CEO's Cat Lady [Complete]

Chapter 3

Amy had been driving for more than two hours after she left the mysterious man at the gasoline station when she remembered one of the big reasons why she left so early, aside from wanting to avoid Chris. She was going to buy a morning after pill… but she kind of forgotten it when her mind was occupied with helping the stranger from earlier. Too bad though, she was in the middle of a highway and the next exit wouldn't be for another hour where there would a pharmacy to buy it from.

She supposed it was still okay. She still hasn't had breakfast yet, so she would just take the pill after she had eaten. From what she remembered, the morning after pill would still be effective even after three days. She would be fine… she had to be. She panicked a bit earlier, but now, she was beginning to calmly plot her next actions. One thing was sure though: she wouldn't make a big deal regarding what happened, and the next time she saw Chris, she would act her normal way. That was what it meant to be a professional, right?

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Most people hated Mondays, but it was not so for Amy. She liked to complete her tasks early so that her workload throughout the whole week would be steady. As such, at 10 AM, she already had gone through a lengthy meeting and was currently going through one right now. The first meeting had been about their secret project about a new sister company that would publish popular literature whilst their main office maintained its focus on publishing broadsheet newspapers.

The second one, however, was about what happened last Friday at the company outing, and she was now in a closed door talk with the five people involved in the mishap. Unlike their confident stances last time, they were standing in front of her desk with heads bowed. Amy did not see the need for them to explain their sides. After all, she witnessed it with her own eyes.

"You'll be suspended for now, until further notice," she told them.

"Are you going to fire us, Ma'am?" Regine, the lone female in the group, asked her in a timid tone.

"No, not yet. The HR department will be deliberating it with a meeting first, so for now, all of you will be undergoing through an Ethical and Disciplinary Reorientation." Amy then surveyed all of their forms, deliberately not quite looking at Chris as she did so.

"You can all go now and head to the training room," she finally said.

The said employees then turned around to exit the room, except for one: Chris. He remained standing in front of her, looking uncomfortable as he shuffled his feet. Amy was then forced to look at him directly.

"Yes, Mr. Pascual? Do you have any concerns left?"

Chris curiously suddenly lost his uneasy countenance and gazed back at Amy with a pensive expression.

"Are we… Are we not going to address what happened last Friday, Ma'am?"

"Nothing happened last Friday," she answered matter-of-factly. At the look of protest that suddenly appeared on Chris' face, she added:

"As professionals, it is better if we don't talk about what happened anymore. It was nothing but an error in judgment."

Chris did not let it go though and he shook his head in disagreement. "I am not that kind of man, Ms. Amy. I don't want to pretend that nothing happened. For Pete's sake! I just took your virginity!"

Amy stood there with a stony face. "And what exactly do you want me to do? Cry over it? Chase you? Or better yet, threaten you with a shotgun wedding?"

Chris face-palmed before he answered her. "I don't know… Maybe ask me to take some responsibility over it? What if I get you pregnant?"

"I can take care of myself, thank you," she said coldly. "As for your other concern, morning-after pills do exist to prevent such possibilities. In any case, I don't believe in that outdated notion of machismo."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Amy, but I'm a traditional kind of man."

"Well, I'm not." Amy made a show of settling down to face her laptop, indicating that the matter was closed. "I believe you still have a reorientation to attend to, Mr. Pascual?" She briefly glanced at him.

Chris did not answer for awhile, but he relented. "Yes, I will head there now, Ma'am," he said in a quiet voice before he turned to go outside the room. Amy did not reply back.

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"Hey, what took you so long? Did Ms. Amy say something to you?" Vance greeted his friend when he emerged from the HR Head's office.

Chris seemed surprised to find him waiting for him there. "Nothing. I just asked her a question." The taller guy changed the topic abruptly. "I thought you were in the training room?"

Vance scratched his head and chuckled uneasily. "Well… I didn't wanna hangout there without you." His voice suddenly turned into a harsh whisper.

"Dude, that's like the worst torture ever! Only boring bitches like Ms. Amy would find pleasure in such a thing!"

To Vance's surprise though, Chris reacted in a vehement opposition. "That! Your big mouth is what brought us into this situation, Vance! You're lucky we were not even fired right away even if you badmouthed Ms. Amy!"

Vance gaped at his buddy. "What the hell, bro? Are you seriously defending that b***h? Don't forget that she also suspended you!"

"And I deserve it…" Chris rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "What we need to do, dude, is to suck things up like real men rather than b***h about everything. What you're doing is just making things worse."

Chris then left a sputtering Vance who immediately followed him as he headed towards the training room where the two of them were expected.

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"He already has 30% of the stocks after he convinced every minor stockholder of the company. He's close to controlling it, Arthur, so why don't you just sell it to him? He's offering to buy it in a very decent price anyway," the elegantly dressed woman related to the man sitting at the head of the long table in an equally elegant dining room.

The man being addressed had a stoic facial expression that it was difficult to discern as to how he took the suggestion made by his aunt. "I won't sell the hospital," he said briefly.

The corner of the older woman's lips twitched, but she maintained her graciousness. "But darling, the company does not earn much anyway… Our real estate and pharmaceutical companies are our focus now, while the hospital is more of a burden–"

"The hospital will remain under the Ledesma group for as long as it exists. As the first corporation of the family, it should be kept for its legacy." The head of the Ledesma clan brook no argument before he continued to eat.

His aunt then had no choice but to keep silent as his nephew shot her a cold glare, so she just resumed her meal too. If someone would look at her better though, they wouldn't miss how her fist curled up under the table.

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It was already four in the afternoon when Amy was summoned to the Director's office suddenly and it actually made her wonder. What could the boss wanted to tell her? After all, they already finished discussing their plan for the new sister company that morning.

"Ms. Flores!" The portly man promptly stood up when she entered the room. "I have good news! There's someone who's interested in investing a large sum to our new company!"

The Director told her to take a seat in front of the desk as he explained what happened. Apparently, the young heir of the Snowdrop Hotel Chain was interested in making an investment. Amy wondered why the director was telling her about these details though.

"That's good news, Sir. However, I wonder why you are telling me about it… I mean, my main task is to reorganize the employees to determine which of them will be assigned to the project and who will remain here in the main office."

The director leaned back on his chair and looked at her with pensive eyes. "Yeah, well, it's because you are the assigned to make the final presentation to the investor."

That shocked Amy. "But why me? Shouldn't be someone from the marketing department be in charge of that task?"

The director just shrugged. "Well, the secretary of the investor specifically requested for the head of the Human Resource department to be the one to make the presentation, but we will assign you to someone from the accounting and marketing department to help you create your presentation."

Amy was processing all of these in her mind, while she could feel the pressure already settling in. Her silent musings were interrupted when the director looked at her sharply.

"The future of the company depends on you, Ms. Flores. Please be prepared on Wednesday next week."

Amy then had no choice but to nod as a determined feeling flooded her. She would not f**k this up.