Bitter sweet affair

Chapter 57 - "Mr. cranky"

"I'll call you .." he'd said to her, two days ago. He hadn't been to work either and yet no calls nor a single text.

She kept waiting for his call. Every time a phone rang, she rushed to her phone knowing fully well it wasn't her ringtone. She got frustrated every single time, yet she couldn't stop herself.

If you're so worried, why don't you call him instead..
A voice in her head said.

She grabbed her phone, she hesitated but dialed his number before calling..
It rang but there was no response. She slammed her fist on the table and hissed in annoyance.

"What do you need your phone for if you can't even pick up a single call?" She said out loud.
"Er.." a voice said behind her.
She turned to see the courier guy.
"How may I help you?" She asked, calming her nerves.

"I need Mr. Andre's signature on this." He said handing her a notepad. It was a delivery notepad.

"Oh okay. Wait here and I'll go get it signed" she said making her way to the nearest elevator.
She clicked on the 14th floor, the conference room.He was in a conference meeting with the strategy and design team.

She stood by the door, contemplating whether to go in or not.
She took a deep breath and walked in.
She took a good look at him.
He had chestnut brown hair that stopped at his neck, deep blue eyes and sexy pink lips. He was handsome.
He looked familiar but she couldn't put a pin on it.

Maybe I saw him in the newspaper or magazine. She said to herself before stating her agenda.
"Excuse me, sir" she said as quietly as she could.
A pair of raging blue eyes were staring at her.
She hastily moved to where he sat.
"I need your signature here, the courier is here with your package"
He pulled the notepad to himself and scribbled his signature.

"If that's all, leave. I'm in a meeting" he said sternly.
She grabbed the notepad and made her way to leave.
"Where were we?" He rhetorically asked.

****
She kept wondering what Mason was up to, that he couldn't even put a call through to her.
It had been a week already. She'd called a bunch of times but it was either his number was busy or not reachable.
She couldn't ask the boss of his whereabouts, since he might overreact.

"Miss jones, my office now!!" His voice came through the inter com.
Speak of the devil.
What had she done now?
She didn't bother knocking, she just walked in and shut the door behind her.

"You called-
She was interrupted by him.
"Can't you do your damn job right?" He said slamming a file on the desk.
She was confused, what didn't she do right?

"Sir, I-
Yet again he cut her off. He was filled with fury, responding to him wasn't an option.
"You've been working here for the past three weeks and you can't even do your job right. How could you make such a mistake? Was it a mistake or you were just dumb?" He yelled.

Don't cry, shh.. we don't like being yelled at but we can't afford to show a hint of vulnerability now. She chanted inwardly to herself.

But she was betrayed as the tears came falling down. She didn't know her offense yet, what did she do so bad, for him to treat her like this?

"Sir, I have no idea of what you're talking about"
He threw the file at her.
She picked it up and went through it. A financial statement; there was an error.
"Instead of ten thousand dollars, you typed a hundred thousand dollars. Do you know how much damage that caused?!" He yelled.

"It-it wasn't me sir. I wasn't in charge of this" she managed to say amidst the tears.
"You're my personal assistant. You're supposed to proofread every document before bringing it to me."
"I'm sorry sir" she simply said.
"Get out" he yelled.
She walked out and headed straight for the rooftop.

She sat on a bench and cried her eyes out.
"Hey, don't beat yourself about it. It wasn't your fault" a voice came from behind her.
She turned around and it was Mr Andre's secretary.

She took a sit beside Amelia.
"I'm Karin."
"I'm-
"Amelia, I know." She chuckled.
"Are you stalking me?" Amelia playfully asked.
"Maybe." She shrugged.
"I overheard everything, it was hard not too.. since you know- he was yelling. I followed you up here to make sure you were okay" she said with a smile.
"Oh, thanks"

"You know, if I was given a dollar for every tear I'd shed due to his harsh words, I'd be as rich as.." she paused.
"I can't do the maths but I'd have enough to get a luxury apartment and have enough capital to start up a restaurant"

Amelia laughed at this. "That's a lot"
"I know right. He was hard on me, he yelled and body shamed me every little chance he had. I was of normal weight but I had low self esteem because of him. I wanted to quit but I remembered I was the only one my family was dependent on. So I trained myself to be thick skinned, to not let his words plant themselves in my head. When he saw I wasn't affected by his words, he stopped. I'm not saying he doesn't yell at me, no. He still does, but not like before. So, do not let him see you vulnerable. It's like he derives pleasure from people's vulnerability around him"

"Thanks" Amelia said.
"Sure. We should go back before Mr.cranky, finds out we're lazying about" she chuckled.
"Okay but I'm guessing his nickname among staffs is "Mr. cranky" right?" Amelia chuckled.
"Exactly." She said walking ahead.

**..**

"We need to talk"
"No, we don't"
"Hear me out please"
"Why?, where were you?. You just left without a word, you didn't call, you didn't answer my calls too and you want to talk? About what?"
"Were you worried about me? You were"
"Don't flatter yourself"