The Woman

Chapter 1

If Mary-Jane's friend was right he should be coming out of the building in less than one minute for an emergency meeting. Kazia knew she could have sent anyone else over here to come and pitch to this all powerful lawyer but she didn't get in business to sit in her office and stare at numbers all day, she came into business to do business and this was her business so with her Louis Viton bag tucked securely on her arm she stepped out of her car and walked towards the building just at the very moment Raymond Dike was stepping out and for the briefest of moments she felt her heart stop. The picture she saw on Wikipedia must have been ancient because the man she saw walking towards her direction looked nothing like it. He had on a navy blue suit clearly tailored to fit his physique which she was sure was a few abs short of perfection. She felt a boulder go down her throat as she tried to regain her composure but as he got even closer and as she got a better look at him the composure could have very well taken a flight out of the country. He was dark but not too dark and was not fair either just somewhere in the middle, he had authority in his jaw which she doubted made any sense but he did and he was gorgeous, not the pretty boy kind of face that would make you not take him seriously but gorgeous none the less.

So consumed in her thoughts, Kazia hadn't realised when she was just a few steps away from him. "Good...Good morning Mr Dike."

He stooped in his tracks and looked at her giving her a stern look which was a few seconds away from becoming a full blown frown. "How may I help you?" He asked wearily looking at his watch and so did his two other associates behind him.

"My name is Kazia Chude but you can call me Kazia. I am from Acewood Furniture and I am here to meet your office furniture needs."

"I don't want to waste your time and mine, we already have a company that is set to meet our 'furniture needs' so if you don't mind I have somewhere to be." Kazia gave herself a metal slap to focus because she somehow seemed to be off her game and she was never off her game. Just as he was about to start walking again she stepped in front of him to block his path. "You might think you have a good company but you don't have the best and we are the best."

He gave a little chuckle and crossed his arms over his chest.

"What has business turned into these days? Companies think to get ahead and to get business they can just send a pretty face who will come shake her waist and show her pearly whites and then the business is theirs well that's not how Dike and Associates does business."

It was as if someone had poured cold water on her face and all her senses came back to life. This wasn't the first time someone had looked at her as nothing more than a pretty face because she was a woman in business and she had had to swallow all of that before but this stung...a lot.

At this time Raymond had walked past her and continued his hurried journey to where ever he was going but Kazia knew she want going to take it, not today and not any day.

"Mr Raymond!"

He stopped and turned around to look at her with a vexed expression on his face. Kazia took a couple of steps towards him till she was only a breath away from him.

"It seems I wasn't clear with my introductions, my name is Kazia Chude the Chief Executive Officer of Acewood Furniture. I am not some pretty face who came to shake her waist and flash you her pearly whites because trust me you aren't even worth it. I have a pretty face and a pretty damn awesome waist to match but I don't need it to do business because my business is 'pretty' enough to speak for itself. I am sure you sent some subordinate to go and get you a perfectly good furniture company to redo your offices because you are too busy winning cases and all that, good for you, and that subordinate probably looked over my company because its owned by a woman and how can a woman probably do furniture because it's clearly a man's job right? Wrong! Because it is my business and I am sure good at it so Mr Raymond Dike of Dike and Associates I do not appreciate your sexist profiling." Kazia took a step back and gave him a once over. "So like I said before if you want the best furniture company to do your offices then call my office if not you are free to go to wherever you were heading to, I have a business to run." With that she walked by him and made her way back to her car. She could feel his gaze on her back but she didn't look back, this wasn't the first time she had to defend herself and her business because she was a woman and she was sure it wasn't going to be her last. Just as she got to her car she turned around to her Vice president Design, David and Lisa one of her fresh interns who had a dumbfounded look on her face. "David I need the Rover Concept design on my desk as soon as we get to the office."

"Yes ma." He said and hurried over to his own car.

"And Lisa as soon as we get into the car call Mary-Jane and tell her that I will be having that meeting with Mr Festus after all." Without another word she got into the car with Lisa scouring to the front seat. She took out her IPad out and started replying work mails, she had done this several times but it never got easier and as much as she hated it she knew this was what her life would be like when she chose the unconventional route of being a woman in business but what she didn't understand was why this one hurt more than before and just as she was about to open a mail from one of her clients she saw her reflection on her IPad screen, she hadn't realized tears had welled up in her eyes.