No Escape

Chapter 2: Two Weeks' Prior

In a meeting with her boss, overlooking the city on a bright sunny day, “Boss, I don’t need an extra person on my team, it will just blow the budget and I will end up firing people I don’t need to! Why didn’t you consult me on such a decision to hire this guy?!” Laura per furiously exclaimed at her boss, looking at his file then throwing it on the desk, reflecting his photo popping out of the file, of which her boss picks up the file and looks at it, “I hired him because number 1: I knew you would object,  second, you were on holiday and I needed an instant person to hire, and thirdly: you need him, Laura.” Her boss told her calmly and professionally. “Just because I go on holiday for a week doesn’t mean I need an extra person! I just hired a Payroll person two weeks ago, I didn’t need a Business analyst!” Laura exclaimed. Suddenly there is a knock on the office door. “Knock, knock, mind if I come in?” He asks softly yet professionally, “Ahh yes, Adrian, come in. Adrian, this is Laura Acer, she is the state HR Manager.” Their boss says professionally introducing them together. Both Adrian and Laura look at each other in a professional manner, “How do you do?” Adrian responds professionally, “Well thank you, Mr. Blake, welcome aboard.” Laura responds professionally shaking his hand, smiling with a professional look on her face, at him with a fake smile, “Yep, he is a playboy alright.” She thought to herself. 

“Please Adrian, join us for our morning meeting that I am about to have with miss Laura Acer, as we discuss planning and budgeting for next month.” Their boss motioned to them softly yet professionally. “Of course, sir.” Adrian responded formally. Laura glances at him as he takes his seat just beside her, then looks to her boss to discuss their meeting.

“the meeting will go ahead as planned in two weeks’ time to propose a plan to the board which will reflect the company budget and what the funds are going to be used for.” Their boss went on to explain. “I need you to prepare financial reports for the last three years to reflect how our business has performed each financial year and I need you to come up with a proposal that will persuade the executive higher ups to approve the funds necessary for the training of new staff, payment of equipment such as new laptops and computers for our employees to better their efficiency in their productivity and work balance, which in turn will develop higher profit turnover rates and customer satisfaction to our business.” Their boss went on to explain, when Laura responded with: “if we did a PowerPoint Presentation reflecting graphs, to show how it would benefit them to approve the funds, rather than provide the reports? It would just be time consuming to produce such reports.” Laura suggested, knowing that executive higher ups only cared for the figures in a visual presentation, rather than read a one-thousand-page report to read.  

“That’s not enough, because the higher ups want to see the evidence behind the presentation.” Adrian responded with a mellow husky tone of voice, cross his arms and leg, as he looked down in a cool manner. Laura turned and looked at him for a moment, “Yes I am aware of that, however if they see the presentation…” She responded calmly and professionally, when he abruptly interrupted her, “no one would be interested in a presentation when it is real facts that the higher ups need to see, simple.” Adrian responded as he stared at her from beside her, just to be smart at her, but he did make a point.

This just added more to Laura’s frustrations, not only did he not listen to her, but he didn’t respect her authority, all because she was a woman. Suddenly, “That’s it! Boss, I told you I didn’t need another person on my team, look at him, he disrespects me and my position in authority, I don’t need him, and I don’t know why you hired him in my absence! If I am going to fire someone this month in my team, it is going to be him! Transfer him to the accounting division’s secretary or he will not even last a day in my team!” Laura grunted yet held her self-control in a professional tone of voice, as she slammed the bench in her hot temper and anger at his rudeness and attitude, as she stood up from her seat.

Adrian just smirked at her clapping his hands, “Temper, Temper, bravo miss Justice.” He smirked to tease her. “Enough you two!” Their boss grunted.

“Adrian, since you are so keen on the reports, you generate them for the meeting in two weeks’ time, please go and see Ashleigh in Administration and she will provide you the information you need. Laura, prepare your presentation and the figures within the graphs, I know you will know how to persuade the executives on this budget. This will be enough for this morning, off you go. I believe, miss Laura, you are flying out this afternoon for a training session tomorrow at our sister branch in the morning, so please do finish early so you can prepare for that. You may go.” Her boss told them professionally as he crossed his arms. “Yes boss.” She responded professionally and got up and walked out the office.

“Adrian, you stay.” The boss demanded Adrian as Laura walked out the door. Laura smirked under her breath as she closed the door behind her, “….serves him right… let the boss deal with him and let’s see who talks s**t now…” Laura thought within herself as she walked out of the office to go to her working station and to prepare her training materials for her training session.

Adrian looks at the boss, “Sit down, Adrian…” The boss told him, as they both sit back down in their chairs, “Adrian, I know you have a thing with not submitting to authority. Miss Laura… is technically your boss… I don’t care that you don’t like her, no one does around here, but she is the best at what she does, that is why I need you to respect her authority, even if you don’t get along with her, but respect her ‘badge’ for the authority that she holds as a HR Manager. I don’t want to hear sexist comments coming out of you again, is that clear? Because, I don’t care that your uncle is in Parliament who got you this job, but it doesn’t give you the right to be sexist because those things don’t go here, Mr. Blake. I hope you do understand that as this was a confidential warning to you….because the last thing I need right now is a lawsuit against an employee” His boss told him sternly in a professional yet dark tone of voice. Adrian sat there for a moment and looked at him, crossing his arms and took a deep breath, looking to the side in annoyance, “understood, sir…” Adrian replied, putting his ‘tail’ between his legs, sort of speak, for the moment.

“Good. Miss Laura Acer will have a meeting with you when she gets back from her training session in a couple of days. That will be all, you may go.” The boss dismissed Adrian, as he got up to leave. As Adrian closes the door behind him, he walks to the male bathroom located at the other end of the corridor, as he walks in, he makes sure there is no one in there, he locked the door, looked in the mirror and punched the wall in anger and frustration. Looking at his knuckles, they became somewhat swollen. “Shit..” He thought to himself in anger, washing his face.

That afternoon, Laura is preparing the training materials for the training tomorrow, “Hey Laura, how’d the meeting go?” her payroll assistant asked, walking passed her work station, stopping by to talk to Laura, as she was friendly to talk to. “it went well. Has everyone been paid this morning?” Laura asked her professionally, “Yes Ma’am, all done. I am just about to prepare the reports and email them to you in a secure password email.” Jennifer replied professionally, “Thank you, Jennifer, I will need those.” Laura responded professionally.

“Hey Laura, I heard we got a new guy.” Said Techy Tom, from across the other side of the workstation, as he was their computer geek or techy, as she called him, “Yeah, we hired a new Business analyst, Adrian Blake. He will be working in our team starting tomorrow. Please be sure to make him… feel welcome…” Laura said reluctantly, looking down to prepare her materials, “you don’t so seem enthusiastic about it.” Jennifer responded to her.

Laura is silent for a moment, as she smiled at Jennifer professionally, “Let us begin our meeting so we can discuss today’s schedule.” She smiled at them kindly, not to make it obvious that there were problems between her and the Business analyst, not to drop the morale of her team down, as this would cause productivity to be affected, she thought to herself.

They discussed their agenda for the day as the other departments had their small meetings. This business organised their people to ensure communication was consistent, so they put their teams in groups of 3 – 4 to ensure communication was adhered to.

“I will be away for a couple of days, however my boss is contactable 24/7 should something happen while I am away for a few days, or you can contact me via email for small matters and I will deal with them when I return or if I can deal with it while I am away, I will do so.” Laura informed her team professionally, emailing her team her contact details whilst she is away and her bosses’ emails, as they all held their laptops and communicated together. “Thanks, Laura, got it!” They responded, advising they received her information.

Meanwhile, Adrian walks up to Ashleigh in Administration on the 18th Floor, as Adrian liked to be punctual about obtaining information. Ashleigh is on the phone, looking at her computer, she raises her hand to let Adrian know she was aware he was there, “One moment please.” She said trying to rush with the phone call and finish her email at the same time. “Sure” Adrian leaning on the admin reception desk, putting his hands together looking at her softly, then looking away.

Ashleigh glanced at him as he looked to the side. Ashleigh bit her lip as she was instantly attracted to him. “Ok, thank you. I will email you shortly. Thanks, bye.” She ended her phone call and finally made eye contact with Adrian. “Apologies for that, how can I help you?” Ashleigh asks professionally putting her hands together, holding her hands.

“Hi, my name is Adrian, the new Business analyst, I need financial information for the last three years of this company.” Adrian responded professionally. “Ohhh yes, Adrian, yes the boss told me you would be needing that information. Welcome to the team! I look forward to working with you. If there is anything you need, feel free to ask and I will get you whatever information you require. Just give me a few minutes I will get that information you requested.” She smiled almost in a flirty way. “Yes, thank you.” Adrian smiled softly at her, smirking at her, with an almost s****l attraction between them.

Meanwhile, Laura and her team happened to walk past the corridor and seen them two, “Oh, looks like Ashleigh is working her charm on the new guy.” Techy Tom joked and laughed together with Jennifer as they walked past. Laura glanced at the Business analyst with Ashleigh and smirked under her breath, “I wonder how long that one will last” She thought to herself.  “Heh, leave them be, what they do outside the workplace is between them.” Laura smirked flicking her papers as they reached the elevator to go down to get some lunch.

That afternoon, the boss brings Adrian to Laura’s little team. “Laura and team, this is Adrian Blake, he will be working with you tomorrow onward. Please look after him.” The boss told them kindly and professionally. “Welcome, Adrian. Welcome to the family!” They welcomed him, much to Laura’s grief. “Welcome to the team, Mr. Blake, if there is anything you need, please let us know and we will assist you in any way we can.” Laura said to him professionally, welcoming him to the team. “She is so tamed now.” Adrian thought to himself glancing at her as they stood together in Laura’s team on her floor, as at their first meeting, she was feisty as a fox, he thought.

“Thank you, I look forward to working with you all. Thank you for making me feel so welcome.” Adrian smirked at them all. “Mr. Blake, this will be your working station. I already took the liberty of creating a work email, password for you, you can change it anytime for security purposes. Your computer will arrive in a couple of days, however in the meantime, I have provided you with a company laptop you can work on, just until your one arrives. I apologies for the inconvenience, if I had prior notice before I left, I would have obtained everything before you started.” Laura said to him professionally walking him to his workstation, which was across from Jennifer, as the payroll and Business analyst would be working hand in hand together. “No, thank you, this will do.” Adrian responded professionally. “Good, well, my office is on level 20, if there is anything you or the team need, let me know.” She said professionally. “Thank you.” Adrian responded professionally.

At that, Laura left the team to work on their own and return to her office. “She completely changed!” Adrian thought to himself. “She is really nice to work with.” Jennifer commented. “Really?” Adrian questioned. “Oh yes, I was having personal problems last year, she gave me two weeks off paid leave to sort out my life and she let me return to work and put me in a training programme to put me in my current job. She sees the potential in people.” Jennifer said kindly about Laura. “Looks like she is a secret admirer of the “General”” Adrian thought to himself, referring to Laura Acer. “This is Tom, if you need anything technical to be done to your computer or smart phone or tablet, Techy Tom’s your man!” Jennifer said kindly to Adrian, “Tom, a pleasure” Adrian said kindly shaking his hand professionally. “Pleasure is all mine, welcome aboard!” Techy Tom responded kindly and professionally. “Hey, want to get drinks after work?” Tom asked. “It’s Monday?” Adrian questioned in confusion. “Tomorrow our team has a day off. Ashleigh’s team is here tomorrow then we are back on Wednesday.” Techy Tom responded. “Oh. Sure.” Adrian responded.

It is 5pm, everyone has finished work for the day. “You tagging along, Adrian?” Tom and Jennifer asked him, “Yeah, I will be there shortly. Just have a few things to finish…” Adrian said kindly. At that, they left, and it was just Adrian left in the office. Adrian takes a deep breath, feeling somewhat guilty for the way he treated the HR manager, so he decided to go and see Laura in her office. He closes his desk and goes to the elevator, however when he swipes his card, it doesn’t work. “s**t! Now what?” He thought to himself, when suddenly, the janitor comes by and opens the elevator for him, “It closes at 5pm, unless you have a card to let you in and out. If you ask your HR manager, she will get you one.” He told him.

At that, Adrian walks in the elevator and goes to see Laura at her office. As he walks into her office, he sees her there, with a mountain of paperwork, working on her computer. “Knock, knock.” He says suddenly, knocking on her office door. “Come in!” She said looking intensely at her screen. “I thought everyone left, boss?” She said turning her head from the computer, to realise it was Adrian, “Oh, its you, apologies, I thought you were the boss.” She said professionally, composing herself, putting her hands together on her office desk, “Please, come in and sit down.” She said professionally.

As he is walking into her office, looking around, “Nice office” He commented. “Thank you. Are you settling down ok with the team?” She asks him professionally. “Yes, thank you, they have made me feel most welcome.” Adrian responds professionally. “Good, that was the aim. How can I help you?” She smiled at him softly, keeping her hands together. Before he could answer, “Actually, before you answer, I just wanted to apologise about this morning, that was a little rude of me the way I handled things this morning, it was unprofessional of me, if we could keep our differences aside from the team so that they do not sense any negativity between us, so that their morale doesn’t drop or else it will affect everyone’s productivity. So, I apologise for the way I behaved in the boss’s office with you. Let’s work together to achieve our goals with the team from now on, and everyone will be happy go lucky, ok?” Laura said to him professionally and on a personal and professional manner.

Adrian sat down for a moment, just staring at her for a moment, almost shocked at her comments, he almost didn’t know how to answer, as he was a prideful man, looking to the side in shame at her kindness towards his rudeness. Suddenly he smirks, “I look forward to working with you, miss Acer.” He said and got up and walked out the office to join his friends at the bar.

“Bastard never even apologised for being an asshole!” Laura thought to herself as she finished her work. “I knew you would have done that.” The boss said walking passed. “Boss…” Laura said kindly. “I know he can be a little, “off”, but trust me, he will be very useful to you.” The boss smiled kindly at her, as he walked into her office kindly.

“We will see.” She shrugged off and finished her paperwork. “Well, I am off, I will be back in a few days.” She said to her boss walking together to the elevator.  “Take care, Laura. I hear it will be thunderstorms when you get back.” He boss said to her. “Lovely.” She said walking out.

The bosses headed home, the teams went to their favourite bar close by to their office. “Drink up boys! Let’s make Adrian feel welcome, wooo!!” Jennifer cheered ordering drinks. Ashleigh also joined them for the celebrations.  “I heard you had a run in with Laura this morning with your meeting with the boss.” Ashleigh said. “How’d you know about that?” Adrian asked her curiously in a husky tone of voice, “News travels fast from the boss’s executive assistant since her office is just outside the boss’s door. “Ohh? She seemed really nice with Adrian when she welcomed him to our team?” Jennifer said in defence, “You wasn’t there to hear it?” Ashleigh said in tongue and cheek, “Neither was you!” Jennifer said in defence, as Ashleigh and Jennifer almost didn’t get along outside of the workplace, their personalities were complete opposites, but they put that aside when working in the office.

“Alright ladies, enough, Adrian, what happened this morning, so that we can put these ladies’ minds at ease?” Techy Tom sighed and said to Adrian, raising his eyebrow in curiosity, as he also wanted to know what was going on, as he knew that Laura wouldn’t have ranted like that for nothing. Adrian looked down for a moment and smirked, thinking of what Laura said earlier, “Let’s work together not to effect the team’s morale” Laura told him earlier. “Nothing of the sort, just… politics.” Adrian cheered in smirk to the team. “Oh, is that all?” Tom questioned. “Yeah…” He snicked his eyes at Tom. “Hm.. never discuss politics at work, it just ruins everyone’s day.” Tom responded jokingly as he sighed, “politics and religion should never be discussed at the office, it just adds fuel to the fire” Tom further commented. “Here, here!” Jennifer agreed cheerfully. “Ok, lets order up!” Tom said ordering food and drinks.

That night, when everyone left, Ashleigh and Adrian were the last to leave the bar and so happened to spend the night together in Ashleigh’s apartment.

 “So, looks like you made an impression in the office today…” Ashleigh smirked. “You think so?” Adrian responds with a calm mellow husky voice. “I think so, looks like you might have a hard time though with the HR manager, if you are not careful.” Ashleigh smirked as she kissed him on the cheek.

Meanwhile, at Laura’s residence, she walks in her apartment that night after work. She turns on the lights and looks in her empty apartment that she called home. Locking her front door, gently puts her keys on the desk and her coat on the hanger, she walks to the fridge for a cold soft drink as she didn’t  drink alcohol, and sat on the couch, overlooking the city view.

Suddenly she receives a phone call, “Hello? Mum?” She says kindly. “Baby, I was worried about you, you never answered the phone earlier.” Her loving mother said kindly on the phone. Laura sighs softly. “I am sorry, mother, I was at work I just got home, how are you? How’s Dean?” She asks softly referring to her brother. “Yes, he is fine. Just wanted to ring up to see how you were doing, that’s all.” Her mother says softly on the phone, like a worried mother would do. “I am fine, mother, things are well. I will come and see you at the end of the week while I am in the area. I will pop in to see my father too while I am in the area.” She said taking a drink down, walking towards the window of her apartment, looking at the night city lights. “Alright, if you need anything, I am here for you baby.” Her mother lovingly said. Laura almost teared up at such loving comments, after all that had happened in her life. Laura puts the phone down to wipe her tears softly, as she held in her grasp. “Laura?” Her mother questioned concerned. Trembling as she clenched the phone tightly as she held the phone, bringing the phone back to her head, “Yeah, mum, I am here… I will see you in a few days… I will put some money in your account tonight, Goodnight and I love you…see you in a few days…” Laura said kindly to her mother as they both hang up the phone. Laura sighs as she put her hand on the window overlooking the city lights, remembering what happened to her a year ago, memories come flooding in as the tears begin to swell up. “It’s been a year since then and I am still crying over spilt milk?” She said out loud to herself, when suddenly, she received a phone call from her father, who she looked up to for many aspects of her life.

She picks up the phone, “Laura?” Her father says kindly her name. “Dad, hey, how are you?” Laura says drying her tears, so she wouldn’t give the impression to her father that she was sad. “how are you Laura? What did you do today?” her father asks her kindly, to check up on his daughter. “Yeah dad, it was good, just went to work today, how was your work? Did you receive the contract from the dealership you were waiting on?” Laura asks him softly, as she went to sit on the couch. “Yes, I got it today, I need you to come down over the weekend to go over it with me.” He requested softly, being an old-fashioned man’s man, he had no education however he knew street smarts in his self-employed business and got his daughter to do his paperwork for him. “Sure thing, dad. I am flying interstate tomorrow so will be out of town for a few days so will come over on the weekend.” Laura replied kindly. “Ahh ok, well in that case, be careful and I’ll see you when you get back.” Her father said on the phone. “Sure thing dad, I love you.” She said. “I love you too, bye for now.” Laura’s father said kindly and both hang up.

As Laura sat there on the couch, hearing her parents’ voices just added some comfort to her lonely heart, being alone after so long.