The Billionaire’s Assistant

“Bring out the cameras”

I continued muttering words in anger as I walked up the stairs of my apartment building only stopping to feign a smile for my neighbor Mrs. Ann as she was about walking her dog that evening. Thankfully the smile was convincing as there was no further questions asked by her.

My roommate Jane was definitely around by this time of the day as her lectures finished quite early on Mondays and she took no part time jobs except her occasional updates on YouTube and ticktok which she did just for fun. That was one of the perks of being the only child of a high class political family down in Nigeria. She was sent to Canada just to study and not to carry the family burden. Her parents could afford to give her all she needed and wanted but thankfully it did not reflect negatively in her personality as Jane was the sweetest person I had ever come across.

“How did it go?”Jane asked as though she was in that particular seat waiting ever since I left for the interview.

“Allow me drink water first abeg” I said and with that she was already able to tell that the interview session definitely did not go well.

“Was it that bad?” Jane asked as she followed me into the kitchen checking if I would actually drink the hypothetical water I had spoken off.

“It was really bad oh” I replied.

“How so?” Jane asked

“I lost my temper and snapped at the HR officer when he said I was unqualified for the assistant position as I did not have a masters degree” I said.

“Masters degree? Well you won’t blame them the company is quite exclusive” Jane said knowing fully well that her words could trigger my anger flair and it did.

“What do they mean by that Jane ? Why waste someone’s time by sending out an invite for an interview without seeing a master’s degree on the resumé which was submitted . To make matters worse the HR officer acted so proud as he spoke like he owned the place” I said with more irritation in my voice.

“Sorry about this you will get another job soon okay?” Jane said as she spoke like a westerner who knew how to pacify a persons emotions with just words. She was not the one at the brink of debt and at the verge of deportation.

I had began to hear the fearful and dreaded sound of my phone ringing again for the second time since I had gotten home, it was definitely the collectors again.

“How much did they buy my details that they won’t let me rest in this life?” I said

“Who is that?” Jane asked

“Definitely collectors” I replied.

“Who else would it have been” i added

“It could be someone else you know” Jane said.

“It is definitely the collectors. Could you pick up and tell them I am dead” I said

“You really want me to tell them you are dead?” Jane asked.

“If they keep calling me like this I might actually die” I replied.

The next time the phone rang again was while I was preparing to go to Mac Donald’s for my night shift and Jane quickly picked up my phone daring to go through with the dare and she did.

“Oh sorry the owner of the line has sadly passed on yesterday” I heard Jane say while I tried to hold my laughter in the background.

“Yes Oluwatobi” I heard her say next before her facial expression turned cold and this definitely raised my curiosity.

Jane went silent for a couple of seconds listening to the person on the other end and taking down details on a sticky note on the refrigerator.

“Who was that” I quickly asked as soon as she got off the call.

“It was a lady from the interview you attended she wanted to ask if you could start tomorrow?” Jane said.

At that moment the first thing that had come into my mind was how this was definitely a prank as there was no way I was getting the assistant job after all my unsolicited advice to the HR officer. Secondly I was sure that Jane was not a big fan of pranks and couldn’t play one regardless of how hard she tried.

“You have to be joking” I said.

“I am not, the lady sounded serious” Jane replied.

“If you are not trying to play a prank on me then it is definitely someone else. I don’t have time for this, my shift starts in 30 minutes” I said as I quickly grabbed my jacket from the hanger behind the door and headed out. There was no need taking my phone out with me as I still needed to avoid calls from collectors.

“Wait” Jane shouted as she followed me.

“What should I say if she calls again?” Jane asked.

“Tell her I am no longer interested in the assistant job” I said heading out of the building and off to work in the cold silent night.

There was a the sigh of relief with excess air leaving my lungs, I had awaited all night to experience this . It was a sign for a job well done. I was able to complete all the reports and inventories that night with nothing pending to carry over till the next night shift . I packed my bag which was relatively empty and got ready to leave work for home. The bag felt light as it was just my air pods, compass and a pack of chicken nuggets which was one of the pecks of working at McDonald. Jane usually goes crazy over chicken nuggets regardless of how many times eats it.

Getting to my building I see a shinny ford 2015 parked outside by my house building . It was easy to spot as every apartment in my building is given one unpaid parking spots per house and with neither I nor Jane having a car, our spot was usually used for visitors. The person did have nice taste as the interior of the car looked neat and classy as I was able to look into it owing to the fact that it wasn’t tinted. That didn’t change the fact that it was still too early to be visiting someone . The thought of the car and a guess to who the owner was gently faded from my mind as I went ahead to collect my mail and open it as I walked up the stairs. All the bills I had gotten were not new and this was the third notice for a few of them.

“Travel overseas they said!”

“Life is easier over there they said!”

“Now all I do everyday is swim in debt with raising interest rates!” I lamented.

I opened my door and as I did every morning except the days I had interviews, i drop my bag on the couch and go straight to bed. But this time there was someone else in the living room asides Jane and she sat with a good posture, backs aligned with shoulders and knees kept together. She wore a navy blue suit and a pair of rose gold glasses. My mind was immediately torn apart between making a joke about the rose gold colored glasses and how it was said that people who wore such glasses never saw red flags as it was just a flag due to the effect of the glasses . But then again she looked familiar and I hoped she wasn’t a debt collector finally approaching in human form.

“You are Karen right?” The lady spoke as she stood up from the couch she was seated on.

“Depends on who is asking” I said as I wore my tough cover incase it was one of those pretty annoying friends of Jane.

“Well my company is asking. You interviewed with us yesterday?” She said.

“It was clear to me why her face was familiar as she was the receptionist from yesterday. The Chinese face and British accent was hard to miss.

“I would cut right to the chase, I need you to come work for us for three months as the assistant to the CEO and after that you will be rewarded handsomely” Veronica said.

“Is this a joke?” I exclaimed

Suddenly I was overwhelmed with laughter even though I was laughing alone it didn’t bother me. The company I had interviewed with yesterday, with no prospects of getting the job is offering me a three months contract to pay handsomely if I take the offer.

“Where are the cameras? I get it, it was funny so where are they” I asked still unable to hold my chuckles between my words.

“What cameras are you talking about? Jane help me here” Veronica said

“Give me a moment let me speak to my friend excuse me” Jane said as she grabbed me by the hand pulling me into her room and shutting the door.

“You dey craze so?” Jane asked.

“You are being offered free money and you are wasting time” Jane added.

“How is it free money? We don’t even know what they have in mind?” I said

“Because you didn’t let her finish. What I think you should do now is go back out there and bargain with what ever they are offering you and take this offer. They came all the way to your house, do you know what that means, they are desperate. This is why you should milk this opportunity totally” Jane said.

“I am not buying this idea one bit” I said in disagreement.

“Very soon you will be unable to buy anything at all at this rate” Jane said. Jane always had a way of sugar coating her insults that one doesn’t get offended right away. This was definitely the perfect example of smoke without fire as this agreement looked very unclear.

I had come out of the room and spoke to Veronica in affirmation of the job offer. She asked me to come buy her office in 3 hours to sign a few papers. She asked if I had a lawyer in passing as she didn’t repeat it when I looked astonished. I only had a few minutes to rest and hit the road to the company building. Everything about job offer was unclear. I was certain that everything Veronica said was a half truth or an outright lie.

Veronica had called the security staff at the office main entrance to let me come into the building without a pass.

“I would take you to see the CEO now” Veronica said as she walked away.

Veronica had a petit and slender figure, she was at most 4.7 feet tall, like a cute doll. But with the way she walked and talked at the company, she commanded a lot of respect for just a receptionist. There was definitely something more to her title.

Veronica stepped back to face me and said

“You could keep all the extra information as regards your three month contract and the payment between us for now”

“Okay” I replied.

I was standing by the double silver electric door, the first I have ever seen in my life. Veronica had pressed the bell and told me to Stand there and only open when the light by the door has turned green from red. I was a bit anxious as I stood there without an idea of who the CEO was or how he looked like. I had imagined a really old or at most a middle age man judging by the company growth level.

I opened the door and walked in as soon as the light turned green. There was a man who was standing by the coat hanger trying to remove his coat. He was fit and his muscles contracted perfectly.

I came so close before he turned and looked at me. I was perplexed and wanted to sink into the floor completely as it was the same guy I had been rude to at the interview.

Will I still get the job?

Is there a chance he would not recognize me?

Anthony’s POV

“The newly hired assistant right?” I asked.

“Yes sir” she replied.

I watched her tremble internally as she stood in front of me and our eyes met. There was no way she was expecting to see me here and this type of anxiety was what I loved to feed on. The shaky hands, the tongue tied mouth, the wandering eyes was so interesting to watch. She grabbed her file jacket so hard and her face looked like she was struggling to breathe. Her caramel skin was flawless and for the first time in my life I found dark skin so appealing. As I scanned through her body better than I could the previous day we met I noticed her incredible figure and appealing s****l features. Her breasts were full and round so was her large hips typical of people with African descent. This was the first time the features of a black woman ticked something inside of me, all I needed was to blunt that sharp mouth of hers.

“So let’s see how well you will do on your own advice” I said.

“Excuse me?” Karen asked.

“You said I should go for certain qualities and dich the masters degree title which I did. So prove me wrong by excelling at the job” I said.

She nodded as though she was still too frightened to make a sound.

“Make me a cup of coffee” I said and when I had noticed she still stood there with her gaze dropped I shouted

“Now!!”

Karen hurried of from the office and after a couple of minutes she returned with a cup of latte in a saucer. As she approached me I looked into the cup of latte she had dropped on my table.

“I said coffee not latte” Then signaled her to take it away. I was glad she hadn’t asked me to specify the type of coffee I wanted as it was just another opportunity for me to send her back again for another cup. She returned with a cup of black coffe and as l looked into it I said.

“I want a cup of cappuccino” I said without looking into on the cup as I was certain her thoughts had not been directed to a cappuccino as the mention of coffee goes straight to either a black or a latte.

Karen return with the cup of cappuccino and I was glad to send her back again to get the saucer as she had left it in on the kitchen counter.

“Not bad” I said after the first sip as the cinnamon rested on my cupid’s bow.

“I need you to draft my next week schedule and make it into a spreadsheet. And I need at least 2 hours on Wednesday for something important so try and move things around to make it work. But not the very important meetings but the meetings that are very much important but can be delayed without grievous consequences. You have one hour” I said

“Annnddd how do I go about it sir?” She said shuttering with a shaky voice.

I looked at her with a very condescending stare, she looked very much confused like a system that was instantly loaded with too much of information. How else do you get to make a weekly schedule was she really as dumb as she claimed to be?

“My personal calendar, company calendar and don’t forget to ask Veronica there might be certain things she didn’t fix in the company calendar” I said gesturing with my hands

“All that in an hour?” Karen asked astonished

“Do you have a problem with that?” I asked.

“No sir” she replied

“Then get out and get back to work” I said.