My forever Mate

Chapter 10

Millie came into the living room, after hearing a commotion from outside, seeing her Leah rushed over to her and hugged her legs tightly and said “grammy, looks it’s a hoffifan (hooligan). He’s mean and he is saying bad words and he was even mean about my Cassie … tell him he can’t say bad about Cassie, she’s mine …. if he says one more bad thing I will hit him again”, Leah said righteously. 

Millie had to work really hard at suppressing her laughter, she looked at Derrick’s astonished face and had to bite her mouth to prevent the bubbling laugh ….. “What is this I’m hearing young man, I distinctly remember your mom and grandma teaching you better manner …. what would they say if I tell them how you’ve been behaving lately? Do you think it would be sufficient to bring them back from a very well deserved vacation?”, Millie asked with mock anger for Leah’s sake.

Fuming, Derrick said “only you Millie. After mom and granny, you are the only other female who is capable of giving me grief”.

“Was there an apology in there, somewhere?”, Millie asked in an inquiring tone. “You see, my hearing is not what it used to be … so you better say it loud and clear, for the sake of my poor ears …”

“I’m sorry”, he said gruffly …..

“I think this sweet young lady deserves a more genuine and gracious apology, don’t you think so, my dear boy?”

Frustrated at having to say sorry to a chit of a girl, Derrick mumbled something derogatory under his breath … then counted to 10 to calm himself and said sorry to the little drama queen with a saccharine smile on his face …. He then turned back to Millie and asked, “Are you satisfied now? So, what about her behaviour? I’m much older than her and still this chipmunk hit my shin …. not just once but twice? Hold her accountable as well”, Derrick demanded poutingly … 

Millie sat down on a nearby chair and motioned Leah to come to her ….. “baby girl, did you hit this man?” … defiantly Leah said “yes, he said mean things about Cassie……”

“I see”

“Derrick, why were you saying mean things about Cassie?”

“I …. I ….. she….”, Derrick tried hard to keep a lid on his temper and started again, once he felt a bit in control ….. “she wasted my entire day, making such blunders … I had to redo the entire document myself. I even missed an important meeting because of her incompetence”, Derrick huffed righteously.

“Okay. I’ll deal with you in a minute, let me talk to Leah first. Sweeting, you know it’s bad manners to hit anyone, let alone your elders, right?”

Leah looked down, ashamed to meet grammy’s eyes and mumbled a soft yes and then immediately looked up and implored “but he was saying bad words grammy. I asked him to stop but he kept saying it …. so I got angry”, she finished forlornly …. realizing that she should have just called grammy in the first place ….. “I’m sorry grammy … I did bad …. don’t … don’t tell Cassie … please, she would get sad”, Leah requested, on the verge of crying …. 

“Come here pretty girl”, Millie said as she pulled Leah into her lap and wiped her tears “Ssh …. Ssh …. it’s okay baby … you know you did wrong, just say sorry to this man and don’t do anything like this again, okay?”

“Okay”, Leah nodded. She got down from grammy’s laps and ran over to the strange guy … “I’m sorry mister”, she said way more sincerely than his own apology and gave him a sweet smile …. a smile, he couldn’t help but reciprocate

“It’s okay …. I’m sorry too”, he replied. 

Leah smiled again and walked back over to grammy and kissed her slightly wrinkled cheeks “Thank you grammy”, she said with pure gratitude and then ran off to play in the garden …..

“Now, back to you boy …. tell me in detail, what seems to be the problem?”, Millie asked, her hands crossed across her chest.

Derrick tried hard to hold on the good mood from the girl’s bright smile and said through clenched teeth “Here, look at this file yourself ….. she messed up all the details ….”

Millie took the file from him calmly and started reading through it. She closed the file and looked up, into his eyes and confirmed “so this is the file she messed up?”

“Yes”, he almost shouted … barely managing to control his tone at the last minute. 

“Uh Huh … So what mistakes did she make here?”, Millie asked in a calm voice, which seemed to irritated him further.

“Can’t you see it Millie, it’s all wrong …. the dates, the figures, quantity …. all the data is incorrect ….”, he said condescendingly as if he was explaining something to a kid.

“I see”, Millie left the room for a minute and came back with her work laptop.

“What are you doing?”, Derrick asked. “I told you I’ve already wasted several hours correcting her shoddy work …. there’s no need for you to waste your evening too …. I just wanted you to know so you’re not surprised when I fire her a*s in the morning ….” Having said his piece, he started to leave but Millie stopped him at the last minute

“Look at this boy, before you embarrass yourself any further. It’s not Cassie who did ‘shoddy work’ as you called it. It’s you, who did not pay attention …. here, look at this ….. this is an email from the client with revised information …. Cassie was diligent enough to check for updates before preparing the documents. It is someone else who needs to get down from his high horse, before shooting accusations and uttering ‘mean words’ … fighting with a little girl who was simply defending her big sister …”

Derrick stared at the email with his eyes and mouth wide open …..”What the? I wasted all day preparing wrong estimates, based on wrong data … all the while fuming and shredding the correct file …. Millie, I don’t know how I made such a huge mistake …. you know I value hard work and to think I was cursing that innocent girl and fighting with her little sister … how did I let it happen?”

Millie sighed … “I know the answer to your why, dear boy …. you don’t want me to leave so you were very prejudiced against this girl to begin with, just looking for an excuse to get rid of her and guilt me into coming hack to work … that’s why you were seeing mistakes where there were none …. please boy, Cassie is an extremely talented and hard working employee …. very diligent, sweet and kind …. give her a chance, I promise you won’t regret it … Now make nice with that sweet little angel properly or I’ll never serve you any ice cream … ever again ….”