CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE.
“What the hell!” Cole exclaimed in shock as he eyed Adele from head to toe before his gaze settled on her ring finger. He got even more confused when he didn’t see any ring on it.
“But…but…” he stammered as he looked from her face to the ring finger and back to her face. “But there’s no ring on your finger.” He pointed out.
“Ah… that…” Adele chuckled. “There is an explanation for that and no I cannot give you that explanation. It’s complicated.” She blabbered and the guy just shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, I… I still don’t believe the fact that you are married, but… if you say you are then fine, even though I see no reason for your husband to be mad that you have a coworker’s number.”
“Male coworker.” Adele emphasised and the guy nodded.
“Right!”
“Like I said, he is nonsensically possessive and I don’t want to get into trouble.” She said smiling and the guy lifted both hands up as a sign of him surrendering.
“Fine. No number then.”
“Thank you for understanding. I have to get in now.” She said and walked into the office, leaving Cole dumbfounded on his spot.
He had no idea Adele was married. She looked so young!
When Adele got to her cubicle, she took her seat and sighed heavily. She was exhausted from all the walking and listening to Cole. She didn’t want to be in that place, but she didn’t have a choice, so all she could do was distract herself by working very hard.
“Adele.” The lady next to her called as she wheeled her chair over to Adele and handed her a flash. “My name is Kelly and I’m your cubicle neighbour.” Kelly introduced herself with a smile.
“Nice to meet you Kelly.” Adele smiled back at her and she nodded.
“The pleasure’s mine. The flash I just handed to you contains a file of documents you need to edit properly. It is the weekly report of the department’s activities that has to be submitted to Mr. King. It has to be perfect else it’s over for us. The file name is Mr. King.”
“I’ll get to it right away, thank you.”
“You are welcome.” The girl said and rolled back to her space.
Adele quickly turned on the desktop before her and plugged the flash to it to get to work. Just then, her phone rang. Jamal’s name was on the caller ID.
She looked around nervously to make sure no one was looking at her. She needed to answer the call, but she could not answer it in that office with everyone around.
“Uh… Kelly, can you please show me the restroom?”
“Over there.” Kelly said, pointing to a corridor on her left. “That corridor leads to the restrooms for our office.” She explained and Adele quickly rose to her feet and rushed to the restroom.
“What do you want?” She asked the moment she picked the call.
“Good morning, Adele.” Jamal greeted calmly. Adele closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh before mumbling a response to his greeting.
“Good morning.”
“How was your night?” Asked Jamal, still in his usual calm tone.
“It was peaceful, thank you. And yours?”
“I didn’t have you sleeping by my side, so no, it was not okay. I miss you.”
“Jamal please stop.” She pleaded with her eyes closed.
“Fine, I will. Your wish is my command.” There was a moment of silence. “I can see you are getting along with your new employees. Grace still seems to be acting hostile towards you.”
Adele, who wasn’t surprised that he had been watching her, shook her head and sighed.
“I can handle Grace, so don’t do anything funny and for the others, yes, we are getting along just fine.”
“I’m proud of you wifey. I love the way you responded to the guy who asked for your number. I should have him transferred to another town.”
“No Jamal, you will do no such thing. I had known you’d be watching me that’s why I gave him that response. He’s not going to ask for my number again so please, leave him be.” Adele pleaded from the depth of her heart, hoping he would hear out.
“Is that what you want?”
“Yes, please.”
“Alright then, I will let him be for now. But I’m watching you two closely. The moment I sense something funny, he’ll be gotten rid of.” He warned and Adele snorted.
“Yeah whatever and please stop monitoring me Jamal. It’s creepy. I’m not comfortable. Imagine someone watching your every move.”
“I’ll try not to.”
“Good. That said, goodbye and stop calling when I’m at work.”
“I’ll call you anytime I please, Adele.” He told her faltely and Adele angrily ended the call.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” She lamented, almost breaking her phone on the sink.
Jamal was stepping on her very last nerves.
After a while, she arranged her clothes and smiled before walking out of the restroom so her colleagues would not notice anything odd.
When she took her seat, the same girl from earlier, Kelly, wheeled over to get with a smile on her face.
“The Witch was here a while ago.” She announced and Adele looked at her confused.
“By the witch, you mean Grace?”
“Yeah, that one.” Kelly agreed and Adele chuckled.
In her opinion, the name suited Grace. She really behaved like a jealous old witch.
“What did she want?”
“She wanted to see you and when we told her you went to take a call, she started grumbling. She has been grumbling since morning. She hates you!”
“Well, too bad for her, cuz I’m not leaving anytime soon. she will have to learn to bear having me around.”
“Oh… I love your sassiness! You are exactly the person we needed to put that witch in her place.” The girl squealed in excitement and all Adele did was laugh. “Wait… are you in any way related to Mr. King?” She asked and Adele quickly shook her head.
“No, I’m not.” She lied. Her heart began beating hard in her chest. “Why do you ask?”
“Because I heard you were specially recommended by him, so I thought…”
“Ah…” Adele cut her off and laughed. “No, I’m not related to him. Actually my father is a very influential man around and he managed to pull a few strings. Mr. King was also very impressed with my qualifications. That’s what made him employ me in the first place.” She lied smoothly and the girl nodded.
“Oh…that means you must be very smart.”
“Adele affirmed and the girl nodded yet again and rolled her seat away.
Adele heavy out a dramatic sigh with her left palm calmly patting her chest which contained her racing heart.
That was intense.
No one in that office had to suspect that she was related to Jamal.
No one.