The Lonely Devil

Chapter 2

Lyra felt a sense of panic rising within her. "I know I said I'd do my best, but how in the world am I supposed to come up with an idea that will interest a VIP in just two hours?" she thought to herself. She sat at her desk, staring blankly at her laptop screen while her mind swirled with different thoughts and ideas.

Feeling frustrated, she groaned and laid her head on her desk. "Okay, let's calm down and think," she told herself. "As a tech company, our target audience should be the youth, but what if we make a product that targets the elderly? No, that won't work," she mused.

She took a deep breath and tried to refocus. "Okay, we can do this," she thought. "We just need to come up with a unique and innovative idea that will catch the VIP's attention."

As She was lost in thought, she suddenly heard a familiar voice call out her name. She turned around to find Olivia, one of her colleagues, standing behind her. With a puzzled expression, she asked her what she wanted. Olivia, who had been working at the company two years longer than her, had been demoted a year ago, but nobody knew why.

"Oh that's your weird thinking face, it still startles me whenever I see you like that, well... Do you have the album of the end of year event of 2014?"

"Hmm.. it's at the storage room, unit 304"

"Thanks, gosh I like the idea of keeping memories and all but compiling the data each year is so stressful"

Lyra chuckled before turning back to her laptop. Their memories here were not so sunny. Most of the stressful workload fell on their shoulders and yet they were barely recognised. Lyra gasped, "Wait a minute. Memories... Memories?... That's it" .

She excitedly started typing away on her laptop, not giving the new idea that had seemed to pop up in her head a chance to slip away.

An hour passed before her fingers moved away from the laptop, a happy smile planted on her face. She printed out the typed work and went to look for Mr. Travis. Yes she called him by his name. She felt grateful that he had given her such an opportunity.

She knocked at his door but no one answered,she waited a little before opening the door a little and noticed he wasn't there. She closed the door and went back to her seat.

" Hey Chris" she called out to one of her co workers. He always had the latest news at the tip of his tongue, he was the office gossip and except when the workers needed information, everyone avoided him.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know where the hawk went to?"

"He went to the reception with the boss and others to welcome a guest, the guest seems to be really important if the boss himself went to welcome him personally, I heard he's the CEO of one of the top three companies in the international rating"

"Oh"

So the VIP was already here?, She wondered if She should go up or wait till Mr.Travis calls for her. Looking up,she saw Chris was still hanging around, probably checking if she had a bit of gossip to share.

She sighed, “Thanks Chris, you can go now"

"Sure" he walked away with a slight frown of displeasure.

She picked up the files she had compiled and decided to go up and check the situation first before making any move. She got to the elevator and clicked the fourth floor as that was where the conference/meeting room was, she felt it was right to assume that they will be hosting the C.E.O there . She got to the fourth floor and stepped out. She looked around and didn’t see anyone lingering on the corridor so she headed straight to the conference room.

As she approached the door, she cautiously opened it just a c***k and peered inside. Her eyes fell upon an attractive man with a furrowed brow, seated in the center of the room. Beside him stood a young, slender man wearing glasses, while the CEO of the Company sat nearby, dabbing sweat from his face despite the air conditioning. Across the room, she spotted the CEO's daughter, her shoulders hunched and her gaze fixed on the ground as she picked at her nails. It was clear that she had walked in on something interesting, and she couldn't help but wonder what had just taken place.

Deciding against going in, she turned to walk away but then the door opened and Mr. Travis walked out, he was wiping his face and had a strange smile on his face, he noticed her presence and the smile grew wider.

“Lyra you’re here, is your presentation ready?”

“Well..i guess”

“I trust you, come let’s go in” he gestured her in, She hurriedly tidied up her hair before walking in with Mr. Travis following behind into the meeting room. Everybody’s gaze landed on the pair . Mr. Travis hurriedly rushed to the C.E.O and whispered a few words to him. The C.E.O’s expression relaxed a little before he gave a slight nod, Mr. Travis smiled before coming over to lyra,

“Sorry for our tardiness gentlemen, we have another presentation and I ask you spare us a little bit more time” Mr Travis glanced at Lyra before whispering “I have full faith in you Lyra”

The lanky man with glasses stepped forward “I’m sorry but the chairman has other….”

The handsome man interrupted, “it’s fine, let me see what else they have”

She looked up at him and saw him scrutinizing her, she took a few deep breaths trying to bury the nervousness she was feeling. She walked towards the handsome man and placed one of the copies of the presentation, before sharing the rest to the C.E.O and others present.

She then opened her copy and started the presentation, she got engrossed with it and spared no reaction to the various eyes on her. No one interrupted as she spoke and after thirty minutes, she concluded,

“…Using this as our focal point, I believe it would be anybody’s honor to invest in this new project, thank you”

After she said the last word, her last bit of courage slipped out and she clenched tightly at the file with her head lowered. Everyone was silent and her heart was racing. The silence lingered a little more and she slowly looked up at Mr Travis, his anxious eyes were on the handsome man, the C.E.O also had his eyes on the same man, she turned to look at the handsome man and realized his eyes had been on her the entire time, their eyes locked and she immediately looked away. He suddenly stood up, walking towards the door, his assistant following behind. Lyra's heart dropped, he didn’t like it?.

Just as his assistant opened the door, the handsome man turned, he looked at her before looking over to the C.E.O,

“Fire her and I’ll invest in your company”

Lyra felt her legs go numb, what had he just said? She looked at him in shock. His eyes were on her as he opened his mouth,

“What do you say Mr. Stonewalt? , answer before I take back my offer”

The C.E.O seemingly recovering from his shock, stood up from his seat, “o…of course Mr. Ezekiel” he turned to Lyra with a frown, “Well..um..whoever you are, you’re fired, don’t let me see you within this premises in ten minutes, you can get this month's salary from Mr Travis”

The handsome man, Mr. Ezekiel nodded and turned to his assistant, “Gather all the copies of her presentation and bring it along”

The assistant gathered all the copies except the one Lyra had in her hands while she stood frozen in disbelief watching his every step. After gathering all the copies, they walked out of the room, with the C.E..O and his daughter following behind, her numb legs gave out and she fell to the ground wondering what had gone wrong. Mr. Travis rushed over to her with a frown. He helped her up before opening his wallet and bringing out a hundred dollar note and stuffing it in her hand.

“Consider this a bonus, go pick the envelope on my desk in two minutes, I'll have the secretary prepare your salary. You’ll have to leave before the C.E.O returns, you’re just so unlucky” he sighed “I guess no promotion for me” She looked up at him with tears brewing in her eyes, after the years she’d labored under him, all he could worry about right now was his promotion?

She wiped a fallen teardrop and tidied her ruffled clothes. She clenched the dollar note in her hand, she wasn ‘t going to give it back, though she felt highly tempted to shove it up his mouth, she knew she needed it, she deserved it and more, she believed her idea was good and damn that handsome….strange looking man for not seeing it, how could he decide to make them fire her all because he did not like her presentation. She huffed before walking away not sparing a word to Mr. Travis. She got to the elevator, got in and pressed the 16th floor. Leaning on the wall, she sniffed in and stubbornly withheld herself from shedding any tears.

The elevator stopped, she got out and walked into her now -former office and everybody turned to stare at her, Chris had probably spread the news already. Olivia and Vicky walked up to her, Vicky’s eyes and nose were red probably from crying, she looked like a hurt little bunny. Olivia looked really worried and they both hugged Lyra without saying anything, she decided to put on a smile.

“let’s meet up for some drinks later” Olivia whispered in her ear and she nodded, they let go of her and went over to her desk to help as she packed her things still wearing a faint smile.