniality here is covered up in a dress so ugly it should be illegal."

Red shot Gary a look, and he snapped his gum in her face. "Charlie likes the ladies, but worry not. His fiance puts him on a leash."

Red's eyes went wide. "He is engaged?"

"Who is engaged?" said a familiar voice from behind them.