C13 Workload Increased

Chapter-13: Workload Increased

Aria Anastasia

It was night and I was lying on the bed, thinking about what had happened during the day. Why couldn’t I just control myself? Why did I have to tell him that he was precious? Why did I hug him in the first place?

After I told Zaiden that he was precious, he excused himself to make a call and find out who wanted to kill him. He explained to me that since he was in the Mafia, it was common for people to want to kill him, but it was unusual to try to kill him in front of all the people. So he had to dig the matter deeper.

I placed my hands over my face and groaned. “Why did I tell him he was precious? What would he be thinking right now?”

What if he thought that I was feeling something for him? Did I feel something for him apart from seeing him as a close person, and as a friend?

I had to keep myself distracted from the thoughts of Zaiden. Let bygones, be bygones, Aria.

I tried to fall asleep by solving the Rubix cube in my hand, but it reminded me of how Zaiden taught me the formula to solve it. We stayed on video call the entire night until I fell asleep. He saw me sleeping and even thinking about it made me embarrassed.

I think I did a course on how to embarrass myself in front of Zaiden. What should I do to keep myself away from him during the work? If I keep myself busy training an intern, I would be distracted and busy enough to not think about Zaiden in any other sense, except in the professional way.

That plan should work. Besides, Liam Oliver seemed like a great guy. He was chirpy and a nice person to converse with.

I decided to call Yana at this time, which was around midnight. She picked it up at that instant. “Hello, Ma’am, are you okay?”

“Yes, Yana, I am okay,” I assured her, since her voice seemed like she was worried as I never called her at night. “I need to ask you about this new intern, Liam Oliver.”

“What about him?” she questioned me.

“Who is training him?” I asked her curiously.

“Mrs. Marina Regine, who is handling the department of clothes,” she answered to me.

“Okay, do one thing. Tell Mrs. Regine that I will be training Mr. Oliver,” I told her.

“Alright, Ma’am. Will that be all?”

“Yes, sorry to bother you at this time of the night.” With that, I cut the call.

My goal for tomorrow was to only focus on work, and training Liam properly. No extra time with Zaiden apart from work.

___

I was in the elevator and saw Zaiden stepping in as well.

I wanted to groan in frustration.

I thought if I came early in the office, I wouldn’t meet him in the elevator, but damn my luck. He was always early, and I was now in the same elevator as him. There goes my first try to not think of him. Why was his presence affecting me?

“Good morning, Aria,” he greeted me, which was amusing because I was the one who would greet him all the time. Today, I didn’t want to talk to him, and he was doing it on his own. It shouldn’t affect you, Aria.

“Good morning, Zaiden,” I said, pulling off a tight-lipped smile.

“Are you free during lunch today?”

As soon as he asked that, I replied fastly, “No.”

He raised his brows. “Okay. What work do you have?”

He was asking this as a boss, so I should answer professionally. Nothing personal is going on. But what work did I have?

“I will be training Liam, the new intern,” I replied curtly.

“What?” Zaiden asked in disbelief. “I thought he was under Mrs. Regine?”

I nodded my head. “He was, but I decided to train him.” I wanted to ask Zaiden whether he had found out anything about the shooter, but I decided not to meddle in his life because I was feeling these unusual emotions I wasn’t familiar with.

“Oh, okay,” Zaiden mumbled, and the elevator opened.

I was on my floor so I stepped out quietly, not even turning back to see him for once. I got into my cabin and decided to complete some of my work after assigning a task to Liam.

___

I heard faint knocks on my door. I said calmly, “Come in.”

Glancing at the door, I found Liam entering the cabin with a bright smile on his face. “Are you busy, Ma’am?”

I shook my head in denial. “Depends. Did you submit the respective documents to the people I instructed you to give, Mr. Oliver?”

“Yes, Ma’am. Also, Ms. Lucy told me to hand this to you,” he said and handed a file to me, which was the new statistics for the sales. “Ma’am, is everyone in the office this much hard-working? I barely see them taking a break or gossip over anything. The only time they are free is during lunch.”

“Have a seat, Mr. Oliver,” I offered and he pulled a chair for himself before sitting on it. “Our boss is very serious about everything when it’s related to work. He also comes on rounds every day to check whether everyone is working properly or not. So we work very efficiently here, and don’t skip any tiny detail. It has become our habit.”

“It seems like a boarding school,” he commented, which made me chuckle.

I opened the file and saw there was a mistake. It was the statistics of last month, not this month.

“Mr. Oliver, you can do the work Mrs. Regine will give you now because I have a task to complete for today,” I told him and he got up from his seat. Giving me a big smile, he got out of the cabin.

I stood up and decided to go to the third floor to take the file of this month. When the elevator opened and I stepped onto the third floor, I saw Zaiden scolding the people there.

“I don’t care. Is that how you complete your work? Do I pay you guys as charity? Where is your promise of working hard?” he rebuked a few employees, who lowered their head. As I was walking to them, Zaiden announced, “Every employee of this floor will work overtime today until I get the final report for the new project.”

“What?” I breathed out in the pin-drop silence.

When Zaiden turned to me, his eyes darkened, which almost made me cower away. Almost.

“Do you have a problem, Ms. Anastasia?” he asked in his deep voice, but my heart ached when he called me by my surname. What was wrong with him? Maybe he was just being professional, and that was what I wanted.

“Yes, I do have a problem,” I said, looking straight into his green eyes, after mustering enough courage. When he arched an eyebrow, I continued speaking, “They have a family, so they cannot work overtime. Besides, what if they hadn’t completed the final report? I assume they have the second draft…” I looked at one of the employees and he showed me three fingers, so I corrected myself, “They have the third draft, then just give them time until tomorrow. They will submit the final report by then. They don’t have to work overtime.”

“So are you telling me to give them a day extra and also, cancel their overtime punishment?” Zaiden asked, to be clear. When I nodded my head, he put his hands in his pocket and breathed out, “Well then, on behalf of all the employees of this floor, Ms. Anastasia will work overtime tonight and complete the work.”

My eyes grew as wide as saucers after hearing his announcement.

What the hell? I just got another overtime. Screw my luck!