Come Closer

Chapter 35

“Ma’am, the meeting will start in thirty minutes!” Emma, Avelyn’s secretary, informed. Avelyn briefly looked at Emma and flashed a smile. “Thank you Emma. Please remind me in fifteen minutes.” Saying this she turned her gaze back to the laptop screen. “Okay ma’am.” Avelyn heard the slight sound of the door closing. Her fingers danced on the keyboard, and jumped back and forth from her pen to the touchpad. She was reading a report, made by her secretary, and indulging herself in the endless tables of numbers. She didn’t feel the time passing until she heard the light knock on the door. “Come in!”

She heard the short heels click on the polished floor hurriedly. “Ma’am, there’s only fifteen minutes left for the meeting,” Emma said, smiling through her round glasses. But Avelyn knew what that smile meant. ‘I don’t give a flying f**k if you’re the CEO or not. You will be late for this meeting, which I worked hard to organize and make reports for, and you’re NOT ruining all my hard work in just a few minutes! NOW. GET. YOUR. ASS. UP. AND. COME. WITH. ME!’

Avelyn and Emma are no way close to being friends, but they have a healthy relationship as the employer and employee. Emma is a hard-working, punctual and responsible person. She hates being late, and she always wants to do the job right. Basically, Emma has everything that one could wish their secretary to have. And she was a strict one at her job. So, it was only natural that Avelyn would keep all the remaining work aside and do as her secretary said.

“Just in time.” Avelyn heard Emma muttering under her breath, looking at her wristwatch. Emma took the seat next to Avelyn at the long table and the meeting started.

“If we struck this deal with this company, we wouldn’t have to pay extra for the third parties.”

“Yes, but we will have to pay the huge taxes when importing these materials.”

“I agree, but still, it will cost less.”

“Wait, look at this suggestion. Yes, according to the report, directly importing materials from this company is more profitable. But what about the quality? We can have the same materials with better quality from this supplier.”

“But it will cost more than directly importing the materials.”

“Still, it will cost less than ordering these from the company we currently buy materials from.”

After one hour of constant presentations, arguing, giving suggestions and ideas back and forth, the team settled for a solution. “Alright. We’ll buy our materials from this third party company for this project,” Emma concluded the meeting.

“I’m expecting the report on this project with the updated information to be received tomorrow.”

“Sure ma’am.”

“Okay, thank you all for coming to this meeting, and let’s make this project a success!” Avelyn nodded at the team for this new project, and got up, finishing the meeting.

“Emma, I need the report on this by tomorrow. Make sure everyone in this team provides their ideas.” She instructed her secretary.

“Yes ma’am.”

“And please send the briefing of this meeting and a copy of tomorrow’s report to Nathan.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Make sure to send me the emails on this project before sending them out.”

“Yes ma’am.”

As they reached Avelyn’s office. Avelyn stopped and turned to Emma. “Thank you Emma, that’ll be all for now.”

“Okay ma’am. I’ll get these finished.” Emma said, showing her notebook where she writes everything that needs to be done.

Avelyn’s eyes swiped to the clock on the wall. “Well, it’s lunch break now. You can do that after the break.” She said, gesturing at the small notebook. Emma smiled and nodded. “Okay ma’am.” And Avelyn entered her office room and closed the door after her secretary left. She looked at the table, where there were the files and documents that needed to be checked with her laptop that was laughing at her while showing the remaining mountain of work that she had.

“Uugh!” She grunted and stomped away from her desk, towards the small coffee machine. She stood up in front of the glass wall, and looked out at the sky scrapers standing tall in the busy city below. ‘A year.’ She thought. Slowly sipping her coffee, she watched the blue sky which bore no clouds. No disturbance in the sky. Everything was blue. Just blue. Just like how her life was now.

In the past she was a sucker for thrill and adventure. She still is. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t feel any excitement when thinking about the work she does as the co-CEO of her company.

Well, after moving from Burnbrook to Richdee, Avelyn and Nathan had started a business using the wealth they had gathered in the past when they were in the underworld. Nathan and Avelyn worked as co-CEOs of their company, Valour, which was a rising clothing brand.

Yes, working in the business world gave them a new life, a much calmer one than what they had, but they still found it hard to adjust to the new lifestyle without the adrenaline rush in their body. ‘Caffeine is a commendable alternative’ Avelyn shrugged in misery.

When she had drained all the coffee from the plastic cup, she looked to her right, and pursed her lips. The work must be done. Sulking won’t get her anywhere. She threw the empty cup into the dustbin, and sat at her desk. Although half-heartedly, she again started to work. Sometimes, she really wished she could go back to her past life. But Alas! She has no reason to return there except for this dull life.