"…Introduce yourselves." Mr. Fisher bellowed,
"I'm Betty May, floor supervisor under Miss Laura Lin."
"Tracey Baker, guest room attendant under Miss May and Miss Lin." Tracey said.
"…Good evening Sir, I'm Miss Laura Lin, Executive housekeeper of the housekeeping staffs—"
"And your deputy?" Ethan questioned,
"She's on a maternity leave Sir." Laura replied,
"And Mr. Fisher are you aware of this?"
"Yes Sir."
"Go on." He said in a bored tone.
"Mia Anderson , a kitchen porter in the kitchen department." Mia mumbled as she avoided eye contact with Ethan.
"And last but not the least; I'm Christian Oh Executive Chef of the Kitchen department."
"Mr. Oh, what an interesting name." Ethan sneered.
"Thank you Sir, it's my grandmother's." Christian sneered back.
At that moment, Mia could feel the tension between them which made her curious.
"Em Sir," Mr. Fisher quickly stepped in, "Mr. Oh is one of our newest, he was specially recommended by The Senior Chairman Sir, he joined the hotel few weeks ago, he's quite young but he has a promising future, he was in charge of the meals prepared tonight, he—"
"Is that so?" He replied in a bored tone as he let his face rest on his left palm.
"Yes sir, he's had 5 year experience at a prestigious culinary school in France.." Clearly, Mr. Fisher didn't get the message yet.
Ethan let out an exasperated sigh and murmured,
"…God, I hate odd numbers."
"S-Sir?" Mr. Fisher stuttered. It seemed like everything he said had only made things worse.
"Get me the report I asked for." He replied instead.
"Y-Yes Sir."
After that moment of friction, everything seemingly went to normal.
Ethan briefly discussed their past activities and then, he brought up the issue of the one week suspension from work.
"…And Mr. Fisher told me you all had your different opinions, well I'd like to hear them now, clearly I was the bad guys, so tell me, was I wrong or right?"
One by one, they passed weird stares at one another, everyone not wanting to say anything.
"Okay, then I guess I have to call names then, you." He paused as he pointed at Mia, "Mia Anderson, right?"
"Yes Sir." She replied stiffly,
"Tell me, what do you think of my actions?"
Mia was quiet for a while before she finally spoke,
"A sane CEO would do whatever it takes to protect his business, Sir." She replied, maintaining eye contact with him. Deep down, she was wondering where all that confidence was coming from, at the same time, she was loving it. She suddenly remembered she had been in the same room with this man whe he had said this and it made her cringe.
"You're quite intelligent Mia." He nodded, "A sane CEO would do whatever it takes to protect, grow and expand his business—"
"Even if it means using his employees for his own selfish interest—"
"Miss Anderson!" Miss Lin suddenly snapped, she had been quietly watching the whole time.
"No it's fine Miss Lin. Here, everyone's entitled to their own opinion." He told her.
After that, he continued with the discussion, but Mia was clearly not paying attention, she had once again zoned out.
A swirl of emotions grew inside her; hate, rage, a sense of betrayal and depression. She wasn't sure of what she was feeling at the moment, but she was doing a great job at keeping herself together.
She felt used and foolish and even when she received the huge credit alert of the deal the other night, there was nothing to be happy about. She couldn't believe she had spent an entire week with this man, she had told him personal things, said things she probably shouldn't have said back then. If only she could turned back the time, she would never have said yes to that kid at the grocery store.
She came to the present as the chairs dragged against the ground and everyone got up and began to move out. She stared briefly at him as she joined them, but he wouldn't even acknowledge the stare. He was facing forward and had this poker face on, so it was hard to tell what he was thinking.
The only thing that came out of his mouth as Mia reached the door was,
"Mr. Oh, I'd like to have a word with you."
Mia found her way to the bathroom, and when she was sure she was alone, she locked the door behind her and stared at herself directly in the mirror. Suddenly she remembered the day she had seen her period and he had been the first one to notice, or the time she had fallen on her butt, because she was filming him and she broke into a loud sob.
Never had she felt so embarrassed and humiliated in her entire life. She couldn't possibly go back to the party she thought, if only there was a way to jump out of the window without crashing at least 30fts to the ground. Minutes later, a loud knock on the door sent a sense of urgency to Mia, and hurriedly washed off droopy mascara and her face altogether, then wiped it and reapplied her lipstick. Once she was out, she gave the ladies an apologetic smile and quickly walked away, somehow, she finally managed to escape, but she wasn't even sure she wanted to go for the after party.
---
"…Miss Lin, have you seem Mr. Oh anywhere?" Ethan asked,
"Oh, he was just with Miss Anderson a while back, I think they left early, is there a problem, Sir?" She asked with concern,
"No, nothing to worry about, I'll see him at work on Thursday." He murmured before walking off.
"What's with that man and these employees, first Mia and now Mr. Oh?" Miss Lin thought.