DATING MY EX'S DAD

CHAPTER THREE

~ Exquisite Events Emporium; E-Cube ~

A week had passed since Haley found Carter and Eva together. She hadn’t been to work since then, and not because she had taken a break from work, but because she was not supposed to be in town for another week. She had initially returned with plans to lay low so her colleagues or clients wouldn’t see her and notify her boss, but with her whole ‘Week with Carter’ plans out the window, she laid low, at home, ordering taken out throughout the entire week, but now her break was over and it was time to get back to work.

She alighted a cab and turned to look at the office building behind her. It was a large five-story complex with the name E-Cube written in bold font on a massive signboard at the top of the building. She took in a deep breath and walked into the building.

As she walked, people greeted her and she replied, but each of them, midway into their greetings noticed what she looked like, and the greeting became more of a question-and-answer session, something she didn’t have time for, so she ignored most of them, except those from people above her in the company.

Her hair was a mess and poorly combed, she didn’t look too well and her eyes were a bit swollen and red. It was quite obvious that something had happened and before long, whispers and murmurs were flying all around the building, and by noon, whispers and murmurs had become rumors spoken with confidence as though they were facts. But one thing was certain, someone had figured out that she was suffering from a heartbreak and everyone else had dropped every other rumor to take the breakup story.

Haley sat at her desk on the third floor, a pen and notepad in her hand as she made a call with a customer. She was supposed to take notes of what the customer was saying and record their preferences, but she noticed a group of her colleagues a couple of desks away from her and she could hear them whispering. They were already so engulfed in scenarios they were creating in their heads about how the breakup went down, that they didn’t even notice that they had stopped moving when they were so close to her.

“You f**king morons!” Haley shouted and tossed her notepad at them. “So that is what you do now? You guys just come to work to laugh and have fun and make fun of other people’s lives and then go home?!” she yelled angrily, startling her gossiping colleagues.

“Hello? Is … Is everything alright?” the customer’s voice came in through the phone, calling her attention back to what she was doing.

“Oh … um … sorry ma’am, I uh … my colleagues were misbehaving and I had to put them in their places,” Haley stammered a reply as her gossiping colleagues scampered off.

“Ma’am?” the customer quizzed, taken aback. “Uh … excuse you, lady, I am a man … remember?” the man replied, evidently offended by her response from the tone of his response.

“Oh … uh, pardon me, sir,” Haley cupped her free hand over her mouth. “I am really sorry sir, I meant no disrespect, it is just that you sound just like a lady, my deepest apologies,” she apologized.

“What?” the man sounded confused. “What are you talking about? I … I already corrected that when we started talking,” he said with a shocked tone.

“Oh,” Haley froze for a moment before nodding slowly as if she just remembered when he corrected her for mistaking him for a woman.

“Whatever, let’s get this over with, I am already pissed,” the man replied with an angry and distant tone.

“Sure thing, just give me a moment,” Haley said and rushed over to pick up her notepad which she just tossed at her colleagues. “Alright then, I am ready.”

“Good,” the man said and sighed, trying to calm his nerves. “Now, where were we?” he asked, but Haley didn’t reply, the only thing he heard was the sound of her notepad being flipped through rapidly.

“Hello? Miss? Are you there? Hello?!” the customer called out.

“Hello, yes, Haley Jones here, I am here with you ma’am … uh … I mean sir,” Haley stuttered.

“Listen, if this is a joke, it is not funny alright?” the customer growled at her in anger.

“I … I am really sorry,” she apologized, ensuring not to use any pronouns to avoid unintentionally disrespecting the customer. “Can … Can you just uh …” Haley stammered, unsure of how you put her request after realizing she hadn’t written down a single thing the customer had said since they had started talking about half an hour ago.

“Um … please forgive me, but uh … can you please repeat the things we had discussed earlier?” she asked.

“Wait… What?!” the client exclaimed. “Are you trying to tell me you haven’t been writing a single thing I have said in the past one hour?” he thundered angrily.

“I am so sorry sir, I promise, it won’t take us long, you just have to help me remember what you had said a while back and we can quickly continue from there,” she pleaded.

“Are you serious right now?” The customer was baffled. “Your job is to document and retain the ideas and designs I want, miss!” the customer lost his head.

“I am sorry sir, I really am,” Haley apologized but he was not having any of it.

“You will regret wasting my time, young lady, I promise you that!” he yelled and ended the call before she could say anything.

“Oh s**t,” Haley’s heart pounded hard against her chest. She sat in her chair awaiting the repercussions and before five minutes elapsed, it came.

“Haley! MY OFFICE! NOW!” her boss shouted at the top of his voice.

“Damn, what the hell did you do girl? I don’t think I have ever heard him get that pissed at anyone at all, not to talk about you,” one of her colleagues at the desk behind hers asked as she rubbed her temples, preparing her mind for the scolding that was coming. “You think he is going to go easy on you?”

“Well, we will see Bella, I just pray I don’t lose my job over this, pray for me Frey,” Haley said and took a deep breath before moving towards the office.

“CLOSE THE DAMN DOORS!” the manager shouted and she closed the doors, blinding and deafening the gossips outside the office.

“You all should learn to mind your business,” Bella said outside the office. “Waiting for her to lose her job won’t make you the company’s next big shot okay?”

“Yeah right. When Haley loses her job, the rest of us will finally have some room to shine.,” one of the male staff said.

“When?” Bella laughed. “I bet you two grand that she’ll come out of there with her job intact.”

“That is stupid, did you hear how pissed Anderson was? There is no way she is going to survive with her…” The man was still talking when the office’s doors swung open and she stepped out. Looking as normal as possible.

“Hey, Bella!” Haley called out. “Come on, we have a few things to handle.”

“Told ya,” Bella laughed and packed her things and some of Haley’s and followed after Haley, to find out what was up and get the full gist of what was really going on.