His Nineteenth Secretary [✔]

Twenty

"Good morning Sir." I greeted. He only nodded in response to my greeting.

It was a new week in the month of March, exactly a month and two days, after the talk he had with me on the company's rooftop.

He came out of his office a few minutes later while holding in his hand a medium-size manila envelope.

I rose to my feet as he got closer.

On getting to where I was, he placed it on my desk.

"That's the contract you are going to sign."

"All right Sir."

"Go ahead, go through it." He said.

In compliance, I picked up the envelope, opened it and slipped out the contract. Holding the contract in my hand, my eyes skimmed through it. The terms were okay except for the part of the remedy for the breach of contract;

*There will be no dating on both parties' side until the contract ends.

*No invasion of privacy.

*No one aside the two parties under the contract must know about the marriage being contractual.

*During the course of living together under the same roof, no pet is allowed.

*No holding of parties in the house.

*No uncleanliness.

In case of breach of contract, the offended party is to be paid a twenty million dollars by the breaching party.

It was obvious that the remedy was in his favor, like why in the world would I ever make any attempt to breach a contract where I would have to pay a twenty million dollars to him, where do I get that huge amount of money from.

There was nothing to be scared of anyway, not as if I would go against any of the terms. I already told Alicia about it but she wasn't the type to let secrets out, it wasn't the first time I would be letting her in on a secret.

"Okay with the terms of the contract?" He asked.

What okay?

"I'm okay with it."

"Do you want to sign it now or?"

"I should sign it now." I grabbed the ball pen that was lying on my desk to sign.

"About meeting my dad, will you be free this weekend?"

"Yes. Umm... when I told my grandma about it, she also said she would like you to come and see her."

"Will next week be okay?" He asked. I felt relieved, and there I thought it would be a problem to convince him about it.

"Sure." I said. With this, he stretched out his hand towards me for a shake. Hesitating a little, I reached out my hand to receive the shake.

"I want to remind you that this is not for free, since you refused the payment, whenever you need anything, be free to tell me, I will be glad to help." With this, he released my hand from the shake.

*

I couldn't stop hoping that everything be gotten over with as soon as possible.

I and my boss were seated together on a black leather chair while his dad, donned in a long purple rope was seated across from us in his king-size chair. We were already in his extravagant antechamber waiting for him before he joined us and when he finally did, the look on his face was inimical, not friendly at all.

Once he was settled down, he wouldn't look else where but at me. Under his gaze, I could feel my heart racing and my breathing becoming a little erratic.

All of a sudden, I felt something a little heavy on my left hand.

I looked down at my hand to see my boss's hand trying to spread my palm open with his cold one and once open, intertwined our hands, then  squeezed a little. Confused, my eyes were on our intertwined hands for a while and when I looked at him- into his eyes, I could see them reassuring me there was nothing to be scared of. I didn't know if the gesture was genuine or an act but, it managed to calm me down a little.

We were interrupted by a loud clearing of throat. It was his dad trying to get our attention. Due to my anxiousness, my throat felt dry and I started feeling an unexplainable inner heat. I wish more than anything to drink from the tea set down before us to get rid of the dryness in my throat or something cold I could drink to calm myself but I was anxious to even lift a finger.

"Ruby..." Mr Walker trailed off.

"Cornwall, Sir." I supplied sensing that he wanted me to remind him of my last name.

"What about your parents?" He asked.

"We discussed about that already. Let's go straight to the reason why we are here." My boss cut in before I could say anything.

"Is anything wrong with wanting to hear it from her?" Seeing them this way, I could see for myself they weren't on good terms as father and son. The same thing with the atmosphere between them at the anniversary. There were rumours about the unhealthy relationship between them at work, I don't trust rumours but since I was seeing it for myself, there was no doubt about the credibility of the rumour.

"I will answer the question." I quickly said, trying to avoid a fight between them.

"You don't have to." He disagreed firmly with his eyes fixed on his dad. At his words, they both had their eyes locked in each other's stare for as long as I can't remember.

"I will like to have a word with you in private before we proceed." His dad charged before standing up to leave the room.

My boss rose up and followed after him.

While they were gone, I took the opportunity to drink from my tea and to calm myself down.

"The wedding will be taking place next month." His dad finally announced after they had returned back. "And it is going to be a church wedding." He added.

"Church... I don't get this. Can't we just go to a registry and..."

"No objection, son. Ruby, I'm sure you don't have any problem with that?" He asked with a mischievous smirk.

"No, Sir." I wanted to put on a smile but failed.

"Good. Another thing is, you can't continue working as his secretary at the same company, there will be distraction. I already discussed this with a friend of mine who owns UF and he assured me that a job will be available for you at his company after the wedding."

"Dad..."

"No objection to that too and..." He rose to his feet. "We are done." He said before hobbling out of the room.

I was more than annoyed, not because of anything else but because I would have to change workplace again because of a fake marriage.

"Let's go." He said rising to his feet as well.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know he was going to bring up the idea of a church wedding." He apologized while we were in his car ready to leave.

"Just that?"

"And of changing of workplace." He added. I didn't say anything to that, not when I was still angry. "You should say something to that."

"I don't have anything to say." Just then, apart from the fact that it was going to be a church wedding which I wasn't expecting, it dawned on me that I was angry for no reason, I mean who wouldn't be happy to stop working for someone like my boss. I should be the happiest person on earth, but for some reason I felt unhappy about it.

"I'll drive you to your place then." He said before starting the car.