Sophia The First

7

The next week at work was super busy for him as usual. He had just returned from a lunch meeting with one of the banks at a restaurant; the bankers are all rushing him because they all want to collaborate with the Company for the Gas project.

They've not even been awarded the contract yet but the Bankers are so sure HydroTerra will get a block. They know at least one or two of the top 5 indigenous oil companies will get something so they are all pressuring the CEOs before the ministry of petroleum allocates the blocks so they can get juicy financing deals. But Dare wasn't falling for it. He is not partnering with anyone of them now till they win the blocks. He can raise the money from his former Company if he wants to.

He really wants the Company to diversify and increase their gas production because the world is moving to cleaner fuel sources. Gas is not completely clean but it is cleaner than crude oil, so he really wants them to get this right. The gas project will save the Company from extinction at least in the next 10-15 years and give them more time to shift into renewables.

He has been warning Chief about this for years now but it's like Nigerian Oil Companies were relaxed because the Nigerian Government does not send climate change and there are not enough green activists in the country to pressure them.

It is only Yinka Bakare's organization that is the loudest and no one in the industry takes them seriously. However, the House of reps accepted a petition from her organization and even formed a climate change committee three months ago. He knows those ones are unserious and it will probably take them 100 years before they do anything serious but he is not going to wait until then before he starts acting.

Most Nigerian oil companies are reluctant to move into gas because it is much more expensive to extract and transport, but Mr. Obaze has developed some engineering and financial strategies that can help them save costs if they venture into it.

He was headed to his office from lunch when he saw a woman and a baby in the elevator. When he got to his office he asked Ada why there was a woman with a baby in the elevator and she informed him that the Company runs a crèche on the 6th floor for Company employees.

That week he did a cost-benefit review of the crèche, held a meeting with the HR head and the two female employees currently using it then asked the building managers to shut it down next month.

It is not safe to bring kids here. Don't they understand the risks of this job?

****

He was on the phone the following morning with a crude oil trading company in Europe, when she stormed into his office furiously. He looked up at her and she looked like she was ready to fight someone, when she noticed he was on the phone she stopped.

She was livid but she tried to keep her cool. He looked her straight in the eyes as he continued talking on the phone, he dragged the phone conversation a little by asking some irrelevant questions as he watched her. He did that to give her more time to calm down but she looked like she was getting angrier just by looking at his face. Lol.

He really hates confrontations because he always loses he temper, there is no middle ground for him he is either extremely mean or indifferent. He knows she is here because of the creche. 

His eyes were still on her as he pretended to listen to the crude oil trader rambling away on the other end of the phone. Today she was wearing a white chiffon blouse and a black midi length skirt. The Skirt wasn't even that tight but the curves were very visible. She was wearing the same pair of shoes she had on the first day, those ones that accentuated her legs.

Her perfume that has been ingrained in his memory since the very first day she walked into his office filled his nostril again and flirted with his senses. Inhaling it now actually reminded him of that morning on his birthday. When he entered his office that morning he could smell it, at first he thought it was because she was standing at Ada's station. However, when he saw that the theme his birthday cake was inspired by the horrible painting that the interior designers put in his office he knew she had been in his office that morning, the cake was nice though.