The next day at the office was super weird. My coworkers were acting like they always did, so nothing was off with them, but there was a certain something in the air that gave me a feeling of pressure in my lower back. I'd been sitting at my desk since I got into work—which was roughly about four hours— before I decided that I needed to plan where I wanted to go for lunch for an hour.
Was work boring me? Absolutely. It was clear that home and in bed would've been a better place to be than working. There was a lot of procrastination happening from my part when my lunch daydreaming was interrupted by Helena sitting up on my desk with a cup of my favourite coffee in her hands.
"Did you hear?" She took a sip while staring at me expectantly, like I was just supposed to know what she was saying.
"Did I hear about what?" The heat was seeping through the cup as I grabbed it, warming my hands and my soul. The taste that entered my mouth was even more heavenly than the warmth of it in my hands.
"The company trip! The President is already planning it," Helena smiled enthusiastically, "I can't wait to see what they come up with! I have a feeling this year is going to be amazing."
"More amazing than last year?" I sipped my coffee as I went back to swiping on my Surface. What was it with finding a good place to eat lunch in the Big Apple? It was nearly impossible.
"Perhaps. Las Vegas was nice, but you know how Mr. Greene consistently outdoes himself each year," she crossed her legs and leaned back on the desk, supporting herself with an arm behind her. "I think we might even go abroad this year!"
I almost choked. "Abroad? You really think Jason Greene would take a slew of fifty people to a vacation spot outside of the US? Or do you mean abroad like Hawaii?"
"I meant like Fiji, but Hawaii is also very beautiful," she nodded her head. Helena seemed to have zoned out, so I took advantage of the moment and decided to settle on a place to eat.
"Do you have anywhere to go for lunch?" I was putting the screen of my Surface back on its keyboard as this question left my mouth. It was usually tradition between Helena and I to eat lunch together, although sometimes we would meet up with Sabrina whenever her lunch break coincided with ours.
"No, I was thinking of ordering a pizza to the office and just hanging around here for a while. Why?"
"I was going to go to the diner on Fifth, but your idea sounds a lot better now that I think about it. That way I can catch up on these graphs I need to do. Can you order me one too?"
"Sure thing!" Helena jumped down from the table with a big smile on her face. She was honestly too adorable. "Medium right? Vegetables with extra cheese, no mushrooms?"
"You know me so well," a wink was thrown her way as she laughed and left my office. I loved Helena like a sister. She was one of my first friends when I came to this city for my new job, and we had been through many ups and downs together. She was the only one in the entire company who knew about my past with the President.
When she'd found me in the bathroom, on my knees and reduced to incoherent sobbing, she'd stayed with me until I calmed down enough to explain how I'd had no idea my ex was the CEO. When I took the job, I was blinded by the stars that came along with the salary promise on the letter in my inbox sent by the head of the recruitment office. I was a novice, fresh out of college, and red in the cheeks at the thought of venturing out into life on my own.
The name Greene Marks hadn't struck any chords with me. After all, Greene was a common last name in the United States, as was Marks. I thought it was just an edgy name because I had heard that the owner of the company was young and new to the business world. I thought maybe he was bringing in more young people to join his team because he knew how hard it was for people without experience to make a living by their profession.
Never in a million years had I thought that the man who'd been my first real heartbreak had hand picked me from the crowd and pushed the head of recruitment to hire me at such a high salary. When I found out who the CEO was nearly a year later, it was too late, and I was completely invested in my job.
My insistence for the financial department to cut my salary down to what it should have originally been caused the President to pay more attention to what I was doing. I was shattered when I realised he'd raised my pay on purpose, just to convince me to join. He had been conditioning me from the start and I hadn't even noticed.
Well, once everything was settled, and I was treated the way any other employee was, I decided to empower myself and use the situation for my advantage. Jason had been constantly trying to find reasons to promote me to a higher level, and until I'd personally confronted him in his office about it, he kept finding ways to push my success. Once the confrontation was done, he agreed to let me flourish on my own.
I succeeded. Here I was, two years later as head of the marketing department and receiving more than what the bribe pay check had offered me initially. I was content, but seeing him around more often since I got promoted made my life more difficult, because he would find silly things to pick on me for.
A sigh left my lips, my head falling back against the top of my office chair. My eyes burned like they were dry, and my stomach was tied in knots. I couldn't believe I'd survived here for this long. What even made me accept to stay on once I found out who he was?
'Why couldn't he just have disappeared and stayed gone?'