Another Monday had arrived. A start of another week to go through the motions of work, work and more work.
Having arrived at his office by six o'clock, an hour before the official resumption, Munachimso worked his head off, but still, his work was far from finished.
A lot of deadlines were rapidly approaching and he needed to catch up.
There were lots of pending apps to work on and new ones he had to code and design.
And right there in his company, there were several new and old clients waiting for him at the reception area. He didn't like keeping them waiting, but at the moment, this is what it had resulted to.
The door to his office creaked and opened, Munachimso was slightly offended by the unwanted distraction. He glanced up from his monitor in time to see his receptionist poking her head into his office. That was her way of telling him that she was inviting herself in.
Unlike the other staff workers, the female receptionist was the only one who didn't have the decency of knocking before entering his office and he knew why.
The receptionist, whose name was Queen West, was a chubby lady of an average height.
She was four years older than him, but this wasn't the major reason for her disregard towards him as her boss.
241
At the moment, she was professionally dressed in the kind of attire that was meant to be a sight for sore eyes, and meant to make the rich guys with a fat pocket not mind waiting for hours on end.
It had been the plan all along. Queen was supposed to be an enigma, the one that would make the rich clients interested enough to want to wait to unravel her like a new package.
But there was nothing new about her to Munachimso. At least, not since she started working for him.
Four months after she began working for him as his receptionist, the both of them had been infatuated with each other.
To him, it was nothing more than the fling to pacify his testosterone. A quickie. That’s all.
But this was not the case for his receptionist who, obviously, was expecting something more. She succeeded in coaxing him into a relationship.
It ended as quickly as it started.
She always complained about not getting as much of his attention as she deserved and how he was giving more attention to only his work and himself. Never the type that could be held down with one woman for long, he dissolved the relationship.
During their relationship—if that is what you'd even call constant sex and nothing relevant on which to build anything fruitful—he watched and observed how the girl who was supposed to be his receptionist upgraded herself to boss lady.
242
She still remained dedicated to her job, and that's one thing that he would give her credit for. But she spoke to her fellow employees, even those who were higher than her, anyway she wanted, fearing no reprisal.
She paraded herself in the company as though she had joint ownership with him and made it clear to everyone that something was going on between her and their boss.
He did try to put up with her atrocious attitude. He often overlooked it when she spoke to some of his employees rudely and shouted at them unnecessarily.
Disgusted and unable to take more, he spoke to her about it in one of their private moments. Instead of getting a satisfactory answer, she ended up smothering his face with kisses, telling him that she was just trying to handle the employees to bring out the best in them.
As if he didn't know how to handle his own employees.
Even so, what had she offered the company?
Because of the way she had been strict towards her subordinates, making sure everything was perfectly in order and to the schedule, he’d thought she might have a crucial contribution to make for the growth of the company, but she had only proven herself to be a beauty without brains.
He still retained her as his receptionist after the relationship was over, not after admonishing her that it would be strictly business henceforth.
But she didn't listen.
243
Being a specialist in using her body to get what she wanted, she constantly displayed her ‘assets’ just to remind him of what he was missing.
If only she knew that the breakup was a relief to him, that he wasn't interested in romance.
There was one lady he secretly wished he was in a relationship with, though, if he had the chance to.
"Some of our clients from last week are here. They said they urgently need to see you," Queen West said, distracting him from his reverie.
"Which of them?" he asked.
"The ones from the bank."
He looked at her in silence for a while before he asked, "What did you tell them?"
"What did you expect me to say? I told them the usual blah blah blahs about formally booking an appointment and all that stuff."
He ignored her rude tone. That was what she resorted to when she realized that she could not get to him again.
"And what did they say?"
244
The receptionist pushed back free strands of her wig, shifted her weight on one side of her hip seductively and resumed answering.
She was making her moves on him again and he knew it. She didn't just come to his office to talk about the clients because it was something she would have done by calling him from her receptionist desk. Apparently, she wouldn't take no for an answer. He'd soon find a way to get rid of her for good.
"They told me that it was too urgent and they couldn't go through all the protocols. So upon their insistence, I told them that I'd come and check if you'd be too occupied to attend to them."
"Let them in. I'll see them now," he told Queen as his gaze returned to his monitor. He was evidently dismissing her.
The receptionist stood for a while in silence, disappointed that she didn't get the kind of response that she wanted.
She started to exit his office with a haughty catwalk. She got to the door and was about to open when his voice called out to her.
"Queen?"
She partially spun around, smiling in hope that her charms had eventually taken their effect. "Yes?"
245
Munachimso looked at her with a face devoid of expression.
That was all she could reply to him. No more, "Yes, sir." That was how it had been since the accursed relationship started. Maybe he should fire her now for insubordination. After all, he was still her boss and the executive owner of this enterprise.
"Inform everybody that we will be having a brief meeting after the close of work today."
"Is that all?" she asked with an annoyed frown, one hand on the doorknob. She pushed it open, and without waiting for a reply, she began to step out.
He ignored her attitude. "Just remind them that nobody should go home until after the meeting."
"Okay," she said, stifling a hiss, and slammed his door.
He shook his head and returned to his work. She was a piece of cake to him, and he knew how he could deal with her when he wanted.
246