Didn't think I'd make an update huh??? 😏
Well, here you go....
This chapter is dedicated to bettylone evajayz Pridewoman25 and oluwakemie 😘😘😘😘
Now, hit the RESUME button 😜
"...here you go sir, your 'Espresso con panna', topped with whipped cream, just the way you like it" Maldives chimed as she placed the cup of hot-warm drink on the wooden desk of the man she now called Boss.
He sipped on it while she cautiously watched him to gauge his reaction.
I really do hope he likes it...can't have them firing me on day seven of my job here! She mumbled prayerfully, as she clung onto the last shred of luck she felt life held for her.
"Mhmm, fair I guess... at least it doesn't taste 'smoked' this time" he finally said, offering her a smile that made her know he appreciated her effort.
Smiling back in content, she proceeded to retrieve the large-sized tablet from her underarm, and began drawing up various tabs on it while she fed him with his schedules for the day.
"...virtual conference with stock brokers from Austria in forty minutes, briefing with primary members of the board follows right after...aaannd I've slated that to last for an hour-thirty minutes-tops, so you can have time to attend your son's football game, he called in some minutes and-"
"Cancel" he interrupted abruptly.
"H-huh?"
"The football game-take that out" Malcolm said as he returned to typing away on his computer. Maldives stared down at him, a look of confusion creasing her face. "You're not gonna attend your son's football game?" she repeated, more for her own clarification, than his inaudibility.
He stared back at her, his face expressing indifference at the subject, which made her clear her throat and nod in acknowledgment.
Wow, rich men and their misplaced priorities...Maldives thought to herself, while she read on the rest of his proposed agenda for the day.
"...lastly, you'll be meeting up with-it says here 'an old business client' " she squinted as she tried deciphering what the statement meant. Okay, awkward...she thought as she wondered why the receptionist who handed her the itineraries chose to keep the name of the said client anonymous.
She sighed.
Probably cause I'm still in the 'probation period' she deduced as she remembered the list of conditions they had placed her on before she had been offered the job-the aftermath of her disheartening predicament.
"...You'll have a job...but I'm afraid, even though you do have the necessary qualifications and requirements, we can't offer you the role an accountant, or any other positions relating to that...you know, with your history and situation...so, that means no accounts-or finances, your movements around here will also be restricted...I believe it's the least I can do..."
" 'Restricted?' " She had asked.
"Yes, 'restricted', at least for the time being, until you get cleared of all accusations..." Malcolm Richards, her new boss had explained to her on the day of her job interview.
She had felt disappointed but had accepted the offer anyway, as she had initially prepared her heart for the worst.
In fact, if she was being truly sincere with herself, she dident exactly expect to even land a job in the first place. An impending debt of almost three hundred thousand dollars, coupled with criminal charges hanging by a very very thin thread over head, and Regina's influence-yeah, there's no way in hell I still have that much luck spared for me, not when I'm sure the 'Big guy up there' has finally deserted me for my sins... she had conceded, but alas, her 'Big guy' had proven her wrong.
"Alright, I assume that's all?" He asked, jerking her out of her sea of thoughts, and she nodded.
Damn girl, you do not do that here now! Not anymore! She cursed, chastising herself for how she zoomed off on her environment again.
This isn't Regal Corp where the boss swims in your black pussy and let's you swim in the grace of familiarity!
"...y-yeah *Clears throat* that's all you have today" she straightened voluntarily, but tensed when she noticed his curious gaze on her. "M-may I go now?" she questioned, as she made an effort to brush away the awkward silence that was already brewing in the atmosphere above them.
"You may" he waved her off, only to call her back in her tracks when she had almost reached for the door knob.
Turning back to look at him, her eyes screeched at the sight of the look his face held-something about it didn't sit well with her. It felt familiar-disturbingly familiar, the way he stared.
Like a predator marking its prey, like a detective observing the body language of a crime suspect-it felt dangerous, and made her body cringe and quaver with goose bumps. She remembered-her mind instinctively flying back to the day they had first met each other.
"...Miss Coleman, Mr. Richards will now see you..." the office attendant announced to her in the waiting room, where she had spent the last one hour nursing and nestling her doubts and hope.
Garnering her files and necessities together, she clung onto them and held them tightly against her chest, as she followed the plump-looking brunette to the destined room.
"He already awaits you, so you only need walk in" the tall smiley warmth-filled woman informed, in a sweet voice that had Maldives ogling at her sweet-sounding British accent.
After thanking the lady, she took a much-needed deep breath as she tread carefully into her lion's den.
"Good morning sir..." she mouthed to a man, who had his back turned back at her as he was on a call.
"Just a moment..." he mumbled briefly, his head barely turning back fully to take in the complete view of her. She nodded in understanding-not sure he had even heard her response, but thanked the Spirits for the 'pause-excuse' as it afforded her some little time to absorb the environment and shed off the remainder of nervousness her body still housed.
She glanced around the office, taking in the full view of its architectural designs and layouts.
Wow...big money gang huh... she muttered inside of her, while her mind almost immediately traveled back to the sight of Fai's office back at Regal Corp.
She noticed that although this wasn't nearly as large and spacious as his, it did bear some similarities.
For one, they both screamed moneyyyy!!! As in hella moneeeyyy, the kind that was only available to you if you dealt with six figures, or you drove around in sports cars.
She also noticed how pristinely squeaky-clean the floors and surfaces were, no doubt, if the entire world were like this, typhoid and cholera wouldn't be words in the health journal.
It seemed to her that her boss to be had a knack for the color brown. Unlike the glass-themed room of Fai, this one was filled with all shades brown. 'Brown walls, brown paintings, brown mahogany, brown wallclock-yeah, man really likes his earthly pigment'.
"...alright, yeah, bye" he finally concluded on the phone before turning back to glance at his visitor.
Pausing a while, his thumb and index flew to his chin, while he slowly caressed his thick beards.
"You're Maldives Coleman, right?" he asked, scanning her from head to toe.
"Yes I am..." Maldives responded, feeling immensely uncomfortable with the way he was peering at her. If anything, she could have sworn he had somehow found a way to X-ray vision her entire bodice, judging from the way he was secretly and cautiously licking his lips.
"I see...please sit" he offered, gesturing her to one of the brown leather seats in front of him.
"...so, first question...care to tell me how you got to find out about this company?" he asked, crossing his legs together as while he twirled around in his office chair.
'Oooff...another arrogant one I guess!' she snorted, especially when she remembered from her research the previous night that he wasn't even the CEO or chairman of the company.
Malcolm Richards was simply the distant nephew to the CEO of JOEL&Sons building company and head of H-R department in the NYC outlet.
Joel&Sons was an establishment which aimed at providing the best services in the provisions of building materials, referrals of well-trained architects, engineers and surveyors.
Although, not nearly as wealthy as REGAL Corp., its influence in the society could not be over looked as they indeed happened to be the best at what they did.
It also helped that it was a family business owned by people of color, with the founder of the company being a Ugandan who migrated to the US at the tender age of seven, and thirty years later, went on to create a family legacy which stood for a lot in the society.
Joe Richards, died tragically at age seventy-eight, but not without leaving the company in the hands of his first son David, and younger brother Makuda, who happened to be the great great grand-father of Malcolm Richards.
"I-uh-I got a recommendation through an e-mail...although, I had heard about the company before then"she explained, sparking a raised brow from him.
"Have you now? And what exactly did you hear?"
"Um-not a lot, I actually don't know a lot the company..."she started, making him retreat back in his seat in a relaxing demeanor. She immediately sank, as her first thought had been that he probably felt disappointed by her response. Damage control girl! Get your shit together before you ruin your only chance at a job now!
"...b- but I did my researchand I realized what it stands for-this company, what you all stand for.. it's incredible, what you do for our people-Black people" she swallowed.
"Hmm..and is that supposed to cajole me into offering you the job? The fact that our ancestors fucked each other and shared similar amounts of melanin?" he blurted out.
"H-huh-no! Of course not, I didn't even consider that... I-uh... " she stuttered, as she felt taken aback by his bluntness and language. "...I-er.."
"You have the job" he stated plainly, halting her in her words.
"H-huh???" she asked again, not sure she had heard him correctly.
"I said: you got the job" he shrugged.
"R-really???" she questioned with disbelief. "...you're not going to ask me why I want the job...or what I can-"
"Nah, I already got what I needed" he insisted as he watched her inhale deeply, the relief creasing her face.
'Wow...who knew job interviews could be this effortless!
But you know, come to think of it, this is all fucked up! Can't believe I stayed up the entire night researching and rehearsing for this, only for it to be a cake walk!
I don't know about others, but I'm not a fan of having to prepare so hard for something, only to have it be a piece of cheese! If and when I've prepared hard for it, might as well come hard! Humph! she huffed as she recalled the countless times Fai stressed and over-exaggerated the importance of certain tasks, only to find out afterwards that it hadn't at all been worth the fret. 'Those were the days...'
"...but-while you have the job, I'll have you know that we can't afford to give you an accounting-related position..."he had explained, and she had painfully but eventually agreed to their terms and conditions of working as his official personal assistant.
"...um, is there something else sir?" Maldives questioned in the present, as she halted in her steps.
She felt her insides quaver beneath his perpetrating gaze, "Did I do something wrong???"
"Why? Don't wanna hang out with your boss?" he queried, a sly cunning smile slowly creeping up his face.
Shit...something about the way he calls himself 'boss'...I mean-I know he IS my boss, but seriously dude, cut it!
"Um, I thought I was supposed to-"
"Sit Maldives" he insisted, gesturing with his index to one of the chairs placed in front of his desk.
Biting her lips nervously, she reluctantly nodded, retraced her footsteps and reached for one of the chairs.
"W-what would you wanna talk about, sir?"
"Mhm...you know, you pretty good-lookin'..." he started, his words alerting her senses all-round.
"Oh-um, thanks?" she responded, sounding more like a question than a statement.
"Nah, you ain't got to thank me, we both know it's facts" he smiled, and it was only now that Maldives truly noticed how much of a fine man he was.
With bold dark-brown orbs that were hard to miss, his dark thin beards complimented the sheer look of his plump-square face. Even though he was obviously mixed-race, his skin tone edged closer to the darker side of the spectrum, giving him the 'Lewis Hamilton sort of caramel shade'.
Doing a rough calculation and assumption in her head, Maldives was almost certain his height probably towered at nothing less than 6'1". His full lips, pearly whites and huge muscular arms were simply bonuses, with the icing on the cake being his Lineup Buzz haircut-Yeah, a really fine man...she concluded.
"You know, I'm curious...how does a first class graduate of Financial accounting get to be so careless with funds? How's it that you end up being accused of fraud?" he interrogated.
*Clears throat* "Um-I don't know...things happen I guess" she shrugged off, deciding it was in her best interest not to divulge much information. There was also the fact that she didn't exactly feel like recalling the dreadful events, it was a painful memory she'd been fighting hard to shove down, at least for the time being.
"Right. And you know what's even more surprising...it's that you ain't spending your days in jail right now..." he furrowed.
"...no one, especially not the Regal Corp. that I know, would ever let a mistake like that slide so easily"
"It didn't 'slide', they just said I'd be off for now, until things have been properly looked into" she explained, as she wondered where in heavenes name the conversation was headed at.
Malcolm pulled out of his desk, his steps sauntering ominously about her, while Maldives shrieked in her seat.
" You know it still doesn't erase the fact that you're not in jail-in fact, I heard there wasn't even any cops involved at all...which is also very 'un-Regina Regan like'-"
"Wait-Regina? As in Regina Regan? You know her???" she asked, pausing him in his tracks.
"Uh-yeah-I mean who doesn't?" he shrugged, but something about his response smelled suspicious.
"Right" she nodded, all the while trying to figure what he would be hiding.
"So, the only way Regina could have let you walk away so easily should be because someone else made her..." he figured, his fingers brushing through his chin.
Maldives tensed up. "W-what do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, from what I know, Ronald Regan is not in New York.. so that leaves us with his son: Fai Regan" he smiled cockily.
Okay, someone please evacuate me from this conversation now!!!
"...And if Fai probably interceded on your behalf, you must be in his good books"
"N-no, no I'm not..."she shook her head in defense.
"Mhm-I think you are, in fact-I think you know exactly what I mean..." he finished behind her, scooting and muttering the last parts behind her ears.
Maldives gasped out loud, as when she turned back, she was met with the proximity of their lips lightly touching each other's.
She ghosted-felt numb. How the fuck did this nigga figure all that out??? She wondered.
Oh my Big guy...please save me now!!!
This chapter is quite short, I know...
But please bare with me🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
What are your thoughts??? First impressions of Malcolm???
You gotta admit, he is cute though! Hahaha (See photo up above)
Please don't forget to comment, vote and share-very important! 😋