Syrtis

VI.

April 30th, 2018
Monday, 9:03am

Amin sat at his desk, poring over documents in his hand and on his computer—his concentration unbroken. He had his earpiece in his ears to drown out all conflicting sounds and worked towards the deadline that he set for himself. Three hours had gone by, and they came and met him in the chair that he currently sat in. “Okay, this is right…six thousand eight fifty…30kva generator…wait, six thousand?” he leaned back in his seat and tapped his temple with the pencil that he was wielded. “Chisom, let me see the price book, please.”

Chisom, who was hunched over another desk in Amin’s office, delivered the book promptly as she had been using it. They were working together, finalizing all of the documents from three months of sales. “Here.” She went to stand beside him and he removed one of his earpieces.

“Thanks.” He knew where to go so a few flips and a little finger trailing gave him what he was searching for. “Who made this sale? This is almost twenty percent off,” he tapped the pink paper on the table.

“Mr. Khalil did. It’s one of his friends from MnG Gold.”

Amin nodded in realization. “Makes sense. Okay, um. Did you receive the confirmation email from Ghasif?”

She shook her head. “I checked early this morning, nothing. Let me make sure.”

“Don’t bother, I’ll just call him. I’m finally done with this though, so just get it from your mail and print for the auditor. He should be coming in tomorrow, but Khalil might want to take a look at them.” He shifted in his seat, and grabbed his phone off the table.

“Okay sir.”

“And Chisom?”

“Yeah?” she turned to him, with her papers in her hand. She had worn a red dress today and a black leather jacket over it, her hair held loosely at the back of her head in a hairband.

“Are you good? With Bassam back and all…”

She smiled and lowered her head. “I’m fine, Amin. I can handle him.”

Amin just nodded, and watched her walk out. He seriously doubted her statement, based on what he saw daily. Bassam was barely back and he hit the ground flirting. When he had met her a few years back as an intern, he made it a regular thing to go out of his way to make her feel special. She had looked at it as him taking a special interest in her until she saw him act the same way to a few other ladies. Normally, he wouldn’t meddle in his friend’s affairs but Chisom was a trusted member of their staff and he didn’t want to lose her because of ‘heartbreak.’ That would be a terrible loss for the company. He wasn’t sure that Bassam understood that, and he planned to bring the topic up later.

“Amin? The girl Mr. Alex recommended to help me is here for her interview,” Chisom said through the slightly opened door.

“Bassam will be here soon, let him handle it. I’m busy with something else. Oh and…please get Robert for me.”

“Okay sir.”

He checked his phone after he heard his door shut. No messages, no calls, nothing. Jessica kissed him goodnight at eight pm the night before and he hadn’t seen or heard from her since. She insisted that she wanted to sleep alone because she had a lot of work to do. While that was part of the reason, he knew that she was mad at him and frustrated also. He took full responsibility for how shallow they were, and she just followed his lead. She didn’t want to be the only one giving and not receiving, or at least that’s how he saw it. And they were in the middle of something that neither of them planned for.