THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 40

THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 40

When I got to office the following morning, I went around as usual greeting everyone. I found Irene and Luke silent in their office busy staring into each other’s laptop.

“Good morning all of you.” I greeted them.

“Good morning”, both replied in unison.

“Tony, I have gotten a new deal which am sure will make more profits, I will come and share with you.” Irene said as if to ensure that Luke overheard everything.

I looked at Luke but he was still and silent like someone meditating.

“Ok, you can come to my office when you get some free time.” I told Irene and left. 

“Irene is in deep shit if Luke is right, but I really suspect Luke is just being a dickhead.” Carol said before adding, “I have met men who pretend to be extremely religious but are worse than demons, I hope he is not like them.”

“Well, with me everyone is innocent until proven guilty. So, let the auditor come and we shall know the truth.” I said.

“Remember Luke was told to bring his own auditor, Irene is screwed. He will get fired soon.” Carol sounded so serious and sure.

Could it also mean my dream was true? But I had unfinished business with Irene.

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“Here, I carried along some sausages. Do you mind having some?” Irene gave to us during tea break. Luke had remained in office.

“Oh! Please, please, don’t bring that closer to me.” Zuhura said.

“Oh! Sorry. Irene, Zuhura would not want a pig meat near her.” Carol told Irene.

“Tony, I have gotten some links from a certain business man in Dubai who shall be sending me some clothes from Dubai to Kenya. Am expecting to start working with him within the next 1 month so if you don’t mind, you can both be my business partners and we get some extra income.” Irene said looking at both of us.

Carol was super excited with that idea.

“Wow! That is so kind of you. No wonder you have such a nice life. You are such a wonderful lady. Teach us some business tricks we need to be rich too.” Carol said adjusting her short skirt to sit facing Irene.

“Like you Carol, you told me you deal with designer clothes, why not take that opportunity to expand your business?” Irene asked Carol.

“I will gladly take that offer.” It sounded like Irene and Carol communicated more than I thought since I did not know if Carol knew about Irene’s business. As for me, my desire to get enough money to redeem Sally’s certificate was like an obsession to me and time was running out so fast. I was ready for anything promising quick cash. Irene explained to us in details and told us we shall meet a certain Indian man in town after work to get to know further details about the deal. It sounded so real we even began thinking of starting a joint company together. Carol was even ready to commit Kshs 100,000 into the deal as soon as it was available. As for me, in my account I had around Kshs 200,000. I knew I could access a loan too but that was out of question since I was servicing another 3 years loan I had taken to build a house for my mother back at home. I even toyed with the idea of telling Irene to lend me some money I shall refund her later. But there was hope.

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In the evening, I, Carol and Irene went to meet a certain Indian man by the name Kurdishiankhumarshar, who told us to call him Kurd. He was a remarkably handsome man with excellent physique like a movie star. He was tall, slightly taller than me standing at 6 feet, he had what I would call a perfectly toned body, broad shoulders, with bulging biceps which were very visible in his tight white T shirt. His beards were short and perfectly done which complemented his perfectly chiseled chin and he had crimson lips which easily curved into a very charming smile. 

When he gave me a handshake, I noticed his handshake was very firm almost hurting my hand and when he spoke, it was like he was reciting a poem with an Indian accent though his command of English language was perfect. I must admit, even though I am a man, I have never met such a handsome man at such close range he made me feel so insecure despite the fact that our meeting was purely business. His presence could not be ignored.

As our conversation progressed, it was evident that the man too was super intelligent. He sounded too good to me to be a business man, but the fact that we were having a business meeting, that was all I was interested in. He seemed to know so much about international business and trade, and answered all our questions with a lot of ease and confidence.

After our meeting ended, he gave us his personal contacts making sure each one of us wrote his number. He also footed the bill as a gesture to us before getting on his way and leaving, promising to meet us some other time.

After we left on our way home, after parting with Irene, Carol turned to me and said, “Tony, I hope I won’t offend you by telling you this; Kurd is too handsome to be a business man, I do not trust him. He is perhaps a movie star or something else. But let us wait and see. Time will tell.”

I just nodded as if in agreement.

“Tonyyyyyyy” Carol called me prolonging my name and added, “Don’t tell me you feel jealous about him. We do not admire men due to just physical features, but more than physique.” She concluded the statement, grabbed my hand and gave it a light shake.

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The following Day at office Carol constantly spoke about Kurd and kept asking Irene, “How did you get to know about this man? Is he married? Is he your sponsor? Is he a movie star?” and so many other questions. Irene spent most of her time in our office as our boss was not around. It was evident she did not want to spend her time with Luke and as days went by, Irene and Luke’s relationship grew colder until they barely talked. 

Finally, Luke got an auditor to come and audit our finances to prove or disapprove if Irene been stealing company’s money.

The auditor was a guy called Alex, who was a senior auditor with many years of experience in corporate auditing. The day that Alex came, Irene was unusually calm but Luke seemed very unsettled. Our boss was also in the office and wanted to follow through the whole procedure.

Alex spent almost the whole day with our book of accounts, in our financial management system installed in our server which I gave him complete full access. The fact that Alex had Masters in Information Systems which he did after doing Bachelors of Commerce in Accounting meant he knew very well what he was doing.

“My goodness! Irene is about to get fired, we shall miss him.” Carol said as we continued with our work.

“What if Luke is wrong?” I asked Carol.

“Luke despite being a religious extremist, he is a very upright man he cannot be lying. I feel it.” Carol replied.

Considering that we were about to seal a deal with Irene and Kurd, I knew the departure of Irene would be a major blow with my ambition. I really wanted to seal a deal, make money and assist Sally to secure her certificates. Besides, if Derrick was to make real his threats then I would be in serious trouble.

My work extension rang. When I picked it was my boss calling me to her office.

“Tony, have you seen my laptop? I don’t remember where I placed it.” She asked me.

I had completely forgotten that I had placed it in my drawer inside my office.

“You left it at boardroom the day we had a meeting. I kept it in my office.” I told my boss casually.

“Oh! Thank you. I thought I had lost it, please bring it to me.” My boss requested and I immediately took it to her office. My boss seemed unsettled but I did not bother asking her the reason.

“Go and tell everyone that we shall have a brief meeting at 4 pm at boardroom together with the auditor. Be punctual.” My boss told me before I left. I went and informed everyone. When I went to Irene’s office she was not there, but I found Luke alone.

“Luke, did you have to report Irene to the boss? I think you should have alerted her. You might put her into deep trouble.” I pleaded with Luke.

“No sin shall go unpunished. Let her carry her own cross. Stealing is wrong.” Luke said sounding like a pastor. I knew that Irene’s fate was sealed.

“Ok, inform her that there shall be a meeting at 4 pm at boardroom and Alex will give his report.” I told Luke.

“Tony, didn’t you hear how much Irene wanted to defame me? I have never seduced her but she made such sinful claims about me. I feel so angry with her. May God be the judge.” Luke said. I left to go back to my office.

“Luke sounds so sure.” I told Carol.

“But if I were Irene, I would just escape before I am caught. How will she repay all that money? She will end up in jail.” Carol said. I did not know what to say. 

I thought: What if Irene gets fired and Sally applies for that position and is considered? 

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We went to the meeting and waited for the boss and Alex to come. We remained silent each one of us lost in his or her thoughts. Zuhura was reading some Arabic book, Luke was reading some religious magazine with a bold title “PILLARS OF FAITH”, Carol sat silently, Irene sat silently constantly fidgeting on her seat. I took some time to set the projector which Alex was to use. I wondered, is Alex about to table the evidence that Irene been stealing from the company in full view of everyone? That would be devastating to her. Nothing is worse than being caught guilty in front of people. For once, I felt a lot of sympathy for her.

Alex and our boss came together and sat in two chairs reserved to both such that we were as if in a mini conference.

“Luke, lead us with a word of prayer.” Our boss told Luke who gladly made a detailed prayer which sounded like a condemnation. I was feeling unusually anxious.

After Luke prayed, boss stood up and said, “Today, is a very special day for all of us. We have been together all this far and we know our company policies one of them is to uphold company’s mission, vision and goals.” She continued but I was not even paying attention until she called me out.

“Tony, Irene told us that you know something about her other sources of income. I want you to be honest with us and tell us what you know about them.” The statement caught me by surprise. Irene looked at me and I read fear in her expression. I knew what I would say would be very significant and I felt like I was the one to be held responsible in case she got fired. Irene had convinced me she was also a business lady even though I was yet to see any of her businesses, I believed her.

“I know Irene as a personal friend and a hardworking lady. I know she has a business which she imports clothes and resell in wholesale to some Kenyan outlets. However, am sure her business does not interfere with her work since no day has she ever failed to report to work. I am also sure the business is profitable since I know several other people who does the same and are very rich.” I continued for some time before stating that is all I knew.

“Thank you.” Boss said.

“Luke what do you know about Irene?” Boss asked.

Luke tried to be positive but since he was the one who tabled the accusations against Irene it really did not matter to us.

Each one of us was asked about what we knew about Irene and I could tell she was feeling so uncomfortable with the entire exercise. 

Then time came for Alex to talk.

“Alex give the details of your report to us.” Boss told Alex.

“To begin with, I have worked as an auditor in many firms, and I have audited so many firms in East and Central Africa so I am experienced and passionate about what I do. My main reason of being here was that Luke realized that Irene was misappropriating company funds and according herself more salary than she is supposed to get; which according to labor laws that is wrong. So, I went through all your accounts since Irene became an employee for this company and this is my detailed report.”

Alex went into very deep accounting details using accounting terms, even explaining all of them, explained the financial processes of the entire company into fine details giving exact figures, breaking down our budget lines both income and expenditure, presented all trade, profit and loss accounting details, for about 2 continuous hours so smartly such that we were all mesmerized throughout.

As he made his concluding remarks, Irene was sobbing silently covering her face with her head scarf. But something seemed not to make sense, or perhaps I was so poor in accounts I missed some important details of Alex’s audit report: virtually there was no where he mentioned any loss in our company attached to Irene and all losses incurred in the company were the normal business functional losses that any company can suffer without necessarily being a deliberate act.

My boss was completely transfixed staring at the projected figures. She was as immobile as a statue. 

“So, Mr. Alex, in simple terms, is Irene guilty or innocent?” Our boss asked calmly but firmly.

“Your most hardworking employee, Irene, is as innocent as a lamb. I found no evidence whatsoever that she has ever stolen any money from the company.” Alex said before grabbing a bottle of mineral water from the table and gulping the whole bottle within seconds.

We were all shocked we did not even realize that Irene had left the room.

“Where is she?” my boss asked. All of us seemed surprised. She had disappeared like a ghost in the midst of us, or it seemed so until I realized the boardroom door was open. I went outside to look for her. When I got outside, I heard someone sobbing loudly from lady’s washroom. Despite that I have never gone to lady’s washrooms, I went there upon realizing it was Irene.

“Irene, come over, you have been proven innocent.” I told her as calmly as I could manage.

Irene looked at me as if seeing a ghost, crying now like a child. I have never seen someone so heart broken. I reached for her, pulled her gently and she buried herself on my shoulder and continued to sob silently with her tears drenching my shirt.

“Tony, tell me am innocent. I cannot imagine. I knew I was to go to jail tonight. Why would Luke do such a thing to me? What did I do to deserve this? Why, why, why me….oh my God!” Irene was inconsolable.

All of them now came outside to where we were standing. My boss looked at us sympathetically before saying, “Tony, if you can, take Irene home. We shall continue tomorrow. Make sure she reaches home safely and remember to call me when you get there.”

The boss turned to the rest and said, “we can call it a day. Thank you so much Mr. Alex.” She concluded while looking at Alex.

The last to come out of boardroom was Luke, and I could tell he was extremely embarrassed, he did not want to look to anyone of us. Neither was anyone bothering to talk to him.

“Luke, when you come tomorrow, come straight to my office in the morning.” My boss told Luke and left without waiting for his reply. 

That day, Boss’ car had broken down and taken for repairs so Alex offered to drive her to her home.

Carol, Irene and me got on our way home. Irene held my hand firmly as if she never wanted to let go.

>>To be continued>>

As narrated by Dr. Love, Kerry