So far, Laura had a bad day.
First;
She was trying to pick her phone with her wet and soapy hands in order to receive a call from her father when her phone slipped from her hands and fell on the tiled floor of the bathroom. Her phone screen broke.
"No No No.." she whispered. "I'm trying to save every little penny I have and this happens?!" Laura groaned out in frustration.
Second;
She started having this irritation in her eyes. Normally, Laura had myopia (short-sightedness) but she always tried as much as possible to avoid using her glasses. Of course this had its side effects; her eyes irritating her. She would feel the need to scrub and rub and do whatever she wanted with her eyes till she was satisfied. This activity usually leaves her looking like someone who hadn't slept a wink for days.
Well, this didn't stop her from going to work.
A few hours after working non-stop, Laura revisited the events that had occured to her since the morning... she muttered to herself
"Great, this day can't get any worse..."
As soon as she said those words, she was told that she was summoned not the boss. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Sigh.... why do I feel like the heavens are against me today" She said to herself as she stood up to go to her boss's office.
"Good afternoon sir" She said after entering her boss's office and standing opposite him across his big office table.
" Good afternoon Miss.Willows, please have a seat" he said as he gestured his hand towards the seat by her side.
"O-okay sir" she said and sat down. As at that moment, Laura was already trembling like a chick left in the rain. Yes she hated her boss but her fear of him was on another level entirely and surpassed other emotions she had for him.
' What does he want from me?!' she cried in her head.
"So I was informed that you submitted your resignation letter, may I know the reason why?" Andre asked as he fumbled with the pen in his hand.
'Why does he suddenly want to know?, he didn't want to hear what I had to say a couple of weeks ago. Oh well...' Laura thought before she started explaining.
" You see sir, the thing is that..."
As she was explaining, she kept rubbing her eyes. The more she rubbed her eyes, the redder her eyes became. She just couldn't help it. Of course this didn't go unnoticed by her boss who hadn't said a single thing since she started explaining.
"So I want to go back to my father in Country Z so that I can...."
"How about a contract marriage?" Andre suddenly interrupted.
Laura stopped her eye-rubbing exercise and blinked a few times. " Eh?" she asked him with a confused look on her face.
'Did he just say contract marriage?, I don't think I heard well.' She thought.
" I said how about a contract marriage?" He looked at her and saw that she had started rubbing her eyes again with a confused expression on her face. He sighed and stood up from his chair and walked to the floor to ceiling window with his hands in his pockets. Laura followed suit by standing up but she didn't leave her former position.
He sighed and started explaining things to her. " My mother and grandfather want me to get married as soon as possible. They are the dearest people to me and I don't ever want to upset them. My grandfather gave me a deadline to bring a wife home and that is five days from now. And as you all know I'm not a fan of socializing and the only few females I'm familiar with are the staffs of this company. I don't want the person I want to marry working in the company after marriage so that's why I asked for those that wanted to resign and you are one of them. To be honest, you are female that I have been closest with in this company and that's why you're fit for this. To make this contract better both parts have to benefit so I told my assistant to find out some things about you and he told me about the financial problems your father is facing."
Laura raised her already reddened eyes to look at him. " I still don't understand everything you're saying sir."
"What I'm trying to say is that I want you to get married to me and since you're already planning to resign, you leaving the company won't be an issue. And in exchange for the marriage, I'm going to help your father with the money and also help his company in terms of recovering from the loss it has suffered from the last project." He stepped away from the window and walked back to his sit. He sat down and gestured for Laura to sit down as well.
"So you want to help my father out in exchange for me getting married to you?" Laura asked timidly while giving him a questioning look.
"Yes." He gave a short and direct answer. "Come to think of it, this is a win-win situation for the both of us" he said and leaned in his chair afterwards.
After what seemed like forever to Laura, she finally spoke up " I.....I don't know what to say about this sir.....I..."
"Forty eight hours" he interrupted " I'm going to give you forty eight hours to think about this and give me a reply. You can leave now."
As Laura was about to open the door in order to leave the office he called out to her.
"Wait." He said and walked towards her. "Your phone?" He asked as he reached out his hands towards her.
"Eh?" Laura said as she was confused about whatever was going on.
"Give me your phone" He explained.
'Ohhhhhhhh' she thought as she widened her eyes.
"Sorry sir but I broke my phone this morning and it's not working anymore" She said as she lowered her gaze and fiddled with her fingers.
He stared at her for a while without saying anything.
"Okay you can leave now but report to me after you're done with your work for today" He told her.
"O-okay sir" She replied and left his office.