by Emma Vikes
And that was the only task I was given in order to get the job.
“Impress the General Manager who would be the one to interview you, and the job is yours,” Mr. Kline had said. And I had done the exact opposite.
I brought my hands up to rub my forehead in a bid to relieve the pressure that had built up there.
If only I had succeeded in calming my nerves, I would have done better.
But how could I, when Mike was the one asking me questions? Now I know how Martin must have felt back then. Mike was intense, and the effect he had over anyone he focused on was paralysing; me who was never fazed, and yet I struggled to get words out.
I opened my eyes and checked to make sure that the cab driver was on track before shutting them again. Time and distance flew by as I continued to beat myself up and wonder why I hadn’t performed better.
“We are here, ma’am,” the cab driver announced suddenly, stunning me out of my reverie.
I opened my eyes and saw that he had parked by the curb opposite Marissa’s shop. I looked at the meter and reached for my purse. Pulling out the exact fare in dollar notes, I handed it over before stepping out of the cab.
“Thanks,” I said courteously, as I shut his door.
Marissa must have seen me step down from the cab as she came sprinting out of the salon towards me as the cab drove off.
“Oh, my baby! Come let’s go get ice cream,” she said as she reached me.
I tried protesting but she simply dragged me off in the direction of our favourite ice cream shop. Without much energy left in me, I followed limply behind her.
A few blocks up the street, we walked into the ice cream shop. I found us a seat as she went to place our orders. Minutes later, she walked back towards our table with our orders in hand.
“Here!” She said, handing me my cup which had a combination of two of my favourite flavours. “This should cheer you up in no time.”
“Thanks,” I said as I took the cup from her and set it on the table in front of me, right next to my phone.
Minutes passed as I stared at my cup in silence. I could feel Marissa looking at me as she was seated opposite me. She, however, didn’t say a word. That was another reason why we were best friends. She knew me so well and knew the moments when I wanted to be cheered up with words as well as the moments I didn’t. Now was one of those moments, I appreciated the silence and she left me to it.
I finally picked up my spoon and began scooping out my ice cream, just as my phone began ringing.
A glance at the Caller ID, and I froze. Mr. Kline was calling me.
Marissa, seeing my expression, reached out for the phone.
“Mr. Kline?” She asked. “Isn’t that the MD of the firm you just interviewed at?”
I simply nodded.
“So why don’t you want to pick it up?” She queried.
“Because I know what he’s going to say. I didn’t do well at the interview, Marissa.”
“And yet he’s calling you?”
Her last statement actually made me pause.
Yes, I didn’t do well at the interview but why is Mr. Kline calling me then?
“Pick up the phone, Theresa,” she said as she shoved the phone at me.
I obliged.
“Hello, Mr. Kline,” I said, trying so hard to mask the strain in my voice.
“How is my new Sales Manager doing?” He responded, cheerfully.
My head blanked. “What!”
“You got the job, Theresa.”
“I...I don’t under...understand,” I stammered.
“Mike said he was impressed with you and the way you handled yourself under pressure. He also made some more comments but long and short is that he’s impressed and wants to have you on board. He called me minutes after your interview. I just got off the phone with him now.”
“My goodness.” I gasped.
“Naturally, the HR Manager should be the one to make this call but I decided to make it myself. Welcome to Alpha Consults, Theresa. You’ll receive a mail from the HR department, shortly.”
“Thank you...Thank you, Mr. Kline,” I stammered again.
“Have a great day, Theresa.”
The call ended abruptly, leaving me as stunned as I was all through its duration.
“You got the job, didn’t you?” Marissa asked, her eyes bulging in anticipation.
“Apparently, I did.”
“Yes!” She squealed.
.
CHAPTER 5
Mike
ANOTHER MONDAY MORNING and I found myself waking up before the alarm yet again.
Even though it had been two months since Theresa Lopez had started work at the company, thus reducing my workload, I found that I had gotten so used to this lifestyle that it was simply easier to just maintain it.
I was in and out the shower and heading downstairs, fully dressed in just under thirty minutes. As usual, the coffee maker was my destination.
As I drained the first cup of coffee, my mind wandered off to the work I had lined up for today. Pouring the second cup of coffee and turning to go sit at the kitchen counter, I began strategizing on how best to execute the task at hand.
We’d taken on a new client whose diaper product wasn’t doing well in the market. New entries into the market were always easier to handle than already existing products that weren’t doing well. This was also a huge contract so as was the rule I had created on my arrival at Alpha Consults, either Greg or myself had to be involved. Not like I didn’t have faith in Theresa to handle it all by herself, but until Alpha Consults had attained a certain level, that rule was going to stay in effect.
If anything, with the way Theresa was working and hitting set out targets, we were well on our way to attaining such a level sooner than later. She was smart, intuitive, charismatic, and beautiful. Above all, she knew her onions. We’d only tackled one project together back when she’d just joined the company and from the way she went about it, I knew she was capable of working on her own without any supervision from me. And time and time again, she’d repaid my faith in her by coming up with something magical and meeting the targets we set out to achieve.
It would be nice to work in close proximity with her again. I thought as a smile began spreading across my lips.
I caught myself in time.
Why exactly is that something to smile about? I queried myself even though I already knew the answer; one that had been gnawing at me from the very first day she started working at Alpha Consults.
She was a very beautiful woman and I’d been smitten by her.
I’d begun to notice her properly from the very first task we carried out together. Her level of intellect and considering that I was a sapiosexual most definitely contributed, but it was more of her natural beauty and the way she radiated when she smiled or laughed. It didn’t also help that she was as curvy as I liked them. I’d missed all of it at the interview but now that we’d started working together with both our guards down, light had begun to flood my senses; first like a little ray sipping through a crack in the wall, till it had become as bright as the morning sun.
I truly was smitten by her.
She obviously had no idea, neither was she ever going to find out. This secret was going to follow me to the grave. At work, it would continue to be professional; nothing more, nothing less. Hopefully in time, my crush would fade and everything would be back to normal. Hell, it was embarrassing to admit even to myself that I liked her.
I took another sip of my coffee and wondered whether it was going to be a good idea to even have her working so close to me. The plan was to kill the feelings that had sprung up, not to encourage them to continue growing. But what excuse was I going to come up with, credible enough to justify why the company’s Sales Manager wasn’t on the project; and a huge one at that. If anything, I was just going to put the sniffing dogs on my scent.
I took another sip.
I’d work with her. But seeing as our client was all t
he way in Chicago, I’d most definitely be travelling alone. She’d be the team lead back home while I handle operations on the field.
I drained my cup of coffee and set it on the counter just as someone began turning a key in my front door.
Alberta!
This was the first time in almost three months that she was going to meet me inside the house on a weekday morning and not on the driveway.
“Mr. Gordon!” She announced as she stepped into the house, her voice laced with concern.
“I’m in the kitchen, Alberta.”
“Good morning, Mr. Gordon.”
“Morning, Alberta.”
“Are you alright, Mr. Gordon?” She said as she finally rounded the corner and appeared in the doorway of the kitchen.
“Why?” I asked with a hint of amusement.
“Well, seeing your car in the driveway at this time, with you nowhere in sight...Anyways, I see you are just running late.” She concluded, after inspecting me from head to toe.
I chuckled as I stood up from the counter, grabbed my keys and headed for the front door.
“Have a good day, Alberta,” I said as I walked past.
“And you too, Mr. Gordon.”
CHAPTER 6
Theresa
I WAS STANDING BESIDE Mike in the conference room as I perused through all the content that had been drafted for the diaper project. There were advertisement boards, sales reports, market surveys, product samples, and various other materials scattered all across the table of the conference room.
I’d been working here for two months and I’d enjoyed every bit of it. From the brain storming sessions, to the strategy meetings, to the field activations, every bit of my work experience had been all I’d dreamt it would be. The fact that my salary package was even more than what I’d been entitled to at Woodrow, made it all the more interesting and worthwhile.
And there was Mike.
Even though we’d worked on just one project together before now, the mere fact that I was in close proximity to him and learning so much through observing him was an exhilarating experience.
I remembered the day I got the call from Mr. Kline that I’d gotten the job at Alpha Consults because I’d succeeded in impressing Mike. It had been a very interesting moment of joy and confusion for me.
On the one hand, I was ecstatic. On the other, however, I was completely confused. How had I impressed Mike? Throughout the interview, I’d kept my gaze on him. Throughout the interview also, he’d had this look of disinterest and disgust at my answers or demeanour; almost as if he’d had something better to do with his time than be in the same room with me. And then I’d gotten the call which had shocked me more than anything.
What happened on that interview day hadn’t remained a mystery for long. On the first project we’d worked on together, I’d eventually asked him about the interview.
“What do you mean? You were exceptional. Isn’t that the reason why you are here today?” He’d responded.
“But...but your facial expressions that day. And the fact that I was mumbling jargons in response to your questions.”
“My facial expressions?” He’d laughed. “And if you were mumbling jargons, I’d sure as hell like to see what you come up with when you think you are talking right.”
A look of shock had spread across my face.
“You answered every question I asked correctly. Even though I noticed you were nervous, it didn’t detract from the fact that you knew and understood your job role perfectly.” He’d concluded.
“Wow,” I’d exclaimed, causing him to chuckle again.
“Yeah. Oh, and forget about my facial expressions, Theresa. They are intentionally misleading as you’d soon come to find out,” he’d said so casually amidst laughter.
And find out I did. I could be making a presentation and Mike would be gazing out the window as if he were absent from the room. Only for me to sit down, and he’d ask a question that only someone who was paying attention could ask. We could walk across the office floor and by the time we got to his office, he’d ask me if I saw the fellow who was playing solitaire on his computer. One that struck me the most was when he asked me if I could wear a dress I’d worn sometime in the precious week, for a presentation we had to make the next day.
“What dress, and why?” I’d asked.
He’d simply smiled and said it made my eyes pop and he felt it would have a positive effect on the room when we made the presentation. That wasn’t even the most striking thing. The real fact was that the day I’d worn the dress in question, he’d been out of town and we’d only talked on Skype for a few minutes on some work-related matter. That was the kind of person he was. He noticed everything and he was adept at concealing his true feelings; when you thought he wasn’t paying attention; you were dead wrong.
He’d definitely succeeded in concealing his true feelings about all subjects; all but one.
Me.
Mike liked me. The realisation had been scary at first. It hit me like a cold wind on a hot summer’s day. The way he talked to and with me; the way he’d find any excuse to exchange as little as a sentence with me on a daily basis; the way he’d tried to mask his true feelings under the guise of professionalism; no matter which way I tried to spin it, I couldn’t deny the fact that he treated me differently from everyone else around him.
And this morning, he was trying so hard to be aloof about my presence in the conference room. I had no idea why. I’d expected to be working on the project alongside either him or Greg, owing to the company’s custom that one of them had to be part of the team when huge contracts were involved. I’d even been relieved, elated if I could be so bold that it was him and not Greg that had walked into the conference room this morning. The reason was simple.
I was smitten by Mike as well.
From the very first day we’d started working together, all the admiration and dread I’d felt for him had simply turned into attraction. It was hard to work with such a man and not find yourself drawn to him. I hadn’t expected to have fallen for a man in such a short time, especially so soon after my divorce. But I definitely had no control over my feelings whenever Mike was concerned.
One thing I’d been successful at though was masking my feelings for Mike really well, same as he had done with his feelings for me. But that the feelings were absent, was a lie I couldn’t even tell myself.
I made a comment aloud about the current project and only heard him grunt. He was standing all the way at the window and gazing out at the street below.
What is wrong with him today?
This wasn’t his usual misleading antic. This was something else.
Finally, he walked back towards the table and shifted one of the files to stare at a picture underneath.
“Ok, so what we are going to do is that I’m going to travel to Chicago and get us some more data from another consumer survey. I’ll send them to you and we can video call to strategize some more,” he said.
And there it was.
I knew the brief on the project and in fact knew that some travelling was necessary. I also knew that my role at Alpha Consults required me to travel as well, whenever the job required. Now, Mike was suggesting otherwise. To the outside eye, what he suggested might have made logical sense, but I knew it for what it was.
Mike is trying to put distance between me and him.
If his aloofness all morning was anything to go by, then I was right about his intention.
As I was about to protest, Greg walked into the conference room to check up on us. I decided to keep the protests till Mike and I were alone once again.
“So, when are you two headed to Chicago?” Greg said after going through some of the materials on the table.
I raised my eyes and looked at Mike, my eyes saying it all.
Go on, buddy. This question is yours to answer.
CHAPTER 7
Mike
I SAT AT THE BAR OF the hotel sipping at a glass of red wine th
at was constantly being refilled by the bottle on my right. The bar also doubled as a restaurant so there were a few other guests hanging around and eating dinner.
I’d had a long day, starting off first at the client’s office and then ending up on the field. Theresa and I had been in Chicago for three days and tonight was our last night before we returned back to base.
It being our last night was also the reason I had come down to the bar instead of staying in my room to get some rest.
My plan to come alone on this trip had been hijacked at the last minute by Greg. Immediately after I’d told Theresa of my decision about the trip, I’d noticed the early signs of a protest which was expected. The protest never materialised as Greg had cut her off when he walked into the conference room.
Greg had then asked when we were going to leave and I’d answered that there would be no we, all the while aware of how Theresa was staring me down. Greg had gone on to say how my idea was good, but he still felt Theresa should come along on the trip; if not for anything, so that she could learn from me first hand, how to handle such a project on her own in the future.
In the end, I’d conceded quickly for one reason and one reason alone; to put them off of my scent. I didn’t want Theresa knowing the true reason I had tried to drop her from the trip, neither did I want Greg asking questions.
When I’d finally agreed to let her come along, I’d noticed the relief on her face. A thought had crossed my mind in that second; Was Theresa attracted to me?
In the end, I’d shut the thought down. The relief wasn’t attraction. I was seeing it that way because of my current favourable disposition towards her. The relief was what it was; someone who was glad that she could get to do her job again.
I’d decided then to sort out my feelings myself without tampering with Theresa’s job as I’d almost done. She had nothing to do with this, so there was no use in making her suffer for my lack of emotional and self-control.