New Artiste.

"I would like to thank all of you for your generous donations for the City Auction House. We are thrilled to have your support. 75% of this would be used for Shelter and Homeless services...." The host of the Auction House gave his speech, "You all truly make a difference for us, and we are extremely grateful!"

Mr. Collins sat there with a dissatisfied face as he heard this speech.

Mr. Collins had tried his level best to get the ring, he knew that a lot of people were going to compete with him for it and that's why he had kept his budget at a fairly large amount.

Who knew that a 9 carat diamond ring which could cost about $200,000 at it's best, would be sold at a hefty price of $300,500!

He had almost made a fool out of himself during the bidding. It had started with $90,000 and slowly reached a number where people were unwilling to put more money in it.

Mr. Collins had thought that he might get it at this point. The competition had reached to a point that only an anonymous bidder and himself were left. The VIP guests had the option for being anonymous during the auction.

He painstakingly increased the price to $200,000, which was already more than his limit. After all, he was still a white-collar worker! People were already feeling bad for him, when this anonymous person increased the price to $300,500! 

Without doubt, he lost the competition which he was sure he would be winning, and became a joke amongst people.

It was not only Jonathan Collins who was embarrassed, but Hanna was also embarrassed.

Just sometime ago, she was flaunting it to her friends that she would definitely be the one owning the ring. She was also giving proud, provoking looks to her classmates when Mr. Collins had increased the bid to $200,000. Within a second, her smile vanished when she heard that someone had bidded much higher than that. She knew that Jonathan couldn't afford more.

She had decided to show it off during the dinner party but now she left the Auction House even before the formal announcements were done.

Mr. Collins was in an even more awkward position as he had to stay there no matter what, the reason being there were a lot of important people here, in this gathering.

…

Lily quickly grabbed the steaming hot cup of coffee and walked towards Maya and splashed it. 

Although Maya was talking with the Manager, it didn't mean that she was not aware of her surroundings. As if she had seen it coming, Maya immediately moved back and raised her hand. She tightly grasped Lily's wrist and gave her a little push away from her. 

"Ouch!" Lily exclaimed in pain. Maya's grip on her hand was tight enough to hurt her, and on top of that, because of getting a slight push from Maya, Lily accidentally  splashed the hot coffee on herself!

Clearly no one had expected this turn of events. Maya had done it so fast that everyone realized what had happened only after Lily shouted in pain.

Even though they had not seen it clearly, all of them were dumbfounded at Maya's boldness and stared at her with amazement.

"Security!" Although Mr. Davis didn't show much respect towards Maya, he was clearly aware of her temper. He immediately called the security to take Lily out of Maya's sight. 

Seeing this Maya looked around and said in a crisp voice, "I know that our company is very employee friendly, but that does not mean that you can act on your own without thinking. I don't know what you all have been doing until now, but now that I have personally witnessed it, make sure that you act wisely and avoid such scenarios!" 

The security guards entered and grabbed Lily, who was throwing tantrums like a kid and pulled her out. No one dared to say anything as they looked downwards.

Manager Davis turned to look at them, "Did you guys understand what CEO Maya just said?!" He said in a commanding voice, it was as if it wasn't him who was badmouthing Maya in his mind a few seconds ago, "Why are you looking at me now?! Go and do your work!" 

Removing the unhappy expression from his face, Davis then looked at Maya and said in a flattery way, "CEO Maya, please come to my humble office…"

As they entered, he continued, "You really should have informed me about you visiting the office. I would have made sure that you did not have to experience something like this."

"Do I need to always get permission from you regarding whatever I do?" Maya simply asked him back.

It was just a simple sentence without any expressions but it gave Manager Davis a chill in his heart. "Uh-no no… Of course not!" He hurriedly explained himself, after what had happened just now, he didn't dare to provoke Maya again. What if he got suspended from his duties!?

Maya went inside and sat on the main seat as she looked through the files that were kept on the table. Some of them had also fallen on the ground, presumably because earlier she had given Davis a scare with her surprise visit. 

"Is she the new artiste the company has signed?" Maya looked at the file and asked Davis, she remembered that Lily had mistaken her as the new artiste.

Despite the fact that the profile belonged to a twenty-six year old, the girl in the photo looked as if she was only a teenager, she had very young facial features. 

"Ye-yes, actually I wanted to reject her." Davis said carefully observing Maya's reactions. 

"Why?" Maya asked. Clearly, there was nothing wrong with the information; she was from a good family in the Capital, she started posting her small skits on social platforms and now was basically an influencer. She didn't see the reason he wanted to reject her.

"Umm…. Actually she is already in a relationship and they will be planning to get married by the next year."

"So…?" 

Davis briefly closed his eyes, this was a problem that most of the people objected to, signing artistes who were already in a relationship.

It was a known fact that single people were more popular in the showbiz and got a lot of fan following. But Maya never disapproved of it.

Her aim was to sign up people with the company regardless of them being in a relationship or their advanced age. She only cared about people with talents. The only condition was that they shouldn't be indulged into bad influences. One could say that she really cared about promoting good work and not about the profit.