Chapter Four

“I thought you wouldn’t return. You were supposed to be here 20 minutes ago. I only gave you an hour.”

These are the first words Henry get from his  boss after trying so hard to keep to the unreasonable time he gave him earlier. Now, he is going back on his words, because he can’t understand how 90 minutes has turned into an hour.

“I wonder why I pitied him earlier.”

"I'm sorry, sir," He says the words I feel he his boss wants to hear.

"Apologies won't cut it next time. I'm a man of my word, and I am very time-conscious. So when I tell you to keep to a specific time, you do it, especially when you are being sent on an official errand. Do you understand me?"

Henry nod consistently to all the words that come out of his mouth, although he know that everything is wrong about all he has just said. What he sent him wasn't official, he know it deep down within his guts, and it was also confirmed by the recipient's reaction when she got the letter. No one would react to an official letter like that.

But Henry keep his thoughts to himself as he just turn out and leave the office after his dismissal. He is going to learn how to keep his actions and reactions in check to stay longer in the company.

Feeling his bones giving in to tiredness, he walk tiredly to the elevator, hoping to just get back to his cramped office and rest for a while. But he feel like the world has just dumped cold water on him when he see a specific signpost right in front of the elevator.

“Out of service. Take the stairs.”

Really? After standing aimlessly around earlier for over one hour, rushing down to another company and back to deliver something, already feeling the tiredness of it all weighing down on me, now the elevator is giving up on me too.

He sigh with frustration as turn towards the stairs to begin his long journey from the 15^th floor down to the gate post. He take the steps one at a time, feeling himself getting closer to his destination until some whispers make him stop in his  tracks. His curiosity kicks in.

He tries to make out where the whispers are coming from, and he is not surprised when he  look down to the next level of stairs only to see two ladies, each with a load of documents in her hand, standing side by side on the stairs and gossiping.

“Typical!”

He roll his eyes, planning to ignore them and go his way. But again, he stop in his tracks when he hear the name of a very specific person being mentioned in their conversation; Scarlet Wilson. He want to know more about her, so he wait patiently on the stairs and decide to listen in on the gossip.

"I don't think Scarlet is going to back down from this war. We both know our boss doesn't scare her." One of the ladies says.

"Yes, I think you are right. No matter how much Mr. George tries to be harsh with his employees, he can never be as calculative as someone like Scarlet Wilson. I feel like being calculated just runs in their family blood. I heard her father was as calculative as this before he passed away." The other lady adds.

“I am really beginning to feel bad for our boss. All he did was love that heartless woman despite his hard exterior. I think he really loved her so much. Why would Scarlet turn his feelings around on him and use it to blackmail him after getting some confidential information about the company through dating him?”

“You don’t say. She never really loved Mr. George. She just wants to use his feelings for her to bring our company down. She is manipulative like that.”

The ladies go on and on about what happened between Mr. George and Scarlet Wilson while Henry begins to get the gist of the matter he was thrown into earlier. That explains the reason why his boss seemed sad and scared at the same time earlier. He is sad that his feelings weren't reciprocated, instead, it will be the downfall of his company.

But the moment he agree with that conclusion, He is instantly made to revoke it when he hear the next words that come out of the ladies' gossip.

“What do you think Mr. George will do to save ABI Conglomerate? To think that he is not even the owner of the company, he is just put in charge by a family friend that trusted him. I feel really bad for him.”

“What? Mr. George is not even the owner of the company? Really? Even with his high horses? He is just in charge of it for another family? The company doesn’t even belong to his family?”

He never would have imagined that. At this moment, all the sympathy he is feeling for his boss’ predicament dissolves instantly. He feel like he kind of deserves whatever Scarlet is doing to him, although he need no one to tell him that the young lady can also be heartless. He witnessed it his self. But he feel like Scarlet may be karma’s way of teaching Mr. George a lesson for being heartless to people like him.

A part of Henry wants to stay longer and listen to the gossip of the two ladies who are still carrying the weight of loads of documents in their hands, making him wonder how they can keep it still that way without feeling any pain in their forearms, but another part of him knows that he should be at his job post.

So he choose to be diligent. He stomp down the stairs to make his presence finally known to the ladies. They also get the gist as they immediately disperse to the closest floor they can get to to avoid confrontations with him.

Henry just smile at their stupidity, although he cannot get most of the things they talked about out of his mind. Scarlet and Mr. George? Just the thought of the two in a relationship irks him.

As he finally get back to his job post, Henry is brought out of his thoughts when his phone rings. He quickly look down at the caller ID only to feel reality dawn on him when he sees who is calling; Sarah.

He has been so engrossed with someone else’s relationship to the extent that he had forgotten about his. How could he forget that he hasn’t spoken to his girlfriend about his new job? I know we had a little misunderstanding three days ago, but that doesn’t justify my negligence, he knows that.

Henry can already guess how angry she will sound if he pick up the call, and a part of him wants to avoid that. But he knows he shouldn’t. So while hoping that she would have calmed down from her anger, he  tap on the green icon on his  phone only to regret his  actions instantly when he  hear her outburst.

“You son of a bitch!”