The billionaire's messy affair

Unlike Ainsley Jones, Jessica Gilbert woke up that day dreading it. It was October 24th, and she had a feeling today was the day. The weather was perfect; it wasn't too cloudy or too damp. It was just perfect. But lately, she stopped paying attention to the perfect weather to determine how her day went. These days, her boss determined her day. It was a defeating thing to accept, but she had no choice. It doesn't matter how well she prepped herself up. The moment he opened his big mouth, he ruined everything.

"Babe, don't listen to him"  Mark would say to her every time she complained to him, "Just tune him out, don't listen"  he'd advise.

It wasn't always easy to do, though. Tuning Mr. McCarthy out was asking for a death wish. He had eagle eyes and would easily fish out whoever wasn't listening to him. He would then go on to ask what he had just said. Her boss repeated his talks every day. For a smart person, you can easily just repeat his usual line. But sometimes, he spices his talks up with some gibberish stuff he probably digs up on the net.

Sighing, she got out of bed tiredly. Today was the day she was going to quit her job. She could swear it. It wasn't every time one had a boss like Mr. McCarthy whose only living dream was to frustrate her life. Her post as the general sales manager meant nothing to him. As far as he was concerned, not meeting the target was the same as being irrelevant. Every morning, he would call them to his office for his pep talks. Talks that ended up decapitating her team rather than uplifting them.

His speech usually begins with that irritating line: If you fail to meet your target, you have failed. And that, my dears, makes you a failure. Like hell! Who does that? Then he would go on to shout, "Are you a failure?

To this, he expected the team to screaming their reply; No sir.

"Do we breed failures here?

And they'd shout, No sir.

After this, he would face her as the sales manager and say, "Your teams are ready; well and spirited. Their success depends on you. In her mind, she always responds with; Please, boss, don't put this on me. How the hell was their capacity resting on her when all she did was let the CEO jeer them up with his failure talks every morning? She stood up and dragged herself to the bathroom. She thought of delaying herself at home a little to get to the workplace late. Before taking her bath, she called her boyfriend, anything to just delay her.

"Hey babe"  she greeted gaily. He was on the system with his glasses looking swollen, "Did you sleep well at all?"

"Morning, babe. Yes. I did sleep."

"But your eyes are swollen? Sure you slept at all?" she asked. He adjusted his glasses and cleaned her eyes.

"I was up late, had some files to back up and some other stuff to do."

"And you are up early too" she rolled her eyes at him, showing him the table clock.

He smiled at that, "Not my fault."

She watched as he quickly typed in something on the system. She would swear he forgot about her soon. For a few minutes, he punched in some numbers. "Hey." she said, calling back his attention.

"I'm with you"  he replied without looking up. Then he looked up, finally done with whatever he had been doing, "It's 24th"  he said, "Ainsley's birthday."

Jessie covered her mouth with her free hand, "I totally forgot". Ainsley would stew her if she knew about this. She quickly sent her the text she had composed last night. Satisfied, she smiled back at her boyfriend. "Done." she told him, "I'll call later."

"What about the party? Still holding?'

"Yes"

"My car's faulty. Will you pick me up?"

"Sure. No probs" she said as she grabbed her toothpaste from the drawer and waved him goodbye. With the call disconnected, she started to prepare for work. She didn't try to be done early. There was no rush.

à

But luck wasn't on her side even though she was exceptionally late. Her boss wasn't around too. Her boss was late too, and the lecture she hoped to miss out on was delayed. She hit her head on her desk while all of them waited gloomily for him to make his entrance.

While they waited, her phone alarm vibrated, and she quickly silenced it. Then she saw with a bright face that it was Ainsley's birthday alarm. Thankfully, she had texted her friend earlier and was in the clear. Now was the perfect time to call. She brought out her ear pod and connected its Bluetooth to her phone while she video called her friend. Ainsley picked up on the first ring, and she quickly excused herself to call her.

"Hey, baby.... Happy birthday to you." she said before lapsing into her singsong voice to sing for the celebrant. "For she's a jolly good fellow. For she's a jolly good fellow. For she's a jolly good fellow....and so says all of us."

"All of you where?" Ainsley asked, teasing her friend, "Thank you." she asked, then tried to adjust her camera, "Wait a minute, why are you wishing me happy birthday in the toilet?"

"Mr. McCarthy isn't here yet. The team are waiting in my office. I only excused myself to call you."

"Well, thank goodness he isn't there. No draining pet talks today?"

"It can't be missed. I'm sure he's already here" Someone knocked on the door, and Jessica sighed, "Speak of the devil. It looks like he's here."

"Well, I was going to say you should take care of the team yourself."  Ainsley said, looking excited

"What?" knowing her friend, that dreamy look was up to something

"Give them a better motivational speech, you know. Nothing about failures and dooms." she laughed, as did Jessie. "On a serious note, though, you should talk to them. I believe you'll do a better job."

She smiled, "Okay, you might have a point there" she paused to hear some scuffle behind her, "Looks like I've got to go now." she said, turning back to her friend

"Okay, see you at the party?"

"Sure, I won't miss it for anything."

"And don't come looking so forlorn"  she warned

"Yes, boss"

As she walked to the room, she dragged her feet, hoping Mr. McCarthy was halfway done with his speech. The room was awfully silent, though. Not even the boss could be heard shouting his speech. She opened the door and walked in. Everyone was busy doing their thing. Most were on their phone, either calling or chatting. There was no sign of the boss. Okay, so maybe she would do what her friend had suggested. She got to the table, breathing in and out and called everyone over.

"So, it looks like the boss is running late today." she said as they all looked at her expectantly. Her team was a group of ten members, herself included. Four men and six women. They were all dressed in the company's orange shirt on trousers. Most had their blazers or sweatshirt on, partly due to the cold weather and some as simply a fashion sense. She was the manager and had Mondays free to herself. Her official dress day was Thursday and Friday, which was while today, she put on a gown that clung to her slim figure.

Watching them as they adjusted their seats and became comfortable while waiting for her to continue, she tried to pick her words wisely. Her team was the sales team for the digital company. They go out every morning to get clients to sign up for their digital products with special offers. Everything had been okay until the digital affiliation programs started online. With the online marketing available, marketers offline like herself and her team were constantly losing clients to them. Most of their offers and programs were being offered at a faster rate. Users only need to go online and get what they wanted.

If only her company would go online and do something rather than threatening them to makes sales the old way, things would be better. "Lately, we have been missing out on our customers, and a few of us haven't been meeting our targets." she said, and some sighed visibly. "While I'd love to say it's okay and that we will keep striving hard, I know it's not what we want to hear right now. No amount of it's okay; you can do it next time will remedy this. We need to stand up and continue the struggle. Now isn't the time to give up"

"Yes, boss"  hailed a man, and all the members applauded.

As she talked, Jessie knew she was partly addressing herself as well as her teammates. Lately, like them, she had been losing points due to her inability to meet up with targets, as did everyone. Something Mr. McCarthy wouldn't let her forget every day. Her team had quietened by now. She urged them not to give up.

"We can do it. We've been hitting our targets before. We can do it again. We've been meeting up before. We can do it again. This isn't the time to hung our heads and feel bad because of the numbers. This is the time we seat up and look for solutions." She smiled at them all. "Who's with me?" she screamed

Everyone shouted, "Me."

Mr. McCarthy stood at the door, wondering what the noise was about. As he entered the room, the team kept quiet, "What's going on here?" he asked.

"Nothing." said one of the teammates

"Nothing?" he asked, dropping his suitcase on the table before turning to the people, "I walk in here half an hour after my usual resumption time to meet a hell of a noisy place, and you tell me it's nothing?" he said staring at them all. Finally, his cold gaze landed on the team leader, who stood hands crossed meekly behind her back. She was dressed in a flowery gown that clung to her body sweetly. He ogled her quickly while mentally checking that his expression wasn't showing how he felt about her. She was svelte, always looking gorgeous. "You want to tell me what is going on here?" he watched her move away from him, hating the look on her face. He didn't understand while she couldn't stand him.

"I, well..." she stuttered.

"Jessie here just gave us a pep talk since you were running late"  shouted a member from the back seat. Whoever said it quickly hid his face from the boss.

He wasn't in the bit interested in who said what. He was only interested in the woman right here, standing few inches away from him. His cold eyes were never leaving her body. But she was looking down and couldn't see how he gazed at her. Which was good for him, "You did what?" he asked

"I just wanted to do what you do best" she smiled, finally looking at him. Whenever she smiled, his heart gave a quick start. He simply shook his head and stepped back, "I suppose I don't need to say anything then"  he said

"No, sir. She did a good job." replied someone yet again. This only infuriated the man

"Will you stop talking, your son of a ..." he let the word hang, "I suppose she told you to relax and hope that you can do better" he gave them all a cold stare, "Well, sorry to burst the bubble, but you failing to meet up with your target, makes you a...."

"Failure"  mumbled everyone sadly. Whatever lively spirit they were in was dampened as the man went on to repeat his usual annoying talks. When he was done, everyone walked out grumbling while Jessie stayed behind as he had requested.

"You wanted to see me." she said to him as he was stepping out.

"Yes, in my office." he said, and she went with him meekly, knowing what was to follow. His office was just a block away, but he chose the longer route to greet everyone. Finally, she stepped into his office with him and waited while he settled down. Then he turned to her and told her point-blank, "We will have to let you go if you and your team refused to meet this month's target. You, of all people, know how this company runs. Without those numbers, we are running at a loss". He stopped to let her respond to what he had just said.

"Yes, I do"  Jessie replied, looking drained. She was really tired of hearing this same thing every day. It wasn't like the man had nothing to do with his precious time.

"So, whatever it is you said to your team to make them all charged up early today, I hope it makes them well-bolstered up for good numbers" he smiled coldly. "You may leave"  he dismissed.