Chapter 20

I took my bag and followed my daily routine of going to hell; I mean the office. Today was different though, I didn't feel the hatred for Mr. Reynolds; simply because my mind was busy developing unlimited hatred towards the mother-effing James guy. Just the thought of him made my blood boil.

I decided to walk up the stairs because I was in no mood to come across James, and seeing his face would only spoil everything from the beginning.

After walking up three floors I started panting like my head had been kept underwater for 15 minutes; okay not 15, 'cause I'd be dead by then, but you get my point. After I 'successfully' crossed the fifth floor, I was ready to pass out. So to prevent that from happening, I sat down for a while. Luckily, the stairs were vacant because no one really used them much. They were pretty much crowded up till the third floor, but after that, it was as good as the desert. Growing Technology was responsible for making us all so lazy.

On finally reaching the seventh floor (which, may I add, took me 10 full minutes), I couldn't breathe. All I needed right now was a glass of water to calm down, but I had to cross the shitty area called the hallway in order to get to my cabin. I decided to sit on the stairs which were at the end of the seventh floor for some time. My legs didn't have the potential to even move; all thanks to myself for not ever having climbed seven floors at a stretch, yeah, my maximum was only five floors.

"Taking the elevator won't deduct any part of your salary, Miss Waters", Mr. Reynolds spoke once he noticed me.

Couldn't this man ever speak normally? And what the hell was he even doing outside his office? I mean, I know that it's his office and all, but, doesn't he have 'work'?

Faking a sweet smile, I said, "That's not the issue, sir."

"Oh, so you think that climbing seven floors by any chance will cut your gym costs?" Yeah. And do you think that you can shut up?

"No, sir, that's not the matter. I felt like walking up the stairs rather than taking the elevator; so I walked up. Is there any problem with that?" I questioned after standing up straight.

"Are you blaming on the quality of my office's elevators?" He questioned coming closer. Was it so hard to understand simple English?

"Oh no no no, really!" I was now annoyed by his comments. The more I tried not to hate him, the more he seemed to ask for it.

"Can I go to work now? Because maybe if I don't complete my work you'll deduct my salary and that's something I don't prefer", I spoke in the same monetary terms as him.

"Yeah, you're right. I will deduct your salary if your work hasn't been completed. So you better get going." And he walked off. All I could do was roll my eyes and walk off.

The moment I walked into my cabin, I desperately wanted to straddle the person in front of my eyes. Seated comfortably on my chair, in my freaking cabin, was the asshole called James. I wanted to turn around at that instant, but that would have been strange and my cover would have been blown, so I marched towards my chair; which is indirect, him.

"Um, hey. That seat's mine, I guess?" I tried saying the rude words after coating them with extra sugar.

"And you're mine honey, so indirectly the seat's mine too", he said smirking.

"Well I hope that you didn't take our one, not to mention, short, kiss very seriously", I smiled and then continued "Because to be honest, I didn't."

"I was joking Ammie, but I guess you're not in a good mood today", he stood up from my chair. See? Was that hard?

"No I'm okay, really." I smiled again. Only a smart or mean the guy would recognize such a fake smile; and James being the mean one here, figured it out. He started walking closer to me, making my heart participate in a freaking long jump competition, but I luckily stopped it. AND, if you just thought that that was because of the butterflies or anything that girls feel when a guy approaches them, NO. It wasn't that. I was fucking scared that he might've found out that Samarrah is my sister and that I know about him.

He took a firm grip of my waist and pulled me towards his chest. I let my hands rest on his chest in between us because I was in no mood to put them around his neck; actually I was, TO STRANGLE HIM.

"Hey Ammie," Ugh, stop calling me that! "Are you thinking about my ex? Samarrah? Hm? Don't worry! I never loved her anyway!" he questioned and then answered himself. This asshole never loved Sam and there she was, still hoping that he'd come back for their child. Oh, Samarrah, what have you gotten yourself into?

"What makes you think that I'm mad because of your 'so-called ex'?", Regardless of my thoughts, I questioned back.

"Don't play dumb with me. I noticed that you were in a jolly good mood yesterday, but suddenly after meeting that old man you started acting differently", he held me tighter.

"Okay fine. But then you've got TO tell me everything about this Samarrah girl." I initiated working on my plan.

"Sure", he spoke and dragged me to the corner of my cabin, where a small couch was, enough for two people, was kept.

I only had one way to spill the beans about James and Sam now; to act like a fucking possessive girlfriend, "So, start."

"We met in Pallapora town; she was kind of attracted to me. In fact, she even asked me out once, but since she was younger than me, I rejected her. I was pretty sure that I'd disappointed her, so we used to hang out as friends", I nodded, completely dissatisfied by the story so far," but I swear, I didn't even touch her."

I could've abused the shit out of him right there, but the latter part of his "story" got me puzzled. I mean, I had full faith in Sam and knew that James was lying, but then he also might be speaking the truth and the "J" guy might as well be someone else whose name began with J, right? But no. I knew it was James. Who else would stoop so low as to not even check on their ex, whom they've fucking gotten pregnant?!

I needed to dig this matter deeper as fast as I could so that I could help Sam aborting her child. Why was she even refusing the abortion? She needed to move on with her life and not waste it waiting for this lying, piece-of-shit, whore.

"Are you even listening?", James shook from my shoulders and got me out of my trance.

"Yeah, yeah I am." I tried re-focusing but couldn't get myself to remember anything. Even though I had a thousand questions in my mind that I wanted to ask him, I stopped myself 'cause that would only make him suspicious. All I could do was fake a smile.

Suddenly he came close to me and wrapped his arms around me in a not-so-friendly hug; one of his arms was around my waist, and the other was rubbing my back. "I've got you now Ammie", he whispered in my hair.

"Yeah", I murmured and wrapped my hands around his neck; because it was the only thing to do without being suspicious. His hand constantly rubbing my back was making my anger range from 0 to 100 real quick.

"Miss Waters, I cannot fi-", Mr. Reynolds came inside my cabin out of the blue and saw me hugging James, making him cut his sentence. Although I had no intention of hooking up with James or anything, I'm pretty sure that the hug looked pretty intimating; not to mention James rubbing my back. And this guy, Mr. Reynolds-the the great businessman, ever heard of a thing called 'knocking before entering'?

Nonetheless, I quickly separated myself from James, straightened my dress, and walked up to Mr. Reynolds. "Yes sir?"

He cleared his throat and said, "I cannot find my file and I want you to come and look for it in my cabin. It will be labeled 'Amar and Sons'." What? Nothing about the hug? No sarcastic comment? "Oh and you and James need to understand that this, not a porn hub!" Oops. Thought too soon I guess.

"It was just a friendly hug", James offended."

"Which didn't really look friendly," he muttered under his breath. Was he.....jealous? obviously not. Then- "Miss Waters. I need the file today. Could you please stop day-dreaming and come along?" he spoke, getting me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, sure" I replied quickly and walked out immediately after Mr. Reynolds. I purposely left James alone in my cabin so that he'd leave too. If Mr. Reynolds would've come in any other time and told me to find the file, I would've definitely sulked. But this time his file had actually saved me from that James.

"You should really organize all the files properly Miss Waters", Mr. Reynolds finally spoke after entering his cabin.

"Alright. So, where do I start?" I questioned looking around his office. There were shelves of files everywhere. Looking at the shelves itself made me exhausted and the number of files around made me dizzy. There were so many files and he couldn't find one particular file. I must say, his previous secretary was horrible. All the files were scattered on the shelves. I was pretty sure he'd make me start from the very first shelf.

"You need to figure that out yourself because it's your job, not mine!" He sat on his chair and rested his elbows on the desk.

"This will take the whole freaking day", I complained, sounding extremely unprofessional.

"Then consume your whole day with it. Cancel all your plans", he paused for a while "professional as well as personal." He stressed the word personal. I knew it was an as he must have misunderstood me and James as a couple. And did I want to explain anything to him? No, because, no matter what, he'd never believed me. Getting paired up with the pervert James was the last thing in the world I'd want.

I went towards the first shelf, which was behind Mr. Reynolds's chair, and tried opening it; only to look like I was trying to catch air. BUT, no, that doesn't make me short, it just makes the shelf taller than it should fucking be.

I looked for a chair around the room and saw one next to the open window. I went to drag it towards the shelf but made sure to shut the window first. Because if I fell out of the window and died, the police would call it a suicide case. It would take them a lifetime to find the reason for suicide; which was actually nothing, and then when they wouldn't be able to find that out, they'd accuse Mr. Reynolds of pushing me out. They'd also put him in jail for a lifetime, but no, this guy has a hell lot of money; he'd be easily bailed out.

I hit myself on the head for thinking about such bullshit and then began dragging the chair towards the shelf. As expected, the chair made this weird high pitched sound which was extremely unpleasant to hear, but I continued dragging it nonetheless; how many such opportunities will I ever get to annoy my boss?

"Stop doing that for fuck's sake", he yelled getting irritated.