Tom was passing by the bridal section as he was returning to his office when he saw Amber in arguments with Charles. He walked into the room to ask what was happening when he heard her demanding for an apology.
“I am demanding for an apology from you right now” she yelled at his face
“What is going on right now? What do you think you are doing?” he asked looking at her
“He was touching me appropriately, he was groping me” she explained
“Why would I do that? I only dropped the cup of water by mistake and she was cleaning it up before she suddenly started yelling at my face to apologize” Charles said innocently and she scoffed
“It was true that his cup shattered but while I was cleaning it up, he suddenly groped me from behind and it was twice at that” she insisted
“Is there any proof that he did that? You shouldn’t make false accusations” Tom said and her shoulder dropped in shock.
She has been working with him for close to three years and he could still think she made things like this up? She was so disappointed in him and angry at him at the same time. She closed her eyes to beat back the tears that were welling up in her eyes for a while.
“I don’t have any CCTV to prove it here” she said with her head down
“I sincerely want you to prove it now, I feel wronged for being accused of something I didn’t do” Charles remarked and she could not believe her ears
“I am sorry for the misunderstanding caused, I hope you will let it go quietly” Tom apologized to him but he slammed his hand on the sofa’s arm
“Why should I let it go quietly when she’s accusing me of sexually harassing her! Do you know me? Do you know how great I am? Were you trying to squeeze money out of me by making up some foolish stories like this? I can file a petition against this company and that will be over for you all and even your boss standing here” Charles threatened and she couldn’t even speak because she was rendered speechless by his sudden boldness
“Once again we are sorry, CEO Charles” Tom apologized
“I don’t want your own apology, I want her to apologize since she was the one that accused me” Charles remarked and that was the end of the drama for Amber
“I will never apologize since you are the one that was in the wrong. You groped me and still want me to apologize to you?” she stated with pain mixed with anger
“As from tomorrow, don’t come to work anymore Miss Amber” Tom commanded and bowed in apology to Charles when a text dropped on Amber’s phone
“You should balance up for this week or we will stop the treatment” the nurse from the hospital texted her and she sighed
Everything in her wanted her to slap him and walk out of the company too but her piling debts would not just allow her to do anything. She bent her head forward towards Charles and apologized
“I am sorry for accusing you wrongly” she said and they wondered why she changed her mind
“I guess you losing your job brought you back to your senses” Charles chuckled and rested his back on the sofa
“I don’t want an half-ass apology like this, you should apologize properly by going on your knees” Charles declared and Tom turned to face him, surprised at his request
“I know something happened between you two but going on her knees will be too extreme” Tom said and Charles picked up his phone
“With one phone call I can make all your stocks become dust in an instant. Do you still think you can risk it because of one employee?” Charles said with a smirk and Tom didn’t know what to do
He was still thinking of ways to handle it when Amber went on her knees and apologized to Charles. She knelt down in front of him while trying to hold back her tears.
“I am sorry for accusing you wrongly once again” she apologized with her head bowed
“You will make me the bad person at this rate” Charles said and motioned for her to stand up but she could not find the strength to do that.
Tom walked to her side and helped her up but she flung his hand away and glared at him for a bit before managing to stand up on her own and stomped out of the room. Joy came out after trying out the clothes and picked the one she liked.
“You can send that to my house” she said to the employee that followed her in and they bowed to her before leaving the room with the clothes she picked
“How was it? Did you find the one you like?” Charles asked with a smile
“They were all so beautiful that I wanted to pick all but I had to restrain myself” she answered with a smile
“Where is Secretary Amber?” she asked looking around
“She went to take care of an urgent matter” Tom quickly covered up for her
“That’s sad, I wanted to thank her for her help” she pouted
“You can do that next time. Let’s go now because I have a meeting in the next thirty minutes” Charles said standing up and they left the room.
Tom escorted them to the car and bid them goodbye before returning to his office where he saw that she was absent from her seat.
She had gone to the restroom to bawl her eyes out because she couldn’t bottle up the pain and embarrassment inside anymore. She felt so wronged that she was the victim and she was the one that also apologized. The more she thought about, the more her anger rose and she felt like kicking them both in the face.
She finally finished crying and fixed her makeup before going back to the office. She entered the office and locked eyes with Tom through the window blinds and glared at him for some seconds before marching to her seat.
Not more than two minutes, he called her to his office and requested for a file. She brought it to him and handed it over to him when he addressed her.
“If you don’t know when to draw the line between being professional and stubborn, you might end up losing all you have” he said flipping through the pages
She wanted to argue but stopped since it was a futile effort and the damage was done already so she just turned to take her leave while he continued his work.
She finished up for the day and went to the hospital to settle the bill and also see her mother who was admitted there. She pulled the door opened to see her staring into the bright lights coming from the city’s buildings.
“Isn’t this night so beautiful? There is moonlight also” her mother said to her as she turned to look at her
“I know right. They are shining so bright with nothing being able to restrict them, I hope I can shine like them someday because I am so jealous of them right now” she poured out
“Did something happen at work? You look so down and your voice is sad too” her mother asked as she came nearer to her
“Well there is never a smooth day at work. I am just tired that is why my voice is like this” she told her mother
“If you are holding on because of me and being disrespected then you should quit. You shouldn’t go through hard times because of me” her mother advised and she chuckled
“Who is being disrespected? Your daughter is the secretary of the CEO! I am one of the high ranking employee in the company so you should be proud because it is a bragging right” she stated and they both laughed
“I just feel bad seeing you put all your money into my hospital bills, you should be doing other things with your money” her mother muttered with a sad voice
“That is why you should get better soon so we can many things together. I have a long list of what to do with you” she said, helping her to adjust her scarf around her neck
“I promise to then” her mother said firmly and they both hugged each other.
Her mother have been suffering from kidney disease for the past six months and the dialysis treatment have been consuming a lot on her paycheck but she was not complaining as long as her mother is able to hold on till they find a donor.
She sat by her mother’s side as they played their favorite song, Winter Bear by V while enjoying the scenery of the night.
“Imagine your face say hello to me, then all the bad days are nothing to me. That line is really comforting” she muttered and quickly clean the tears dropping from her eyes before her mother sees it and get worried.
She finally bid goodbye and left the hospital when a car pulled up and it turned out to be Eddy
“Hello beautiful lady? Are you going somewhere? Do you want to go on a ride with me?” Eddy shouted with a wave and she burst into a broad smile
“I guess I will not be sleeping angry this night” she said to herself as she ran to enter the car
“I have been dialing your number all day but you didn’t pick up so I went to check you out at the office and I was told you left already. I figured out that this will be the place you are then” he said as soon as she got into the car
“You really know everything about me” she remarked fixing her seatbelt
“Of course, it’s been more than two years” he said proudly
“Since I am here, should I just greet her? It’s been a while I came here” he suggested
“It’s way past visitation time and she’s resting too so we can come back another time” she responded and he nodded in agreement before igniting the car and zoomed off.
He parked the car at a distance so they could walk a little bit to her house and discuss things
“How is work going? You seems to be busy these days” she asked holding his hand
“There have been so many requests coming in these days so it’s natural to be busy” he responded holding unto her hand in return
“How about you? How is work?” he asked looking at her and she lost all expression on her face because she was not sure whether to tell him what was going on at work or not.
Knowing his temper, he might make the incident bigger than usual if she reveals what Charles did to her and also if she tells him about the contract, he might misunderstand so she shook her head and kicked against it.
“Everything is going on well at work” she lied and he nodded
“You are a professional at what you do after all” he remarked
“I stopped working at the club. I won’t do that anymore” she told him and he stood still for a while
“Although I really didn’t like the idea of you being a stripper at a club, I was able to understand since it was because of your financial status and since I didn’t have much to offer from my end, I couldn’t stop you. Will it be too selfish of me to say that I am happy you quitted?” he carefully stated and she smiled
“No, you are not selfish at all. Thank you for your support all these while, thank you for the understanding too. I think life pitied me a little and made my love life a good one at least” she remarked and he drew her closer to himself
“Life doesn’t have a choice but to be fair to us in one aspect or the other. Let’s enjoy this fairness till the end” he commented and leaned in for a kiss.
It was slightly getting deeper when they heard someone cough from behind and they turned to see Emily standing there
“Should I just leave the house for both of you tonight? You seems to want to burn in the moment” Emily remarked and they laughed
“You should have a good night sweetheart” Eddy said to her and waved her bye before leaving for his car while she entered with Emily
“You are one fearless lady” Emily teased her as they went inside the room.
She thought about everything that happened that day while showering but after letting water flow through her hair into her head and wash away everything, she was refreshed.
She scrolled through her favorite artist’s posts and wondered why he haven’t updated any painting for quite some time
“I wish Umbra can upload something nice soon” she sighed before throwing her bed to her side
“At least, there is peace at this side of my life” she muttered as she stepped out of the shower and went to bed.