The CEO's Wife

Chapter 4

Kiari 'Offset' Cephus

Keep it Quiet

I like my job. I like getting to tell people what to do, so they put me in charge of the interns. An entire floor of people that I can make do any and everything that I want. Now, I do get to make them do whatever I want but there's a lot of responsibility in it. I got to make sure they don't make any mistakes because anything that they might mess up is my fault. They just think of me as their boss, and they think that because I'm just the boss that I just sit in an office and think of shit for them to do and I don't pay them any attention. That's the furthest thing from the truth. My partners don't pay them any attention because they're never on this floor with me and that's why they didn't figure it out, but it was so easy for me to pin her.

That morning I got on the elevator and pressed the number for the 5th floor. I get to work late on purpose; I don't like to clock watch, and while punctuality is important in the corporate world, I'm not about to spend all day writing people up because they were late. The door to the elevator opened and all conversation on the floor stopped. I slipped my hands into my pockets and made the lengthy walk through the maze of cubicles to my office. I opened the door to my office, closed the blinders blocking the view from the outside then went back over to the door.

The girl we saw at the bar was familiar because we had seen her, or at least I had seen her, almost every damn day. "Melody Young!" I shouted over the floor.

It was quiet so I probably didn't have to shout but it's kind of late for that. a few of the interns peeked over the top of their cubicles to look at me. They wanted to see what I was yelling about and who I was the one getting in trouble now. Most of the time when I called someone out like this it was because I was writing someone up or permanently sending them home.

She popped up from her cubical like a jack in the boss with an armful of papers and eyes as wide as saucers. "Yes sir, Mr. Cephus?" he said.

"Come to my office," I replied.

I walked into my office and sat down on top of my desk. Now that I think about it, I could have just gone over to her desk and asked her to come to my office, but it's way too late for that. I didn't know exactly where her cubical was anyway and I wasn't about to go look for it.

"Am I in trouble?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper. I looked up at her and she was standing in the door to my office, still holding a handful of papers.

"You could have left those on your desk." I said to her.

She gave a soft. "Oh," in response then started looking around for somewhere to put them. I held my hands out and she looked at me for a moment before stepping over and handed the papers to me. I straightened them up and set them down on the top of my desk.

"You can sit down," I said to her. She shuffled over and sat down in one of the two chairs I had positioned in front of my desk. She was so nervous. "You can breathe you know, you're not in trouble."

"Oh," she said again. She exhaled and sat back in the chair a little.

"You work there every night?" I asked her. I could tell that I caught her off guard.

"What?" she asked me. "i-I don't know what you're talking about. I just work here."

She was stuttering and rubbing her hands on the arms of the chair. I got up and walked around to me own chair and sat down. "We both know you're not dumb, so you shouldn't play like you don't know what I'm talking about. I do not appreciate being lied to."

She sucked in a deep breath and ran her hands on the arms of the chair again. "I do." she confessed. "i have to."

"Why?" I pressed.

"That's a private matter." she replied simply.

"You know, having a job like that could cost you your spot here if word got out. That aint a good look." I told her. She just nodded.

"Like I said, I have to." she said to me keeping her eyes down on the floor. She looked up at me for the first time since she sat down in the chair. "Does anyone else know?" she asked.

"No," I answered.

"Thank you, for not saying anything." she said. "And I assure you that what I do on my personal time will not interfere with my work here. I've work-"

"Yeah, I know how hard you work. You're one of the best interns we got down here." I cut her off cause I already told her she wasn't in trouble btu she was about to start pleading her case as if she needed to explain herself.

"Just make sure that you keep that under wraps," I sat back in the chair. "Or else we could both get in trouble."

"Both?"

"Imma keep your secret to myself cause you're good at your job and there aint many of yall here that are good at this shit, but if anyone here finds out that you're a stripper and I knew about it we both gone be out on the street." I said to her.

"I'm not a stripper. I'm a bartender." she replied.

"Whatever you want to call it, make sure no one here finds out, cause there's only so much I can do for you if anyone else in management finds out about it."

"So, you aren't going to tell anyone?" she asked. I could have sworn I just told this girl I wasn't gone say nothing.

"No," I replied. "If anyone asked you were audited for your last financial reports and written up."

"But-"

"I'm not really going to write you up don't worry, that's just the story we'll tell." I said. I grabbed the papers from my desk and held them out to her. She popped up from the chair and grabbed the papers before going back over to the door. She stopped at the door and turned to look at me before opening it.

"Thank you," was all she said before shuffling back out onto the floor with everyone else and making her way back to her cubical.