THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 80

THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 80

The following Monday morning, Ken came to our office and we had a brief meeting where we explained to him the type of office blocks we wanted to have. The founding director was also with us during that meeting and after we were satisfied all was set, they both left together. 

As we sat at Sally’s office, Cornelius came to the office.

“There is a lady at the gate who wants to meet you.” She told Sally.

“Ok, let her come.” Sally said casually.

“Were you expecting someone?” I asked Sally. 

“Yes, there is this lady who wants to set up an audit firm. She wanted some business advice from us.” Sally said and as she finished talking, someone knocked at the door.

A short brown plump lady came in and she introduced herself. It was nice since she met both me and Sally at the same office, Sally was able to offer her business planning ideas as I advised her on the ICT aspect of running a business. She even left for us her business plan for review. 

She paid the consultancy fee initial amount. As she was writing the cheque, she asked us, “By the way, what inspired you to come up with the name NexTech Limited?” 

“Next Technology limited. We believe modern companies are technology driven in the entire business process hence the name.” I told her. She smiled.

After she left, Celestine knocked and came collect some dustbin full of shredded papers. 

“Why do you take so much time cleaning the offices in the morning?” Sally asked Celestine angrily. 

“Madam, I do not have enough cleaning equipment and the mop is in a mess.” Celestine said.

“Stupid girl! How many times do I have to remind you that you are supposed to place an order of any item you need? “Sally asked getting even angrier. 

“I am sorry Madam.” Celestine said.

“Can you go and pick the orders book, place an order, take it to Cynthia. I want those mops purchased today!” Sally was nearly shouting.

Celestine did just that immediately and Cynthia brought the orders book for approval.

“Can’t you wait at the door?” Sally asked Cynthia.

“Let me sign for you.” I intervened, approved the orders and Cynthia went.

I was about to ask Sally why she was so moody that morning when she suddenly held her abdomen as if about to throw up, she headed for the sink but did not vomit anything.

“Sally, what is wrong? Are you feeling well?” I asked her.

“No, I am ok. I feel so nauseated today.” She said gagging once more.

It was then it dawned on me perhaps pregnancy hormones were taking toll on her. 

“Sally, I think it is because of your pregnancy.” I told her. She looked at me.

“But honey, today it feels worse. The other days you could not notice but today I feel so sick.” Sally said returning to her desk.

“Calm down, you will be well.” I told her as I stood to return to my office.

When I got there, I met Carol waiting for me.

“Carol, you are a mother. I want some advice. Sally is throwing up and she is so moody today. Any suggestion?” I asked Carol, she laughed a little and told me, “Welcome to the world of parenthood.”

She also gave me suggestions on how to help her cope with everything of it, even suggested some drugs she can buy to ease her nausea and morning sickness. She told me the drugs she was using and suggested I get them for Sally.

“It is a normal thing, by the time she is 6 months pregnant, she will be all right.” Carol told me.

Carol had wanted me to show her how to configure the router not to allow some unnecessary traffic to pass through. Some device was streaming from a porn site, we could not identify the device but it was consuming a lot of bandwidth. We blocked the device by blacklisting its MAC address.

“Why would someone be watching pornography at this hour of the day?” I wondered.

“Some people probably want to fuck during the day.” Carol said laughing.

It was becoming obvious that the IT Department needed more of me. I even toyed with the idea that I could run both departments, offering technical assistance whenever needed, at least those that Carol and Chris were unable to handle, as well as being Sally’s assistant.

During tea break, I sat with Letisha and Abdi as I already met them at the café. 

“Letisha, we hardly know you, tell us more about yourself.” I told Letisha.

“Hmm, what do you want to know? Just ask.” She answered.

Collins intervened and asked, “At least tell us, are you married? Are you single? How many children do you have? How old are they? Such information.” Collins had a way of making everything sound like a joke.

“Ok, I am single mother of 6 years old son. He lives at the village with my mother. I am in an open relationship, perhaps complicated. I am 25 years old and will be 26 on Wednesday next week; it is my birthday and all of you are invited.” Letisha said.

“Wow! So, a birthday is coming up?” Zuhura said.

“Yes, and I love celebrating in style.” Letisha said.

Carol joined us with Chris, got an idea of the conversation and Carol asked Letisha, “Letisha, why don’t you live with your young son here in the town?”

Letisha looked at Carol keenly and said, “I want to enjoy life more. A child hinders me from enjoying myself so I just left him at the village. He however visits me during holiday.”

Chris followed the conversation silently.

“What about you, Maureen?” I asked her as she joined us.

“About what?” She wondered.

“Are you married? Do you have children?” I asked.

“Oh! Yes, I am married and have 2 children aged 4 and 2.” Maureen sounded proud of her family.

“Sounds like you are happily married?” Letisha pressed Maureen.

“Yes, being married is just the best experience. You have someone to hold on to when the rest of your world is crumbling. I am glad I have a nice man who understands me best.” Maureen added.

Celestine said she was a single mother of a 4 years old boy who she described as, “My pride, my everything. I work so hard because of him. I cannot afford to live far away from him, he makes me smile whenever I get home.” She however expressed the desire to get married, saying that the father of her child ran away once he realized she was pregnant and never communicated with her. She even said the man never bothered to even know how the child looks like after it was born.

“But I already forgave him and moved on. If you want to live in peace, forgive those who wrong you, and you will be at peace even with yourself.” Celestine added.

“Does your child ask you where his father is?” Letisha asked Celestine.

“Yes.” Celestine added.

“Have you ever taken him to see his daddy?” Letisha asked.

“He is not interested.” Celestine said before asking, “Have you ever taken your son to see his daddy?”

Letisha’s face turned immediately and I saw intense anger in her expression.

“Over my dead body! In fact, I told my son his father died. I cannot beg that son of a bitch. I hate him.” Letisha said.

Collins asked a strange question.

“Letisha, the man who made you pregnant, was he single or married?” Collins asked moving to sit down.

“He was a married man. He kept telling me he will leave his wife and marry me but once I delivered, he blocked me, blacklisted me and told me to never ever call him.” Letisha said.

“Then you got yourself in that mess.” Collins said.

At that point, Letisha got really angry.

“Why would a married man go ahead and fuck a girl knowing so well he is married? Can’t men control their dicks?” Letisha asked.

Cynthia joined in, “Yes, married men are to blame. Someone has a wife then goes fucking around. Can’t men just zip up?”

Maureen answered both, “If you bothered to keep your legs closed for the married man, you could avoid all that. You young girls are also selfish. Instead of you accepting the single men, you mostly go ahead and say yes to the married men knowing too well that the man is married. In fact, I would not feel sorry if my husband made a lady pregnant and dumped her. If she knew I am his wife, did she expect him to leave me for her?”

After a short while, Sally joined us and almost everyone seemed to cease contributing to the topic.

“You were talking, continue, I just came for some tea.” Sally told them. But most finished their tea and returned to their offices.

=====

I began feeling lonely in my office. I was getting used to being with someone in my office when Carol came but now in the MD assistant office, I was all alone. Despite having a lot of work, I missed to have at least someone work with me there. As I was thinking about that, Sally came to my office.

“I want to make our work easier, I have managed to talk to the directors and convinced them we need another Assistant in the administration. The position will be parallel to yours, you will handle the administration part and the other assistant will handle the financial part as well as consultancy. The post will go at 65% of your salary and whoever shall come shall share office with you. Hope you won’t find a problem with that.” Sally told me.

“It is exactly what I was thinking a while ago. Besides, this office is a bit lonely being all alone.” I told Sally. 

“I know, I realized. For my office, I get regular visitation from clients, as your office handles purely administrative roles and it is not easy to get people coming to your office unless on serious matters.” Sally told me.

Also, Sally was out of office frequently to meet with clients. It was becoming clear to me why the former boss was mostly not in office, sometimes not available even 2 weeks in a row. That meant Sally was also to be out of office most of the times too, and at times she would be travelling.

I was beginning to like her style of running the place; she was so considerate of employee affairs and was willing to create more job opportunities. She also suggested that by the time we shall be moving to our new office blocks, we need 2 people manning the gate so that they can assist each other.

Sally called Carol and briefed her on the new position that was to be created, and told her to make necessary orders in computers.

======

That evening, Sally was very busy with her work in her office and even told me to go home early as I was so tired too. But on reaching home, I was famished. I just could not wait for her to get home and prepare dinner.

So, I went to the kitchen and prepared dinner. I made some meat stew, vegetables and Ugali. Prepared some fruit salad of mangoes, bananas, water melons and avocados.

I also prepared our favorite chocolate drink, with the aromatic tea masala before settling to relax watching some TV programs not really concentrating on them as I waited for my sweet Sally to come home. I wanted to surprise her and give her a nice home welcome to make her feel like a queen.

At around 8 pm, it was when Sally texted me telling me she was leaving and was taking a cab to bring her home.

======

“Welcome home darling, make yourself comfortable as I serve you something to warm you.” I told her as she came in.

“Thank you, darling.” Sally told me.

I took her handbag and placed it in one of the coaches close. I went ahead and served her with some chocolate drink as she settled in her coach, and as she sipped, I served our supper as I also brought the fruit salads to the table for both of us to eat together.

“Wow! Honey, you went to such lengths to even prepare supper? I was rushing to come home and cook.” Sally protested.

“No, I knew you will get home tired so I had to help you. You are not my maid, you are my lover.” I told Sally as she smiled looking at me.

“That was nice of you; ok. I will help you with the rest.” Sally told me as we settled on the same coach to eat. Some music was playing in the television.

“I want to finish eating and do some work.” I told Sally.

“No, you are not going to work. You should rest, home is home and workplace is workplace. When we are here, we need to relax, be with each other, talk, etc. I am not for the idea of taking some work home. I would rather leave office late but not to carry over my work to home.” Sally protested and indeed she was making sense. 

“I now understand why you really work that much while in office.” I told her.

“Yes, because I would not wish to carry over the work from office to home. When I am here, if I have to do anything, it should not be related to the work place.” Sally told me.

As we were eating, an idea came to me.

“Sally, I noticed that cattle at your place are so cheap. I want us to be buying them and resell them at a higher price here in Nairobi. We just need to have outlets for them when we deliver them here.” I told Sally.

She thought for a while. “That is a good idea you have there, I was not even thinking of it.”

We discussed about the idea and agreed that we can link with her cousin who knew more about Turkana so that he can be of help to us as we try to do that business. Since Sally was already getting more business connections due to the nature of her job, she was to source for slaughter houses where we could supply the cattle. 

We finished eating and Sally washed the dishes as I helped her with ironing the clothes we were to wear the following day.

=====

As soon as we got to work the following day, we noticed that the place looked untidy. The first question Sally asked, “Where is Celestine?” 

She had not reported to work that day, and had not sent any report as to why she did not come. Sally called her with the work place phone and she picked. They talked for a while and finally Sally told her, “Remember when you come, come with documentation justifying your claims, a medical report will be better. Have a good day.” 

“What is it?” I asked Sally.

“Celestine told me she was pregnant and miscarried. She has been told to have two days bed rest and she will resume working.” Sally told me.

“Damn! Ok.” I told Sally. I felt the urge to ask her how she was feeling since I knew she was pregnant too.

Cynthia volunteered to do the cleaning of offices. 

I was busy with my work when Cynthia was cleaning my office. She was doing it calmly and slowly as if she was not in a hurry to clean. I did not know whether I was imagining things or Cynthia was being deliberate. As she was cleaning my table, she bent provocatively with her cleavage facing me such that almost all her breasts except her nipples were exposed in full view of me; and she was damn slow and spent almost 2 minutes cleaning my table including its creases, cleaned even the cowrie shells that were on my table, a small Kenyan flag which had a small wooden base placed on my big table. She also would bend provocatively as she cleaned the office cabinets revealing her thighs and tall slender legs. 

After she finished, she stood up and straightened herself readjusting her bra slowly so that her cleavage fell under her tight blouse. She was wearing a short black dress and a pink blouse. 

“Sir, is there anything else I have not done?” Cynthia asked.

“No, everything is all right. Thank you.” I told her.

“Your office is nice and big, I like it.” Cynthia told me.

“Soon, someone will join me and I guess it will be small.” I told Cynthia.

“Can I bring you some tea?” Cynthia asked.

“No. I would rather join my colleagues at the café. Thank you.” I told Cynthia.

Suddenly, Cynthia looked at me with keen eyes and asked, “Tony, why did you do that to me?” 

I looked at her for a while and told her, “Cynthia, I am sorry it happened like that. But as you can see, we need to move on past that day. I regret what I did.”

Cynthia looked at me and was about to tell me something when Sally came in and Cynthia continued to clean my water dispenser. 

“Cynthia, please go and clean my office too. And if you can, hurry up and clean the rest too; I want to send you to do some purchases in town.” Sally told Cynthia.

“Yes, Madam.” Cynthia said as she disappeared outside my office.

“I like this girl, she is so dedicated with her work and love even challenging herself with more work. I think we should budget include her in the major payroll instead of paying her handouts.” Sally told me.

“Good idea.” I told Sally and kept silent.

“Tony, I am not gossiping but I suspect something has been going on between Collins and Celestine. Yesterday as I was late around here, I found them talking in the café and it was like they were arguing.” Sally told me.

“But, Collins is a married man.” I told Sally.

“Yes, but I noticed Collins has tendency to hit on these ladies though in a subtle manner.” Sally told me.

I wondered, could Celestine have aborted Collins’s pregnancy?

=======

During tea break, I deliberately went for Collins where we sat together discussing some issues. As we engaged in some conversation, Collins told me.

“Tony, I have a little problem and I want your assistance.” Collins told me.

“Ask brother, any time.” I told Collins.

“It is about Celestine. I got involved with her and she got pregnant, now she has told me she has done an abortion and wanted me to help her with some money since she is broke and the abortion did not go well; she bled so much and needs blood transfusion.” Collins asked me so casually and I was shocked at how he took it so easily. 

“Are you the one who told her to abort?” I asked Collins.

“Yes, I cannot afford to have get my baby. That will not go will with my wife.” Collins told me.

“So, how much do you want?” I asked Collins.

“Kshs 20,000.” Collins told me.

“Look, here is how I will help you. Come to my office and fill some Salary Advance forms.

“Thank you, I did not even know we had salary advances here!” Collins told me.

“It was not there before, Sally implemented it when she took over.” I told Collins.

“Sally is a good manager.” Collins commented.

A little later, we were joined by Carol, Chris and Abdi who left Letisha at accounts office doing some work.

“Collins, you don’t look jovial today, what is the problem?” Carol asked Collins. 

“Oh! No problem. I am ok. May be just feeling cold.” Collins told Carol.

“How can you feel cold and you have a wife at home?” Letisha teased Collins.

“Just come and get more bajia, you should feel warmer.” Zuhura teased Collins.

“Oh! I am ok. What I have eaten is enough.” Collins said.

I always thought Collins never had enough of eating. I kept wondering, when did Collins get time with Celestine so much until he made her pregnant? I also wondered whether the other people knew.

==========

After tea time was over, I went to Sally’s office.

“Sally, imagine it was Collins who made Celestine pregnant and told her to abort!” I told Sally.

“I suspected such a thing.” Sally told me.

“How did you suspect?” I asked Sally.

“I am a woman, Tony. I know women moves when they want a man.” Sally told me and smiled.

“Hmm, ok. Woman thing. After all, you also came to me when I least suspected.” I told Sally.

As I was watching the CCTV screen in Sally’s office, I noticed Chris really looking at Carol’s buttocks when they were in their office. Carol was arranging some files in their cabinet, Chris was seated and his eyes all the time were on Carol’s butt.

“And please, let him know she is HIV positive, otherwise, I can see him making a fatal move soon.” Sally told me, a statement that surprised me as it was obvious she saw the CCTV feed and concluded very fast.

I laughed for a while.” Maybe he is just admiring.” I told Sally and we laughed.

“Hey, let me go back to my office.” I told Sally. 

“Not before you kiss me.” Sally insisted. 

I felt my adrenaline rush through my body. I looked at Sally’s face and she was serious.

“And then the CCTV will record that.” I told Sally. 

She pointed at the screen section that was to display the feed from her office camera; it was static.

“How did that happen?” I asked Sally. 

“I unplugged it, or rather disabled it. I monitor people, people should not monitor me.” Sally told me smiling.

“Damn! Sally that is not right…” As I protested, she crossed over to where I was standing to leave, held me, pulled me by my court and gave me a long French kiss that made my blood boil.

“I also disconnected the feed from your office. I don’t want to monitor you. I have noticed some girls around here might make me begin feeling jealous of you yet it is all about work. As long as there is a camera in your office, I will feel tempted to monitor you.” Sally said sounding protective.

It somehow made sense. I kissed her back, released her gently and went back to my office. 

I found Chris waiting for me at my office.

>>>To be continued>>>

As narrated by Dr. Love.