Chapter 3: Friendship

After Xavier and his team left the lobby, everyone exploded in a frenzy.

The female employees could not stop gushing about his handsomeness and even proclaimed their infatuation with him.

Still, they hadn't forgotten the bitterness they had for Zarah.

"You should have hidden your phone inside your bag, Miss. Now, we're banned from using our phones during working hours and have to use pagers. My goodness! I don't even know how to use it!" One intern gave a side comment.

However, Zarah knew that this was not entirely her fault. It was bound to happen sooner or later, otherwise, they won't show their pagers to everyone. Unfortunately, she was being used as an instrument in announcing the policy.

"Guys. I don't think this is entirely her fault." Someone spoke which surprised Zarah.

Zarah did not expect someone to defend her since she had already given her hope based on their reactions earlier.

Zarah was clueless about how to react to this. Should she show her gratitude by saying Thank you? Or should she give her a warning?

Zarah decided to do the latter over the former, "Don't mind me and mind yourself."

Zarah could see the sadness on her face but it was immediately covered up with a smile. Zarah could be exaggerating but her smile could brighten up the entire room.

Zarah moved to the corner to avoid everyone and she didn't expect that she would follow her.

Zarah didn't want to judge this person's character but she seems to be an easy-going type. Or she could be wrong.

"It's fine. I just hate it when people start castrating others without examining the situation." She meaningfully said and took the liberty to occupy the vacant seat next to her.

Zarah would be lying if she said that this young lady did not catch her attention. Though their personalities were at each end of the spectrum, she won't deny that having her as a friend could be lovely. She's pretty and her easy-going personality made her approachable.

She was sure that everyone would love to be friends with this person.

"What is your name?" Zarah asked which earned a chuckle from her.

"I thought you would never ask me. I'm Hope Thompson by the way. What about you?" Hope introduced herself and extended her hand for a handshake.

"I'm Zarah Jansen, with H." Zarah did not hesitate to shake her hand.

"Okay. Got it. Can you be my friend, Zarah?" Hope asked which caught Zarah off-guard.

"Su-re." Zarah was unsure of whether she'd accept this friendship or not. But as she looked at Hope's genuine smile, she saw that she had no bad intention behind this and so she wanted to agree. However, she had the urge to give her a little disclaimer.

"Why don't you observe me for a week and see if you still want to be friends with me? It's not easy to be my friend."

Hope adorably tilted her head to the side like she was in deep thinking.

"Okay. Since you suggested it, I'll do that. However, I'm a hundred percent sure that we will be friends at the end of this week!" Hope was confident that she could befriend Zarah at the end of the week.

"Let's see."

The two stopped talking when the glass door opened and a middle-aged woman entered the room.

"Good morning! Sorry for being late." She then clapped her hands to set the mood. "So! Are you all the new interns this year?"

"Yes!" Everyone answered with high spirit.

She then introduced herself to everyone as Mrs. Penelope Spears and then she started the orientation.

After an hour, everyone accompanied Mrs. Spears as she sent them to their assigned departments.

Zarah applied to be an intern in the accounting department but she learned that she was transferred last minute to the CEO's floor.

Zarah suddenly had a bad feeling about this. She did not want to get too much attention yet she was assigned to a place that everyone would surely envy.

There were two other interns assigned with her and Hope was not one of them.

As soon as she reached the CEO's floor, a man whom Zarah recognized greeted them.

Zarah looked down as she didn't want to be recognized and her name to be called first.

"Good morning ladies, I'm Elliott Floyd, Chairman Stevens' Executive Assistant. Today is the first day of your internship and we hope that you'll have a deeper knowledge of the job after the internship is over."

He then grabbed the folder after his brief speech and had a quick scan of their profile before he called their names one by one.

"Miss Goulding. Miss Dough, please come with Miss James. Miss Jansen, please follow me."

Elliott grinned after calling her name and Zarah wanted to punch him in the face for teasing her.

Zarah could tell that the other two were looking at her with envy. However, she decided to ignore them as there was nothing she could do.

Unlike Josh's office, the Executive Secretaries and the Executive Assistants' room were separated here. The Executive Assistants' room was closer to the CEO's office.

"Mr. Floyd, may I know why I am transferred here when I applied to the Finance Department?"

Elliott smiled at her and said, "Chairman Stevens arranged this beforehand. Chairman knew that this is the best training ground to hone your skills. He knew that you're not suited for pity tasks as you won't be challenged by them."

It turned out that Isaiah had arranged this for her. Should she be glad and accept this?

"But I don't want unwanted attention." Zarah blurted out in frustration.

"Miss Jansen, ever since the day I saw you marching on that stage and delivering your well-written Valedictory speech in high school, I know you're bound for greatness, and whether you like it or not, you'll have people's attention wherever you go."

"Is that a compliment Mr. Floyd?" Zarah pouted as she felt like crying as they entered the EA's office.

"Yes! It's rare for me to compliment someone. You should be proud of yourself." Elliott said and clapped his hand to change the topic.

"Anyways! This is going to be your table," Elliott spoke which helped Zarah to refocus.

"Oh."

"Well, as an intern assigned to the EA's office, you will be working closely with the CEO for twelve weeks. Well, eleven since his formal duties would start next week." Elliott started.

"Aside from being the new CEO, Mr. Lockhart has other important responsibilities outside the company. However, he is determined to fulfill his duties. And as the assistants, it's our responsibility to help him with the piles of workload he will have. If we need help, the people next door are at our mercy."

Elliott thought that she would be intimidated by this huge responsibility being placed on her shoulder for the next twelve weeks. On the contrary, she looked composed and calmer than expected.

"Then, if we're working together starting today, please just call me Zarah. I've known you long enough and I'm comfortable having casual conversations with you," Zarah said as she thought this would help her with her sanity.

"If that's your wish, Miss Jansen, then call me Elliott."

The two agreed about it and so the matter was closed.

The first thing she did was organize her table. While she was doing this, the door opened and two young men entered.

Both's breath hitched the moment they saw Zarah. Who could blame them? Despite wearing makeup, Zarah's beauty and aura were incomparable to any young woman they'd met so far.

They thought that she was like the lone flower blooming in a vast snow field under heavy snow. Therefore It's hard not to be captivated by her as she would always stand out amongst the crowd.

Zarah looked at them and she frowned upon seeing their weird reaction. She looked down and subtly checked if she had any dirt on her face through her reflection on the glass wall.

Much to her relief, there was none.

'But why do they look like they were being hypnotized?' She asked herself.

Elliott decided to clear his throat so the two men would come back to reality.

"Hi! You must be our intern. I'm Rupert Blake, the CEO's assistant/bodyguard. Behind me is Christopher Blake, my cousin. He's the CEO's executive assistant."

"Hi! Just call me Chris."

Both held their hands forward for a handshake and still had those dreamy eyes.

"Hello! I'm Zarah Jansen. It's nice meeting you all." Zarah awkwardly shook their hands respectively.

"Guys, stop it! You're scaring the kid." Elliott said and the two men turned serious to the point that Zarah thought these two had split personality disorders.

"Miss Jansen, we've seen your well-accomplished profile and all I can say is you're fit for the position. So we're expecting the best outputs from you. Would that be okay?" Rupert wanted to see how Zarah would answer his question.

"I'm flattered that you think highly of me, Mr. Blake. However, I will not say anything that could elevate my position or get your good side. I'd rather start the work now and let the results speak for me."

She was not there to satisfy any of them. She was there to help the company satisfy its market.

"And since we'd be working together. I think it's best if we drop the titles like mister and miss. It's a lot easier to work this way. What do you think?" Chris suggested.

"Zarah just had the same idea."

"Good! Then, you can call me Chris."

"Rupert."

"Call me Elliott."

"Just Zarah, with H."

The three boys chuckled as they did not expect Zarah to have hidden humor.

"Sure, Zarah, with H." They teased and Zarah's face turned red as a tomato.

And just like that, Zarah's first day as an intern officially began.

Meanwhile, a middle-aged man was stopped by security at the entrance of the company.

"What are you doing? Let me in! Have you forgotten who I am?!" He bellowed at them and one of the guards could no longer take it so he said, "We didn't forget who you are, Mr. Stevens. However, we received a new order earlier from the management that you're banned from entering the building starting today."

"What?! Who said that?! Bring me to him and I'll reduce him to a pulp."

The other guard answered to support his colleague, "The new CEO told us, Mr. Stevens. So if I were you, I'd leave the company peacefully rather than create a commotion, Sir. Rest assured, all of your things are being packed up and will be delivered to your house today. CEO Lockhart doesn't need them."

As he heard the name, something clicked inside his head. It was an unpleasant memory and it made him more furious.

"No! I won't accept this! Bring me to him! I won't leave this company unless I meet this person!"

"This person? Isn't Mr. Lockhart your brother, Mr. Stevens?" The guards had to ask him as they were surprised to know that he didn't even recognize their new CEO.

"I don't have another brother other than Franklin! Whoever that person is, he's an impostor!" He yelled which caught people's attention.

He had no idea that creating a scene would be useless because Xavier won't meet him.

His people were equally helpless as they stood behind him. They went to the office early this morning not knowing that this would be their last.

Well, they were given the option to either resign voluntarily and receive financial assistance or they'd be reassigned to another department and would start from scratch to prove themselves.

They didn't want to get back to square one and so they picked the former over the latter.

It was not an uncommon practice inside the company to dismiss all previous employees who were loyal to the former CEO or management out of their respective jobs to give way to the new management and his team especially if there was mistrust between the parties.

That way, the issue of sabotage could be avoided.

Since they were loyal and were his cohorts, they became the first casualty of this.

They looked at each other and decided to turn around and leave with their things inside the box.

They started regretting that they chose him rather than their respective jobs. They had benefited when Nikolai Stevens was the CEO but compared to their colleagues whom they had belittled, they were the most pitiful people right now.

Meanwhile, Xavier heard that Nikolai was making a scene outside the company and so he asked one of his men to take a video so he could watch him.

He heard his request but didn't give it to him. He requested the guards to throw him out in the streets should he remain stubborn and not leave the company.

He had no intention of meeting him yet so Nikolai would be thrown on the streets without meeting Xavier.

Xavier didn't feel any ounce of pity for him. In fact, Xavier was only starting. He would let them experience every pain he felt in the past because of them.

***