44
The clicking sounds on the programming system are the only earshot that could be heard inside the Director’s office. Melanie sighs and moves a strand of hair that seems to be disturbing her behind her ear.
She drops the pen on the note in front of her and places her elbow on the table.
Seeing the piles of files that need to be checked on her table, makes her breathe heavily through the open gap of her teeth.
She has tons of files to check and she hasn’t gotten a topic done yet.
“Oh, my, my God!” She exclaims and has her gaze glued on the system.
The fact that everything she needs to know has been programmed for her, yet she still needs to solve some hard task that seems difficult to understand.
“Director is just a mere title. There is no difference between a Director and a mere probationer.” She sighs and closes her sight tiredly.
Since her assistant left in the morning, she has been working on the system. Not like she knew what she would be doing if not for the help of the system that has been programmed for her.
At first, she thought it was going to be easy since the system has everything analysed. But there is more to just learning from what has been figured out. She needs to solve certain puzzles to make sure she understands what the system is trying to explain.
“Is what happened that time the reason for my bad record in the last year in the university, or I have always been a nincompoop!” Melanie hiss loudly and opens her eyes.
She has been thinking about the incident that led to her poor performance but it is showing now that she doesn’t know anything.
Sooner or later, Drew would want to know how far she has gone with what but look at her here, unable to solve one topic since she arrived in the morning.
She picked up the piece of paper for the last time and started scribbling on the note. If there is anything, she has already promised Drew that she is going to do her best. She can’t just back away now that she hasn’t even done anything.
Minutes passed and Melanie is still working on the topic she chose to solve.
“Am I doing this the right way?” She wonders.
She took off the paper and picked up a new sheet.
“I’m going to solve this correctly, and I won’t stop until I get it right.” She says in a whisper.
She grabs her phone and sets a timer for herself. Before the lunch period, she should have been done by then.
“Yay! 45 minutes.” She grins and drops the phone back on the table. She rolls up her sleeves and stretches her back before moving her chair a bit closer to the table.
Exactly 45 minutes later.
“Fuck! Yass!” She screams happily, swinging the sheet in the air.
“That was amazing!” She smiled brightly, she couldn’t believe that she could solve the impossible.
Just then, her phone makes a beep sound and she moves her gaze to the phone, checking out who sent her a text.
“Oh, instant message.” She clears her throat before picking up the phone.
She couldn’t remember turning on her data. She logged into her account and seemed a bit surprised to see a huge number of followers on her account. The last time she checked, she isn’t that famous nor does she expect that much growth on her account.
“Wow! This is… Incredible!” She chuckles and decides to check her inbox.
Seeing the piles of unopened messages in her inbox doesn’t surprise her a bit. The one that catches her attention is the last one on the list.Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.
“Andy!” She smiles at his name. She didn’t know why but it feels as though she has been expecting his message.
She opens the message and lets out a heartwarming smile. “I should send him my number.” She laughs.
Asking for her number as if they were strangers. Why would he still add ‘please’ when they were friends? Or are they not friends? Is she the only one that takes him as her friend? Does he not see her as his friend?
“He is unbelievable.” She shakes her head negatively. She forwarded her contact to him and a call came in on her phone that same instant.
“Andy!” She rolls her eyes before flipping the phone to pick up the call.
The caller is not Andy; she wasn’t expecting the call to be from her boss. “Mr Gordon?” She whispers in a questioning manner.
“Why is he calling?” She darts her attention to the caller’s name. She couldn’t help but gaze at the name that appeared on her screen for a long time.
It’s not like she is angry that he is calling her. She is just surprised that he did call her when she wasn’t expecting his call.
What happened to Andy that collected her number? Why is he not calling? And why is it that it is her boss that is calling instead of Andy?
Those are the questions that keep on crossing her mind. She picks up the call at the fourth ring.
“Hmm, Hi. Good afternoon.” She stutters as she replies to his greetings.
“Oh, lunch?” She yells out in surprise. She removes the phone from her heart and checks the time to see that lunch hour is almost over. “Wow, I forgot about lunch.” She laughs shortly.
She had set the timer earlier to stop working during the lunch period so that she could grab lunch at the cafeteria but she forgot about food after receiving a message from Andy.
Speaking of Andy, why isn’t he calling her yet?
Mr Gordon calls out her name from the other end, jotting her out of her thoughts. “Oh, I will meet you there.” She quickly replies to him and ends the call before he could say another thing.
Melanie picks up her purse and exits her office. She is a bit surprised to see everyone bowing to her as she passes. It’s still surprising that she is now a Director at a prominent company. Not just any random company but Gordon’s industry.
She smiles as she gets outside and sees Mr Gordon’s car parked at the front of the building. She walks closer to where his car is parked and she gets in.
“Hey, you good?” He asks with a smile on his face.
Melanie nods, fasting her seatbelt. “I’m fine. Thank you.” She flashes him a toothy smile.
“Where are we going?” She asks and he ignores her question at first, as he drives out of the building.
“To eat lunch.” He shrugs his shoulders.
Melanie stares at him for a while, she nods her head in approval. Not like she has any reason to decline to have lunch with him though.
“How was the office this morning?” Melanie asks. She doesn’t want it to be like he will have to ask why she’s not asking about his day at the office again. The last time was a bit awkward and she doesn’t want to be in that situation anymore.
“Thought you won’t ask.” He grins, stealing a glance at Melanie before moving his face back to the road. “I am happy today, I have always been… I’m not sure if it was every day but today is super exceptional.” He whines like a child.
Melanie laughs a little at his childish act wondering what could make a grown-up man whine like a baby. “What makes you happy today?” She asks, shifting her whole attention to him.
“Ahh,” He beams. “I drove you to work in the morning and I will be doing that every blessed morning.” He flashes her a sparkling smile and she shakes her head, laughing uncontrollably.
“Is that why you were happy?” Melanie asks, she wants to make sure she’s hearing right.
“Yes, of course, I’m only happy because of that. Mind you, I can still feel the happiness in my heart.” He groans and she rubs his shoulder.
“It’s fine. Thanks for being happy.” She laughs, not realising that the car has been pulled to stop in front of a fancy restaurant.
“What about you?” He suddenly asks, undoing his seatbelt. “How did you feel this month?” He asks and she gives him a confused look.
“What about me… How?” She raised her shoulders, not knowing what he meant by his question.
“How did you feel this morning?” He asks and she heaves a sigh of relief. Realising he’s only asking about her day.
“Fine. I feel happy to work in a company.” She says, stepping down from the car after Mr Gordon. “You wouldn’t believe how long I have been wanting to work in a company which I finally did.” She grins behind him.
He takes her hand in his. He squeezes her hand gently, smiling at her.
He understands how she feels and he adores her for appreciating the little help that his uncle renders to her. To his uncle, what he did for Melanie might mean another thing. But to him, he sees it as a help.
“I’m happy for you.” He says, guiding her to the seat that he had booked the previous night.
“Can you believe that your uncle made me a Director of the industry? Like, I’m now a fucking Director.” She claps her hands happily.
Mr Gordon discreetly laughs at her, before taking his seat opposite her. He is not surprised that his uncle made her the Director, he was even expecting something more than that.
“Congratulations.” He chuckles, watching Melanie’s cheeks flush a little bit.
“Are you that happy that your cheeks are turning red?” He asks, not believing what he’s seeing.
“Yes. I’m very happy.” She says, hiding her face with her hair.
“C’mon, that’s too cheap.” He laughs jokingly. Melanie plucks out the flower from the table and throws it at him.
“There is no way you’re saying the Director position is cheap.” She glares at him. She hastily stops talking when a male waiter walks up to their table with their food.
Mr Gordon has already planned everything that they don’t need to take their order.
“Thank you!” She says to the waiter as he puts the food in front of her.
“Enjoy your meal, ma’am.” He smiles shortly at her before walking out of their table.
Just then her phone starts ringing and she removes it from her purse. She checks the caller to see that it is an unsaved contact.
“Andy!” She smiles out his name and the call drops.
She brings down the phone from her ear and Mr Gordon asks which Andy she’s referring to.
“Andy Reid!” She smiles which makes Mr Gordon furrows his brows at her.
“Andy?” He spat out the name with a disgusting face. “How does he have your contact?” He asks, not caring if she’s going to judge her wrongly since he already knew that she would judge him wrongly.
“He asked for my number in my DM and I gave him.” She smiles, not seeing anything wrong with why she should exchange contact with Andy.
They were friends, so why can’t she?
“You shouldn’t have shared your contact with any guy from the organisation.” He rolls his eyes and she wonders what his problem is.
“I didn’t give my contact to just anyone from the organisation. It was Andy.” She groans, slapping her forehead in anger.
“What makes him different from the rest of the organisation?” Mr Gordon asks, returning her cold stare.
“Because Andy is my friend.” She defended. Slamming her hands on the table, which makes a hush sound.
Mr Gordon finds no reason as to why he should argue with her. He decided to let the issue die down.
“Okay, I understand that Andy is your friend. But can you not pick up his call when you are with me?” He asks more like a request.
Melanie rolls her eyes. She is about to promise him that she won’t pick up Andy’s call when her phone starts ringing.
Mr Gordon begs her with his eyes not to pick up the call if it’s Andy. He can’t bear it if she should be picking up a guy’s call in front. But it seems like Melanie didn’t acknowledge his plea as she picked up the call without realising that she just did pick up the call that he was begging her not to pick up.
“Hi, Andy!” She smiles, her gaze mistakenly drifts to Mr Gordon, only to behold his deadly glare at her.