Not Funny

Ashton

'Did I meet this woman somewhere before?' Ashton asked himself inwardly.

He didn't show concern for this woman who happened to be the new HR Manager for Holderin Inc. He continues to show professional manners in front of his employees. He asked Gerald and the respective managers to present the current business situation to him. He is coming to the Holderin office once a month only. His office is based at the Greene Group headquarters in the city.

He looks at Emma once in a while but that woman either keeps her head down or looks in another direction throughout the meeting. They made eye contact once, but she awkwardly looked away.

'What's wrong with this woman? She never met a good-looking and elegant boss like me before or what? (LOL). What an uncomfortable sight?' Ashton commented on Emma's manner in his mind.

When he adjourned the meeting, he saw Emma go out of the meeting room not waiting any minutes to stay. 

"Gerald, call Ms. Austen to come back! I want to see her. Why does she go out of this meeting room when her bosses are still here?!. The rest of you free to go." Ashton's usual 'who's the boss here' attitude comes out spontaneously.

The team inside the room impulsively understood the boss's mood and went out voluntarily. Gerald looks uneasy and makes a call to Emma as soon as his boss instructs him.

"Emma, where are you? What are you thinking, you left the meeting room without waiting for the boss to leave? Come back here to the board meeting room right now!" Gerald barked as soon as Emma answered her phone with a controlled volume.

Ashton grins inside looking at Gerald while maintaining his firm demeanor and attitude. At the same time, he called his Personal Assistant, Joshua Wolf.

With a low voice, Ashton instructed him "Joshua, investigate who is Emma Austen." In response, Joshua raised his eyebrow at his boss's request. 

When Ashton notices Joshua's response, he shows his dissatisfaction. "What? Just do what I asked you to do!" 

"Alright Boss, I will do it right away." Joshua nodded understanding.

"Gerald, where's Ms. Austen?! I don't have the whole day to wait for her to come back here!" Ashton showed his irritation after 5 minutes of waiting and that woman was still not shown here yet.

"She's on the way, boss. Let me call her again." Gerald is slightly nervous when his boss looks angry now.

Emma shows up finally.

"Mr. Robert..." Emma smiled nervously at his boss.

"What makes you take so long to come back here?". 5 minutes seems so long when you are in front of your boss. Praying inside hoping nothing was gone wrong. 

"Apologise, I was inside the washroom when you called me just now." Emma sounded like giving excuses.

"Never mind, Mr. Greene wanted to have a one-to-one session with you." Gerald looked at his boss and said, "Mr. Greene, over to you." Without waiting for the CEO to respond, he directed Emma to find a seat nearer to their big boss.

"Finally you are here Ms. Austen...Gerald, Joshua, you two may go out of this room." Ashton still maintains his irritation for making him wait. 

Emma looks at the two men going out of the room. Ashton observed her.

"Ms. Austen, you have a session with me. Stop looking at them." Ashton showed his dissatisfaction again.

"Yes Sir." Emma now professionally looking at him.

"Ms. Austen, tell me about yourself. I should get to know you professionally since you will be responsible for oversight of the Human Resources Department and performances of all general human resources functions of Holderlin Inc." Ashton started the conversation.

"To avoid misunderstanding, let me explain to you. The hiring decision of you with this company had all been made by Gerald, the Managing Director. I didn't want to get involved with all these trivial matters. So, I never had a look at your CV." Being transparent is one of Ashton's principles in his corporate world.

"Understood, Mr. Greene. I have been working in the industry and specifically in HR functions for 10 years now. My expertise in HR is more generalist and I have 5 years experience in leading a team. However, this is my first time working in the FMCG industry. For the past 10 years, I've been attached to the hospitality and electronic industries." Emma introduced herself confidently to Ashton.

"Very well," Ashton responded.

Emma looked at him waiting for his next question.

"Where were you for the past six years, Ms. Austen?". Ashton cannot wait to drop that question to her. 

When he first saw that woman upon his arrival inside the meeting room this morning, he had a feeling that he met this woman before. Her face looks familiar. The first 30 minutes of their meeting, he didn't give a 100% concentration on the presentation in front, instead, he was busy cracking his head to remember who is she.

How could he forget that woman's face he had slept six years ago? No way! 

'But, she did look different compared to six years ago. Her shape is not that fat anymore, but still thick. Not my type at all.' (eyes rolled up).

For 34 years of his life, he only slept with a woman once. Except for his best friends, no one else knows about this story of his life. 

Emma Austen took his virginity. (LOL, seriously!?)

In response, Emma froze in her seat looking at him. She seems lost for a word.

Ashton chuckles inwardly. "Ms. Austen?" He called her name to break the silence.

"Uhmmm...do I have an option not to answer that question?" Emma smiled at him and tried to hide her sheer panic.

Ashton laughed at her response and said "Wow, you didn't forget my face that you met six years ago, don't you?"

"It's not funny, Mr. Greene." Emma looked at him with a serious face.

"Well, Ms. Austen, why suddenly you appeared in my sight after six years?" Ashton is back to his usual attitude.

Emma looked at him and blurted "You have the power to terminate my employment with your company if you don't like to see me working here, Mr. Greene."

'This woman is something. Is she trying to challenge me now? How dare you!' Ashton doesn't want to look defeated in front of her. 

"Ms. Austen, I'm not the one who directly hired you into this company. It's Gerald! You are serving your expertise to him, not to me. As per our company policy, a probationary employee like you has six months to show their capability to the management." Ashton responded looking directly at her eyes.

"I'm not that micromanaged type of leader." Ashton continues

Emma looked at him and didn't say much to retort his words. 

Instead, she replied, "Mr. Greene, if you don't have anything else to ask, I should take my leave now." Emma uncomfortably stood up from her seat and was ready to walk out of the room anytime soon. 

Ashton noticed that she tried to end the session soonest possible.

'Who is she to show her attitude in front of me!?' Ashton snorted angrily in his mind.

"What, do you think I'm so free to stay in this room and talk with you, right now?!" Ashton bangs the table with a loud voice.

Emma whose already stood up from her seat was shocked by his reaction and stepped back a little tremblely.

Instantly, the meeting room door opened, and Joshua hurriedly ran towards him with a panicked face. "Boss, calm down"

Ashton stood up and ignoring Joshua, walked towards Emma, with his face inches away from her face, and angrily said "Get your f@#$&ng face out of this room!".

With a tremble, Emma strode out of the room as fast as she could.

"Boss, what happened?" Joshua looked at his boss.

"Let's go!" Ashton strode out of the room angrily without looking back.