Chapter 5: Olive Roberts
1068 Words
"I am sorry, my Lord, but all three applicants are male,” she said, disappointedly
My face fell. But a part of me was hopeful about this. Maybe it was the strength I derived from her encouraging words earlier that day, or I was just desperate, but I found myself saying to her, “Re-open the vacancy until 12pm. Make the announcement right away. After 12pm, I will give up on this.”
Then I disconnected the call immediately I finished.
As soon as I got into my gigantic building, my secretary's call came through my phone.
“Sir? I just found an application for the vacant position, lost in our archives. The fault is from the Human resources department. May I read it to you?”
My heart skipped beats, and I swallowed hard as I asked, “Male or female?”
“A second, sir. I will confirm real quick.”
I waited at the parking lot for seconds which seemed like forever.
Then came her voice, “A female, sir.”
Joy shot through my bones and I subconsciously did a small, gleeful jump as I yelled, ‘Yes!’ This was definitely an answered prayer, and I was going to punish Eleanor for this omission.
“Cool. Go ahead,” I continued, acting nonchalant as usual.
"It says she submitted her application last three weeks," Nance kept saying at her desk.
She was on the telephone with me, and as usual, proved to be almost as stubborn as Eleanor. The only difference is, Nance, my secretary gave up faster.
"Three whole weeks?! What do I pay you all for?” I tried to feign anger, but deep down, I was grateful they found it afterall. “What did you say her name is?" I asked again, "If it's not who we are waiting for, just ignore."
I said as if I meant it.
She hesitated a bit before saying, "It's not the Berkeley club, sire. It's a young lady, she says her name is Olive."
The way Nance pronounced that name made me remember something, but the memory disappeared as quickly as I recovered it.
I had to lash out at Nance. " I know. Are you deaf, Nance? We are to go on air in the next ten minutes. I don't need any visitors, is that clear?"
I could literally taste her increased heartbeat as she said, "Clear enough, sire. I will send her back immediately."
I slammed the telephone back on its pad, and it was then I figured out everything my secretary was trying to tell me.
Send her back? That means she was on her way?
Poor woman must be wondering why she got no response in three weeks and decided to appear in person.
Someone who applied for the vacancy in my company has come to follow it up.
Wasn't that what I wanted? And a lady for that matter? Just what I wanted.
I picked up the telephone to call back Nance, but I instead adjusted my bow-tie, and went downstairs to check for myself.
I did hear Nance mutter 'he's so annoying' even though I was many feet away. She didn't know.
With my phone to my ear, I contacted Eleanor and yelled at her. "Did you send anyone to the company?"
Her confident tone came out breathlessly annoying. "Yes, my Lord, there was one applicant. I must have misse her. She's one Olive Roberts, tall and..."
When the elevator doors slid open, I yelled at her one last time, "Are you that senile? For God's sake, you are barely fifty-five!"
Eleanor's sob came quicker this time. I was merely stating the obvious. I wondered why she cried when I called her senile.
"Do your job if you don't want out before the new year. Send her to the house. I will be there after the Berkeley show airs here."
I tucked my phone in, and marched downstairs to the reception.
Maybe with a quick glance, I could judge a book by its cover.
I saw Olive's figure walk towards a commercial taxi and I knew that I was a tad too late.
Nance already sent the poor lady back.
She turned back as if she was taking one last look at the gigantic building and then I briefly caught a part of her face.
Not that I could remember any details.
Only her smell of cinnamon, lemon and ginger, mixed together. And her eyes too.
"Green. Green Olive."
I didn't get to see her properly, but I hoped that she would be the kind of assistant I needed- I really didn't want to host a bunch of interviews, or regret opting for a female assistant.
Not my fault but I have not really trusted my gender since my father. Plus a female was easy on the eye. Fragile, obedient and soft. Just what I wanted.
This time, the previous year, my father was in the city, helping me with work.
I was also Lord Mayor of Birmingham. l also had Chad, my son, and life seemed great, if not perfect.
All it took to change or ruin a life was just one year, really.
"Liam, get yourself together," I said to myself, when I started to notice some side views from some of my employees. They turned away immediately and I stared back.
Returning to my base, my maidservant's call came in soon enough. "She's on her way here already. I am sorry for the misdelivery, sire."
I simply hung up.
Apologizing is for losers and I'm not one. Or at least I like to think that I'm not.
I sat back in my rocking chair and listened to my employees gossiping, three floors down.
It's another thing no one knew about me- my sense of hearing was so unique I feared it myself.
I pulled out Olive's résume from my files to distract me.
"Sire, we are live. We need you to join in, right after the commercial break,” Nance said to me just when I was starting to look through the new applicant's resume.
By the time I was done, I had already emptied five bottles of water. And a bottle of whiskey.
I had to assure myself. 'Only thirty minutes, and I will be done here.'
I badly needed to see the woman who would either be my doom or bloom -Olive. Roberts.
- Writer
