BEGUILED

CHAPTER 2

"I am sorry, Miss." the person who bumped into me apologize but I just click my tongue and walk to the counter without looking at him. This aint the movies. I am not going to raise my eyes and lock eyes with him and then miraculously fall in love. He just ruined my favorite sweater and burned me in the process. I take serviettes from the counter and wipe my sweater before looking at the barista.

"The usual, Khethi?" She asks with a friendly smile and I nod. She quickly prepares my order and I pay for it before heading out of the Cafe. I arrive at the boss's office 30 minutes later than the usual clocking time and he huffs.

"Do I need to buy you a watch so that you will know what time it is" He asks and I chuckle angryly.
"You ever tried rushing from Glenwood to LaLucia during the morning rush? So easy for you to criticue me while you live literally 15 minutes from work." I am not a rude person but he sometimes brings out the worst in me.

"That's not the way to address your boss." He reprimands.
"But here we are." I shrug and hand him the coffee before unpacking things in my desk and getting ready to begin work.  “That independent contractor guy should be here in about 5 minutes.” I state after checking my watch. “I still don’t understand why you want a totally different photographer this time around. What’s new?”

“My date with the Lembede Heiress is very important for me and my brand. So I want someone to capture special moments and I have seen what the guy can do. He is a magician behind the lens. And you know how important my appearance to the media is.” How can I forget? He reminds me of that shit every single day. Can a girl catch a break? Somehow hearing about his upcoming date stings, even though I am the one who set up everything and literally approached the woman.

Before I can respond, the floor receptionist informs us that my boss’s guest is here. I then instruct her to let the guest in. A minute later, the door opens and a giant guy in a black hoodie and a small backpack walks in. Looks more like a thug than an actual photographer but I am not judging. I walk to him. “You must be Kwanda Gama. Wow, so many A’s in there. Anyways, we spoke over the phone. I’m Khethi, the PA, and that’s my boss, Musongaka Mashaba.” I extend my hand for a handshake just to be polite and not seem intimidated by the thug in front of me.

He looks at me and then at my boss before shaking my hand. “Nice to meet you, Miss Okhethiweyo. And I am sorry about the coffee incident earlier on. I would like to take your sweater to the dry clean or get you a new one.” His voice is so polite but a bit rough. I don’t know what I’m saying. Oww, he is the one who spilled coffee on me. Now I feel bad for how I reacted towards him.

“Water under the bridge. Don’t worry. They pay me well enough here to afford dozens of those sweaters.” He smirks and then walks to my boss’s desk. Mashaba stands up and they shake hands. “I will leave you guys to it. I still need to prepare the boardroom for your next meeting.” I take my tablet with notebook and head out.

×××

“So, have you tried the dating app I suggested last week?” the cleaner, Chloe, asks as she dusts the invisible dirt on the boardroom table. I just snort and continue placing bottled water in the table. Everyone is worried about my dating life. I mean, what’s wrong with being 27 and single? Well add fucking your frickin sexy, rich, handsome but unavailable boss in the mix.

Well before you judge, let me explain. I met Musongaka Mashaba on my first day in this company. He was still shadowing his father but he became a CEO few months later. He is tall, sexy, light skinned, lean, dresses nicely, treats people decently and lays down the pipe real good. Problem is, he is the CEO of the Mashaba Empire. His grandfather built it from scratch, passed it to his father and then to him. He is not fully the owner of the empire. He needs to get married first and not just to anybody. A rich, successful and independent woman from an influential family. Image and reputation are the most important qualities of Musongaka’s future wife.

What we have has an expiry date and lots of conditions. No one can know. That’s easy because I am his personal assistant, so being near him almost 24 hours/7 days a week is justifiable. He also made it pretty clear that he doesn’t want me dating other people while sleeping with him. Jealous in a way or possessive. I don’t even try to understand. But he gets to have regular dates with different potential marriage candidates and sleep with a few, while the idiotic Okhethiweyo remains loyal to him. Witchcraft, I tell you.

“You know I don’t have time for that, Chloe. Mr. Mashaba tires me out like a slave. You know how demanding he is. I can never juggle a love life and him.”
“So I heard from a little birdie that Doctor Pierce resigned. Something about early retirement shit. The company hasn’t replaced him. You could be the new senior robot designer there.”

I roll my eyes. “It’s Senior Robotics Engineer and I don’t wanna go to Mashaba Industries. Too much discrimination there.”

She scoffs. “Mashaba senior hired you because you can make robots and not be his son’s baby sitter.”
“It’s the same salary, so…” I shrug.

The Mashaba empire is built upon many different industries. Musongaka’s grandfather had so many children and each and every one of them were groomed to take over one company. Musongaka’s father got Mashaba Entertainment and Mashaba Industries for a reason unknown to me.

Mashaba Entertainment deals with everything that involves creatives, artists, celebrities, influencers, all the famous people and its very own film and television production company. While Mashaba Industries deals with creating different types of industrial robots.

I studied mechanical engineering and majored in robotics engineering. I have designed a few for Mashaba Industries but as an informal employee and that has gotten me a lot of money. My latest project is Namile, a human robot who understands human emotions, know how to respond and assist you with everything. I want it to know all South African languages and be child friendly. I already have a prototype at home, I just need to get it tested. No one, except for mom, knows about it. As to how a qualified robotics engineer ended up a personal assistant to some ego maniac CEO of an entertainment company, beats me.

×××

“We meet again.” Kwanda startles me as he enters the company kitchen. I frown and look around. What is he doing here? He is wearing another black hoodie today. Officially a thug.
“You have a meeting with my boss that I don’t know about?”
He smiles. “In a way. He has asked me to come in for some photoshoot of an actress. Apparently your in-house photographer fell ill or something.”
“What a coincidence.”
“I did not bewitch him or her if that’s what you’re implying.” He raises his hands in surrender and I chuckle. “How much of a diva is Amy Lina?” I break into laughter.

“Too much of a diva and a self centered bitch. She will have you sweating and taking off that hoodie within the first 10 minutes. Always demanding and unrealistic. No wonder Nothile called in sick. Last time they had a shoot, she nearly punched Amy in the face.”

“That bad, huh?”
“Maybe you can subdue her. Channel your inner charm, that’s if you have one, and she might go putty in your hands.” I head out, leaving him laughing quietly. Such a pleasant sound.