Love Beyond Pretense

Chapter 4

Emily

I intentionally resumed late to work today which is very unusual. The last time I came late to work was the day my mum had showed up unannounced at my house. She complained that she missed me a lot and was lonely in Florida. Her words made me feel remorseful, so, I’d decided to help her settle into my bedroom before I left for work. That day I had come to work a little over thirty minutes late. But today, I was two hours late.

My alarm went off this morning at 5:00 am, as usual, but I kept on snoozing it. I really did not want to show up at work today, not after the demeaning words Mr. Giordani rained on me.

After work yesterday, I’d sat on the cold tiles under the shower, recollecting the things he had said in his email. I’d wondered if the job was really worth anything. All it had done to me, aside from putting food on my table, was to make me deny my abilities and feel extremely insecure. I had always been an extremely confident and bright student, but now I scurried around trying to please my boss and be available at his beck and call. With all the work I put in every day, he appreciated me with more work and called me incompetent when I made a little mistake.

Eventually, I pulled myself out of my faded blue sheets at about 6:30 am. I headed for the bathroom almost immediately, where I took the longest shower I’d ever taken on a weekday. I did my everyday routine as slowly as I could and got out of the house by 7:30 am. I arrived at my workplace at 8 am sharp and headed for the kitchen immediately to start making Mr. Giordani's coffee.

In the kitchen, I met one of my coworkers, Lex, who greeted me with her usual bubbly "Good morning " and tried to hug me while I was pouring hot water into the mug. I gave her a wry smile, that showed I was uncomfortable, yet, grateful for the hug. Once I was done with the coffee, I headed back to my desk to acquire my boss' schedule and some letters. I made my way to his office with his coffee in one hand and the file on the other.

"Good morning, sir," I said.

"Good morning," he replied, raising his eyes slightly above his computer to get a view of my face before returning them immediately.

I placed the file next to his desk name tag, alongside the mug containing his latte and a bunch of letters. He reached for the letters, scanning through their titles to decide the ones to read and the ones to dispose of. He stopped at the brown envelope and investigated it more closely.

"Who is this from?" he asked.

"Me," I said with so much excitement. I’ve never been this excited to give someone a letter.

He noticed my expression and spared me a confused look, probably wondering why I was excited about this letter.

"And what is it for?"

"It's my resignation letter."

Whatever was on his face- definitely not a smile- dropped on receiving my response. From his eyes, I could tell that he was confused. He obviously never expected me to do this. He had always known me as the quiet Emily, who wouldn’t argue or question things and just did it.

I could sense his frustration as his jaw twitched and his iris lost focus. I grinned in satisfaction, making sure to maintain eye contact with his cyan orbs. I was finally able to get back at him.

"What do you mean by resignation?" he said with a stern look on his face and clenched fists.

I rolled my eyes without flinching. I wasn't going to let his temper intimidate me.

"Don't you know what resignation means?"

"Why the heck are you resigning?" he said, almost shouting.

I could see the intensity of his anger in his eyes as they got wider and darker. He was losing his cool and I loved that. He always liked to be collected at all times but I was making him upset which was extremely humorous and entertaining to me.

"Why the heck I'm resigning?” I threw back. “I can't believe you would ask me such a question. You treat me like a slave and you expect me not to resign? What’s the big deal? Am I not incompetent? Well, you can now go get yourself a more competent secretary."

My chest was heaving and a tear dropped down my right eye. I quickly smeared it off my face with my hands. This was definitely not the right time to get emotional.

"So, this your grand reason for resigning? Are you the first person to ever be overworked?”

He wore no remorse on his face. His eyes were as steady as ever and his lips stretched in a disgusting smirk. What kind of man is this? How could he not even have an atom of remorse for me?

"Overworking your staff is against the work ethics right of the country," I said defensively.

"So, you want to sue me?"

I did not even understand these allegations. I thought he was smarter than this. I never knew he was just a dumb, over-pampered, privileged man.

"No. I just wanted to resign."

"I'm sorry but you cannot resign. I can't let you leave this organization.” He sounded anything but sorry.

I couldn’t believe him. I had never in my life heard of someone being denied a resignation. He denied me promotion and resignation as well. How ridiculous! He also said I was not capable of doing my own job, and yet, he didn’t want to let me go.

“I really do not understand you right now. You don’t want me to resign but you think I’m incompetent. It doesn’t even make sense at all,” I said, frustrated.

“Well, you are staying whether it makes sense or not.”

At this point, I was fuming. Why was he being so stubborn? I really couldn’t understand why he’d refuse to allow me to resign. What exactly was he playing at?

"You don't have any right to do that. I want to resign. I can't keep on working for you. You either offer me a promotion or I would resign.”

"Fine. Fine. I'd offer you a promotion on one condition.”

I felt relief on hearing that. I couldn’t believe he was about to offer me a promotion. I gave myself an internal pat on the back for being able to convince him, although I was still curious- perhaps even weary-about the condition he mentioned.

"What's the condition?" I asked with narrowed eyes.

"You have to......"