The alarm beeping on my phone woke me up from my sleep, I fumbled under the covers for it to put it on snooze before closing my eyes for five more minutes. After yesterday's incident, I really didn't feel like going to work, all I wanted to do was stay in bed the whole day.
'Maybe I should call in sick'.....I thought to myself as I snuggled closer to my pillow knowing very well that I had to go. My phone beeped again alerting me that the extra five minutes was up. I threw the covers off me and groggily made my way to the bathroom. Tying my messy hair in a bun, I stripped naked and got into the shower to bath and complete my morning routine.
Ten minutes later, I was dressed in a grey sweatshirt, a pair of jeans and sneakers seated on one of the two barstool at my kitchen island eating cereals. My kitchen was small and so was my one bedroom apartment but it was perfect. It was 7:18am when I checked the time and I had to be at work by 8:30am. Luckily, from where my apartment was to the office was just a 30minutes bus ride but I liked getting to work early. I quickly finished with my breakfast and washed the bowl before grabbing my backpack, my phone and my keys.
Today was a Friday which meant I had to go home for the weekend just as I had been doing for one month now. I let out an audible sigh before stepping out of my apartment to lock the door.
"Ahhh Santa Faye, Faye with an a.y.e." I heard Mr Craig tease a few feet from me just as I pulled out the key out of the lock.
He was a seventy year old man who lived next door to me and he was such a pleasing and jovial man. In the short period of time I had known him, he had become like a father figure for me since I had none, I didn't know who my father was. My mother had gotten pregnant via a sperm donor and had never hidden that truth from me. She believed a woman didn't need a man in her life to make it complete and to prove that she had started her own company from scratch, gotten pregnant and raised me, all on her own.
He was the only man who ever paid me any attention well except for my adopted brother Judo......yeah my mother and my family was pretty messed up.
"Good morning Mr Craig, I see you already up." I said with a smile putting my keys away.
"Yes child, I have a check up at 9 am but I have to meet one of my children first." He replied back before we headed towards the elevator in each other's company.
We chatted more and I laughed my heart out from all the jokes he told till we got out of the elevator and stepped out of the building. He made me forget about things for a while and I was glad for it. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways with him hailing a taxi and me heading to the bus stop.
~~~~
It was exactly 8:00 when I alighted from the bus in front of the coffee shop, which was three blocks from where the Adkins building was. There was still more time left so I hurriedly went inside the coffee shop to grab myself a latte before making my way down the street. I joined the people who were making their way into the elevator but soon regretted my decision.
'That's her, the girl who fell yesterday.'.........'she is such a loser, a fat loser'.......'and who has that much freckles on their face and body?" I heard the ladies at the back whispering and snickering among themselves. I closed my eyes for a second tuning them out.
Just before the elevator door could closed, Lauren, Berta and Max from my department rushed in laughing.
They were also newbies like me but treated me like an outsider, well Lauren and Berta did, Max was a little bit friendly to me but the other two were totally b*tches, with a capital B. I made eye contact with Max who stood next to me and he gave me a brief smile before ignoring me. I was hoping beyond anything that he would at least invite me to their Friday nights out in the town.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't seeking approval or anything but it did get lonely and it wouldn't hurt to have friends for once. The elevator finally stopped on our floor and before I could strike a conversation with him, he got off with his friends leaving me trailing behind them.
Solemnly walking to my cubicle space, I set my backpack down and mentally prepared myself for the rest of the day.
It was almost lunch time and I was dead tired from being in the meeting room with other junior copywriters trying to come up with the best advertising pitch for a product. We had to come up with about five different pitches and present them to Carla to choose which was okay, for her to brush up on it before presenting it to the other executives.
"Alright you slugs, we got three concepts done, two more to go. We will continue after your lunch break." Tom, who was leading us said with disinterest before walking out of the room.
The others shuffled out after him, taking their laptops and notepads with them. I sat patiently waiting for them to leave before taking off my glasses and laying my head on the table. To go to the lunchroom was going to be suicide after what happened in the elevator this morning and besides I didn't feel like eating.
I willed myself to close my eyes for a few minutes before I heard Tom's voice again.
"Santa Feckles, wake up. Here is no place to sleep." He slapped his palm against the table making me raise my head.
"I'm not sleeping sir." I replied to him putting my glasses back on.
"Whatever. You are wanted by Mr Adkins." He stopped on his way to the door, looked at me before talking again. "Good thing you are in jeans today, at least when you fall he won't have to see your ridiculous panties." He snickered before leaving.
My heart started beating wildly in my chest as I got up from my seat, fear was already gnawing at me and my mind wasn't helping either. The only thought that kept on running in my mind was that he was going to fire me.
One step at a time, I moved my now heavy legs out of the room, to the elevator and to the top floor. I could hear people who were still around whispering and laughing as I passed by which only fueled my anxiety.
I rubbed my now sweaty palms against my jeans when I got to the door that read C.E.O and paused for a moment.
"C'mon Faye, you can do this. Remember you have been through worst. If you get fired, you will find another job." I pep talked myself before knocking on the door.
No response came so I decided to knock again........no response. I knocked for the third time and still nothing.
I stood there wondering if I should enter or keep knocking until a response came. I knocked one last time before opening the door to peek my head in, excepting to see someone in there but no human presence was inside.
Fully entering, I shut the door behind me to take in the well decorated office. It was twice the size of my mother's office. I took this opportunity to look around since no one was here. Not a single thing was out of order, right from the mahogany desk, to the comfy couch at the corner, to the window sill that was graced with glass plague awards.
My curiosity got the best of me making me draw closer to the window sill, I knew this was wrong but I couldn't help it. The view from where I stood was splendid, you could see the rest of the city from this point but that wasn't my interest as of now. I traced my hands on the edges of each award reading what was written on them out loud. My mind was so focused on what I was doing that I didn't notice another presence had joined me.
"Are you done?" Came a stern voice from behind me making me jump a little.
I quickly turned around to face the owner of the voice but my left hand hit one of the glass awards from the sill. It crashed to the ground before I could catch it. My knees found their way to the floor beside the broken pieces just staring at it.
'Why was I such a klutz and why did I even touch them?' I mentally scolded myself as I felt tears prickling behind my eyes.
My gaze travelled from the shattered glass on the floor to meet hard hazel eyes and that was when I knew I was screwed, big time.
But wait.................why was he standing!!?
Yaaay, another chapter done😀😀. Santa Faye just keeps getting herself into trouble. Well thanks for reading my nonsense, I really appreciate.
Please do vote and comment as they make me very very happy. Peace✌🏾❤️.