Chapter 6: Work Night Out

Meanwhile, that day at work, Rayla received a phone call from Rachel's school to say she didn't turn up. Her stomach churned in fear and concern. "I am sorry I must step out for a moment." Rayla said and left from her meeting to call her husband, "Brad, the school just called me, Rachel is not at school!?" Rayla exclaimed in shock and fear, "everything's alright, I just decided to keep Rachel home today." Brad said kindly to her on the phone. "If would have been nice if you could have called the school because they just called me! Next time if you are going to keep her home just call the school!" Rayla grunted in frustration. "Fine, fine…" Brad shrugged off. "Alright, I got to go, I will be home late tonight…." Rayla said and hung up the phone. Rayla took a deep breath when suddenly, "Is everything alright? You look stressed?" Evan said kindly coming up next to her. "Oh, Mr. Blade, yes everything is alright, just my husband kept our daughter home from school today." Rayla said putting her phone away as they walked back together into the meeting board room. "Oh, that's nice, some father and daughter bonding huh?" He said to her softly.

"Yes something like that. How was your training session this morning? I heard you have the new IT recruits to train?" Rayla said professionally walking with him through the work place hallway back to their respective offices. "Yes it went well, actually just finished a training session for the new recruits, so they will be good to go for next month's conference in IT specialties." Evan told her professionally. "That's excellent news. Looking forward to seeing their skills." Rayla commented. There is silence between them for a moment, "Hey, I was wondering, do you want to have dinner with me sometime, with work mates of course?" Evan asked her kindly.

Rayla sat there for a moment and thought about it as they sat together in the board room awaiting the return of the manager to close off the meeting as he left to go to the bathroom, "You know what, that would be nice, I will call my PA and you call your team. See you tonight." She said kindly and walked off. "Besides, it will give him at home time to cool off anyways tonight…" Rayla thought to herself, as she needed some space from home for a bit from the problems of home life.

That night after work, being a Friday night, the work crew went out for dinner and drinks after work. Rayla, her PA Ashleigh and Evan's IT team, being an IT technician Tom, Daisy the help desk analyst and Pete, the Data analyst. "Well, congratulations to our IT specialist, Evan Blade and his team for their growth in the IT technical support and their ongoing progress, congratulations!" Rayla cheered her colleagues with her from her department as well.

It was 7pm, she thought if she should send her husband a message, "He will probably take her to see his parents tonight anyways and then I will get a lecture like, "You don't need to message me while you are out" along those lines." Rayla thought within herself in anger at her husband as she put her phone away, glancing at her phone. "you seem deep in thought" Evan commented at her, smiling at her softly yet charmingly.

"Yes, just deep in thought for a moment there. Cheers and congratulations on your team." Rayla cheered. "Thank you, I couldn't have done it without the help of your supportive team environment, thank you over the last couple of months, I feel like I've really settled in at this company." Evan cheered to her. "Glad to hear it" Rayla responded professionally. "At least I get some thanks from work" Rayla thought to herself.

"I must say though, Evan, your IT skills are beyond amazing, you even had the cyber security team in the air when you figured out our department was hacked last week" Ashleigh commented.

Rayla looked at her PA, then looked at Evan suddenly in interest, "Yeah, I heard what happened when I was reading my emails the other day, what happened?" Rayla asked. "Well, our company was hacked by the famous hackers called "Greater Anonymous", basically they are responsible for hacking business profiles in order to gain access to their files to get a ransom, like example, they could get my file and my personal and professional date base at our company, and in order to get it back, they request ransom to be paid money for a certain amount of money to buy it back from them, so to combat this problem, I made an anti-hack program that will protect our company's database from being hacked again." Evan said. "Wow, and how does it protect the database from being hacked?" Rayla and her PA asked out of curiosity, as IT related matters, interested the both of them. "Well, it works like this: anyone who tries to hack the system, then notifies the owner, being me, or someone on our server, that our systems are being hacked and then notifies the police straight away and then the government bodies get involved and trace the hacker to their location and either block them or arrest them. It is a simple yet complicated method, but it does the job" Evan said as he was slicing his steak dinner with the team. Everyone was amazed at his style of work and his new program he made. "Incredible" Rayla and the team said amazed. "He is truly good at what he does" Rayla thought to herself.

"Change of topic, will you be at the conference next month, Rayla?" her PA asked her out of curiosity. "Of course, I am in charge of HR so I need to be haha." Rayla responded jokingly. "Yes, I see." Evan responded.

"So, Evan, do you have a girlfriend?" Rayla's PA asked Evan, as she had a little crush on him. "Yes, I do" he smiled softly. "Oh, I see" Rayla's PA said so downheartedly. "Why the long face, Ashleigh, sounds like you are heart broken" Pete said to Ashleigh and everyone laughed at the table. Everyone was having a good time, as this working relationship made everyone bond in the team.

Everyone in their team was having a good time and everyone started to leave by 9:30pm, until it was just Evan and Rayla left. "Well, looks like I better get going too, my husband and daughter may be home by now." Rayla thought, not knowing that they had gone and made a home-made dinner for her. "I will walk out with you, I am heading off as well." Evan said and paid for his portion of the meal, so did Laura. "He is independent, rare to see in a man these days…" Rayla thought to herself, as they finished paying for their meals and left the restaurant together.

"Where did you park your car?" Evan asked her. "At the office building, where'd you park yours?" Rayla asked him softly. "Same place as yours, so I will come with you." Evan said kindly to her. "How nice of you, thank you." Rayla said professionally, to keep it professional between them.

As they are walking, Evan talks to her about his girlfriend and how he planned to marry her. "That sounds wonderful, I am sure she would love it." Rayla commented kindly smiling at him, as they walked back to their cars together. "Well, goodnight, Rayla looking forward to seeing you at the conference soon." Evan said to her. "Like wise. Goodnight, Mr. Blade." Rayla said kindly and they both left in opposite directions.

That night when Rayla got home, being 10pm that night, she saw the car home, "Oh, prick is home." She thought to herself with contempt. She walks in the door and sees dinner on the table with a note, "We hope you like our home-made meal, love you, mummy. Daddy and Rachel."

Rayla looked at the meal that they had made, being home made spring rolls, Rice and Salad. Rayla looked at the meal, "Awww, how sweet…" Rayla thought for a moment, however, because of the hurt in her heart from Brad's stupidity and arrogance, she was not in the mood to eat. When she walked in the bedroom, she saw her husband awake, "Where were you?" He asked her softly, yet sternly. She looked at him for a moment, "Since when do you care where I am?" She thought to herself with contempt at him, "I was at work, after work, they had after work dinner and drinks, I just went for dinner with colleagues after work, that's why I am home late. I didn't want to call or else I'd be scolded by you as always…" She shrugged taking her jacket and bra off, "I'm going for a shower…" She said walking in the shower.

"Yep, she's still mad…" He thought to himself. "You're still mad?" Brad questioned softly, just to ask and get an answer out of her. She turned around and looked at him with a poker face; "Mad at what?" She said with a poker face, which indicated that she was still angry and hurt, as she turned her back on him and went for a shower.

Brad just sat there astounded, "She normally is cheery when she comes home…" Brad thought to himself, feeling somewhat hurt as he looked down and withdrew himself. As Rayla is in the shower, tears stream down her face, as she didn't want to be angry with him like that. "I was so cold to him…" She thought to herself.

When she gets out the shower, she gets into bed next to him, and just goes to sleep. Rayla took a deep breath, "If you want, we can just bring Rachel's bed into our room, saves her from knocking on the door all the time, Brad…" Rayla said coldly. "Laura…about Rachel…" Brad said, when suddenly, "I don't want to hear it, Brad… I am tired of arguing… so just do what you want…saves all the drama anyway" Rayla said coldly and went to sleep. "Laura… Laura…" Brad said as he embraced her shoulder, holding her softly, suddenly, hearing her snoring, she was fast asleep. Brad took a deep breath. "Fine.. I will give you some space…" Brad said and went to sleep. Rayla opened her eyes for a dim moment and went to sleep.