redeeming alyson | ongoing

ariadne xu

I spent my first two weeks learning the ins and outs of everything, joining him to golf and making connections, learning Mandarin with Marge (good thing I was good with languages because it was difficult - even more difficult than French which I took up in highschool), joining him for meals and coffee, checking out the suppliers, meeting investors, and a lot of stuff I wasn't very familiar with. We went go to the gym together. I ended up charming his personal trainer to teach me as well, because while I was familiar with home workouts and some gym skills, it was nothing compared to a personal trainer's knowledge.

West seemed annoyed by him when he started teaching me the proper form. The next day, he got a new personal trainer who trained both of us now. It was a woman in her forties who had a loving husband and three children. I burst out laughing initially when I realized the depth of the situation.

I had to admit I was enjoying this routine. My life had significantly upgraded while working for West. While my days were filled with busy work, they were productive and I always felt good after. Even though running a conglomerate seemed like a complicated thing, I had a lot of respect for West's tenacity. The man looked happy go lucky but was incredibly thorough about his job. He was very specific about everything down to the smallest details of constructing a new hotel.

We had met up with architects, engineers, construction companies, suppliers, and even weather specialists, feng shui experts, and shamans who blessed the land for construction and gave him specific dates when to construct, and when to launch. I made sure to memorize everyone's name by heart, and took note of important details so I could remind West whenever he missed out on anything, which was rare, but alas, no man was an island.

That week, I also learned that West Xu forgot to after breakfast. He'd order food while both of us worked, but he didn't often eat it because he was so immersed in his work. He had to fill in a lot of paperwork and read a lot of them. The first few days, I thought he was just genuinely busy so I often finished the rest of his food but two weeks on, I realized it had become a habit for him.

He also didn't eat while meeting with the Board of Directors because he was so hyper-focused on the meetings. I found a lot of hyperacidity pills on his desk last week. Because I didn't want my benefactor to die of an ulcer, I had to do something.

I decided to bring this up with him one evening while we were finishing up some paperwork. I looked up from my laptop across him and called him. "Mr. Xu. I'd like to ask you a question."

He looked up from his desk, and his eyebrows which were scrunched up in concentration earlier had relaxed. He shook his head, a faint smile on his lips. "Aly, for the last time. Call me West."

"It's not appropriate especially in front of the other employees," I reminded pointedly. "I'm already getting enough staring as it is. People are wondering why we were together 24/7 even at the gym."

He shrugged. "Isn't it normal? You're my secretary. Of course I'll treat you well. You're the only one allowed to call me by my first name even."

I snorted. "That makes it worse for me."

I've had some of the female employees side-eye me  whenever I walked inside his office, or whenever they saw the two of us go inside West's car. It was something I was used to growing up whenever I was linked to any guy, so I knew how to deal with it.

He laughed. "Ignore them, Aly. People who consider themselves lower than you on the workplace will gossip, and it happens but they can't do anything for you."

"I don't really care for them, but this might harm my professional reputation."

He frowned. "Do you know which employees they were? I'll have them reprimanded."