DIANA
Night had already fallen by the time that the cab finally arrived at the gates of the Ramirez family compound, I paid the cab and I rushed past the security check up.
I felt like I was in deep trouble because I had lost track of time and I had two missed calls from Madame herself, it was barely thirty minutes ago.
I opened the door with my heart beating fast, the two of them were watching the news in the big living room, they turned their attention to me as I stepped in, Julian muted the Television with a visible scowl on his face.
"Where are you coming from?" Madame asked me in a voice that was both calm and cold as frosted steel.
"I went on a date after my closing hours, Ma'am." I replied in the most respectable manner so that she could consider my point but she was already boiling inside but she kept a lid over her impending eruption.
"Who did you tell? Did you take permission before leaving? Was your boss even aware that you had left the premises?"
I did not know which question to answer first or how to even answer them.
"No, I did not tell him about that because I felt that since it was already closing hours; I was supposed to go home at the same time as my other colleagues."
I tried to clarify my reasons but she was not giving a single concern about my facts.
"That is an error! You are not supposed to do that in any way, on any day! On no account should you leave the office without letting him know, even if it is through a simple phone call, understand me?" her eyes shone wider and she looked very scary now, I confirmed Emily's former statement to be true when she said that Madame was the one that I should be afraid of.
"Yes." I nodded my head and answered in a small voice.
"What did you just say?" she asked me sternly, I quickly realized my mistake.
"I meant, yes Ma'am." I corrected myself hurriedly in a whimpering tone, Julian just scoffed from where he was sitting.
"Do you have any words for her, Julian?" Madame asked Julian and he gave me a psychotic smirk before he stood up to make the speech that would spoil my night.
"I didn't want to say anything because this one is on you, mother." he spoke with pride and cockiness, his stare was cold and sarcastic, he paced round the room as he talked to himself rather than us.
"What do you mean?" she asked him with a shocked expression, like me she had not been expecting such a statement from him.
"I did not see a need to take her in but you said that we should do it just because of charity and old times sake, I did not ask for a P.A in the first place but you insisted and now you have given me one that doesn't know her job about being a PERSONAL assistant!"
I went cold with fear as I watched him raise his voice at his mother because of me, I have never seen such kind of anger before, his mother's eyes were wet with tears but she still talked like the proud woman that she was.
"I was not expecting her to do anything like that and her father had vouched about her good qualities so I had to give her a try, if you say that she is not what you want then you can say that without raising your voice at the same person that carried you in pains and sweat for NINE MONTHS!!"
The tears were rolling down from her eyes now, I felt devastated that I had caused such a feud, Julian was just getting started.
"I am sorry for raising my voice but none of this would have happened if only you knew the meaning of proper assessment, if you had thoroughly assessed her before bringing her to me-"
I could not stand the sight of Julian bullying his mother because of me, I had to do something to end all of this.
"It was all my fault! I was the one who messed up and I am really sorry for it, it will not happen again, I promise that I will not repeat such stupid mistake ever again." I apologized to Julian who froze in the middle of his statement, he looked at me with mock surprise.
"Who told you that you had the right to speak?" he asked me in a threatening tone.
I was instantly triggered by his nonchalance and his spoiled behavior.
I showed him a glimpse of the other side of Diana, the so-called savage warrior princess.
"The government." I told him bluntly, my response brought out a reaction from both parties, from Julian he was shocked that I had the audacity to reply him, for Madame it was more of a proud look as if my comment had actually made her glad.
"Your government rules don't apply here, in here; I am the government." He stated it as a kind of pride that I had to admire but I hated his cockiness even more.
"Your house is owned by the government, you pay taxes so we all answer to the same government and it is this same government that granted each and every one of us the freedom of speech, you are not the government if you answer to the government."
I was being raw with my facts and I said it all with a straight face, I saw Madame smile from my side view but I figured it would be my imagination.
"I see you have a smart mouth." he remarked with a shake of his head, I couldn't tell if he was disappointed or pissed but I did not care right now because he had already triggered me.
"And a smart and collective intellect as well."
I completed the statement for him, he was getting near the end of his patience and I could see a vein throb on his forehead as he scowled really hard because of my rude, bland, blunt, straightforward replies.
"Keep this up and you might lose your job one day, don't let this kind of misconduct repeat itself, you are my personal assistant and that means that you do not go home the same time as other workers, you are supposed to answer to me and be by my side at all times; that is the whole point of you living here so that you can go to work and close the same time with me, Am I understood?" he ordered in a formal but commanding tone, I fought back my feelings of attraction and I answered him in the same bland tone that I was using before.
"Yes sir, I think I might need a handbook with all the many rules I have to follow in order to please you."
He got a hint of the sarcasm that I used and he scoffed as a comeback at me as he left without even apologizing to his mother.
"I am sure that your smart and collective intellect will back you up." Julian said as he closed the door behind him, me and Madame stared at the door for a few more seconds before she heaved a huge sigh of relief.
"He is quite a handful, isn't he?" she asked me with a wavering smile, she had just recovered from the effect of his scolding.
"Yes; but it is nothing that I can't handle." I answered with a casual shrug.
"Exactly why I knew that you would be the perfect person for this job." she mouthed with a smile, I was confused.
"What do you mean? I thought that I was about to be fired?"
With the way that Julian had spoken to her, I felt that she would send me packing the next instant but to my greatest astonishment she was saying the opposite of what I had been expecting.
"Fired? Good heavens! No, I will never do that to my good friend who is still struggling to get back on his feet." she replied with a hand over her chest.
I felt happy that there were still some of my father's friends who were still willing and compassionate towards our family after we lost our mother.
"I said that because you have the right mentality and from what I had just witnessed; you have the fire in you to fight against his stubbornness, just be careful when you tread on his waters because he has become a different man after his father died, I was not wrong for picking you so don't make me look like a fool in the end of all this, I don't do well with disappointment." she pointed out the last part in a very serious tone and I already knew about the kind of undertaking that I was under.
"Yes Madame, I will not let you down and I will make my father proud as well." I told her with a smile and she waved me off.
I returned back to my room in high spirits because that date with Carl had almost cost me my job.