Within a large room filled with office desks and several people sitting behind computers, a man expertly tapped on the key board in front of him, doing his best to remain focused on the task he had been assigned.
He held onto his concentration for about 7 minutes but by the eight, he could no longer ignore the whispers and looks that were being directed his way and he let his mind ponder on the word he had heard from one of his coworkers on his way to his desk this morning.
"Poor Rio, he isn't even aware that he won't be getting the promotion"
Rio Dahvarh was the young man's name and immediately after graduating college he had begun working here at Lincoln's corporation.
Rio had been with them right from when they were still a struggling company begging for investments to now when their net worth stood in the multimillions.
Graduating college at 19, Rio had spent the next 7 years of his life giving his all to the company and while he had seen good raises in his salary, today was going to be the day he began making significant climbs in the company's ladder, or at least it was supposed to be.
With the previous head of department having retired, Rio as the oldest serving worker in that section and a team leader with accomplishments to his name was supposed to be the next head of department but now he was shockingly not so sure.
Last night, just as they ended work, all Rio's co-worker and even workers from other departments including their heads had come to congratulate him on his imminent promotion.
There had been no official word of it, but Rio's claim to the position was unanimously agreed upon by all, but this morning when Rio had walked into the company building, he had felt like there was thick fog only he could feel placed over him.
Observing the workers he passed by and how they avoided his gaze, Rio felt there was a circulating secret he was not privy to, but before he could investigate on this, Raymond Philips, an aged man, one the board of directors and Rio's initial Employer had walked up to him.
Full of smiles and a proud look, Raymond had given him a task to quickly accomplish this morning before the company meeting where the next head of his department would be announced began.
Zealous to complete this assignment and please his boss, Rio had totally zoned out the world around him, ignoring the muttering and whispers till now when it had gotten too much for him.
"Fred, is there something going on that I should know about" Rio suddenly said to the man who was working just beside having felt his gaze stray to him several times since he arrived.
Rio's sudden question startled the man, but after fumbling on his words, and realizing that several eyes had subtly moved to him, he gave a lame excuse about needing to use the bathroom and bolted away.
Now more than ever, Rio was sure that there was something going on, but then he remembered the task he had been given and without hesitation forgot the nuisances around him and went back completing the assignement he had been given, the task to type out an appointment letter.
...….
Several minutes later, within a wide hall filled with dozens of people orderly seated and staring at the podium which had a group well-dressed men seated, the gazes of many focused on the man standing and speaking, seated at the front row amongst the dozens of workers, and watching the CEO of the company speak, Rio was confused as after the perfunctory greetings and rites performed at the start of a meeting rather than going straight into business as was usual, Dennis Thorn was instead introducing a new addition to the company.
"I mean since when did the CEO begin introducing entry level employees at company wide meetings, this guys must be special"
Rio thought these words with a sigh, but then when he felt a couple of eyes more usual than normal flicker to his figure, he was hit with a forebode and the veil he had put over his mind was suddenly lifted.
"No way"
"Carvin Brack is the son of the founder of our company and biggest shareholder and not only will he one day be taking over the position of CEO, but to better assimilate himself with us, he would start working here at a position lower the ladder.
From today henceforth Carvin's will be working as the head of the operations department…."
Dennis said a few more words after that, but Rio heard none of it, he was instead focused on holding myself together and not exploding because seriously what the fuck was going on.
At some point, everyone got up and started clapping and robotically putting more attention than usual to my legs, Rio followed them.
Though a plethora of emotions some of which Rio could not even describe struck through his chest, his remained empty, blank like a white space and it remained so till his eyes wandered over to the podium and I took stock of the men on it.
Rio's eyes quickly found Raymond Philip, zooming in on the bright smile on his face and then it went to the other men, noticing the smiles they all had.
Rio could feel gazes from behind land on his figure, but he could see no one on the podium looked at him.
Not the directors, not the CEO, not even the other department head who had congratulated him the previous day, all these people he had at some time closely interacted with, but now….
"Calm down Rio, there is definitely a good explanation for this, you just need to calm down and talk to Raymond. Don't be irrational and do something you will regret for the rest of your life. You have already worked so much"