Alpha Billionaire Series

CHRISTOPHER

“Mother, I don't have time for this." If she wasn't going to leave my office, then I was.

I hadn't unpacked my case since I had walked into an ambush with my mother and poor Savannah. If Mother was going to involve other people in her plots, she should at least have the decency to tell them. It was one thing to manipulate and undermine me. I was her son; she had been doing it my entire life. I had the thick skin and strategies in place to deal with her. Other people were simply unwilling victims.

I picked up the project folder from my desk and took my time putting it into my bag, exaggerating my motions. I didn't bother sitting down as I copied a few files from my computer that I hadn't yet uploaded to the shared server.

Mother continued to sit there and watch me. I know she was expecting me to offer some kind of apology. She always did, especially when her little plans backfired. After I finished pulling everything from my computer that I could possibly need, I slung my bag back over my shoulder and gestured to the door.

“Why don't you let me walk you out? I have a flight to catch. I had only stopped by the office because you told me you would be here. I certainly hadn't expected such an interesting visit."

Mother scoffed. “I didn't even get my tea."

“Maybe next time,” I managed to say.

I added the tea to my list of grievances to bring up with Alicia. She still wasn't at her desk as we walked out. I followed Mother out into the cold, her driver was waiting for her.

I hadn't lied when I said I had a flight. I gave the impression my flight was much sooner than it actually was. I pulled my carry-on from my car, which I planned on leaving in the company lot. It was free versus having to pay for airport parking. Once at the airport, I had my flight changed to something earlier. I saw no reason to stay and continue with my bad mood in my office.

I'sent Alicia several messages.

“Call the hotel, I need an early check-in. Decided to head out early.”

I could have made a checklist and emailed it, but it was faster to fire off a series of text messages with everything I needed her to.

“Update the Franklin presentation on the server. Just pull all references to Franklin and make it generic’

“Set up a meeting with product development when I get back. I want to see Martin first thing on Monday."

“My mother is back in the states. Make sure her tea is available the next time she is in the office.’

I walked into the office the next week, prepared to have a serious discussion with Alicia. I didn't care that it was the holiday season, I expected her to continue operating at a certain level of competence. Something that was seriously missing from her work lately.

Not answering my texts and messages during work hours was not something I was going to tolerate. My meeting went fine, but that's because I knew what I was doing and was able to compensate for the missing presentation files. The missing files, that was on her.

I wasn't doing this anymore. I was going to put her on official probation. She needed to straighten up, or she was gone. I'turned the corner and slowed. That wasn't Alicia. An older woman with graying hair was moving this around behind Alicia's desk.

“Who are you?" I asked as I approached my office.

“0h, good morning, Mr. Hayes. Nice to meet you. 'm Debra. I'm your temp for a few days." She smiled and looked completely at ease.

“Temp?”

“Yes, sir"

I'shrugged and continued into my office. Maybe Alicia had taken a few days off, or maybe her kid was sick again.

I jumped right into reviewing the thoughts I had jotted down after my meeting last week.

The intercom buzzed. “Yes?”

“Joan is on the phone” Debra sounded concerned.

I didn’t have time to deal with anything Joan had to talk to me about right now. She never called me with good news. I let ou a heavy breath.

“Tell her I can't take the call right now and I'll call her back.”

“Yes, sir”

Now that felt like proper respect from my secretary. Every time Alicia said Mr. Hayes, I could sense her animosity toward me. chuckled as I imagined her lips pursing and her little nose wrinkling up if I told her I expected her to call me sir. She would mutter something inappropriate. Probably ask me if I needed a safe word too.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Alicia was too much some days.

About an hour later I checked my watch. I hit the intercom. “Has Martin been by yet?”

“No one has, sir. Do you need me to get something for you?”

“No, I got it.” I disconnected the intercom and dialed Martin's extension.

“Hey Christopher, what can I do for you?”

“You could be in my office, like I asked, for one," I tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

“Did I miss an email? Shit. I'll be right up."

He showed up in a matter of minutes, full of apologies for not realizing we had a meeting. That wasn't like him. I made a mental note to add this to the list of things to talk to Alicia about. She needed to get confirmation when she set up meeting: and not just send out an email.

“Are you still here?” I asked Debra the next morning when I walked in.

“Yes, sir. I'm here through the end of the week.”

“End of the week?”

She nodded.

Well, at least there was someone relatively competent to help out. Should I be concerned with Alicia's absence? She never missed work, well except for that time when I found her out.

The intercom buzzed before I had managed to put anything down. “Yeah?” I yelled.

Debra was standing at my open door in a matter of seconds. “Is everything okay? You screamed.” She looked genuinely concerned. I felt bad for scaring her.

“No,” I chuckled. “My arms were still full when you buzzed. It was just easier.” I missed Valerie who would have simply yelled back. Alicia would have scolded me for yelling when I wasn't injured or bleeding.

“Oh, sorry. I should have paid better attention. joan called again. I told her I would have to get you to call her back. Do you want me to ring her and change that?”

“No, I'll give her a call here in a second.”

She left as I finished putting my things away. I took a sip of the coffee I brought in with me and settled into my desk. I punched in Joan's extension.

“You are a hard man to get a hold of”

“Busy running a company. How can I help you this morning?” I really hoped it wasn't having to bring in arbitration over som employee grievance.

“How is that temp working out?”

“No complaints. I am curious as to why I have a temp!" I typically got temps when Valerie had gone off on vacation or had a kid. As far as I knew Alicia wasn’t on vacation, and she certainly hadn't been pregnant.

There was a lack of sound from the other end of the phone for a moment.

“Uh, Christopher, Alicia Collins quit last week. Didn't she say anything to you?”

I wasn't certain I had heard Joan clearly. “Say that again. She what?"

“Alicia quit last week. That's why you have a temp, and that's why I wanted to see if you wanted to try to get a replacement a soon as possible or wait until after the holidays. If you like Debra, I can contract for her through the end of the year.”

My jaw dropped open. Alicia left me? That wasn't acceptable. “She didn't say anything”

Crap, that's why she wasn't responding to my messages last week. Why wasn't she at her desk? She quit and somehow, I had missed it.

“Yeah, yeah, that's fine." I hung up the phone, completely distracted by the fact that I wouldn't ever see her again. I didn't have her face to look forward to in the morning, or her voice over the phone, or any of it.

This didn't feel right.

Istarted up my computer and began scrolling through emails. I didn't see anything from her. Nothing. I did a search of the program using her name as a key term. The results pulled up a list of everything she had sent me from her office account. I saw one from a name I didn't recognize. It had been trashed. I must have deleted it without noticing. After all, the email address didn't seem overly professional, and the subject line “You want to read this," smacked of spam.

I clicked open the email. It was from Alicia. I read it, but I didn't believe anything she said. I hadn't made the work environment hostile. I had simply waited for her to step up and confess to her lying to me about having a family. That was of her. There was no mention of her duplicity in the email at all.

She laid all the blame for feeling uncomfortable in the office at my feet. She couldn't work for me anymore.

“Fuck.” I slammed my fist into my computer screen. My monitor skidded back across my desk and fell to the floor.

Alicia wasn't allowed to quit.

The intercom buzzed. “Is everything okay?”

No, nothing is okay. “Call IT, I need a new monitor."