SAVING MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

AFTER-HOURS

It had just struck 9 p.m.; Julia noticed as she lifted her phone up to check the time.

She had a tremendous workload on her desk; being new to the company, she had a lot of work to do. She had opted to start working overtime because that was the only way known to her to get her tasks accomplished.

She let out a troubled sigh and continued with her paperwork on her desk. After a brief moment, she readjusted herself to her seat with a lot of discomfort, quite true that she was uncomfortable, but leaving her work for the next day wasn't an option, the backlash she was receiving from the senior staff was already unbearable.

They made her work so much while she was sure of the fact that they did absolutely nothing. Although not to be egocentric, they did it to all the newly employed staff, which included her.

She had thought of reporting to the higher authorities, but they were the higher authorities, so it was dumb. Besides, it would only make her gain negative attention and that was one thing she wasn't prepared for.

Now her mind was wandering all over the place and people she hadn't spoken to in quite a while and boom, she remembered Natalie, picking up her phone yet again, she dialed a number and before the phone could even ring a second time, the individual picked up.

“ I'd been expecting your call and was obviously not going to call you. Though you might have ditched the thought of me in your new city…” Natalie said without holding back any word,” So tell me what has kept you from calling me.”

Julia was expecting an outburst. She had told Natalie or Nat, as she had shortened, that she would call, but the stress from work had been draining.

They were best of friends in high school and also went to the same college though Julia left before her. She was staying at Nat’s apartment before she had come into town and a promise she made to Nat was to call her as soon as she got a job, but the stress from work had been draining.

“ I'm so sorry," Julia let out, prepping for her huge defense, “it once crossed my mind, but I've been overwhelmed …”

“Oooo, so tell me, who's the dude that's got you all busy?” Nat said.

“ Really? Can you be real for once? Do you possibly think that I would come to a new town to find a guy? Heck no,” Julia replied in a suspenseful tone?

“ Oh I know, I know you won't do this without telling me unless you want your hair ripped off,” Nat said and the both of them burst out into laughter, not based on what she had said but a memory from high school.

There was a girl that had found a boyfriend without telling her best friend, while she had always told her best friend to always tell her about her love life. It wasn't supposed to be heated, but with just a spark of words they were already fighting and pulling their hair.

“ So you got a job then," Nat said as their laughter had died down.

“ Yeah, last week, surprisingly, it wasn't that hard too actually. It was as if people knew how hectic it can be here,” Julia replied.

“ Okay, so that's an improvement, so do you have any obsessive work crushes there?…” Nat continued.

“ Come on Nat, can your expressions stop being censored by guys?" Julia asked as she let out a sigh and a chuckle.

“ You know, that's what I bring to our friendship table and I won't apologize for it…” she said with little sense of pride.

Of course, you don't expect Natalie Pierce to be apologetic about her view of life. She was not a romantic, neither was she lacking in relationships. Though she'd prefer flings. According to her, they were a breeze.

“...... since you want to keep your love life a secret, that's alright by me," Nat replied, feigning sadness.

“ You should know that you're an important person in my life, so if there's anything worth telling, you'd be the first….” Julia replied.

“ Go on, do that thing where you massage my ego and slither away," Nat said sarcastically, and they burst into another round of laughter, “So tell me, what's the name of the company you work for?” Nat said.

“The name?” Julia asked as she tried to remember, “I think it's Northuldra or Northerning. I don't know, but I do know that it has north on it.”

“Oh my!!!, what are you even doing there? You're sure you're not planning to wreck their establishment, because how can you not know the name of the company you work for?” Nat said jokingly?

And yep, they dived into a third round. That was really the only thing they did when they were around each other, cracking up jokes and laughing pretty hard.

“ Please do not blame me, you seriously don't expect me to remember coined-up words after my daily hassle.”

“Since you've settled, I'll come visiting soon enough. Make sure you text me the address,” Nat said.

“I will”

As soon as she dropped her phone to continue her work, she heard a slight tapping as if a person was walking on the office floor, but she was the only one around. The security guard had locked her in, and only she had the keys apart from some other security individuals, but none of them would have come back, so she focused on her work.

The tapping came again. This time they were more audible, but it could not be possible. Could it be her mind playing tricks on her? The poor thing wasn't to be blamed. She had used it non-stop for the whole day, and it was seeking a break, but that was the essence of the phone call that had just been concluded, to get her mind off things.

There had to be a workaround. She reached for her wired earphones in her handbag but when another thought struck her,

“What if the sounds she was hearing were real? How would she be able to clarify?” she thought

What if it was a robber or a serial killer? This was exactly what horror movies were; the individual covers their ears while the mystery man or woman gets them from behind.

Turning swiftly to her back to be sure she wasn't about to be stabbed in the back, like literally, though the lights on the particular floor that she was on dimmed as it would be very bad if the lights were at full power at that time of the night.

She couldn't see very far but knowing that her back was safe from the unknown was reassuring…, or maybe she thought it was.

A thud came this time around, and there was no way she was hallucinating. She rose up to go to the dimmer, which was on the other side of the room, but that was right about the same place the noise was coming from.

The power went out. ‘Dang it!’ She picked up her phone; it was certain that there wasn't something normal over there. The thought of the evil things the serial killer could do to her made her legs melt like jelly; she wasn't trained in any combat skills.

Her flashlight came right on, making her gain visibility over a little portion where the darkness had turned everywhere into emptiness.

The drawer underneath her tore open as she rummaged through it to find a weapon. The only thing there that could do any harm were her scissors and paper pins.

‘ What use would that be to her?’ she thought. ‘Who knew what they had with them?

It would be one of the most ridiculous decisions she would ever make, but who cares? She was just surviving, and perhaps the world would remember her as someone who fought for her life or maybe not. That's if the person takes her out discreetly and buries her. All these thoughts made her shudder.

Normally, what people would have done was to ask ‘who's there?’, but someone had told her that it helps to keep whoever's there in suspense, as they might not know that you know they were there. Remembering that idea, she wondered who even told her that.

She would have questioned the person because, using the standing where she was at the moment, she was too sure that whoever was also there with her could see her and knew for sure that she was pretty aware.

“Get your head together, Julia; you can't be thinking of this when you are about to get killed by….., a mystery," she said to herself, trying to focus.

There was a beep from her phone indicating that she really needed to charge her phone.

“ Come on, why now? The backup power should have come on by now; the cut has to be intentional," she cried out “They really thought this through”

Clearly, nature was working against her because why on earth would this number of ordeals befall a person in a single night? Now she was thinking that working overtime was a bad idea; she saw it as a bad idea but carried on anyway. If only she would just get out of her current position, she would never work past five ever again.