C7 Chapter 7

"Miss Mark," Hames called. "The Manager of 'Friz and co.' will be here in a few minutes. I hope everything is ready?"

"Uh— yeah, sure." I scratched my arm, dropping the files on his table. "I'll send the remaining part of it to your email."

He hummed a response. His fingers drummed on his laptop keys really fast, forming the beat of a song.

Seriously? He hadn't said a thing about last Saturday. He was really going to ignore it? I felt his gaze on me so I raised my head to stare at him.

"What do you want?" He questioned crankily.

"Nothing." I shook my head.

"If it's about last Saturday, don't think I care. Hearing such words from people isn't a new thing to me." He explained. Unconsciously, a smirk played on my lips, forming a frown on his face. "It doesn't mean you should say it all the time, and in public. Gossipers are always around, ready to feed the internet with even the slightest mistake people like us make so your words could be manipulated and ruin my image. Be careful. You'd pay for any loss incurred by the words you speak."

I nodded. "Okay."

"Now leave. You'll return to take notes when he comes. Your presence is taking the amount of air I ought to breathe in." He resumed drumming his fingers on the keys of the laptop.

Amount of air he ought to breathe in? That made absolutely no sense to me. He was such a dork.

I returned to my office and plopped myself onto my chair. Gosh, I was finally free after lunch for the first time in forever, though it wasn't going to last for a long time.

Just when I rested my head to take a nap, my phone decided to ring. Its chiming noise drifted me out of my supposed slumber.

"Shit. Shit. Shit!" I growled, picking the damn phone up.

It was a call from Lila. I answered the call, placing the phone to my ear tiredly. "What do you want?"

"You do know that sounded mannerless, right?" She chuckled.

"Whatever." A roll of eyes accompanied that.

"Well, Good afternoon to you too. I was wondering if you could come over to my house tonight for a sleepover." She requested.

A small smile tugged at the corner of my lips. "Sure, why not? Hey, why don't you come over to join me and Nikita tonight?" I rose to my feet to open the small fridge that stood on a stand beside my office table.

"Nah… I can't. I'm too tired to do that, that's why I asked you to come over. It's okay if you can't."

"No, it's fine. I was just wondering." I shrugged, knowing fully well that she couldn't see me. I took out a bottle of apple-flavored soft drink from the fridge and closed it

"I'll be expecting you then. Bye."

"Bye." I ended the call, returning to my chair.

After gulping half of the content of the soft drink in one drought, I set the bottle aside and called Nikita.

"Hey, bae." She said after answering the call.

"Hi. Where are you?" I asked due to the loud noise in the background.

"Chilling, feeling good, having fun." She chuckled.

"Having fun?" I quirked an eyebrow at her. "Shouldn't you be working?"

"That shit can wait for later. I didn't go to the hair salon today because this Mama's got her life to live, unlike you who works her ass out for that cruel bitch and doesn't have time to enjoy her life."

"You're silly. By the way, I called to let you know I won't be coming home tonight." I informed her.

"Neither would I." She let out a moan of pleasure. Gosh, this kiddo.

"Oh, okay. I can tell how busy you are." I teased.

"Bye girl, gotta go. I love you." She said in a rush and ended the call.

I gulped the remnant of the soft drink then tossed the empty bottle into the trash can. I stared at Hames through the glass wall of my office. He was still so busy, focusing all his attention on the screen as though his life depended on it. He was so hardworking, I guessed that was the only good thing I liked about him.

I leaned back in my seat and took a 5-minute nap. It was probably more or less than 5 minutes but I couldn't tell.

I was awoken from my slumber by the call from the intercom. Wincing and shifting uncomfortably in my seat, I sat up straight and answered it with a yawn, stretching an arm above my head.

"Wake up, now. You need to hurry to the meeting room. He's there." Hames informed.

"Okay." I nodded with a loud yawn and ended the conversation.

I got up to my feet, straightening my skirt. Taking the things I needed with me, I left with another yawn. Hames wasn't in his office so I scurried out of it and locked the door.

I was greeted by a few coworkers I never got the chance to become friends with due to overworking for Hames.

I replied to their greetings and got into the elevator with a few people.

It was as silent and boring as ever, unlike Kade's company where everyone freely interacted with one another.

The doors of the elevator separated at the 23rd floor where the meeting room was located. I hurried out of it, hoping I wasn't too late now.

After a slight knock on the meeting room door, I didn't wait for a response from him before I twisted the doorknob and shoved myself into it.

I strolled in. The room was all-white. The white always looked too clean to be real. The ceiling was as high as six times my height. There was a white and extremely long wooden table that formed a U-shape with black leather chairs around it. The a/c was always turned on full blast and a large white screen was right in front of the table with a projector and other equipment standing right in front of it.

I observed that Hames wasn't here but a man with dark brown hair had his back to me. He had a perfect figure and stance as his hand was dug into his pocket and the other secured his phone to his ear. He was talking in more of a whisper.

Trying not to bother him, I had my seat in one of the chairs and took out all I needed for the meeting, arranging them neatly on the table.

"Imogen?" A familiar voice called.

I raised my head to stare at the man. I could recognize those bold blue eyes in an instant. "Tyler Jones." A grin formed on my lips.

"Wow. You're Hames' secretary?" He advanced towards me with a gorgeous smile on.

"Yes, I am. I guess you're the Manager of 'Friz and co'?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Absolutely!" He confidently stated, shoving both hands into his pocket.

"Sorry I'm late. I—" Hames voice echoed throughout the room as he barged in. He stared between our smiling selves then sauntered to us.

"Tyler?" He raised an eyebrow. "You didn't let me know you were—" He stopped talking, looking befuddled, and also shoved his hands in his front pockets.

"I know, I wanted to surprise you. It's been quite a long time, man." Tyler grinned, taking a seat beside me.

"Yeah, it's been." Hames also sat beside me. He cleared his throat. "We could've had this in my office but I needed to use the projector to explain some things. This is Imogen Mark, my secretary slash Personal Assistant." He introduced me.

"I know her." Tyler smiled smugly.

"Oh…" Hames trailed off, looking somewhat confused.

***

The meeting lasted way more than I ever imagined. My fingers were weak from writing and typing so much.

"It's nice to meet you again." Tyler said, shaking Hames hand.

"Sure, it is." Hames retrieved his hand and dug it into his pocket again.

"It's past your closing hour, right?" Tyler asked me, though he was directing his gaze to Hames.

"No, it's not, but I guess I'm done with all I need to do for today." I replied.

"That's great! Baby, I expected you to give me a call last time I gave you my card but I got nothing." He shook his head, wearing a sexy smirk.

"Oh, I totally forgot about it. I'm always busy with work so I sometimes forget to do things involving my personal life." I said the last words with a deeper tone.

"That's so sad. So what do you say we hang out—"

"Excuse me? Don't people ever mind the presence of others? You haven't mended your ways. You still flirt with every female you see?" Hames glared at him.

"That's me!" Tyler burst into laughter.

"You're here as a business representative, not to flirt with my employee so have some manners." His usual cold tone was still present.

"Dude, it's a sweet life. You should try it out." Tyler chuckled, winking at me. "Especially when the female is as hot as this! Woah!" He whistled.

I felt heat rise up in my face. It wasn't a total compliment but I loved when people stated how hot and dashing I was. It made my head swell in exhilaration.

"You're really not considering the fact that this has to deal with your work. You could lose your job by this. Flirting with my employees openly is against the things I stand for." He replied grouchily.

"Gosh, you still haven't changed either. Snitch." Tyler hissed. He took out a card similar to the one from last time then gave it to me. "Don't forget to call me tonight, babe." He wiggled his eyebrows at me. "We could stop by a restaurant to have dinner already. What do you say?"

"Sure, why not."

"Miss Mark, didn't you read the rule book I gave to you? If you did, you'd know that expressing your romantic relationship openly at work is against the things I stand for, against the rules." He said frigidly. "Plus, I never said you're done for the day. You still have a lot of things to do."

I tried to hold it back but a frown formed on my face. I was totally pissed off. Why was this man filled with problems?

"Whatever." Tyler rolled his eyes. "I'll see you later, okay? Hope this work with you will go well." He smirked at Hames.

Hames bid him farewell then he left.

With a huff at Hames, I stormed out of the meeting room.

***