Chapter Seven

He rarely left his office after he had come in, unless he was going home, but today was different as he couldn't stop being unnecessarily anxious, hence pacing around the office.

When he couldn't keep up with the boring act, he decided to go downstairs to cool off his anxiety. He didn't want to admit it, but he knew deep down that the reason for his anxiousness was the fact that she wasn't there yet.

He knew he needed to have a reason to go downstairs, but he couldn't think of anything just yet. In his usual fashion, he bit his fingernails and after checking his wristwatch for the umpteenth time and still seeing no sign of her, he decided to forget about every other thing and just do what had to be done.

He heaved a deep sigh and walked out of his office, closed the door behind him gently and put his hands in his pocket before stepping into the elevator.

Before he could press the button, a man with glasses he suspected was in the programming team wanted to step in as well. It took only the glare of Tade to send him trembling and he immediately desisted from his intended act.

Everyone knew he enjoyed being alone and that included on the elevator as well, so they dreaded trying his patience. He loved the fear he had seen written all over the man and smirked; it was better to be feared than loved after all, that was what his father had taught him.

He alighted from the elevator and strode to where the receptionist, Kate sat idly, with her phone in her hand, grinning about something that seemed funny.

He stood there for a while and just watched how she went from grinning to chuckling then laughing hysterically.

"Ha ha ha," He mimicked.

Kate's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as she looked up to see her boss, Tade Wellington, staring distastefully at her. She immediately dropped her phone on the drawer beside her and stood up, biting her lips nervously.

"Kate Aniobi, what's so funny?" He asked.

"I'm... I'm sorry, sir," She said with her teeth chattering.

"That is not an answer to my question," He said, acting like he had expected her to give him a direct response.

She avoided his gaze and dared not say a word. If she tried to defend herself, she knew she'd make matters worse, and she also knew her boss hated being apologised to after he already caught you in a bad act.

"How can you be using your cell phone during office hours? That's not even my problem. My problem is that I stood here for a few minutes and you still didn't notice because you were too busy laughing like a lunatic. What if it was a customer, a prospective client or an actual client, or worst still, one of the shareholders or partners? Do you want people to leave bad reviews on our social media platforms? Do you want people to think I employed a mad person as my receptionist?" He thundered.

Kate didn't know what to say or do. She had never expected her boss to show up till either 1pm or 4pm. She knew he watched her from the CCTV at times, but she hadn't expected today to be one of those times. She just kept shut and let him say whatever he wanted, it was better to keep shut than talk when Tade Wellington was speaking.

"You've been relieved of most of your duties..."

"Sir, what? Why?" Kate asked, baffled.

He scoffed. "You literally just interrupted my speech, nice," He said sarcastically.

"No sir, I'm very sorry. It's just that this job means so much to me, so when you said..."

It was his turn to cut her off, and of course, he did. "Don't pretend like you love the job, Kate. What you truly love is your salary, and don't worry, your salary won't be cut off, even though your work will be reduced," He said.

Kate heaved a sigh of relief and nodded her head with a smile plastered on her face.

"You don't have to smile sheepishly, it really doesn't suit you," He said.

She immediately closed her mouth and nodded in agreement with his statement.

"I've gotten myself a personal assistant who'll be handling calls made for me, taking care of my presentations even when I'm around, going through the work of every team, and doing every other thing personal assistants do," He said.

She looked really taken aback. "But sir, I won't really have much to do," She said.

He shrugged. "You'll still get your usual paycheck, so, what's wrong? You should be happy that all you have to do now is smile and be nice to visitors and also receive any calls made from customers, hurray!" He said.

She gave a forced smile, wondering if all she wanted to do was to actually sit in a chair and wait for visitors to show up.

"Any problem, Miss Kate?" He asked.

She shook her head in negativity. "I was just wondering why you chose to relieve me of some of my duties, I must admit that I'm a little worried, sir," She said.

"Why worry? It's not like you're diligent in doing your work. If you hadn't been doing unethical things like using your phone during work hours, all these wouldn't have happened. You should even be thankful that I didn't fire you or reduce your salary," He said, eyeing her.

"Point taken. Thank you very much sir, for your kindness," She said with a faked smile.

"I've told you countless times not to smile. You look pathetic when you do," He said, then ignored her and started looking around, apparently in search of something.

Kate craned her neck to see what he was looking for.

"Are you fine, sir?" She asked.

He nodded, then cleared his throat. "I'm okay. I'm just wondering if you've seen my personal assistant around," He said.

"Oh! That reminds me sir. That girl with the peeled leather bag, is that the person you employed as your personal assistant?" She blurted out.

"You're crazy, you probably need a day off," He told her, looking at her with disgust.

He had barely completed his statement when she came in, melting his heart and making all his worries go away.

She wore a knee-length yellow and black polka-dot dress which was flare and had buttons at the centre all through. Her ebony black hair had been styled in a bun and although she had no jewellery on, the beautiful smile she had on was the only accessory that made the outfit complete.

Her shoes were the same ones she had put on the day before, but it was okay. The only odd thing in her outfit was the bag she was carrying, but by carrying such a bag even though she was probably mocked because of it on a daily basis, made her earn a place of respect in his heart.

For a moment, he had feared she wasn't going to show up, but now, his anxiety had gone and he felt at peace with himself. She was finally present and he was going to be seeing her face, not just in his mind, but in reality, for seven hours every working day.

He came back from reality when he saw her come closer to him in slow and calculated steps with her beautiful set of white teeth still shining brightly; was it her perfect dentition or her cute dimples that made her smile so lovely and heartwarming? That, he didn't have an answer to, but he was prepared to just appreciate how she smiled without probing further.

"Good morning, I'm so very sorry for coming late. I was stuck in a traffic," She said, hoping she hadn't ruined her first job.

He wanted to tell her it was all okay as long as she finally turned up, but he knew he had to be professional.

He cleared his throat. "I guess you'd have to be waking up early then, you know this is Lagos where traffic is the order of the day," He said, not sounding as firm as he'd have liked to sound.

She grinned from ear to ear. "Sure, I'll try to be waking up early in the future," She said.

He carved his brows. "You'll try?"

She shook her head. "I won't try, I will," She said, with a look of determination.

"That's better."

"But I really didn't mean to come late today, I hope you've forgiven me. I'm the one to be blamed, I'm so sorry," She said.

He glanced at his wristwatch once more. "You're just forty minutes late, no need to be too hard on yourself," He said.

"Good day, sir," Itohan said, coming into view with some documents in her hand.

"Hello. I'm guessing you wanted to give that to Kate," He said.

"Yes, sir," She responded.

"You should inform your team mates as well as the heads of other departments that any report or proposal or anything at all should be handed over to my personal assistant here," He said.

"Sorry? Personal Assistant?" Itohan asked in surprise.

"Yes. I believe you've already met. She resumed work today, please, be nice to her. I can't trust Kate with anything after what she did today, but I can trust you to show her around and help her out with stuff. You'll be handsomely rewarded, don't worry," He assured her.

"Of course, sir, I most certainly will," She said to him.

"That's good to hear. Now, I'll leave you ladies to get to know each other, I'll be in my office," He said and walked away.

"Thank you sir," His favourite girl said.

He didn't say anything, but smiled as he walked off with his hands in his pockets.

Bukunmi was still staring at his back as he walked down to the elevator when she felt someone's arms around her.

She turned around and saw it was Itohan who later let her go a few seconds later.

"You took me by surprise," She said with a chuckle.

"Sorry about that, Bukunmi. That was just a welcome hug from me," She said with a small smile.

"It's fine. I'm surprised you still remember my name," She said.

"Of course I do, why would I ever forget?" She retorted.

"I know, right?"

"Yeah. I'm so happy you got a job here. By the way, we haven't yet been officially introduced. I'm Itohan Ese, Head of the Advertisement department. You?" She said, extending her hand.

Bukunmi took it, shaking hands with her. "I'm Ibukunoluwami Ketu, Personal Assistant to the General Manager," She said.

"Not bad," Itohan said.

She chuckled. "Thank you very much for being so nice to me. I can't believe we're finally colleagues."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Kate interposed with a bored expression.

"Why? She's not lying. By the way, what's the thing you did that made the boss so annoyed?" Itohan asked.

"I was laughing over this meme I saw on the internet and I didn't know he had been right here cause I was too busy with my phone," She explained.

"But why were you with your phone knowing fully well he can watch you from his office?"

She sighed. "My village people are probably after my life," She said.

"Yeah, maybe. Now, to you darling, where's your office? I hope it's close to mine," She said with a small chuckle.

Bukunmi blushed. "Ummm... I actually don't have an office of my own..."

Kate interrupted her with a very loud laughter, then hissed when she was done. "Low budget Personal Assistant," She said and rolled her eyes.

Bukunmi ignored her and continued. "I'm to stay with Mr Tade all through the day. He said he needs to be seeing me always as I'm his P.A," She said.

Itohan sighed. "But you're okay with your pay, right?"

Bukunmi nodded happily. "I love the pay, I'm very much excited to be a part of this great company," She said.

Itohan smiled. "Well, you have no problem then. Just try to avoid his gaze and do your work properly. He's very harsh, temperamental and sarcastic, but you'll do just fine with him if you do your job right. Also, I must say that Boss is very good-looking and can get any woman he wants. Be careful, baby girl," She warned.

"What? Why are you telling me that?"

Itohan looked sideways carefully, then spoke in a very soft tone, "I'll deny this if you tell anyone I said it, but boss beds anything in skirts. Make sure you dress appropriately always and keep everything highly professional with him," Itohan warned.

Instantly, Bukunmi felt a lurch in her stomach and nearly barfed out of sheer irritation. She couldn't believe it. If he was a flirt and a womaniser, that was a big red flag, but what had she expected from such a greatly created unmarried man? Was that why he was so nice to her? Was he trying to get in between her legs? The thought of that alone made her cringe.

"Hello, are you fine?" Itohan asked, bringing her back to reality.

She nodded immediately. "I guess I am."

Kate looked up, obviously indifferent. "I just got a call from boss. He wants his P.A to come to the office and stop chitchatting," She said.

"Oh. You should probably go, take this with you," Itohan told her, handing over the documents she had been holding to her.

Bukunmi swallowed hard and collected it. "Thank you," She managed to say.

"Yeah. Now, run along. I'll show you around later, okay?"

Bukunmi could only nod her head in answer to her. She began to walk to the elevator with slow steps. She hadn't prayed for a promiscuous boss, but she had gotten one anyway. All she had wanted was a good job which she had thought she had gotten, but with the sudden news, it just didn't feel like it anymore as she was already regretting ever going to Welling Fam Heights out of desperation to seek for a job.

Tade had an impeccable charm, but she wasn't going to fall for him and be one of those other girls he slept with since "sex" didn't mean anything special to him; Instead, she was going to be different from all the other girls he had met as she would resist him all through the days she was going to work as his personal assistant... That, she promised herself.

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Much love .