Chapter 2 - Flame

Exhaustion. That was all I felt.

Exhausted by the lifestyle that has taken over all my conscious mind. Spending all my days in the most boring office, constantly staining my all, physically, mentally, and emotionally, nothing seems to be any easier than before, everything eating me from the inside out, all result the same and never improving, motivating and frustrating.

All I ever wanted was to have a free hand over what happens, with controlled results, and controlled improvements that would be so much more pleasing than just sitting in one place, stationary and never moving.

I was sitting in my black dress shoes, tight navy suit pants, white shirt, sleeves already out of their cuffs and rolled up to my elbows, a few buttons unbuttoned from the constant tugging at my silk tie from the frustration building.

I had come from a meeting no more than 10 minutes ago, feeling completely defeated, with no progress in anything, nothing improving or developing and expanding.

All I could do was listen with my head collapsed in my hands, utmost anger and sadness, just completely filling me from my toes to the tips of my hair.

Completely in my own world, hearing nothing but the constant blaring phone in the background. The office phone was calling non-stop, probably the receptionist, there were always unwanted guests that would stop by the office, creepy stalkers of the company, family members of the employees, and my own family.

That was the worst of the options, my family never gave me a break, and conversations about how my business was failing, how I'm getting too old for this life and should get married, that was a topic that kept coming up in conversations, marriage, no air around the area, always constricted and controlled, no option for negotiation. They would bring a new girl in every week, wanting me to say yes, but I never did and just threw them out of the office. But I guess the options were never in my favor as they kept coming back.

"This is Hepha Office, you may speak," I said uninterested,

" They are here again Mr. Hepha, they brought some extra guests this time, however, should I send them up, or tell them you're busy?" Asked Seraphine, the managing secretary.

"Give me the details, starting with how many guests," I said, whilst my head hang low

"Your mother +2, a girl and assuming her mother as well, the girl around 22, dressed to the tea of fancy and chic, her mother not looking any different, aged 45-50, both look very bossy, giving the impression of stuck-up and not accepting rejection. '' Said Seraphine

I sighed " This is going to be a long talk, delay the next meeting by 30 minutes, and send them up, tell them to be quiet, it's summary and evaluation month, every department is still working, and thank you Seraphine. Make sure you aren't there when they come back down there will be a lot of disturbances."

" Of course, I'm sending them up right now, would you like me to bring any refreshments on my way up," asked Seraphine politely

" Yes please Sera, an extra strong coffee as well if you can."

"Of course, I'll be heading up with refreshments as well, everything will be ready in 5 minutes."

"Thank you Sera" I finished, whilst hanging up the office phone,

5minutes was all I needed to get prepared and back to normal attire, doing my dress buttons, straightening out my tie, and patting down my hair.

I decided to leave my sleeves rolled up, sit back down in my chair and check the details, for the coming meeting after this conversation with my mom and her guests.

Not having much time, after I hear a knock on my office door, I stand up to answer,

"Proceed", Seraphine entered first giving me warning eyes, they were going to be trouble.

I sighed again, " Cancel all my other meetings for today regarding the evaluation, tell everyone they have until the day after tomorrow to have everything complete, for the day after that, we will be proceeding with the same department queue."

" Yes Mr. Hepha, I'll be sending you the additional summary materials for those meetings the morning of the submissions."

That is when my mother and her 2 obnoxious guests came into the office, all loud and noisy to no avail, after being told not to be.

I started " Has my secretary not told you to be quiet on the way here?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, starting to sip my coffee.

I saw my mother's mouth opening to answer but before she could she was cut off

"And why should we listen to her, it's not like she anything but garbage in a mini skirt, who probably fucked everyone to get to where she is"

My eyes shot to the one that answered, it was the girl, obnoxiously chewing her gum, and just looking around the office.

My eyes then landed on my mother who had her mouth gaping open, blinking rapidly, not knowing how to answer.

"My secretary follows my word, if you think that your status means that you have some type of opinion over her, you will be mistaken, instead of talking about my secretary and seeing as though, you look like a gold-digging daddy girl, how about you shut it, and let me have a civilized conversation with my mother, as to why she may have brought you here?"

I then directed all my attention to my mother before the daddy's girl could reply, "What are you doing here mom?"

"You see here Flame, I brought these people here beca u-,"

Once again being cut off,

"Oh my god, can this bitch hurry up, I'm here because you are going to be my husband, end of discussion."

Here I was ready and filled with the utmost anger, lashing out, " If by your words you haven't learned how much of a bitch you are sweety, we need to get your priorities straight, I don't care how much money you have, if you disrespect anyone here I will have your head, you offended my mother, you offended my worker, and you think you are getting away with it, you may be completely wrong."

I reached for my office phone, " Seraphine, would you please direct this message to the lawyer, ' I'm filing a protective order against the family guests today and filing a civil lawsuit due to harassment, statements will be put through from both sides, and the office phone will be used as evidence given, as a recording has been put in place, and if you can tell them to get it done by the end of tomorrow."

"Yes boss, I'll be in contact with them right now"

"Thank you, Sera."

"Now that, that has been completed, get out of my office, the longer you stay the more punishment it will be for you, and if you don't leave the security won't have an issue taking you to put by force, but I bet you don't want the media on your tail now do you?" I said with a sickly sweet smile.

Seeing the bitch start opening her mouth, it was quickly stopped by her mom giving her a stern look and dragging her out of the office, my mom following close behind with an even more outraged glare.

Until my door was slammed, could I finally release a relieving breath of built tension?

My day was over, and I just couldn't wait to go home.

I took a seat back in my chair and continued reading through all the work that had piled up from the last couple of days, I was tired and stressed out from the stress and work, just not the stress of trying to make the project successful, the work was hard but enjoyable, the process of putting together the project was always a pleasure, I just wanted to finish it, I had been thinking for quite some time what I would use to help make it a success, a big idea started growing inside of my head, something that I had planned for so long but could never get past the idea of not being able to execute it.

I had thought of many things, but none had worked for me, none seemed fitting enough to implement, but the one idea was just so amazing. It would be a huge win for both of our companies and it would be worth my while to make it work. I was only 20% convinced that the idea wasn't completely insane.

The idea was simple but perfect, and I knew exactly what I had to do with it.