2. Later

"Good morning boss."

He didn't reply, instead turning to face me. I wondered what he'd been looking at. I tried to look out of his window nonchalantly but he caught my neck stretching and shook his head.

"Why are you late?"

I thought of a hundred excuses to give. My mind was working fast, but not fast enough. I licked my lips nervously, tasting my ChapStick and hating the habit. His eyes followed my movements before he picked up his phone.

"Alice, push my next meeting schedule ahead to start in an hour's time."

'Shoot! I am going to be stuck here with him...?'

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"I-um... I..."

His eyes stared me, making me feel even more nervous. Why did he have to insist on a reason to explain my lateness? My mind was frozen in fright. Would I get fired?

"I am sorry," I finally managed. "I am sorry I am late. I won't do it again sir."

His eyes were on mine. "I will hold you to that. This is my first and last warning to you. You've been an intern here and you were doing so well. Don't let your standards drop just because I gave you a job. We need Y/N's creativity and team spirit to make the dream work. Are we together?!"

"Yes sir!" I said happily. Thank God I got out of that offense so easily. This was truly great, I could feel it. I had a guardian angel watching out for me and keeping me safe.

"I want to see you working hard today. I expect nothing less from you."

'He wouldn't get anything less from me.'

I nodded my head at him then left his office as soon as I was dismissed. I found my desk piled high with the early Monday morning reports. Disease surveillance reports from different facilities were all in one pile, the second had property inspection reports and the third had health education feedback reports. I worked hard for the next two hours, minding my business and typing hard at my computer after skimming through the first pile and the second one.

I got up an hour after my final report was completed. It was a compilation of all the other reports and I was glad to do this because my boss loved my summary reports. I used a lot of graphs to break the monotony of paragraphs.

"Keep it up Y/N!" he grinned at me. "You can go join the meeting in the conference room on my behalf, can't you?"

"Sure thing," I smiled and walked away. My eyes picked up on him leaning forward as I left his room when I turned. What was he looking at?

'Probably the report you gave him?'

I had my doubts, but I was too busy to think of them at that moment. Perhaps I would address them later. My attention was on the meeting that I had to attend on his behalf and how long it was going to take. I sincerely hoped it would take a very short time. Especially if all they were going to do was give summarized reports of each region.

I sighed before taking a deep breath. 'Here goes nothing!'