Thin Lines

[One]

/The fine line of Effort/

Present Day

The sound of Deki's phone going off for the millionth time made her assistant, Zizi sigh quietly. She wouldn't want her boss to chop off her head, but then again, why was she ignoring the calls?

Deki looked up from the papers in front of her and laughed mentally at her assistant's failed attempt at being discreet. She looked at her phone, and her boyfriend's face flashed on the screen.

Three years and the man had learnt nothing.

She hardly ever took calls at work, except it was work-related. Maybe it was his lack of an actual job that gave him too much time for him to think he could call her at this time.

Glancing at her watch, she noticed it was 4:30 pm.

The phone chimed again, and this time, she rejected it, she put her phone on silence and then blocked his number.

"What? I'll unblock it later," she said when she noticed Zizi's eyes trained on her.

Zizi gasped.

"That's what you did? I thought you were texting him."

"Mind your business and focus on your work," she mumbled, placing her phone back on the table.

Zizi chuckled. Her boss could sometimes be very cute.

Deki Erhi was the best account executive in Riga and Ryon, a top-notch advertising firm in the country.

She took her job seriously. She was a perfectionist in almost all areas of her life except when it came to having fun, spending time with her partner or friends, and remembering to eat or sleep.

Yet she was unapologetic about her negligence in those areas. As a child, she had to bring home the best grade, and she always did. If she didn't her perfectionist parents would serve her brains for dinner to the extended family.

Most of the people in both her parents' families were perfectionists. Yes, they were intelligent, classy goal-getters, but it was almost like they had post-traumatic stress disorder if anyone were to fail. They were driven by achievements and success, but at least a lot of them were kindhearted and empathic.

Well, Deki couldn't say that about her parents. They were ruthless.

She would never forget the look on her mother's face when she found out Deki didn't choose law as her major and her father had never been so disappointed in her when she also refused Businesses management.

For that sole reason, they gave her a condition that she must come back home with a 5.0 GPA, or else she would have to apply for law the following year.

Deki was desperate, so she made sure to study until she was about to die from exhaustion, and she did make the 5.0 GPA.

In her second year, when she had a C in one of her courses, her parents asked the school for a recall of her paper and to have another professor grade it. She scored an A.

Deki graduated at the top of her class with a 5.0 GPA, and her parents still requested that she took on a second degree in law or business management, and then she go for an MBA.

After spending all her life pleasing her parents, she decided to discreetly take the job at Riga and Ryon, she moved away from her parent's home in Abuja and relocated to Lagos where she had been for the past seven years.

The twenty-eight years old lady she had become would continue to thank her twenty-one years old self for making that decision, because not only has she excelled in her career, she has made friends, she met the man who loved her unconditionally and she was far away from her parents and their judgemental selves.