His Lost Bride

Episode 7: Office Drama

Ms. Sheila Jones removed her oval-shaped, golden rimmed spectacles when she heard a knock and gestured to Sarah to come in. As soon as Sarah was inside the office, Ms. Jones asked, “Is this your home that you can come to whenever you want? You took leave for two days and now you have the audacity to come late” her boss screamed. “                                                                                                                                  

But I. . .” Sarah could not complete her sentence. “How dare you! Giving me false explanations.”             

“Boss!” Sarah sternly said, getting Ms. Jones' attention, Sarah continued, “my father is hospitalized. I was dealing with things there. Till now, he is in critical condition. Doctors are taking care of him. That’s the truth. I don’t know what you have heard. But this is the truth.”                                                                         

Sarah looked at Ms. Jones with a clear yet straight face. Sheila sighed and said, “This is the last time. Next time, your bonus will be deducted. You are here as an intern, these kinds of impromptu leaves will affect your chances to work here as a permanent employee.”                                                                                       

“Yes, I understand. This was a special situation so I had no choice. I will keep your instructions in my mind,” Sarah then nodded and turned to leave.                                                                                                                       

As Sarah was leaving her office, Ms. Jones called her back and said, “the last project has been transferred to Kathy. Since you were busy holidaying, the client insisted on meeting with our delegates to explain to him the ideas in detail. And from today, you will be dealing with the Huxbong deal.”                                        

She hesitated for a few seconds, wondering how she could refuse the task. However, the chief designer ignored her expression and said seriously, “Everyone is refusing to take up this project. So, let’s see how talented you are. You know that Holt is a prominent figure and it’s very important to complete this task. It would even be better if you can convince Holt to become a permanent client of ours.”                                   

Then, Sheila handed her the project details and waved her off, dismissing her from the office. Sheila didn’t even show any intention to listen to Sarah. Sarah heaved a long sigh and walked out of the office with a sullen expression on her face. And silently, cursed in her heart, “What rotten luck!”                                      

Once Sarah sat on her desk, she fell deep into her thoughts. She could still hear the malicious laughter from her dreams echoing in her head. Unconsciously, she moved her hand towards her arms and rubbed it as if she could feel the pain from the grip. “Sarah! Come back to Earth” Sarah, who was lost in her thoughts, snapped back to reality upon hearing one of her colleagues calling her. She looked up and saw it was Madeline.                                                                                                                                                              

She smiled lightly, trying to put her worries aside and said, “I am sorry. So many things in my head.”          

“Oho, it’s okay. Seeing you sit like a statue, I called you. Did the dragon lady roast you?” “Nope. She dropped me in hot boiling oil.” “What do you mean?” her colleague asked her, stunned. “Nothing much, just that she handed me the Huxbong deal.”                                                                                                            

Madeline looked at her startled and after a moment said, “Oh my god! You are so scr*w*d. That project manager, Ryan Holt, is known for being a playboy.”                                                                                               

“Yeah, I have also heard about it,” Sarah responded with a downcast expression pasted on her face. 

Ignoring Sarah's expression, Madeline continued telling stories with a straight face, “You know what, I heard that Holt is a prodigal son who enjoys abusing women. None of the women who got on his bed ever left unharmed. I have even heard rumors that last time this project was given to Katy and Holt tried to take advantage of her. That’s why she refused to continue doing this project.”                                                           

“Really now!” Sarah exclaimed in shock and wondered if, by any chance, she was set-up by Kathy. But she kept her doubts to herself.                                                                                                                                      

Madeline waved her goodbye and went towards her desk. Suddenly, the whole cabin was silent and Sarah immersed herself back to her thoughts. Sarah mused if Madeline was saying the truth, then did Kathy play her to pass the project to her? But it could be just rumors, let it be, Sarah motivated herself and focused on her given task.                                                                                                                                                               

After some time, Sarah could feel her neck stiffening. To release the pain, Sarah was stretching her neck when she saw Kathy coming towards her cabin. “Brilliant! Here comes Kathy and now she would want to know everything,” Sarah thought in her head. Sarah didn’t want to talk to her after the conversation with Madeline but she could not feign ignorance to Kathy as she was the one who helped her to get adjusted in TZ Tech. So she waited for Kathy to come there.                                                                                                 

“What happened?” Kathy asked.                                                                                                                             

Seeing Sarah’s muddled expression, Kathy rolled her eyes and elaborated, “at the dragon lady’s office!”    

Sarah sighed and said, “hmm… nothing much! She just gave me the Huxbong deal.”                                     

“Are you serious?” Kathy questioned with a baffled expression.                                                                       

Sarah nodded with a defeated smile on her face.                                                                                                  

“Oho, how are you gonna deal with that womanizer? He is such a bastard. When I tried to pursue him to accept the proposal, he took hold of my hands and demanded that I sleep with him. So I ran from there and asked Sheila to remove me from the project. I didn’t know she would give you the project,” Kathy described in a nutshell.                                                                                                                                                    

Sarah scolded herself in her head for doubting Kathy for setting her up. She didn’t even know about it. Dropping her shoulders, Sarah rubbed her forehead. When she thought more about it, she felt more guilty for doubting her.                                                                                                                                                          

Sarah gave Kathy a resigned smile and said, “I need a strong coffee. I will catch up with you later!”        

“Okay then!” seeing Sarah get up from her place and move towards the cafeteria, Kathy stopped herself from questioning Sarah further.                                                                                                                                 

After making her coffee, Sarah absent-mindedly stirred her coffee while walking towards her cabin. Before she could gather herself, she bumped head-on with Charles.                                                                               

“Oh Sh*t,” was all she could think. Regaining her composure, she said, “I am so sorry, Charles.”           

“Sorry!! That’s all you could say,” Charles took a long breath and continued bellowing at Sarah, “first, you stepped on my new Louis Vuitton shoes and ruined it.” Sarah lowered her head in shame and her ears burned red.                                                                                                                                                                    

Since she had no retort, all she could say was sorry and seeing Charles blowing his top, she felt her apology only added fuel to the fire.                                                                                                                                          

From the corner of her eyes, she saw nearly the whole office peeking at their verbal spat. She wished if she could dig a hole and bury herself then and there to save herself from this embarrassment.                         

With every word, his voice continued to thunder in the office hall, “Now, you poured hot coffee on me. You have no respect for your seniors. You are just temporary staff, yet you have no manners at all.”              

Sarah tried to stop his speech but he didn’t give her an opportunity. It was as if he wanted to embarrass her before the whole office and to exact revenge for refusing his advancements.                                                

Sarah remembered when she had joined the office, he tried to be extra friendly with her, making her feel uncomfortable being around him. With the pretense of work, he would ask her to work overtime and when everyone had left, he would come to her cabin and would touch her by using age-old pick-up line like, “you must be tired, I will massage your shoulders” or he would say, “you must be tired after working such long hours, let go out and have some drinks.” Most of the time, he passed comments that would be accompanied by some s****l gesture or tone.                                                                                                     

When things became too agonizing for her, she thought of putting a stop to it. Sarah never tolerated anyone who tried to take advantage of her. Since her childhood, no one had protected her or defended her so she had learned to fight her battles herself.                                                                                                                     

And she was very proud of herself. If she even tried to tell her grievances at home, her mom would turn it against her and instead justify it to everyone and make them believe that it was her fault.                             

So, she had told him last weekend that these gestures were making her nauseous so she wanted him to stop. And she has never regretted doing so, as she believed no man should cross their boundaries if a woman didn’t allow them to do so. But her kind remarks to stop his gestures were taken as an offense. Since then he has been trying to embarrass her at every opportune time.                                                  

Floating in his bubble, Charles assumed that Sarah had learned her lesson and she would give in to him but he didn’t understand that Sarah didn't give a rat's ass to his thoughts.                                                          

Charles sneered in his head, “Now you know, what would happen if you refused me. I will make your life in the office, a living hell.”                                                                                                                                           

“What’s happening?” Came a voice from behind. Charles turned to look at Sheila and said, “Nothing! Sarah poured coffee on me. Don’t worry! I will deal with her.”                                                                                      

Sheila returned a scornful look and said, “Take it to your cabin! Don’t create ruckus in office.”                    

“Okay boss!” Then, he gave a pointed look at Sarah and said, “Cabin! Now!”                                                   

With that, he left in a fit.                                                                                                                                             

Sarah sighed and contemplated, “What a day! It’s not my best day. On the brighter side, coffee did not fall on the dragon lady, then this would have been a whole different level of mess-up all together.”                                                                                                                   *****                                                                                        A/N                                                                                                                                                                                      

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Thanks,                                                                                                                                                                            Eliza Tom