Chapter Eight
She kept on punching the keyboard aggressively. Eight times! He had rejected the speech she had written for him eight freaking times! Soon, she may probably need to change her middle name from Tabitha to Rejection, cause she just couldn't explain why every time she thought she had done something really good, she got rejected over and over again.
"Take it easy on the computer, will you? It's not the reason for your inability to write something as simple as a speech," He said, shifting his gaze from the motor race he was playing on his phone to her for a moment.
She glared at him furiously, but he pretended like he hadn't noticed and went back to playing his game.
She felt like telling him to write his speech by himself since it was something he felt was simple. How could he just sit all day doing nothing except ordering people around, eating, playing games and visiting the restroom?
Seriously, whatever did he do there? He was always going in there every single time and spent most of his hours there. She imagined he somehow had a secret passageway he used to go out of the restroom, because no matter how hard she thought of it, it just didn't make sense that he spent unreasonable hours in there.
On the other hand, it seemed reasonable that he was always spending time there, as all he ever ate was junk food ranging from Pizza to shawarma, and then, ice cream, which meant that he was probably always having to use the toilet. What was weird to her though was the fact that after receiving the food he ordered, he always went to the restroom to eat it. It seemed pretty much disgusting, but who was she to tell that to her boss? To top it all, he always unlocked it with keys, meaning it was his alone to use, and she heard him lock it from inside as well, so, she wouldn’t come in. It was really weird, she reasoned.
"Whew! I'm tired as fuck!" Tade exclaimed and yawned loudly, stretching out his arms as he did so.
Bukunmi ignored his excessiveness and continued to type even what she didn't understand. She had spent so much time, effort and energy in writing the past eight speeches, but had gotten them rejected again and again. This time around, she was just writing anything that came across her mind; she was absolutely done with giving her all. Maybe, just maybe he'd prefer the one in which she wrote even what a primary school kid could write better than.
He stood up and went to her side, then shook his head like he was disappointed.
"You're still on this?"
She controlled the voice telling her to shout at him and ask him to write his speech himself since he didn't like any of the ones she had written. If it weren't for him, she would have been done and dusted with the speech writing and would've moved on to something else that was worth her time.
"You need to write something that'll shake the world, and this," He said, pointing at her unfinished childish speech she was still typing, "...won't cut it," He completed.
Her hands became shaky and she just stopped typing. He hadn't even let her finish what she had already started, and there he was, already criticising her work. When she was told she'd earn 200,000 naira per month, she had thought it was too much for the small job she had to do. Well, she had apparently thought wrong. She deserved so much more for not only the job, but for keeping her cool even though she had such an overbearing boss.
"Listen carefully to what I'm going to say next. I'm going to relax my muscles, but by the time I come back, I want to see a beautifully written speech, the list of what every team will be doing on that day, the budget for the party and our... Failure to submit it before the end of today... Well, you wouldn't like me to say the consequences. Just do your job, okay?" He said and walked off to what she thought of as the restroom.
He seemed more than disgusting to her. Going to the restroom to relax his muscles, seriously? What sort of pig did that?
She heaved a deep sigh and highlighted all she had written. At first, he had been very nice to her, but since yesterday, he always found a way to get on her nerves. Her grandmother always told her that patience was a virtue, so she decided to overlook all he was doing and be patient with him.
She clicked on the "delete" button and sighed for the umpteenth time. This time around, he hadn't even waited to see the complete speech before writing it off. At least, it saved her the stress of having to type it to the very end then printing it out.
She stared at the crumpled papers on the floor and sighed over and over again. She missed being at home, free to do whatever she wanted. She should probably just quit, but then again, she'd suffer her mother's taunts, and what of Uncle Gbenga? She needed to prove him wrong and make sure they weren't thrown out of the house her father had built and left for them.
Uncle Gbenga had told her that she was a good-for-nothing and had made her mother even doubt the importance of females being educated. If she quit her job, she'd only be giving him more reasons to mock her mum. Asides that, if she messed up, she was probably going to get a salary's reduction or get fired and she couldn't afford to bear either of the two consequences. Her mother would say she couldn't even keep the only job she had ever succeeded in getting and she'd let her family down once again.
Didn't he say he wanted something that would shake up the world? She always wrote something that'd grip her readers and interest them from the very beginning. Why didn't she just write using her writer's technique then? Speeches were boring and no one ever liked to listen to them, and if she was honest with herself, she had just been writing the same old way of writing speeches. Finally, she had gotten it! She was going to write it in her way; using her own method. She was going to write something that people would love to hear from the beginning, something that wouldn't bore people, something different from the usual speeches; something unique, something grand; something that'll shake the world. This was a challenge to her, but she was going to show how much of a winner she was and overcome it.
She smiled and stared at the computer, then flexed her knuckles. She was going to write something great, she could feel it in her spirit. Her fingers began working immediately and as she kept on writing, ideas were ever flowing in. She kept on writing without taking note of time. She finally reached the concluding part and yawned tiredly, but didn't stop what she was writing.
Her fingers moved along the keyboard as she wrote the last sentence: "You all are extremely welcome to the 40th anniversary of Welling Fam Heights, thank you." She smiled to herself as her eyes went over what she had written. With just a little editing here and there, she'd have successfully written a speech that the world would never forget in a hurry.
She went back to the heading, then began proofreading and corrected the typographical errors then went over it two more times. If he also rejected a masterpiece such as the present one she had written, she'd tell him to go to hell and write what he wanted by himself. After all, it was just a speech.
She yawned once more, saved the file and began printing it out. She went over to the socket where her phone was plugged and she checked the time. She could hardly believe that a whole hour had gone by, but she hadn't felt it. She smiled once more. When it came to writing, she let it fill her up that she didn't know when time passed. It was worth it and sadly, she guessed she'd love her job despite the fact that she had an annoying boss as long as she always found a way to impute what she loved doing as time went by.
Her stomach growled and she sighed. She still had thirty minutes till it was lunch time and she hadn't even had breakfast that morning. She then went back and took out the hardcopy of the speech and smiled as she went through it one more time. She felt so proud of herself, she could only hope that her boss felt the same way as well.
She kept it neatly on his table and made a phone call to the planning committee, asking to be mailed on the budget for the 40th anniversary celebration of Welling Fam Heights.
After that, she placed a call to Kate. As usual, Kate didn't answer the first or second call, God only knew what she was always doing.
On the third ring, she picked up the call which made Bukunmi feel much more relieved. She didn't like the idea of having to go all the way downstairs to see Kate who always looked at her intimidatingly. Bukunmi was aware that she didn't like her and would taunt her whenever she got the opportunity to.
"Umm... Please, I need to see what each team has err... Planned for the event. Could you mail them to me? I'd be more than thankful," She said in an unsteady voice.
"Sure, whatever," Kate replied from the other end and hung up.
Bukunmi heaved a sigh and placed the phone on the table, then decided to check if she had received mails on the computer. Her job seemed so stressful already and all she really wanted to do was just curl up in her bed, listen to music and write something. Still, this was the direction where life had thrown her to, and she didn't have much of an option than to accept her fate.
"Thank you, Lord," She muttered upon seeing that the planning committee had already sent in their budget.
She clicked on the mail and ran her eyes over the list till she got to the end which summarised the money needed for the event.
"What the... Twenty-five million naira?" She blurted out.
She was going to call the head of the planning committee right away and ask why he had to ask for such a huge amount of money, but stopped herself almost immediately.
She had forgotten that the company had more than enough to even throw out. Being from a poor background, she had not remembered that to some people, even a billion naira meant nothing. Thankfully, she hadn't reacted immediately.
She bit her lip, pondering over what she'll do if she had such a whopping sum of money. She'd probably get a land and a fairly used car then improve her wardrobe and buy her mum, grandma and brother whatever they wanted.
She smiled to herself... If only wishes were horses.
The sound of a phone ringing however interrupted her thoughts. She looked up and searched with her eyes and ears to know and hear where the ringing was coming from.
That wasn't her ringtone, neither did the landline possess that ringtone. Suddenly, her eyes shifted to a phone that lay on her boss's table. It was his and it was flashing a white light as it rang.
The phone stopped ringing, but then, it started ringing again and again. She wondered if Tade couldn't hear his phone ringing and decided to just place the phone on silent mode because it was messing with her work.
Her table and chair were at the end of the office and she had a small bookshelf and a drawer as well which were by the side of the table and chair. She had also been provided with a computer and a laptop, and she was thankful that although she sat just across from her annoying boss, he didn't interfere in her work.
She picked up the phone from the table and took a look at the caller ID, which showed that someone named Drago was calling, and was about tuning it to the silent mode, when a hand forcefully grabbed the phone from her, taking her by surprise.
She turned around with a gasp, then saw her boss, Tade, giving her a fierce look that sent her heart racing with fear.
"What gave you the audacity to touch my phone?" He questioned, his eyes flashing her a cold stare.
"I'm... I... I just wanted to..."
"I don't want to hear it!" He yelled.
His voice sent her off balance and she held on to the table for support, shivering like a wet animal.
"The speech... Are you done with writing it?" He asked not minding that she was in a frenzied state.
Her voice failed her, so she just nodded her head rapidly.
"I hope you wrote something good this time around. I didn't employ you to be snooping around my office, you know," He said to her.
"I wasn't..."
"Enough! Where's the speech? Am I to ask you for that as well?" He asked.
"N...no," She managed to say and scrambled through his table till she found it and handed it over to him with shaky hands.
"You've annoyed me a whole lot today. This should better be good for your own good," He said in a threatening voice and ran his eyes over the speech.
Bukunmi looked down at her feet. He was probably going to give her a hot slap or worst still, hand over to her a sack letter. She should've just written it in the usual way, instead of writing it like a story. He was already angry with her and she felt that she had made things worse.
However, against her knowledge, he read every word she had written and nodded his head in approval. He had wanted her to come out of her comfort zone and not write the same old speech as everyone did, and she had even exceeded his expectations.
"When I was talking about a speech that would shake the world..." He started.
She looked up trembling with fear and her eyes were filled with tears that she knew were going to drop soon.
"... I was talking about this," He concluded.
Bukunmi found it hard to believe her ears and looked up immediately in shock.
"What?" She managed to ask with trembling lips.
"Good job, Bukunmi. This speech you wrote is the most brilliant thing I've seen in so long, well done," He said.
She smiled, still somewhat disbelieving him. "Are you sure, sir?" She asked, wanting to confirm if she had been hearing well.
"Yes, I am. This is absolutely incredible, I'm glad I employed you," He said.
"Thank you sir!" She blurted out and attempted to give him a hug.
He stepped backwards. "Are you crazy? I'm your boss, don't ever forget that," He said.
It was at that moment she knew she had ruined the mood. "Err... Sorry, I was just..."
"I don't care. Just carry on with your work. I'm going somewhere and I may also not be in the office tomorrow. Have a nice day ahead. Once again, good job," He said to her.
She beamed with happiness. "Thank you," She said.
He was leaving, then stopped right at the doorway, then turned around, making her wonder what was wrong.
"Listen carefully to me, Bukunmi. Any day I find you going through my phone or anything personal to me again, you'll be fired, do you understand?"
"I wasn't going through your..."
"Do you understand?" He yelled at her, sending shivers down her spine once again.
She immediately nodded, knowing she couldn't possibly argue with him. "I understand," She replied.
"Good for you then," He said and walked out of the office.
She heaved a deep sigh as he walked out of the office, with his hands in his pockets as usual, then he slammed the door behind him. She began to think carefully to herself after he was gone. Why had he been so annoyed at her being with his phone to the point of even threatening her with losing her job?
Surely, due to his reaction, there was something he was hiding. He definitely had roaches in his cupboard and she was going to fish them out, even though her job was now on the line.
Her stomach growled again and she glanced at the wall clock. It was past one already; she may as well get something to eat first before thinking of ways to bring Tade and his accomplices down.
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