His Nineteenth Secretary [✔]

Twenty-three

"How dare you slap her, what has she done to you? Didn't you say you were friends?" He asked, his anger spiking up.

"Who would ever want to be friends with a slut," She spatted.

"Leave now, Miss." Anthony ordered sternly but I could tell he was only trying to be civil by not dragging her out by himself already.

"Do you know who you are talking to?"

Anthony didn't say anything this time before lifting her onto his shoulder and carrying her away, with her wriggling and kicking madly while trying to get out of his hold, uttering curses nonstop.

He brought an ice pack to my room after taking her away which he told me would help with reducing the swell on my cheek faster.

Not very long, about ten minutes after he brought the icepack to my room, I had heard a loud knock at the door.

Anthony doesn't knock that loud, it might as well be Madison, who must have managed to get back in. I opened the door anyway.

"You dare to..." I instantly stopped talking seeing it wasn't Madison this time but Brian. He doesn't get off work that early thereby making me wonder why he was back already.

"Are you okay?" He asked with concern.

"I'm fine." I said and trying to hide my left cheek, I held my hand to my cheek faking as if I was scratching it.

Anthony couldn't have told him, but why would he be here when he should still be at work?

"Let me see." He demanded, his jaw set.

"See what?"

"Get your hand off your face." He said.

Knowing Anthony must have told him and seeing there was no use hiding it anymore, I obliged. Upon seeing the still vivid palm print and the fingernail marks, his dark grey eyes clouded over with anger.

"It's just..." I was saying but was grabbed by the hand and dragged after him down the stairs to the living room.

"Sit." He said to me. I sat on the couch and he proceeded to get an ice pack from the freezer.

"I already put ice on it." I told him after he returned with one as I rose to my feet.

"Sit. Back. Down." He said firmly.

"I- ah!" I reluctantly complied, sitting back down seeing he wasn't going to let me off just like that. "It's fine really." I insisted.

He sat beside me and making me face him, placed the ice pack on my cheek, holding it in place for a while.

Made to face him, I didn't know when I started checking out his beautiful features until a smirk on his lips brought me out of my pathetic state. "Hold unto it, I'll be right back." He told me.

He returned with an ointment which he applied gently on my left cheek.

"That will help to reduce the pain." He rose up.

"Thank you." I muttered, rising up. Now at the same level with him, though he was taller than I was and I had to raise my head a little bit to look at him, silence pervaded between us for some time. After a while, his eyes slowly wandered to my lips and lingered there.

Then, he took a step towards me, so that now there was hardly a little space between us and trust me if I tell you that he looked absolutely irresistible that moment than ever.

I could tell he was going to kiss me and I knew for sure that if I stayed any longer, I don't trust myself to hold back from kissing him back if that was his intention but I knew that would only make things weird between us.

"Umm, I think I need to use the restroom. Can't hold it any longer." I stepped away from him, before leaving for my room at a fast pace.

~

"So this way, Mrs Walker." Vivian prompted, leading the way to Mr Aston's office, the owner of UF. Vivian was Mr Aston's secretary who had been sent to get me from the first floor and to lead me to his office.

It was the Monday I was to start work and since he had been informed beforehand he had her come to get me immediately I arrived there.

Mr Aston was a forty-six year old bachelor but with a youthful face and gait.

"Ruby!" He rose from his seat as soon as he saw me enter. He was at his desk with his apple laptop opened before him. He walked briskly over to me with a bright smile on his face.

"Good morning, Mr Aston." I greeted. He pulled me into a friendly and warm embrace on getting to where I was.

"Come, sit." He said after releasing me from the embrace.

We sat on separate chairs facing each other.

"I hope you had a good night rest?" He asked, the smile not leaving his face.

"Yes, I did, Sir."

"No doubt. You are glowing. I'm happy to have you here at my company and you have such a good qualification. You are the type I want here at my company. UF stands for United Forever, I love team work, that was the reason why I adopted that name. It had always been that way since I started this company, everyone here relate freely with each other and we are like a big family. I want you to further encourage team work in your department. Can I be assured, you will do just that?"

"I'll make sure to keep up the team work, Sir."

"Good. Now, will you like me to show you to your office?"

"Sure, Sir." I replied.

"Let's go." He said. With this, we both rose to our feet while he led the way to the elevator.

"Hope you enjoyed your honeymoon. I was supposed to be at your wedding but I couldn't make it, I was on a business trip. I will assure you, you got married to the right man."

"I'm really lucky to have him." I said.

Note the sarcasm.

"He is a lucky man to have you too. If you are ever having any trouble with your department, be sure to let me know immediately, I'll be glad to do anything to help." We both stepped out of the elevator on the seventh floor.

"And this-" I followed him into a large office. "Is the customer service department." There were six medium-sized desks distant from each other and a large one at the far end of the room. The employees were seated at their desk busy with work with only the large desk vacant. They immediately rose to their feet upon our entrance.

"Good morning, guys. This is Ruby, who is going to be your new head of department. I want you to be of good conduct." He advised. "Ruby, your desk is over there." He pointed to the large desk that stood alone at the far end of the room. "They're going to introduce themselves to you. I'll leave you guys to do that." He squeezed my arm a little before leaving.

They all crowded around me after he was gone.

"Hi, I'm Juliana." The lady with a baby face whose blonde hair was pulled into two neat pigtails introduced.

"Catherine." The plump lady among them introduced.

"Michael." Introduced, the tall guy with hazel eyes.

"Mandy." Introduced, the short lady with bold lips and red hair.

"Jameson." Introduced, the average height guy with a mole on the side of his nose.

"And, I'm Grace," The last person to talk which was a lady with light brown eyes and a pointy nose. I shook hands with them as they introduced themselves.

"Okay, let me repeat your names so that I don't forget, this is Juliana, and this is Catherine, Michael, Mandy, Jameson and Grace." I called their names while pointing at each individual.

"That's absolutely right." They chimed together.

"I love your eyes. They are beautiful." Jameson commented.