Decode

ZOEY'S POV

The following day I got to work only to find an unfamiliar man sitting on my chair. I tightened my hold on my handbag ready to question him.

"Sir, I think you are in the wrong seat," I said instead of questioning him like I had decided to.

He looked at me like he had no idea of what I was talking about."I'm I?" he asked raising his brows at me.

I frowned looking around and nothing had changed. Everyone was in their rightful positions, even the mean lady whom I came to know her name as Sara was sitting where she was yesterday. That meant nothing I was aware of had changed.

"I was assigned to sit here yesterday," I claimed. 

"And I was assigned to sit here today," he had that arrogance which made my heart start racing. What did he mean? Was I fired already? I thought Roy was going to give me a chance to quit on my own. I know he wanted me out of the company but wasn't this so soon? Did he hate me this much? 

I wanted to cry." ooh.."I said looking away from the man sitting where I was supposed to be sitting. I felt hurt, denied and angry. How could Roy do this to me?

"I am Marcus."the man introduced himself smiling and I glared at him wishing I could wipe his smile off his face. I did not care about who he was. He just took my job." and you are late for your new assignment." he added and I blinked.

My new assignment? What was going on?" What are you talking about?"I asked him.

"Like I said before you started feeling like killing me, I am Marcus, and I'm the CEO's assistant. He told me that you are familiar with him," he stated.

Wait, this better be real because it was so important to know I still had the job." I don't know him, how can I be familiar with a boss of such a big company? I'm just a normal citizen from a lower rank from....."

"I don't care about that, all that matters is that you know him. He asked me to pass this information to you." Marcus kept the suspense.

"What information?"

"That you should go to his office for your new assignment. Today, I will occupy your position here so you should leave. You are already late, he hates late people."Marcus said.

I sighed having a very bad feeling about all this."Where is his office and am I leaving with my belongings?"

"Ooh...his office is on the last floor of the company building. You should probably use the elevator labelled as the CEO's elevator and press the fortieth floor and yes, you are leaving with your belongings," he instructed then looked away from me.

I took that as my cue to leave. Following his instructions, I found myself on the last floor and I walked to the door that was tagged CEO OFFICE. 

I gently knocked twice and unexpectedly the door opened. I gasped at how sudden it was. I had no time to even calm down.

I walked in and there he was, sitting on his black leather chair. His desk was clean except for a few papers neatly arranged in a pile and a laptop where his head was fixed.

"You are late," he said without looking at me. 

"I have just been informed I am supposed to see you," I clarified.

"That doesn't change the fact that you are late." he finally looked at me."That one point has been subtracted. We are doing this by points. Today you started with a hundred points, and one is already gone because you are late," he said.

What was he talking about? I had not agreed to this yet." I didn't know about the points and I don't agree with you about it."

"Do you need to agree? I am the boss, we are doing this my way," he said fixing his eyes on me intensely."Nobody should tell you to get to work early, it's common sense." he added looking back at his laptop.

I wanted to protest but I had a feeling it would be a waste of time so I just slightly pouted in discontent.

"Minus two points for pouting in my office. This is not a place to express your displeased emotions," he said and I blinked.

How did he know I pouted and he was not looking at me?"I was not aware of that, you can't just do that."

"I don't care. Now go get me coffee, black with no sugar," he instructed.

I wanted to frown but remembered he would deduct another point so I just blinked."Where am I getting your coffee?"I asked calmly.

"How am I supposed to know that?" he asked me and he was making it so hard for me not to get angry because if I got angry then it would show displeased emotions and that would give him a chance to deduct another point.

And what did he mean by 'how was he supposed to know where to get his coffee?' He drinks coffee the other days, he is supposed to know where it is from.

What was I supposed to do? I still had my handbag, was I supposed to go with it? Is this what he meant by he was going to be harsh? He was a cold-blooded nonhuman, he should have said that instead. 

I stood rooted to the ground wondering what to do. "Why are you still here?" he questioned.

"Well because I don't know where to get the coffee or where to put my bag because you are not saying anything."I wanted to say that but instead, I just kept quiet and left to sort things out somewhere I had the freedom to breathe out loudly and get angry.

I walked around the company then an idea came to mind. Such a big company must have had a cafeteria so I asked around for one and true there was one, a big one and very luxurious.

I chuckled at my stupidity, I should have thought about the cafeteria in the first place, maybe then I would have saved myself from going crazy and tortured by my cold-blooded boss.

"Black coffee no sugar," I ordered but the cashier looked at me as if waiting for something additional. Isn't black coffee with no sugar enough?

"Money." she finally said what she wanted because I didn't seem to understand through her stare and silence.

"Ooh.. I'm so sorry."I said getting money from my purse. I was happy that I carried my bag that I wanted to leave. I wouldn't have guessed that I was supposed to pay for coffee with my own money.

I handed her the money that I was using to pay for my coffee in other different places but she looked at me as if I was crazy."Where are you from? Don't you know coffee costs more than this?" she asked.

No, she did not say that. How expensive? " add more money." she demanded.

I wanted to protest. How could the money she was asking for, was that I could buy four more coffee if I had gone to another place? What was so different with their coffee?

In the end, after not protesting like I had planned to, I paid and then left but I was furious. I hated Roy for this. I didn't have money to waste here buying overpriced coffee.

I brought the coffee to him but when he took a sip, he spit it out immediately. How dramatic? I wanted to roll my eyes. What could be wrong with such an expensive coffee?

"I can't feel the cinnamon flavour," he uttered and I frowned. I didn't care if he was going to deduct his stupid points because I frowned. Cinnamon? Alex liked cinnamon too. In fact, like was an understatement, she loved cinnamon. I had to get cinnamon from the store yesterday after work so that today she could have a normal breakfast, cinnamon-flavoured pancakes. How similar were Roy and Alex?

"Zoey..?" Roy called and I looked at him. I had zoned out.

"I'm sorry."I said clearing my voice." You did not mention anything about cinnamon."

"I want another coffee, I can't drink it without cinnamon," he said. This time I just nodded and left. 

I was about to use more money than necessary. I was here to suffer losses. When I brought the coffee to him this time, he didn't say anything and I appreciated that so much only that the whole time he drank his coffee, I was standing watching him.

"I want you to decode a few codes of an app project for selling medical supplies online. You are not allowed to go home till you succeed," he informed me looking at me this time. He was done with his coffee."What's your email?"

I gave him my email and since he did not ask me to sit down, I told myself to sit down on the couch. I got my laptop out and looked at my email. He had sent it.

Without needing more instructions, I got to work. I had to finish this early because I had to get Alex from school.