Right after Celine was hired, she went straight to a Salon inside the mall that stands next to the Lewis building or TLD, short for The Lewis Design. The mall is also owned by Zac and is named under him.
"Can you give me a dark brown color for the hair and red nail polish? Thanks." Celine said as she sat in front of the mirror.
The staff noticed the black envelope in Celine's bag the she placed it in her lap and said, "Ohh, a newly hired employee. Let me put your bag in the table."
"Thanks." Celine replied and gave her bag. "How long have you been working under TLD?" She asked
"Hmmm, about 2years now. You're not here to work in the mall, am I right?"
"Well yes. I applied for the Engineering manager position. Luckily and unexpectedly, I was hired by the owner." She said with a smile but her answer made the staff a little surprised.
"So you know each other personally?"
"Who? Mr. Lewis? No. Today's the first time we met."
"Ey. Don't lie. He only interferes in interviews and hirings if he knows the applicant personally." The staff said while applying hair color to Celine.
"Maybe he made exception today?" She answered with uncertainty as she was also puzzled.
She went back home and was still thinking about what the staff has told her. She was trying to remember whether she had met Zac before or was he a part of her past that she can no longer remember? She was also trying to recall how the interview went and all she can say was, the interview was not as hard as she expected. Not as hard as everyone was saying.
She was trying to connect the dots until she realized it was already late and she must go to sleep or else she'll be late on her first day of work.
Celine was involved in a car accident when she was just 7 years old. She was in comatose for a year and woke up in a hospital bed in US. She stayed there with her family for 15 years but moved in Japan 2 years ago. And now she is back in Hongkong. The accident made her lose her memory.
*****
C E L I N E ' s P O V
I woke up ten minutes earlier than my alarm which often happens whenever I am excited about something or nervous. But right now, I can say, I am both excited and nervous? Not really sure but I'm ready to face this day, that's for sure.
I went straight to the bathroom to take a bath as quick as possible since I live alone and there's no one here to cook for me. I can't go to the office with an empty stomach! Good thing I was able to iron my blazer last night so the only thing left for me to do is my make up. I used to be so slow in applying my make up on but I have a friend in the US whom I shared a room with when I moved to LA for college and she was really really good when it comes to make up. And yeah, she does my make up all the time. But now, I live alone and I can only do light make ups so that is what I am going to do today.
Summer is not yet over and I have a natural rosy cheek that only appears when I am exposed to sunlight so I will not put blush on or else I will really look like a walking tomato! It happened to me when I was in LA. It was during summer and I was still practicing, or maybe exploring, make ups and I put a good amount of blush in my cheeks. Good amount means not too much and not too little but visible. It does look good when I was still inside my room but when I started to wander in the streets, I almost looked like a clown, as my best friend described. Since then, I only used blush during night events like parties.
We have no uniform in the company and I am not yet aware of the dress code so for today's outfit, I only wore black pants, plain white blouse and and a beige blazer which I ordered from Shein. Good thing it arrived yesterday so I have something to wear today. I mean I do have clothes but sometimes it feels like I have nothing to wear though I actually have.
I may have lived in the States for how many years but I am still Asian. And I am one of the many Asians who love rice. I can't live without rice. I cooked rice last and I have leftover so I cooked fried rice for breakfast. The Chinese style fried rice.
After eating, I went straight to the living room to get my things before leaving. I tried to look around the house hoping I did not forget anything. It's already 7:15 AM and I must be in the office before 8:00 so I picked up my phone and bag then left.
I arrived in the office five minutes before 8:00 and I went straight to the HR office to ask where my office is since no one informed me about it yesterday. Or maybe because I did not ask?
"Engineer Chen, hi. I'm Larry, the HR head. I think I know why you're here." says Larry before I could even say anything.
"Oh yes, hello. I am looking for my office, sir." I said awkwardly.
"Follow me, engineer. " He said with a smile and I smiled back at him. "Anyways, you have no office here. I will just take you to Mr. Lewis." He suddenly said while we were inside the elevator which made my brain stopped functioning for at least five seconds.
"Wait, what? But didn't he hired me yesterday?" I asked in confusion. He looked at me and smile which I found ridiculous. I mean how can he still smile after telling me that I have no place here when they hired me less than twenty four hours ago?
"Relax. We're here. Mr. Lewis will explain." He knocked on the door and Brown opened it for us. I know Brown since I saw him yesterday. Larry left the moment I entered the room. I still don't know how to react on the news about me having no place in this big building but all I can do was shut up or else I'll get fired on my first day. I was standing in front of Mr. Lewis desk who was busy talking over the phone in one corner of his huge office.
"Miss Chen, I forgot inform you yesterday that we had change of plans right after you were hired." My heart was beating really fast with his intro. I started to imagine different scenarios and I'm at the point where I just I wanted to run away than listen to what he will say next. But my knees were too weak to move. "You were supposed to work here as Engineering Manager in the engineering department but we received a call yesterday that the Engineering Manager and the construction manager in the main branch ran away after signing a huge project. So I decided that I will take you there with me and you'll work on the said project and don't worry because you will still be the manager of the engineering department... but not here."
"What?" He may have explained it clearly but I still don't get it. And what main branch is he talking about?
"My point is, you will still work under my company, but not here. We will work in the main branch, together." He explained.
"What do you mean main branch? Where?" I asked.
"New York."