Dante^
I was speechless as I stood there in total disbelief. I stared up into the piercing blue eyes of the person who, in many ways, is responsible for shaping who I am now, unable to speak a word.
I was completely and thoroughly taken aback by his unexpected arrival and the aura of control he exuded as I stared at him in wonder.
I was finally able to meet the man my heart ached to meet in person after almost three years. I was overcome with emotion when I saw him and wanted to cry; despite the fact that I had lost the love of my life due to his infidelity, I yearned to fall into his arms again. I was so close yet so far away from him.
Happily, he could not identify me since I had dyed my hair to a brownish-blonde color instead of my thick jet black hair, and I had experimented by wearing green eye lenses with an eye frame in place of my usual light brown eyes. Fortunately, I was comfortable with the New Zealand accent and did a good job of emulating it.
"Oh my god isn't he handsome?" Mavis whispered in disbelief and astonishment.
I spun around to see Mavis's eyes sparkle with anticipation. As he turned to begin speaking, I noticed how everyone was enthralled by him.
"As I'm sure you're all aware, I serve as the CEO of the Harrison Ford Brokers organization. I will soon visit various departments to meet the teams in a quick introduction. I'm here to announce that, from today, I will be in charge of giving you directives. Show me your best and I'll make things happen for you. Throughout my time here, you'll discover that I'm a very rewarding man of hardworking people." Dante stated making me shudder after hearing his sultry voice after years.
"I'm not only in it for the profits; I'm here to restore and even improve the previous level of this organization. It will take all of us working together to make this company great, and I know you all have what it takes to do it. I made a substantial investment in this business because of that."
"Together with restoring the company's dominance, I also intend to make changes to the benefits package offered here, among other things. I intend to make you all feel at ease since I need your help to make this firm successful. From this point forward, all hands are on deck."
"After I have a meeting with all of you in your own departments, I will consider any suggestions and concerns. Enjoy your snacks and beverages for the time being. Following this, I expect greatness from each of you, so let's celebrate and bask. Good luck to you all." As the genuine CEO he is, Dante came to a conclusion.
Dante delivered a compelling speech, and I carefully observed him as he bowed to greet the other members of the company. As I stood in my place, I also observed as women rushed up to him to meet him before I was sudden snatched away from my thoughts by Mavis.
"He's so my type." Mavis murmured in my ear as she pulled me along to retrieve snacks and champagne.
"Wow really, I never noticed that with you and all the other girls here openly swooning over him." I was obnoxious in my speech.
"Lighten up Faith." Mavis retorted.
"Please don't tell me you've forgotten that he'll be firing others. Everyone in this room is acting as if Mr. Bloomfield hadn't informed them that he would be letting people go."
How could she tell me to lighten up?
"Faith what you need to do is to have Faith." Mavis quickly took a glass of champagne and drank it while I rolled my eyes at her.
"That's easy for you to say because your not overdue on work Mavis. Now if you'll excuse me I'll be heading back to work." I spoke walking away before she had a chance to say anything else that would upset me.
I turned to look at Dante again and saw that the women in the room were still smothering him with attention. I groaned and tried to contain my rage.
Even though I desperately wanted to stay and fascinate over Dante I unfortunately had a lot of work to do and loosing this job was the last thing on my list. I needed this to take care of my babies.
I kept working quickly for another hour until I was approached by someone I hadn't encountered before.
"Miss. Emerson?" She spoke, her short curly brown hair bouncing up and down.
"Yes?" I perked up at her after hearing my name.
"Mr. Harrison would like to see you in the board room immediately." She spoke and I tried my best not to get carried away even though I definitely knew what this meant.
Dante was visiting all the departments, but I was instructed to go to the conference room, which made it seem as though I was in serious trouble. Either that, or I was getting a promotion, which I highly doubted given my recent lackluster performance.
I made sure not to cry and think positive.
Once I reached the board room I was surprised to see a few others in the room. I knew something was completely wrong especially after a female from the marketing team mentioned that we might be the ones on the list.
"You're from the human resources department, right?" She gave a head nod as I questioned her.
"Have you looked at the list of employees who might be subject to termination?" She appeared as if she was about to cry.
"Unfortunately no." She shook her head which somewhat seemed like a lie but I guess I could be wrong.
"Did Dante- I meam Mr. Harrison see you while visiting your department?" Another questioned her.
"No." I shook my head while silently praying that the lord would help me.
"Maybe were all outstanding colleagues." Another shrugged.
"Let's face it, how many of us have assigned tasks that are past due that have been due for weeks or even months?" Asked the marketing girl.
Sadly, we all admitted it, and a few of us disclosed that we had kids of our own and didn't have many family members to look after them while we were at work. We were unable to take work files outside of the premises, which is unfortunate.
A little while later, Dante strutted into the room looking dashing as always. But, at that moment, I suddenly remembered what he did to me and chose not to think back on the past.
I quickly stood not recognizing everyone was standing and that I was the only one who was sitting after he entered the room.
I was a few chairs down from him thankfully. There were about thirty of us overall in the entire room.
"You may sit." With each of his remarks, Dante's seductive voice almost made me melt, but this only made me angrier as he took a seat and I remember what he did for me.
He cheated on you, I told myself, so stop being such a moron!
"Most of you, if not all of you, must know exactly why you are here. Regrettably, if you were thinking about getting fired, your assumptions and conjectures might be accurate." Before Dante raised his hand to prohibit chatter while he was present in the room, there were a few whispers that could be heard.
"Now, after personally speaking with everyone from their different departments, I made the difficult decision to pay a visit to individuals who are regrettably on a list for termination." Sadly, I caught Dante's attention as I shifted in my seat uncomfortably and forced a hard swallow as some others were about to start crying.
His attention lingered on me for a few seconds too long, making me shy away a little, and I wondered if I had been caught until he proceeded.
"I'm here to make this company great once more and even better, so I've decided to get rid of people who are holding it back; fortunately, I'm a guy of second chances, so I'll do you all this favor and give you all one month." I soon became exhausted after hearing his parting words, yet they gave me Faith.
"I'll give you one month to convince me that you deserve to be here. You've got a month to convince me that you're just as qualified for this job as everyone else around here. Everyone in this group will be under my direct supervision for the upcoming month. I'll evaluate your progress on a weekly basis to make sure everything is on track, and if not, I'll have to let you go." Dante came to a standstill and we all gasped.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Dante concluded, everyone stood up to depart, and I was about to do the same but had to come to an halt.
"I'd like to speak with you privately, Faith."
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