CHAPTER 15: DADDY?
Evelyn sighed for the millionth time in a roll. She glanced at her phone and saw that it was past 3 in the evening. Though she had arrived in front of Kira’s place unannounced, she felt bad about it, guess she would have to bake her a cake or something to appease her whenever she comes over.
She arranged the files on her table and counted them. All they had to deal with in the business term was a huge load of files. Raphael was the head of the Engineering block in the company and every building project or architectural work was brought down to the boss’ fifteen as they were called.
These sets of people [the boss’ fifteen] were made special. They received complaints, followed Raphael’s orders, went for inspection of sites, and examined drawing projects before they got delivered to Raphael for the final take-off. They held meetings with him on a fixed day and did a lot of things.
They were not the only ones though. On Vegas’s side, he had the same set of people but lately, he had been gathering more than he could chew. His administration wasn’t that effective but who cared?
Back to Evelyn, she carried the files across to a lady that was given the name Savage by her co-workers. She wasn’t hard to be with, she just wasn’t a pretender and she was very…very straightforward. She could say words without caring if they would hurt the person or not as long as it was the right thing to say. She was also good at lashing out at others.
“Hey Savage, these are the calculations.” Evelyn placed them on the table.
“Alright.”
“When will be the next meeting?” She asked. Savage paused and thought about the answer before looking at Evelyn.
“Not sure but I will check for you.”
“Alright, thanks.”
When Evelyn walked back to her seat, she received a call from Kira. She smiled at the picture that was bouncing on the screen, it was a picture of Kira during Halloween. Someone sent this to her months ago, she seemed to have been terrified and screamed as loudly as she could so that was where the picture was taken from. She looked like a clown. Nevertheless, she answered the call and sat down. She opened her bag and brought out a cup with a bottle of milk.
“Hello, girlfriend.” Evelyn teased.
“Don’t you dare ‘girlfriend’ me! You caught me off guard this morning. Do you know how stressful it is for me to take care of Tom?”
“Why are you complaining? Is he not your godson?”
“Well, guess what? You are paying for this. Anyway, I am stopping over at your work to drop him off now. We are on our way.” Kira announced. Evelyn almost knocked off her cup as she yelled.
“What the f*ck?” When she yelled, everyone’s eyes darted toward her in surprise. She chuckled and apologized with her head.
“I told you she isn’t innocent,” Savage said and others agreed.
“Why are you telling me this? You should have informed me earlier.” Evelyn scolded.
“Oh oh oh, now you know how it feels. We are in front of your company, come and get him.” Kira ended the call.
“You…” Evelyn looked at the screen of her with annoyance. She felt like smashing it but then this was her only phone. She stood up and excused herself quickly.
“Hello, Mrs. Conner.” She greeted her as she entered the elevator.
“Hello, Miss Evelyn.”
Evelyn took the elevator to the last floor and came out. The last floor was public and numerous people were walking all around. Serious business and meetings were up there while the welcome was down here, yet there was intensive security. You couldn’t go in fully without your ID card that had some sort of equipped security measures that Evelyn had no idea what it was.
Once she placed the card on the machine, it would scan it before she is allowed to go. She prayed that Kira was only joking but then when she arrived in front of the company, she wasn’t joking.
“Momma,” Tom called out when his eyes met hers and waved at her happily. He was holding some snacks with him. Evelyn frowned when she got closer to Kira.
“I need to go to work. My boss called me unexpectedly this evening about certain new brands of art materials, I don’t want to miss it.”
“Why can’t you just take him along then? This is my place of work.” Evelyn pleaded.
“Why should I? He is your son. Moreover, my place of work is more crowded and rough than yours. I won’t be able to keep my eyes on him till we leave unless you are willing to file a missing case after twenty-four hours only to discover that he is in the bathroom eating snacks.” Kira replied sarcastically.
“Anyways, I am off. Next time, don’t be late for everything. You are a grown woman.” Kira scolded and received a knock from Evelyn.
“Look at who is talking. Alright, I will chat you up later.” Evelyn re-signed.
“Sure, bye.” Kira departed.
“Let’s go, kid. How was your stay with Kira?” Evelyn asked as she held Tom’s hand and they walked back into the building. Tom was energetic and laughed.
“It went well. I was very…very obedient.” Tom answered.
“Is that your sarcastic way of saying you disturbed the poor girl?” Evelyn asked as she placed her card on the scanner again and her son was checked all over. He giggled at the question and tore his pack of chocolates.
Evelyn sighed again. She was quite nervous and others meeting her son this early was unplanned at least not when she had told her boss and everyone else that she was single. How will she be able to explain where the kid came from? God forbid that she would reject her child, he was someone worth being proud of…she was just a bit nervous, that’s all.
When the elevator stopped, it opened and they stepped out. Mrs. Conner looked up from her phone only to see a mini version of…She adjusted her glasses.
Evelyn smiled and introduced him.
“Mrs. Conner, this is my son, Tom. Tom, say hi to Mrs. Conner.”
“Hello, Mrs. Conner. Pleased to meet you.” Tom replied like a gentleman but with his mouth full. Mrs. Conner was so affected by his cuteness that she left her seat just to pinch his cheeks.
“Hello there handsome, wow [looks at Evelyn], I never knew you were married. You said you were single.” Mrs. Conner expressed her surprise. Evelyn felt like she was put in a tight spot.
“I am actually single, Mrs. Conner.” She looked at her meaningfully and Mrs. Conner got what she meant, she smiled at Tom.
“You have a great mom and you are cute.” She praised him.
“Thank you, Mrs. Conner.”
Evelyn walked to the other side where the general office was. [That’s because the general office was an open type and a wall was built between the reception and Raphael’s office. So the public office happens to be in the middle.]
“Where did you go? Come over and take a look at something.” Savage called her over and she went to meet her.
___________
On the other side, Tom was eating his snacks while watching Mrs. Conner. The door of the elevator opened and Raphael stepped out with Jeremy. He was issuing out his orders to him being the alcoholic type.
Tom recognized him as the nice man who bought him ice cream. He ran to hug him.
“Daddy.” He called out and held Raphael’s leg.
“Daddy?” Mrs. Conner repeated after him in shock even Jeremy looked at the child with confusion. They had not seen him coming. Raphael took a look and was surprised to see Tom who was smiling brightly. His heart gladdened when he heard him call him [Raphael] ‘daddy’.
He bent and carried him.
“Hey, little guy. We meet again.” He said and tickled him. Tom laughed and poured his snacks all over the floor.
“Find someone to clean up the mess,” Raphael ordered Mrs. Conner.
“Of cou…of course, sir.” Mrs. Conner nodded and Raphael walked away with Tom in his hand.
Evelyn finished typing something on Savage’s computer.
“That’s…” Her words got interrupted when Savage hit her consistently and pointed at her somewhere. She looked in that direction and her eyes widened.
Everyone focused on Raphael and the child that he was carrying. Murmurings started.
“I never knew the boss had a child.”
“Aww, he looks so cute.”
“They look alike.”
“Shut up, no one talked about him being the father.” Savage silenced them.
Raphael was carrying Tom with one hand while the other was inside his pocket, he was staring at Evelyn who was still finding it hard to believe what her eyes were seeing, she was still spellbound until her name was called.
“Miss Evelyn, I have important things to do,” Raphael said and she bounced back to reality. She rushed towards him and carried Tom.
“I apologize, Mr. Raphael. He does not really stay in one place.” Evelyn spoke.
“He is smart.” Raphael ruffled Tom’s hair and cast a last look at Evelyn before leaving with Jeremy.
Rita walked out a bit to see if Raphael had gone into his office before talking.
“Is he your son?” She asked. Evelyn nodded.
“Yes. His name is Tom.”
“Damn! I never knew you had a son, he is so cute. How old is he?” Savage asked.
“Three,” Evelyn replied with a smile and placed him beside her.
“Wow. He looks like our boss. Is this an example of the sentence WE ARE CREATED IN TWOS?” Rob asked.
The compliments went on and on and Evelyn was grateful that no one wanted to pry in deeper than the situation was but yet she couldn’t forget that look on Raphael’s face when he was staring at her. She had that unfathomable feeling within her and her nervosity alongside nervousness grew. What if…? Her eyes turned wide as her head twisted towards the little way that led to Raphael’s office door.
TBC…