When Fate Collides: Bound To Two Alphas

The Pitch “I sent you the documents yesterday to print, and you were supposed to submit them at close of business, so what rubbish are you saying to me right now?” Florence shouted at Amelia, her secretary, who stood there with shaky legs and sweaty hands. She had never seen her boss this angry, so she lost the confidence to defend herself. She thought she had finally found her tongue but stuttered as she opened her mouth to talk. “M… ma” she tried to put the words together, but Florence shouted again. “Cats got your tongue, and you suddenly cannot talk.” Florence slammed her pretty hands on the table as she was visibly fuming. “I have been working on this project for months now and you want to ruin it for me, right?” She continued, not even giving Amelia a chance to defend herself. “You don't need this job!” Florence said and nodded, almost like she was trying to convince herself. Amelia, seeing how angry Florence was and realizing that she was on the verge of losing her job, hurriedly removed her six-inch black heels, knelt, and rubbed her palms against each other as she said, “Ma, my email was hacked yesterday. I have been trying to restore it all to no avail. I swear, ma, I am not lying”. But Florence wasn't having any of the stories Amelia was trying to tell her. “Get your dumb self out of my office” Florence screamed at Amelia as she gestured towards the door. Amelia, with shaky hands, hurriedly picked up her heels and made her way towards the door. As she was about to exit, she heard Florence's voice again. “Come back here,” Florence said. Amelia hurried back into the office with her whole body now visibly shaking. She struggled to maintain a good posture. “Yes ma,” Amelia said, looking down at the rectangular partitions between the tiles on the floor. She didn't dare to look at Florence’s face. “Take my laptop and print those documents for me immediately,” Florence said to her. Amelia quickly threw her heels on the floor, picked up the laptop, and made her way to the door. “Six copies” she heard Florence's voice again as she exited her office. Amelia sprinted to her table and was connecting the printer plug when she heard Cora—her best friend's voice. “Is Miss Florence okay? We could all hear her yelling from our offices," Cora said, looking very worried when she noticed how shaky Amelia's hands were. She didn't wait for Amelia's response before she asked again, “Are you okay? What happened?” She tried to move close to her. But Amelia spoke up immediately, “I was about to mess up Miss Florence's pitch for the contract that the Zenith group of companies is granting to a biotech company in New York”. She kept her eyes low as she stacked the A4 sheets and placed them on the printer. “I know the contract is important to her, but can she cut you some slack, it's not like she has a strong competitor, I mean it's so obvious she would win the contract”. Cora said non-stop as she raised her eyebrows and made gestures with her hand as if she were in a dilemma. “It's not her fault, you know that this is unlike her. The pressure from her Aunty—Genevive Everest, the chairwoman of the board, has been weighing so much on her,” Amelia said as she shook her head slowly at first, then sharply. “It's just three months until the selection of the new CEO of Everest Dynamics, her Aunty has made this contract the yardstick of her selection,” Amelia continued as she reached out to collect the documents she had just printed from the printer. “That does not make any sense, she's the rightful heir to the empire, she has been working her back off for the company ever since she came back from the states” Cora explained to Amelia as if Amelia didn't already know. “Everyone knows that, but her Aunty doesn't care, she has threatened to bring her proud son, Max, who specialized in Business administration from the states, to run a biotech company, she is out to frustrate Miss Florence”. Amelia said as she sorted the documents into six piles and spiral-bound each of them. “That's unfair, I hope she wins the contract because I can't imagine being an employee working under Max, it will be a living hell”. Cora said as she shrugged. Amelia stood up from her chair, picked up the documents, and said to Cora “The Zenith officials will be here any moment from now, I need to go and give these documents to Miss Florence,” and she walked towards Florence's office barefoot because she had left her heels in the office earlier. As Amelia was about to enter Florence's office she heard a voice say “Ma, Miss Florence has a package,” said the security man. “Oh, here,” Amelia said as she smiled brightly and took the beautiful flowers from the man. “You can go back to your post,” she said as she slightly bent her head towards the company's exit door as if she was showing him what direction to go. Amelia looked down at the fresh flowers immediately as the security man left. She was very impressed by the blend of different colours, it looked as if the flowers were carefully hand-picked just for Miss Florence. It had all her favourite colours, white, purple, red, and green. For a split second, she wished she were Florence. “Lance never sends Miss Florence flowers, I guess today is such a big day after all,” she said, and was about to open the door when she saw a note carefully tucked in between the flowers. She was about to pull out the note to read but immediately cautioned herself “I have no business in whatever the couple is telling each other, I should respect their privacy” Amelia opened the office door and the first thing that caught her eye was her beautiful pair of heels still lying on the floor where she had left them earlier. “Ma, the documents are ready,” Amelia said as she tried to smile at Florence, but quickly controlled herself when she saw that Florence was still frowning. “Drop them,” Florence said sharply as she looked at her and the flowers she was holding. “And what is that?” Florence asked “Your boyfriend sent it for you, ma,” Amelia said as she dropped the flowers on Florence's table. “Lance?” Florence asked, surprised as her eyes lit up. “Yes ma,” Amelia said, smiling sweetly. “But Lance is currently out of the country and I just dropped the phone with him”. Florence said looking confused. “Really?” Amelia asked, looking more confused, she feared that she might have jumped to conclusions. “There's a note tucked between the flowers, ma, I guess there's only one way to find out if it was your boyfriend or not,” Amelia said, trying to vindicate herself. “Ohhh,” Florence said as she picked up the flowers. She brought them close to her face and sniffed them, then she combed through the flowers with her fingers, looking for the note. She finally saw it, she picked it up and quickly unfold ed the paper, and it read: “Whatever you do, don't present the serum. They are watching”