THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 34

THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 34

That night I did not sleep at all. My mind kept on thinking what I would do to ensure Sally does not go out of town, and gets a job as soon as possible. My biggest worry however seemed to revolve around how to redeem her certificates so as she can land a better job, and I resolved I shall do anything to ensure she gets them.

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One week after Sally left, it was apparent that the company was undergoing major changes and it was going to be better but it was evident that most people missed her. She was accurate with her work, was ever jovial and her absence was felt. But since the policies dictated that all positions must be filled by people who underwent training with regards to their work, there was nothing that could be done.

Irene however continued acting like the company’s accountant since she was excellent with her job and our boss did not want to risk exposing the accounts department to someone so new with our ways of accounts as to jeopardize our operations. However, an accounts assistant was hired for her, a guy called Luke who seemed to rhyme with his name: He was very religious and strict. On top of that, Luke wore like a pastor all the time, excellently pressed suits, and punctuated everything with a bible verse. He seemed like someone you can easily trust.

In my department, however I got a lady assistant by the name Caroline who loved to dress like a video vixen; a sharp contrast of Luke. She was short, barely past 5 feet tall, chocolate colored with extremely smooth complexion. However, the most outstanding feature of that lady was her derrière which I must say, was huge compared to her general physique. Her legs were also very proportional to her derrière but her upper body was rather smallish with big boobs. She seemed like IT was the wrong career for her. She was also a hyper woman who seemed like she had limitless energy for everything which made everybody in the organization recognize her within the first few days of her work. My boss seemed to instantly like her since their characters were almost the same. As for me, I felt rather odd working with her in same office, but apart from that, she was a nice sociable lady.

For some reasons, Irene did not seem comfortable around Carol and so she did not overstay in my office whenever she came.

But I felt so lonely without Sally around.

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“Carol, how did you people end up here? I never saw any advert for vacancy or any interview.” I began probing Carol.

“I must say, it is a matter of luck am here. I saw the job advert through a recruitment agency. The advert did not indicate the company but just qualifications so I applied. They called me for a job interview and promised to place me in any company that has such a vacancy and that is how I ended up here. I did not even know which company am being sent to. But I like this place and the staff. Each one of you seem friendly and likeable so am happy to work here and am glad to have you here since I can see you will mentor me a lot in ICT that I do not know.” Carol said and finished it with a smile.

“Sounds interesting. Can you tell me the recruitment agency and perhaps give me their contacts please?” I told Carol.

“Sure, let me give you their contacts.” Carol said and reached for her handbag. She dished out a business card and gave it to me. The card did not have a name but it had SMARTEX STUFFING LTD with a phone number on it. “Call that number, whoever will pick it in the other end the one who will assist you in anything you wish to know about them. Are you looking for another job?” Carol asked.

“Oh! No, am ok here. Am looking for a friend of mine.” I answered her while placing the card in my shirt pocket. 

“Your friend must be so lucky to have a friend like you. Nowadays it is difficult to have a friend who is willing to help you in anyway.” Carol said before adding, “You are a nice man, Tony. I like you already.” The statement made me feel like blushing and I told Carol, “thank you, I love helping whenever I can.”

Time came for me to orient Carol fully to her work and roles in the company. Our company had 5 offices which were rented in an estate which seemed like the entire of it was designed for rental office units. So, I took Carol around, showed her all key ICT infrastructure in our office blocks, the location of the server and access codes except super admin. I also showed her every other thing she wished to know. She also got to tell me everything she was comfortable with in ICT and what she would require further training. By the time I was done showing her around the place, it was already noon.

“Let us go for lunch. Here we get free lunch.” I told Carol.

At the café I met the new worker whose name Zuhura. Zuhura was a muslim lady of coastal origin. She was tall, almost my height, slightly slender and very light skinned lady who covered herself almost to entirety in accordance to Islamic code of dressing though she did not wear Bui bui all the times; for reasons best known to herself. But it was apparent that her cooking was excellent, her service mannerism also made you feel like overeating. However, she spoke pure Swahili which made it difficult to understand some of her words and her accent did not make it any better. She told us she was half cast Arab and Digo. Besides doing catering and some other cooking courses, her greatest hobby was cooking. When she served us lunch, she punctuated it with, “Karibuni, mjisikie huru” (Welcome, feel free), before retiring to the counter to continue doing some other chores. But despite her food being excellent with a Swahili touch, I really missed Sally’s food, or is it Sally? 

I did not finish my food.

“Why didn’t you finish?” Zuhura asked politely beholding how much I had not eaten.

“No, am ok. Thank you Zuhura. The food was nice but my appetite is a bit poor today.” I told Zuhura trying to sound as polite as possible.

“How may I help you to eat some more. Do you want some fruit juice?” Zuhura pressed on.

“No, am ok. Time to go back to my office”, I told Zuhura who in turn took the remaining food from the table and continued with cleaning the place. Zuhura was such a homely lady who made everyone comfortable, but I guess that was part of her job.

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When we returned to my office with Carol, I logged online and looked for some recruitment sites to try and assist Sally get a job if possible within my locality. I delegated some of my work to Carol and took that time to do something else one of them to design a complete certificate that seemed as original as possible with Sally’s details until I was satisfied that the certificate was excellent. 

I picked my phone and tried to call Sally, but her phone was not going through but she had told me that in her rural home, network was a problem so I resolved to call her later. But I began to imagine so many things I got so lost into my thoughts as if day dreaming I did not hear Carol call out my name until she raised her voice.

“Tony! I have called you 3 times without a response are you ok?” Carol asked.

“Oh! Yea, am ok. How may I help you? Sorry am feeling sleepy I slept late doing some chores at home.” I lied.

“I wanted you to show me to partition a hard disk when doing fresh installation, do you mind showing me with my laptop? Am installing it right now.” Carol said.

“Sure, I will show you.” As I said so, Carol rose to stand close to me placing the laptop in front of me as she stood beside me. She leaned on the table with her two elbows as I showed her the procedure of creating partitions with an operating system during installation. After showing her, I instructed her to repeat the procedure which she did with a few errors. I made her repeat until she could do it comfortably. 

“Let me do it here as you watch me.” Carol said and began the full installation while leaning on the table.

“Just pick your chair and come and sit beside me here so that I will correct you as you do it.” I told her seeing how she was struggling to maintain her posture since her largish breasts were hanging on her chest and seemed like she was getting tired.

“Thank you.” She told me and sat beside me with her chair.

As she sat down, she assumed a posture with folded legs that made her short dress hang so high up her big rounded thighs; she did not bother adjusting herself after that but I guess she was comfortable that way. She did her installation step by step posing to ask questions until she was done.

“I guess you can make a good teacher, thank you.” She told me after we were done with installations. 

Almost 5 pm, Irene came to my office.

“Tony, you have postponed finishing with my computer for too long, today please let us just go and you do it for me, I have a lot I intend to do with that computer.” Irene said and stood by my door.

“No, not possible today. Can I do it at a later date?” I asked her. But she insisted so much until I told her, “ok. Why not bring your computer to my place instead, and I will work it out?”

I said that expecting she will turn that down knowing that from where she lived to my place was a distance. But I was wrong.

“Ok, I will bring it even if it means at 9 PM. Tomorrow I want to work on that computer.” Irene said with a finality. 

I did not object since that was my suggestion.

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At around quarter past 5 pm, I left our work place accompanied by Irene and Carol. Carol and Irene conversed easily you would think they knew each other but one thing was common between them both; they both loved high class life and clubbing.

I arrived at my place and found Sam my neighbor at the gate talking with a young man who I knew was a care taker in one of the estate blocks. Same greeted me and said, “Tony, this guy will be our new caretaker from tomorrow. Exchange contacts just in case.”

“Thank you, Sam,” I told Sam, took the guy’s contacts and went to my house.

Irene brought her computer at my place almost 8 pm. She was driven by Ouma, the cab driver who drove us sometimes back to her place. When she called at the gate, I went to answer.

“Welcome, you can come inside.” I told them both.

“No, thank you. Some other time. I shall visit later when am not a hurry.” Irene said and did not bother knowing which side of the fence I lived beyond the main gate. I was glad she did not since all I wanted was to sleep.

At around 9 PM, Sally called.

“Hello honey, I really miss you how are you doing?” Was Sally’s first statement upon making her call.

“I am well my dear. How is everyone?” I continued.

We spoke at length and I told her that I had already made a certificate for her. She as a little hesitant but finally said, “Please honey, don’t land yourself into trouble because of me, I will be fine. Besides, I have gotten a certain micro finance where I will work as a volunteer for some time before they decide whether to employ me or not. I will report tomorrow and shall work in the finance department. I will be all right don’t worry.”

How could I not worry with Sally thousands of miles away from me?

“Instead, I will try to raise some money to add up to my savings and redeem my Degree” Sally finished talking. I remained silent for a while. I knew it would need close to half a million and even my own savings would not be enough to redeem her certificates. I was determined to make a certificate for her and decided that the following day, I must pass by town and print it out. The idea of having a long-distance relationship was so unwelcome to me. I needed Sally close to me through whatever means.

“Tomorrow am going to print out your certificate. I have also sought some recruitment agency that will assist you to get a job in town and I will make sure you get a job soon. So be ready to come over anytime from now.” I told Sally.

“Honey, I know you love me and would do anything for me, but I must tell you that….” Before Sally finished speaking, my phone gave a series of beeps and I looked at its screen only to see a notification, “NETWORK ERROR, PLEASE CALL AGAIN LATER”.

I tried calling almost 2 hours but Sally’s phone would not go through. All along, I was doing some installations on Irene’s computer and before I knew it was past midnight.

I slept hungry that day.

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The following day I took a Tuk tuk to my workplace and carried Irene’s computer. Our gateman did not bother checking at it since he trusted me not to bring anything harmful to the work place. It was so early in the morning and I was famished since in the morning I just drank a glass of chocolate drink and went back to work. As Zuhura passed by my office in the morning to greet us as usual I requested her to bring me some breakfast in office before telling her, “and please make it soonest am so hungry.”

Within no time, Zuhura brought in some tea seasoned with tea masala and some so sweet cookies she called Kaimati and Bajia. They were so damn sweet I finished eating them even before anyone else came to work.

By the time Carol came, I had called Zuhura and requested for more. 

“Have as many as you wish, am at your service”, Zuhura added before giving me a very charming smile. I had a huge appetite that morning and I did not know if it was Zuhura’s food that was sweet or it was due to my hunger from previous day.

“Whose computer is this?” Carol asked upon seeing Irene’s computer at my office.

“Irene’s computer.” I answered. 

“Damn! Irene must be rich. This type of computer is very expensive.” Carol said taking some time to look at the computer. 

That instant, Irene came into my office.

“Hello, good morning.” She said extending a hand to greet each one of us and upon seeing her computer she wondered, “What is my computer doing here?” 

“I brought it for you so that you shall go with it in the evening.” I told Irene.

“OK, no problem. What did you do to it?” Irene asked. I explained to her everything that I did to the computer and all programs I installed.

“Oh! Thank you so much. You are wonderful. Let me send you some payment via M-pesa” Irene added before taking out her phone to send me the money. I noticed she had bought a new I phone 7 Plus whose cost was a little over Kshs 100,000. 

“Damn, Irene. That is a one super phone you have there.” I told Irene clearly awed. She smiled and casually told me, “It is God’s favor, if you trust in God, you shall get everything in this life.”

“I can hear Luke has already infected you with religion” I told her before we began laughing.

My phone buzzed and I looked at the message. It was an M-Pesa Message and upon opening It, it indicated I have received Kshs 15,000 from Irene. I was shocked.

“Irene, that work cannot cost that much. Did you append a zero by mistake?” I told Irene honestly thinking she meant to send me Kshs 1,500.

“No, have it. That is my token of appreciation. The much you have done for me is worth more I don’t know how to thank you.” Irene said before adding, “I have to go. Luke is alone in office and I do not want him getting stuck on anything. See you later. Have a good day.” She said and walked away with her shoes making lots of noise along the corridor. 

“Tony, is she the manager here?” Carol wondered referring to Irene.

“Why?” I wondered.

“That long dress she is wearing under her coat is worth my entire Salary or even more!” Carol said.

I had noticed she was wearing some new dress but I had no idea it could have cost that much. Clearly, Irene must have had other sources of income apart from her usual salary. What if I tried to tell her to link up Sally to someone who could perhaps give her some employment?

That instant, another message came in. It was from Sally and it read, “Please assist me with around 4k, will refund you later.”

I sent her Kshs 8,000 and she replied, “Thank you sweetie, have a good day.”

Were it not for Irene’s payment, I would not have had any amount to send to Sally.

>>To be continued>>

As narrated by Dr. Love.