More Than Meets The Eye [Englot]

Chapter 13

Charlotte's pov

We got back to work after lunch. Everyone seemed quite motivated and I was almost sure that we would be done on time at the end of the week. That was until Pitchy finally decided to spend time here...

"Snack, what are you doing?" she asked, coming into my office.

"I'm working with Charlotte on last week's balance sheet." she said.

"I bought new chrome nail polish and pearls. I'm gonna go do my nails, come when you're done I'll do yours too." she said, leaving the room.

Snack looked at me, waiting for me to say something. I knew them for less than two weeks... and they knew each other for months already... Snack was definitely torn between feelings. So I said nothing, letting her decide for herself. I smiled and turned back to my laptop. She seemed to stay frozen for a few seconds and then started to work again.

"You're not afraid she's gonna disturb the others if she goes to their office to do her nails?" she asked after a while.

"I know I haven't been here for long but... I'm choosing to trust them. Pitchy can do whatever pleases her. I'm not going to start a fight I know I can't win."

"Mmm... but what if..." she started.

"Snack, don't worry. If you really want to go do your nails you can. I'll finish your spreadsheet." I said, my eyes glued to my screen.

"I'm done already." she said, turning her laptop towards me.

I looked at her numbers rapidly and everything seemed to be where it should.

"Impressive. Thank you for your hard work today." I said, getting back to my own task.

From the corner of my eye, I saw her closing her laptop and getting up. Like I said to her, I wasn't going to stop her from getting her nails done by Pitchy... Snack left the room and once again I got back to work. I sighed... I needed to have Pitchy happy so I had to bite back every little spark of anger inside of me...

One hour later, someone knocked on my door. Snack was on the other side, mouthing "Can I come in?". I nodded yes and she opened the door. I noticed her nails right away and suddenly understood why I had made Engfa feel really mad a few days before when I did the same... Even though I didn't get my nails done just for pleasure...

"Did you forget something?" I asked Snack, trying to look as calm as possible.

"Pitchy took Meena's seat." she said, sitting in front of me with her laptop.

I didn't like the sound of that... but I refrained from saying anything, letting her talk first.

"Meena went to my desk to finish what she was doing..."

I lifted up my head, surprised.

"Yeah... Pitchy seemed really mad but I asked her to do my nails so she changed her focus."

"Did Aoom say anything?" I asked.

"No, she watched Meena go and got back to work..."

"Mmm..."

"Pitchy asked her a lot of questions though." she added.

"Really?" I asked, not sure if I should say more than that.

"She asked why Aoom and Meena were working so much and if Engfa had promised them a raise or something. She said that if she was giving raises she wanted one too. Aoom told her there was no pay raise and she just wanted to finish something. Pitchy bitched a bit about work, telling Aoom that she should be careful or she would end up like Heidi. I think Nudee fake laughed to please her but I'm not sure. I didn't say anything but I'm known to be the silent moody one so... yeah..."

"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked.

"I don't know..."

I smiled gently.

"Sun gave me more to do." she said, getting back to work without saying anything else.

I wanted to ask if Pitchy wasn't mad that Snack was here with me but decided not to. If she was bothered by it she could very well come tell me herself. And by the end of the day, it appeared that she didn't feel like it. Before leaving, I sent an email to HR about needed one desk and a proper office chair, to be delivered to room 429 first thing next Monday.

On Thursday morning, I woke up feeling very sore. I had woken up in an impossible position again.... And my dreams, or what I remembered at least, were so weird... I was moving furniture in our part of the building with people helping me... but each time I entered a room with a desk or a chair, Pitchy was there painting nails... In one of the rooms she was even painting Engfa's... Some coffee would be very much needed to start this day...

I took a shower, got dressed and went out of my apartment, hoping this day would be as efficient as the day before. I bought a laaaaarge cup of iced coffee on my way to work and just the first few sips made me feel so much better already... Ah the power of coffee in the morning... A real blessing... I walked up the stairs and when I got near Engfa and Sun's office I slowed down. And my intuition was right, as I saw Engfa coming right around the corner with her laptop. I stopped walking all together, waiting for her to notice me.

She took one step and then froze in place too. Her eyes went from my feet to my cup and then to my face. She smiled softly as her eyes locked into mine, looking happy to haven't bumped into me this time. I smiled back, slightly shaking my coffee to make the ice jiggle inside, showing that I was aware of the risk.

Engfa's pov

"Miss Austin." I said, taking a step back to give her enough space to walk by me.

"Thank you, Miss Waraha." she replied, smiling back at me.

I was happy to not have collided with her... Last time she had burnt her fingers and even though it didn't look too bad, I didn't want to cause any harm to my coworkers... Not even to Pitchy... I loved to picture her enduring some various forms of torture but there was no way I would let it happen to her for real... I wasn't that cruel...

As my mind wandered, I watched Charlotte walk down the hallway to her office... And seeing how busy everybody was for the last two days, I figured that this wasn't gonna be her office for long... I was still astonished that she had put almost the whole team to work in a week... Everything seemed so... strange... Even Snack went to see Sun to ask for more things to do Yesterday...

A meeting was waiting for me this morning so I couldn't investigate what the team was doing exactly but I would for sure go talk to Charlotte later today... Feeling a gaze upon me I turned back to look inside the office. Sun was at his desk, watching me with a smirk.

"You're starting to like her." he said.

I didn't reply and walked away to the fashion department. The meeting with Orm went well, it was always quite easy to work with her around the purchase we had to make for her. She was quite well organized as a manager and had built solid partnerships with fashion brands in Bangkok as well as a few international ones. Two hours later, I went back down to our floor to put down my things on my desk.

"I guess it went well?" Sun asked.

"Yes, of course."

"Where are you going now?"

I looked at him and tried to put on my best poker face.

"To the restroom. Wanna come with?" I winked seductively.

"Ew... No thanks. Have fun..." he said, rolling his eyes.

Like a giant dumb-dumb, I walked towards the restroom first and then made my way around the building to end up back around Charlotte's office without passing in front of Sun. While doing it, I came to realize that it was really weird and that I shouldn't act this way. I was a manager here and I could come and go as I saw fit! Right...?

But I didn't want to see Sun's sufficient face nor confront him about me being nosy or liking Charlotte or him being right or whatever... Urgh... Why was I thinking about all this now? Could my brain shut up for once? Now I could feel my heart beating harder and faster as I approached Charlotte's office... Fuck... Calm down!

I was debating if I was really going to knock on her door and ask her about how things were going when I realized that her door was open... Damn... Maybe I could just walk by? Yeah... I could do just that... I was just walking by... Just walking... My god... Why was I so weird?!

"Miss Waraha?"

Fuck.

"Yes?" I said, taking one step back.

Charlotte was sitting down, her laptop on her knees... making me realize that she was wearing a cute black skirt and that she had really beautiful legs... Sorry, WHAT?

"Miss Waraha? Are you there with me?" I heard.

"Yes. Sorry. I was just thinking about something... What did you say?" I asked, trying to compose myself.

"I'd just like some precisions on this particular contract that I am reviewing. If you have a few minutes to spare?" she asked.

"Oh, let me look at it." I said, reaching for the paper.

"Please, sit down." she invited me, pointing to the chair in front of her.

I reviewed the contract with Charlotte, trying to keep my focus on... but this damn skirt... No! Did she see me looking?

"You can't possibly feel comfortable with your laptop on your knees and that small table." I stated, which was true.

"I'm fine." she replied.

I wanted to argue but she beat me to it.

"Plus, on Friday afternoon we're going to move everything around, right? So I'll end up with a normal desk after that." she winked.

"Mmm about that... It seems that you got everyone on hardwork mode." I said.

What I really wanted to say was "how did you do that?" but I didn't dare to... Plus, it made me feel like I had failed to do it myself... Which was true... And kind of depressing... I knew I had been acting out of character for a while now... At first, I really tried. I was even convinced that I was a good enough manager to encourage, to bring passion into my team and get them back on track...

Pitchy made me get back down to Earth real quick when I realized who she was. At first I wanted to fight it but Faye and Sun prevented me from doing it... And even if I knew that they did it because they cared about me I always felt bad about it... When my dad passed away a few weeks later it was like my world had crumbled around me...

He was my inspiration and my role model. Losing him felt... I couldn't even find the right words to express it... It was so hard that my only way to cope at the time was to submerge myself into work during the week and get drunk in clubs during the weekend, just to stop thinking... I... A soft touch on my hand brought me back to reality.

"Miss Waraha? I think I lost you again." Charlotte said with a smile.

She was caressing my fingers gently. I slipped my hand away, feeling shy.

"Sorry... I'm..."

"Would you have lunch with me today?" Charlotte asked suddenly.

Charlotte's pov

Engfa looked really surprised by my question as if she was still lost in the thoughts that had taken her away a few seconds before. To be honest, I kinda felt like I was getting on her good side but I knew I wasn't quite there yet... Maybe sharing a meal could get us to know each other a little bit more... I wanted her to realize that I was just here to help and that she could trust me...

"It's ok if you can't today..." I tried.

"No, no, sorry I was still... I'll have lunch with you. 12:30?" she asked, getting up.

"Ok. I'll come and pick you." I said as she started walking out.

That stopped her in her tracks.

"Could we meet in the cafeteria?"

"Yes, of course."

She seemed somewhat relieved, nodded and left. Maybe she didn't want to be seen with me? But we were going to end up in the cafeteria together anyway, so... I chose to stop trying to figure this out and got back to the contract I was working on. I only had a little bit over an hour to finish it before lunch break.

I managed to finish what I had to do by 12:10. I stretched for a bit, my back still a bit sore... Maybe a real office chair would be helpful... It was almost time to meet with Engfa so I decided to go to the restroom first. I walked there and checked on the team on my way. Yoko was alone in her office, looking at her phone.

"Is everything ok, Yoko? Where's everyone?" I asked.

"Hum yeah. They went out to lunch already." she replied, looking a little bit stressed out.

"Are you ok? Why didn't you go with them?"

"I'm ok, I'm ok. I'll go to the cafeteria later." she pursed her lips, trying to look cute while smiling but I didn't buy into her act.

I could tell something was stressing her out. But I also could tell that she didn't want to talk about it right now, waiting for me to leave her alone. So I did. In the next room, Pitchy was showing her new dress to Heidi. I greeted them and walked away but Pitchy called me back.

"You don't want to spend hours talking to us this week Charlotte?" I heard her say.

Pitchy wanted to fight. I could tell by her provocative tone.

"I'm sorry?" I said walking back to their office, faking not having heard what she had said.

"You seem quite busy this week. I thought your role here was to have chit chat with everyone. You know, like some therapist."

"I'm not a therapist." I replied simply.

"Well it seems that you like to dig into people's past and analyze their behavior... Isn't that what therapists do?" she asked, sitting down, crossing her legs and her arms in a defensive pose.

"I think the goals are different."

"But you admit you're using the same techniques. Get into people's brains. Fuck with their feelings. Use their weaknesses to your advantage..."

"Pitchy, I'm gonna stop you right here. I'm not using people." I said quite firmly.

"Really? Why is everyone working like their lives depend on it since Yesterday?!"

"Since Tuesday." I corrected her.

I saw something twitching in her eyes.

"Even worse! Do you know that your "methods" are devastating? Heidi came back from your meeting with tears in her eyes!" she said, pointing to her coworker.

Heidi turned her head towards Pitchy then back to me, suddenly looking overwhelmed. That did enough to make me really mad but I tried to contain myself. She seemed ready to say something but I needed to prevent her from apologizing.

"Heidi, I'm sorry if I said things that got you upset or sad. I never meant to make you feel bad in any way. But you should know that I stand behind everything I told you. Now ladies, I need to go. Talk to you later."

I left without listening to whatever Pitchy was saying. I gave her enough of my time already. Maybe she was upset or maybe it was all an act to intimidate me... Whatever it was, if Pitchy was attacking it could only mean that she was feeling weak. She was really annoying... and it kinda made me want to punch things...

I entered the bathroom sighing hard. I needed to pee but I also needed to get some steam off. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw that my cheeks were a bit red... Fuck... As much as I wanted to own it when I talked to difficult people I couldn't stop the blush from staining my face...

I got into one of the stalls, doing a few breathing exercises to calm myself down while relieving myself. Once I was out washing my hands, someone came into the room and I was truly hoping that it wasn't Pitchy coming for round 2... But it wasn't. It was Engfa.

The look on her face was telling me that she was definitely not expecting to see me here. It was true that I mostly used the toilet from the other side of the building, just near the elevators because it was closer to my office... Our eyes locked for a few seconds and I felt something inside. Like some voice was screaming at me "talk to her" but I stayed frozen.

"I'll meet you upstairs in 5?" Engfa said, walking to one of the stalls.

I nodded to her, drying my hands on a towel, unable to form a single word. It felt like they were all stuck in my throat. She disappeared behind the door and all of the sudden my brain caught on that if I stayed any longer I would hear her... pee...

I panicked and threw the paper towel away in the trash can, leaving in a hurry. As I got into the hallway, I saw Pitchy chatting with Heidi and Nudee. They looked pale and she looked mad. That was enough for me to know that my next move would definitely hit right. We just had to finish a few more things this afternoon and tomorrow morning...

I turned the other way as fast as possible and made my way to the nearest staircase. I pushed the door and started climbing up the floors until I reached the cafeteria. I walked near the main entrance and leaned back on the wall, waiting for Engfa.

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Heya everyone!
Things got a little busier at work and my son went back to school so it's crazy mom life mode back on. But my finger is back to its normal size and the pain is very mild now so yay!
Sorry for taking so long to update, hope you'll like this chapter!
Kissed 🤍