365 Days with My Billionaire

CHAPTER 2

ONYX

“Good morning, Mr Bradford.”

“Good morning, sir.

“Lovely day, Mr Bradford.”

I simply nodded in acknowledgment of the greetings from my employees, my phone pressed to my ear. With every stride my legs took to the glass-covered office, I could feel their watchful, admiring, and fearful eyes on me. I was used to the attention so it didn’t bother me. Once I twisted the door handle of my office, I could’ve sworn I heard them breathe a sigh of relief.

Working with me was intense and cut-throat because my expectations were nothing short of perfection. A slip-up or an attempt of it meant kissing your job goodbye and boarding the next plane to Nirvana because you’d never live it down.

I paid my employees well, even more than the average employer, and they all knew that. That was why I expected them to be nothing short of the best. If their best wasn’t good enough for me, which in most cases it never was, given that I had fired my personal assistant yesterday and two interns the day before, then there were other jobs elsewhere.

“Kathy, get me my coffee, black,” I said gruffly through the intercom as I settled down on my swivel chair.

Oh, right. I fired Kathy.

I always had the intention of firing her, hence why I told HR to start looking for her replacement three months ago. The brunette was getting on my last nerve and yesterday was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She had messed up my schedule and made me miss a meeting with an important investor who was willing to buy stakes in the company.

That was not the only time she slipped up. A month before her termination, she had booked me the wrong flight, and two months before that, she had canceled a business meeting with a Chinese company because she thought it was what the boss said.

I had endured her many errors for two years, but there was only so much I could take. The only thing she was good at was making unwanted passes at me.

As if I would ever sleep with any of my employees.

Being the CEO of the biggest social networking service in the world was not an easy task. Renegade, my brainchild, was an idea I had back when I was an undergraduate student at Simpleton University studying business administration per my father’s wishes. As his only son, I was slated to take over the family business, the decision already made before I even began high school.

Wanting to step out of my father's shadow for once, I began working on Renegade along with my best friend Bryson Knox in our dorm room. The idea was to create a community where people would be able to air out their opinions with no f***s given (f***s are now given because offensive comments are being flagged and removed) but that was the point.

Bryson, a computer science major at the time, created the domain name and the codes and handled the technical aspects of Renegade. I dealt with the marketability. The prototype was developed and launched as an internal app for university students on Simpleton’s campus.

Long story short, it became popular among the students, and the full version was released to the world a few years after the launch on campus. The only way was up from there. In order to manage Renegade, Bryson and I formed Onyx & Co six years ago. Renegade became the most used social networking service in the world with a monthly user rate of three hundred and forty-five million and the app is available in over sixty-five countries.

I was proud of everything Bryson and I had achieved in such a short time and it was only possible through hard work and determination...with a little help from our parents, of course. My father wasn’t supportive of the idea of creating a social media app initially because he thought it would divert my attention from my studies, but my mother was my biggest cheerleader and she somehow convinced him to invest in the business.

Bryson’s parents were a lot more liberal than mine. When we told them about the app and our need for investments, they consented in a heartbeat.

The telephone rang, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Yes?’’

‘’Sir,’’ Mrs Wilkinson, the head of the HR department’s voice filled my ear, “the interviews for your new assistant are about to begin. Should I send them up or do you need more time?’’

“Send them up.’’

“Will do, sir.”

This was not how I wanted to start my Tuesday morning.

Truth be told, I had completely forgotten that the interviews were today. After the incompetence and unprofessional conduct that Kathy displayed, I didn’t trust HR anymore to make the final decision on who would become my personal assistant. Of course, I got swarmed with paperwork and the interviews completely skipped his mind.

If I had an assistant, I would have remembered.

“This is why I need a f*****g assistant,’’ I whispered to no one in particular as I thumbed my desk for a pen and paper, scribbling down the questions I would ask my potentials.

“My head is killing me.’’

It was all thanks to Bryson. Yesterday, he literally dragged me to the grand opening of a club his friend owned, knowing full well that the next day was a workday. Long story short, I drank, sobered up this morning, and was now desperately looking for Advil. I pulled the last of the desk drawers open and found the drug. I popped it into my mouth like a c***k addict and doused it with a bottle of water I brought from home. Instantly feeling some sort of relief, I tousled my dark-brown hair with my hands and shot lasers at the paperwork I had to go through before the end of the day.

The phone rang again and I sighed in irritation. Picking it up, I heard the firm tone of Mrs. Wilkinson again. “It’s time, sir.’’

I still needed coffee.