His Lady Suitor

Chapter 2: Fired

15 years ago...

"Mommy!!!" The little boy with bruises wailed.

The little girl panicked. Not knowing what to do, she covered the boy's mouth while shushing him, trying to silence his cries.

"I come in peace. I just thought you were a kitten. I mean no harm. I promise, I won't hurt you." She said in a voice so soft and calming with her eyes showing a piece of peacefulness in them.

The words he heard and the look in her face made him reduce his cry into sobs until he finally stopped. The little girl sighed in relief. She stayed still and thought for a while.

"Come." She told him after sometime that made him flinch and lean slightly away from her.

"I won't hurt you. I just decided that if I won't have a kitten today, then you will be my pet, if I won't have it ever, then I will take care of you. Forever!" She announced so sure of herself  then smiled widely, showing the gap between her teeth. She held out her hand while the little boy looked hesitant to take it. But she lost her patience and resorted to grabbing him forcefully out of the bushes to the park's playground.

The little girl tried so hard to make her pet, the little boy, laugh. And so she cracked some jokes but ended up laughing on her own, seems like her new friend did not get a thing she said.

She was almost ready to give up when bad luck started to take over. She stumbled down a large stone blocking her way, face down which made her nose as red as Rudolf's. Her already dirty blue shirt came even dirtier.

Her supposed cry was stopped by a laugh that surprisingly came from the little boy. That laugh was followed by a lot more as the little girl intentionally hurt herself in a clumsy way to cheer her new pet up.

***
Dion was in a hurry. Her first day had just started and a lot of work had to be done. An hour or two had passed and her crew has not yet finalized everything regarding that housing project proposal they are working on.

She went on her way to grab some lunch since it was just recently when she realized that lunchbreak was almost done and that the conference might start anytime soon.

Walking beside her was her new friend, Ann Paul, as what she thinks she is. They were having a chitchat about life, taking a short break from their work and figured out that they both have the same interests, one of which is reading romance novels.

Their talk resumed after buying each of their lunch. Hers, a plate of spaghetti and Ann Paul's chocolate cake. They ate while walking still caught up with their conversation.

They were laughing at some random scene of a romantic comedy novel when they reached the elevator. Unfortunately though, bad luck must have been on her side that she hadn't notice one office worker trying to throw a water bottle at the trash bin by the elevator. She tried to dodge it, yes, she hardly did but then her right hand that was holding the plate got hit by the bottle causing the plate to fly out of her hand.

When she looked at where the food was, a very familiar dark gray eyes met her brown ones, but beyond those eyes are the scariest thoughts. Or she'd simply say, "Doom has awakened".

***
"Oh my god!" Someone uttered with a horrified tone. Finally, the minute silence was broken.

Kairo snapped his head up to where the voice came from and he saw a woman wearing a dark blue dress and a white coat with her mouth hanging open. By the looks of it, he could say that she was the culprit of such stupidity. His temper just reached its limit and he could not help but shout.

"What the freaking-- how could one be so stupid? Are you freaking blind?!"

No one uttered a word after Kairo's outburst. Well, who would dare? He's the boss after all. Rex Kairo Gonzales, the clean freak-slash-harsh tongue-slash- hotty boss is pretty unstoppable once provoked.

"This building was made, and measured to be wide enough for everyone to fit. How stupid of you to not notice me in a room this wide and spacious? Or maybe you meant it? You wanted attention so bad?"

Dion's stunned face was not because of all the insults she just heard from him but because of his face. He was almost godly, almost perfect, with his gray eyes and thick brows, his slightly tanned complexion, and his once neat hair slightly ruined maybe because of repetetive brushing out of frustration. And he looks really familiar. Like someone she'd known so well. She slightly tilted her head , thinking. But, maybe she had mistaken him for someone else.

Kairo's temper rose even higher, if it was even possible, he might actually explode because the girl she was talking to seemed to not understand a thing he said.

"Come on, whoever let this moron inside this building, consider yourself fired!" He shouted at no one in particular. And that phrase made all Dion's senses come back. Who would be fired? Why would he fire someone? Who was he by the way? With these thoughts in mind, she made a move to protest.

"Hey! Wait. It wasn't..." she trailed off, trying to block Kairo's way not knowing where to begin explaining, "... I did not mean it, I mean it was purely coincidental. It was an accident. Someone threw a plastic bottle and my hand got hit. I did not intentionally throw my food at you." She stated though her audience was obviously not interested of her explanations for him to stop and listen. He kept on walking towards his office still with a creased forehead and knitted brows, feeling queasy of the food, dirt and germs in his vocabulary, staining his shirt.

"Hey! Listen to me. You don't have to fire someone. It was not my fault nor was it his or her fault!" Dion screamed finally losing her patience. Everyone's scared expressions turned into bewilderment. How dare she shout at the boss? The boss? The monster boss? Was everyones unheard questions.

Kairo stopped walking and turned to where Dion stood. If the boss was unstoppable, so is the newly hired employee.

"How unprofessional of you to fire someone just because you're shirt was smudged!? You weren't even hurt. You wouldn't even die!!" Ann Paul came into the picture trying to stop Dion from talking and ranting while everyone remained silent.

"What did you just say?" He asked in a tone so cold and freezing. Who is she again? He doesn't even know her. Is she new here? Doesn't she know he's the boss?

"That you're unprofessional? That's the truth. Firing someone who let me in? A guard? Is that something a professional shall do when the only mistake made was having his favorite shirt ruined? How pathetic." And she even smirked. Now he felt all his blood was rising up to the same direction, up his head. You don't tell the boss that. Especially when the boss is known to be monstrous and terrifying.

"Who are you again?" Kairo asked.

"Dion Ortega, new head architect. And you are?" Though she already had an inkling about who he was based on how he acts and speaks, Dion still held her head up, confident enough to answer.

Kairo smirked and looked at her from head to foot.

"And you are? You are FIRED."

And that sentence ended the chaos.