31 The lady boss has changed:

"Reed's?"

"Editing is yet to be done."

"Why the delay? I'm told filming was three days ago?"

"Joe..."

"The next time he comes in, tell him i said he should take his time to sort his personal issues."

Nora nodded at what the boss had said. She always knew that Laura,just like Ray, was so lenient with her employees and now that she was giving Joe extra time to sort out his problem, she was even more impressed with her boss.

Seeing that the boss was quiet, she took that as her cue to leave the office. Just as she was closing the door, she heard "find his replacement immediately."

That came as a shock to her. A replacement? Meaning Joe's services weren't needed anymore. The lady boss just fired their photographer.

She wanted to say something but then thought against it, nodded and closed the door as she left.

To Nora, that could be just her boss's mood swings. Maybe the boss was mad about something or she was on her period. Nora reasoned. That is why she was trying her best to put that event out of her mind.

But then 11:00am meeting happened.

At eleven, the lady boss had a scheduled meeting with team-leads, some of whom coupled as the director. You know how advertising agency works... projects are given to different teams? Yeah,that was the same thing in R&L where there were six different teams handling different projects.

That morning, the meeting went on smoothly till it was Team C's chance to present.

Group C had a project on promoting some grape vine. Their ideas were all great and the presentation was going quite well until the team-lead, Director Lu, mentioned who was going to be the model.

There was a snicker from the left corner of the room that caught the Boss's attention. She could have just let it slide like before but Laura decided otherwise. That was rude of that director, if she wanted to say something she could have raised her hand and waited patiently to be given an opportunity. Since, she wasn't patient, Laura decided to give her the audience.

"Miss...?" She asked while looking at Nora.She was asking for her name. She could have asked the director who snickered but she didn't .Why? And it was not that she didn't know her name. Actually Laura knew everyone in the room by their names. So why did she do that. She wanted to create a dramatic effect. She wanted to tell the people in the room that they were unimportant persons before her.

"Director Yao, boss." Nora answered.

"Director Yao was impatiently saying something important." She remarked looking at the director at the left corner of the conference room who had snickered earlier. Her sarcastic remark was appreciated by the other team-leads who were trying their best not to laugh. Nobody wanted to get on their boss's bad side.

Laura signalled her to talk.

"I'm sorry Mrs William for interrupting," She begun and continued with "I wish to object on the choice of the model" after realizing that her earlier apology had been ignored.

"I assume you have sufficient reasons, director Yao." It wasn't a question. It was a statement laced with a warning.

Director Yao nodded in confidence and started explaining after the boss went quiet. "Miss Evie, who'll be modeling for the grape vine promotional activities is no good compared with Miss Lily. Miss Evie has no experience and is not famous unlike Lily who has a bigger fan-base and experience..."

Laura understood where this was going. It was something to do with conflicting interest. So after blocking the background noise, which was Director Yao, she texted Nora.

'Anything i should know?'

Less than a minute later, she got a response:

'Relatives in rivalry. Also Director Yao is the owner of that estate.'

Laura smirked. So it was indeed a conflict of interest. Interesting.

"So director Yao, what do you think could be a possible reason why Director Lu chose a lesser asset for the company's project?"

Director Yao smiled...a malicious smile. She seemed to have been waiting for that question. Clearing her throat in attempt to gain everyone's attention, "Miss Evie is the daughter of Director Lu's friend. And it's not the first time Director Lu did this..."

Laura received a text and again blocked her as she read the text. It was from Nora.

'Miss Lily is her daughter.'

Now it was now Laura's turn to snicker. She wondered whether director Yao was just ignorant of if he was indeed a brainless chicken. I mean everyone could see clearly through her actions. Without even letting her finish , she was silenced by the boss clearing her voice.

"Director Yao has some great ideas here. Director Lu seemingly breached her duty as the director...her duty to make independent judgment which would have promoted the success of the company which according to Director Lu, she didn't. You all know that every breach attracts various consequences either demotion, dismissal and probably evena law suit, " She paused and her eyes quickly scanned over the faces of the people in the room. In a half a minute, she marked tensed faces in everyone except one with a smug smile. She has never wished to wipe off a smug look from someone as she did that moment.

"...and to be fair, all those who have ever breached their duties would be dismissed, acting according to the company's tradition, after a hearing from board," she paused again and was a little bit happy when she saw the now smugless face of director Yao. However she hadn't finish. Fixing her eyes on the left corner and after making sure her gaze could reach director Yao's soul, she continued.

"...don't think i don't know that you bought the controlling shares of the building opposite the mall after realizing the company was interested in it, and sold it to the company at a price twice the market value."

Then she averted her gaze before she finished with, "This topic of conflicting interest was a good one. Good job director Yao."

And with that, the meeting was dismissed. If she could have looked back, she could have noticed the panicked expression of her employees, but she didn't. She didn't bother. But behind her, there was someone who, unlike her, really bothered. Nora. She was afraid that her boss would attract hate and knowing the boss lady's history with her previous boss,she was a fragile woman. Taking over as the CEO was too hard for her and she didn't want her to deal with the employee's hate.

While Nora was busy thinking how her boldness would attract hate, Laura was in her whole world. In her dark eyes bubble. She had taken out her phone when they were in the elevator to scroll over entertainment news to pass time in there. That was the only initial intention. She didn't mean to check on a certain page of a certain person at first stance. That was what she thought.

There was an official announcement made to the public by Gaming on their twitter page:

©Gaming will be recruiting teenage boys between fourteen (14) and twenty (20) years who'll be trained and later play for Official Gaming Team (OGT) as pro gamers. Gaming promises to give more updates.©

She didn't notice the slight twitching at the corner of her lips. Nora noticed though. The elevator had long stopped when she realized her boss had spaced out. Then she saw a slight smile which any person who didn't pay extra attention could easily miss.

Her boss and her moods.

Laura was in a good mood. Why? I don't know.

However, the moment wasn't sufficiently lived. Her good mood dragged her to the company's cafeteria at lunch time. She had decided to see if the services there were good. Everything as expected was good. The only thing she didn't expect was her being the topic of gossip. But we all expected it. How could people not gossip after such a drastic change from her.

"I believe Joe would win the suit if he sues. Since when is someone fired for being on leave."

"That is what happens when a housewife is promoted to CEO."

"I heard she dismissed two directors."

"Not exactly dismiss. She threatened to dismiss."

"It's still the same thing to me."

"She lacks managerial skills. Even i am better than her."

"We all are. What will we do if she wakes up one day and decides to lay off employees."

"Nothing is unexpected from ex- housewife with strange mood swings."

Nora was with Laura and she also heard that. The gossip was becoming unpleasant the more they talked and that is why she had decided to talk her boss into leaving the place immediately but was stopped by Laura before she could even try. Laura moved where the gossipers were.

"Shhh...."

She shushed to them. It was only for that small group of gossipers to hear but surprisingly, the lively chatter in the whole room stopped.

"...lower your voices."

She continued in a whisper to the now panicked subjects.

"...and don't repeat whatever you've said in public because then, my image would be lowered in the eyes of the right thinking members of the society and do you know what would follow next..."

Another pause followed which was withdrawn after she had achieved the suspense she intended.

"... a law suit. Slander. And i don't think you will be able to pay for damage, " She gave them one more dramatic pause before finishing with, " after all Williams is a big name."

Then she left.

And again, she didn't look behind. Nora followed behind her as usual. Unlike before, this time round, she was not in shock or anything. She was in awe. Her boss was great. Earlier she was just wondering how her boss would cower in fear when people started hating and gossiping but after that confrontation by her boss, she was impressed. Her boss was great and she was smiling proudly clearly throwing a party in her mind when; "Nora?" The boss called her.

"Boss?"

"Redundancy?"

"Huh?"

"What do you think about that?"

"Sorry boss."

"We have almost three hundred employees right?"

"Yes boss."

"Do you think the agency's work load balances off with the number?"

"No."

"I thought so too. Issue a notice. Make sure everyone gets the notice."

And with that she got in the car and drove away leaving the awed Nora behind. She didn't even realize they were earlier walking toward the parking lot.

~♥~

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~♥~