Circle of Trust

part sixteen

     After Stephen left that day, she had not been her normal self as she was moody the whole day.
Picking up her phone, she had called to confirm from silver if she was the one who had given Stephen her home address.
“I’m sorry girlie, I should have asked you first……. But I know that you would never agree to a thing like that, but Stephen wanted to see you by all means and apologize and I gave in to his pressure.” Silver said over the phone.
  “ I messed up girl, he was going to ask me to marry him…..but guess what? I spoilt the whole deal.” Precious said very unhappy over the phone.
  “How? I don’t understand.” Silver asked and Precious went into details explaining what had transpired between herself and Stephen.
“don’t worry, Stephen loves you and he would definitely come around.” Silver assured over the phone
It has been months after the incident with Stephen, Precious had tried to move on after being posted to Lagos for her youth service, she had silver had gotten the opportunity once again to re-unite as silver was posted to ogun state which was not too far from Lagos State.
As a computer engineer, she had been posted to a very big company that happened to be in partnership with the MacDonald’s.
Although Precious was yet to see the manager, who everyone had describe to be a handsome young man who the whole staff praised to be a very generous person.
Precious who had gotten acquainted with the secretary Tolani, had asked a lot of questions out of curiosity.
“My dear, the manager Is a very nice guy. Most guys his age are still busy chasing after ladies with their father’s money……but the manager is not like that, despite being born into a wealthy family with his looks as an added advantage.” Tolani praised as she kept on typing.
“So why is he not around…..I have been with this organization close to a month now and I have only meet with the acting manager.” Precious said
“And that’s because, our manager has been on a six months course and would be done in a week time.” Tolani explained.
“Who knows you might actually get the attention of the manager, you are actually pretty and my boss is known to have good taste.” Tolani added with a wink. Bayo who happened to be a senior programmer entered in the middle of their discussion
“ Mr. Ik called, he said he would be joining the organization in three days time.” Bayo announced to Precious and Tolani as they all continued with their conversation.
     “What is a corper doing in the office meant for qualified programmers?” Stephen asked in anger after returning to see Precious directing Bayo who was having a slight difficulty in the coding aspect.
“welcome sir, she meant no harm…..she knows a lot about programming and coding and I thought it would be nice if she could assist me with the coding.” Bayo explained apologetically.
“What can a mere youth Corper possibly know?” Stephen attacked the already confused Bayo who happened to be confused on why Mr. I’m could be so walked out only by seeing Precious In his office
“I’m sorry sir.” Bayo replied with trembling lips.
“Better be, cause the next time I see a junior worker In this part of the office, you leave me no option other than to relieve you off your job.” Stephen threatened.
“I’m sorry sir, the mistake will not repeat itself again.”  Bayo apologized.
“And you, follow me to my office.” Stephen said referring to Precious without a second glance at her.
Precious knocked at the door few minutes after Stephen got to his office.
“You sent for me.” Precious replied looking directly at Stephen while controlling the hurt and disappointment she was feeling by his presence.
“Yes, sit!” Stephen said not looking up from the files that he was signing.
“you know you shouldn’t have talked to Bayo that way, it was all my fault.” Precious said with clenched teeth
“You don’t tell me how to treat my staffs.” Stephen said looking up from his files and looking at her with disapproval.
“ Treating them with disrespect wouldn’t make you more better.” Precious said quietly.
“We would see about that, and for the record you are a junior staff and you shouldn’t be seen around the offices of the senior staffs, the next time such a thing happens I will have you transferred.” Stephen said looking at her directly.
“Okay, can I go now?” Precious asked still hiding the hurt that was threatening to tear her heart apart
“Yes.” Stephen responded dismissingly.
  During lunch, Hey and Tolani was busy discussing the incident that happened earlier with Mr. Steve when Precious entered
  “Did you know Mr. Ik from anywhere?” Bayo asked after Precious got seated
“No, he is just mean!” Precious denied while helping herself to the pizza Bayo and Tolani was eating.
   “You need to see the anger on his face Tolani, Like they have meet before.”  Bayo explained in details as Tolani and Precious just kept quiet the whole time.
   After the day at the office, Precious called silver and went into details on the events that transpired at the office.
“ I will be seeking for transfer on Monday, I can’t cope with his rudeness.” Precious said over the phone.
“ you are not serious, are you?” silver asked over the phone.
“Yes I am, I will be requesting for a transfer next thing on Monday morning……if I knew that he was the so called MR. Ik, I would have requested for a transfer before his return.” Precious lamented
“But I don’t think it would be wise of you to seek for a transfer.” Silver objected
“And why is that?”
“ Girlie, I want you to stay so that you can prove to him that nothing he does have an effect on you….. can’t you see that he is making a super effort to scare you away. I want you to show him how strong and untouchable you are.” Silver encouraged over the phone
“ do you think I can handle his sauciness?” Precious asked.
“You can handle anything girlie, whatever you put your mind to.” Silver encouraged.
“Okay, I will try.” Precious said.
  The two ladies continued their discussions and left out the Stephen’s topic before they finally saying goodbye.
It was a very busy Monday morning, Precious was grateful for it as she was able to avoid Stephen the whole day. It was until lunch period when she had meet with him, and for a brief seconds he had scanned her features before turning to walk out without saying a word to her.
Tolani who had noticed the tense atmosphere between the two was the one to voice out. “I’m surprised that you and Mr. Ik don’t seem to agree.”
  “Everyone is not supposed to like you!” Precious defended
“Not Mr. Ik he is very Friendly and have a taste for beautiful intelligent ladies.” Tolani argued
“Seems I’m not amongst the clique.” Precious responded looking uninterested.
“So weird.” Bayo added and they continued with their eating.