More Than Meets The Eye [Englot]

Chapter 19

Charlotte's pov

Pitchy and I got back down to our floor and locked ourselves up in her office. Since my period was nearly over, it was way easier to gather my thoughts and motivation to help her. My goal was to get her as ready as possible for her interview, stacking all the odds in our favor...

"Where is Snack?" I asked, noticing that she wasn't there again.

"I don't know."

"I thought you guys were close... And to be honest I also thought you were supposed to take care of her with Heidi... She's young and she seems a bit unstable emotionally so..."

"Snack is stronger than you think." Pitchy cut me off.

I looked at her and stayed silent.

"She'll manage. The weakest ones are not who you think... Except for Heidi, obviously." she said firmly.

She seemed like she wasn't finished, so I let her talk.

"People act like they're strong, you know... And usually they are the more fragile. Here it's Aoom and Engfa... Those girls play tough but nobody's buying their bullshit."

"Careful." I said, warning her.

"You know I'm right. No need to act like you don't, Charlotte. I can read you too."

I was starting to feel uneasy. Pitchy was all act too but her attitude was getting to me. I needed to refocus and follow her lead instead of fighting her... or I wouldn't get what I was aiming for...

"I'm not kidding when I say Aoom and Engfa are the most fragile here. And maybe you should be more concerned about them than Snack. She's just a kid, she's tormented but she'll manage, I told you. But Aoom and Engfa need someone to take care of them." Pitchy added.

"I didn't think you could have a kind heart." I said winking at her.

"Ugh..." she said, shrugging.

Pitchy stayed silent for a while, looking at me like she was judging me... I could see the gears turning inside her head. I held her gaze, waiting for her to start spilling the tea she was brewing inside...

"I don't know about Aoom cause that chick is a menace but..."

I didn't like the sound of that... Pitchy was Pitchy but talking like this wasn't ok... yet I shut up because I could sense that she was going to drop a bomb on me next... but I wasn't ready for what she was about to tell me...

"... but Engfa lost her dad a few months after she took the job here. She lost all her confidence, got all stressed out about doing everything right... I thought she could be a good opponent, you know... Like Chompu before her... But she caved and gave me no challenge at all. I gained peace along the way because she was scared to lose her job... Which was the point but you know... She took on everything herself, afraid to make other people's lives difficult... She's just a weak weirdo..."

My head was spinning by now. Pitchy had gone through so many different attitudes that I lost track of what she was really thinking about all this... That made it even more difficult to understand her as a person...

"I'll be honest with you... You're making me confused..." I started.

"What didn't you get from what I just said? Engfa's dad died and she became a weak ass..."

"No, no...That I got... But I don't know if you hate her and want her out of the picture or if you're way more kind hearted than you want us to believe..." I said.

"Can we work on the interview now? I'm bored of this conversation already... If you don't wanna do it anymore, I'll manage." she said, crossing her arms, sighing.

That girl was a tough case...

"You're right. Let's get back into it."


Engfa's pov

On Wednesday morning I couldn't help but notice how stressed out Charlotte seemed to be. She wasn't her normal calm and poised self... She kept shaking her leg up and down, visibility battling with something inside herself... I saw her with Pitchy on Monday... They spent quite some time together... Something was bound to happen... And yesterday she seemed so distant... almost scared to talk to me.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah... No... Sorry... It's just that... Pitchy is being interviewed for a job right now..." she said.

"An interview?? How did you make her do such a thing?"

I was shocked. Picturing Pitchy accepting to have to do something like this was impossible... My head couldn't wrap around the idea...

"You mean she accepted to work for it? You didn't give it to her on a silver platter??" I asked again before she could answer.

"You make it seem like it's unbelievable." Charlotte chuckled.

"It IS Unbelievable! What do you mean??" I said, getting a bit cranky.

She looked at me with big sad eyes.

"I'm sorry... I didn't want to yell... I'm you know..." I said, gesturing towards my belly.

"Don't worry... I'm just stressed out too..."

"It seems that you really hope that Pitchy gets the job..."

"Of course!" she said, looking at me like she was surprised.

We chatted a bit about it and it seemed that Charlotte was getting more comfortable around me. She went from being a bit defiant and stubborn then like... shy and distant... Yesterday in particular... And now she seemed more open about her feelings... Maybe it was because we were sharing an office now... Attending more managers' meetings together... Or calling each other by our names... It made me feel closer to her... and it was... nice.

As she talked more, she shared about what she went through with Pitchy, even though I could tell she was still retaining some info, I saw the passion coming back inside her eyes... Like she was also reassuring herself while telling me... She looked... cute.

"Isn't it?" she said, bringing me back to the topic.

Damn... I wasn't listening... I blushed and felt instantly flustered as her eyes locked inside mine. Warmth spreaded inside me... All over... It was most probably my hormones' fault... Stupid period... Making me lose track and feel all weird... I coughed.

"What I can tell you is that I understand why you are stressed out. But Charlotte, you shouldn't put too much pressure on yourself."

Charlotte looked at me intensely.

"Oh so you're the kind to give advice you're not able to follow yourself?" she joked, smiling.

Touché.

"Do you feel the need to replace Sun when he's not here?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

Charlotte giggled and I stopped myself from doing the same. We kept on talking for a while, as it seemed to help her feel less stressed out. Deep down I could understand her... Knowing that there was a real chance to see Pitchy go... I could only hope everything was going right for her as she was being interviewed...


Charlotte's pov

We waited for a long time but Pitchy didn't call me nor text me... It was late in the afternoon when she finally came to the office. Engfa wasn't there anymore as she had left to attend a meeting with Miss Kornaphat. So I was left alone to ask... which was preferable because it made Pitchy stop by my office.

"So... What happened?"

She looked at me with a bright smile, her head tilted to the side.

"They'll call me tomorrow."

"How was it?" I asked.

"They loved me for sure."

"Good."

"Did you doubt they would?"

"Of course not. I know you worked hard for it."

"Didn't even have to work... They were doomed the second I entered the room." she said, looking at me with a fierce attitude.

"Do you know when you're supposed to start if you get it?"

"I'll get it. Don't worry. I'll start as soon as they want and I impressed them enough for them to be needing me real soon." she said, leaving the room.

Well... At least, she seemed to be happy about it... Except if she was playing it cool and it went really bad in reality... No... I shouldn't think about that... I shouldn't stress myself more than I already was now... It was time for me to go home anyway...

My night was restless. I had so many weird nightmares that I woke up feeling so uneasy and nauseous... BBY Production was supposed to call Pitchy today... What if she didn't get it? I was so nervous... like I was the one waiting for a job opportunity... Not even the hot shower was able to calm me down... An hour later, I was at work, literally walking in circles in my office...

"You're making my head spin..." Sun said to me.

I was going to apologize when my phone started to ring. I grabbed it from my desk and ran out of the room.

"Miss Austin?" a man's voice asked.

"Yes. Mister Suparat?"

"Yes. Hello. Thanks for picking up." he said.

"Can I be of any help?"

"I'm calling you about Miss Saravody. She came to the interview yesterday... and well... I don't know how to say this but..."

Fuck. What did that crazy woman do?

"Please, do tell."

"Well... To be honest Miss Saravody seems to be the kind of woman that you shouldn't be messing with..."

Yeah... He was damn right about this...

"She has really good taste and she's well aware of the latest trends that can appeal to a younger audience..." he continued.

I was lost. Did he like her or not?

"She's the type of coworker that we need. She cuts right to the chase and tells it how it is. It's refreshing." he said.

Wow. Damn. Pitchy.

"She made us understand that she's available to join us right away. I wanted to run this by you before we start working on her contract. When would she be able to leave GI?"

I was baffled. And so happy. And wow... Fuck. I tried to get back to my senses.

"I'm walking to our HR department right now, Mister Suparat. Can I text you the precise date once they give it to me? So you can call Miss Saravody while I talk with my coworkers about this?" I asked, walking as fast as possible across the building.

"Yes, of course. Thank you Miss Austin. It was a pleasure to talk with you."

"Oh the pleasure is all mine."

We hung up and I almost started running to Miss Malisorn's office where I found Jeff at his usual spot.

"Oh, hi Charlotte! What's up? It's a bit early to invite me for lunch." he said, looking at his watch before winking at me.

"Pitchy has found a new job. When can she legally leave GI?" I said without any form of politeness.

"What? I... I don't know." he started to stutter.

"Is Miss Malisorn here? I need to know asap."

Jeff got up right away and knocked on his boss' door. He opened it a little bit, just to make his head fit inside and talked with her for a few seconds.

"You can come in, Miss Austin." I heard her say.

I explained everything to them. How I found a few opportunities before landing on this one. How I coached Pitchy for the last two days and the phone call I had just received. Their eyes were getting bigger and bigger as I told them how we got to me asking about an official last day for Pitchy's contract.

"Whatever. We'll make it work. Only problem could be her dad... I'll try to work up something with Nawat... Just to make sure we're not getting our hopes up for nothing..." Miss Malisorn said as she was looking intensely at her computer screen.

"What should I say to BBY's HR representative?" I asked.

"I'm looking for a legal delay right now." she explained, still very much focused.

"Do you want me to check the binder?" Jeff asked.

"No, I've got it! One month."

"Damn... That's a long time..."

"Wait. There's more. If the two parties can find an agreement the delay can be reduced to 2 weeks." Miss Malisorn added.

Jeff raised his hand to high five me and I couldn't stop myself from doing it. Fuck that felt great. Pitchy was going to leave GI... And it only took me 4 weeks to do so! Such a good feeling! I knew I could do it!

"Thank you, both of you!" I said with the biggest smile on my face before leaving them and rushing back to my side of the building.

As I got there I noticed that Pitchy and Snack weren't in their office. And the more I walked along our hallway I found out that nobody was there... Not even Sun... I turned around the corner and found the whole team in the break room.

"Ah there you are!" Sun said.

"I got the job!" Pitchy said, raising her cup of coffee with a satisfied look.

Everybody was cheering around her. But the eyes were all on me. The cheers weren't to congratulate Pitchy... they were... for me... I could hear that thought ringing inside my head as I could see hope and trust in Aoom, Meena, Nudee and Heidi's eyes... I quickly noticed that Snack and Yoko were together in a corner, whispering to each other.... Sun seemed really proud of me... like a mama bear. And Engfa... Engfa's eyes were the most incredible... she was looking at me like she was seeing me for the first time.


___
Hey hey hey!
Is everybody doing great?
Pitchy's gone! Champagne for everyone!
Kisses ^^