Chapter Eighty Four: New rules

She thought she had been freed from today's taunting.

He reached the entrance of his office before speaking.

" Arrange the reports and bring them to me," he said before he proceeded with getting into his office.

He was out of her view now. Amanda took a deep breath, and for the first time, she did not fancy her job. How would she be able to act like everything was okay and normal like he does? 

For a split second, she thought about ending this right here, for the sake of her fragile heart and emotion. She just knew that resigning at this point was throwing away all her hard work and then probably sent back to Nigeria. Her stay in Canada was solely dependent on her job at Blazzers Electrics, and after she had worked for some years, then she could be given an independent residency.

How was he doing it? How could he control his feelings, you might be sure you meant something to him this second, and the next second he would show you how insignificant you are to him. 

She felt sad and entrapped. The fact that she had to share the same space with her terror, her soul snatcher was depressing. A man she loved, a man she hated herself for loving.

She sat there in her thoughts for some time before adjusting her dress, then took the report to him.

She knocked before going in. His attention was on something else, so he barely looked in her direction.

She dropped the iPad on his desk before speaking.

"Here," 

His attention was still fixed on his MacBook but he slightly peeked at her.

"Took you a while, don't you think?" 

"Uhh..." She tried speaking, but the truth was that she didn't know what to say.

"Uhh...??," He snapped in on her by mimicking her. 

"No excuses, absolutely no excuses for incompetence," he added. 

His gaze slowly left her as he reached the tab.

Amanda's ability to hold it together was almost at its peak. It was barely five-ten minutes ago that he ask for this.

Maybe ten minutes was a lot if he wanted to see them urgently, but he had never flipped over how long it took her to get anything done as long as she got it done on time. 

She was very fazed by his behavior, and that poked different emotions inside her.

She swallowed, trying to hold everything together. It seemed she was not over the previous pictures she saw of him, because it all now played in her head.

'Was he nice and sweet to her?'

'was he upset about the press ruining his little gateway with Laura and he wanted to pour it out on her?' 

'Or was it because he had seen her with Mark?'

"Ask Tyler to give you the new Timeless figures, this isn't accurate," he said, sliding the tab to her side. She picked it up and proceeded to leave, but his speech stopped her.

"I doubt if you have been informed of the new rules?" 

She turned, now facing him as her face showed curiosity and questions.

Her eyes briefly looked at both sides without moving her head wondering what the new rules might be.

"No, I have not heard," she said softly ready to know what it was.

Ray sat up before he spoke.

"No more Lunch break outside the cafeteria here. And, lunch break remains maximum of forty five minutes, no more than that."

Amanda couldn't help but feel guilty, the rules were only because she had spent time outside work during work hours with Mark.

Was all his recent behavior due to this?

Was this a result of jealousy or what is this?

She felt saddened, she swallowed before she spoke.

"Noted," she said trying to hide her emotions.

She left him, slightly taking a few minutes to regain herself, then requesting that Tyler gave her the new Timeless figures as instructed.

Tyler had rung her telecom, informing her that Lang was going to send them to her system in no time. Slightly after an hour, Ray left the premises.

Ray was called by his lawyers to come to meet them for a little adjustment in his ongoing divorce.

"All this stress for a marriage that ruined me" he muttered before starting his car.

He was a little exhausted from the day's activities.

He was beginning to rethink always driving himself. It was exhausting always having to drive.

Besides, he paid Scott a basic wage even in a month he barely worked. 

He drove for about forty five minutes before getting to his destination.

He was welcomed by a paralegal who now took him to a room where his lawyer was.

Well, his lawyer was not the only lawyer there, Rebecca was there too. 

He was a little confused about why he needed to meet with them again after the divorce had successfully been filed and they awaited a response from the Judge.

"I know that look, not to worry, there is nothing wrong, everything is still going fine," his lawyer said, noticing the look on his face after sighting Rebecca.

"Just a slight omission. Ms. Rebecca here happened to be here for the same thing."

'what was it again?' he wondered.

He moved towards them, taking a seat.

"We are lucky to notice this early or else the judge wouldn't have approved,"  the lawyer said.

"What is it?" Raymond asked.

The documents about your newly adjusted agreement were not completed by Rebecca. A simple omission. so, we drafted it again, and now after she has signed, we need you to append your signature.

I could have brought it to you, but it didn't seem like we had so much time."

"It's fine, I'm here now," he said giving Rebecca a stare that showed how he knew she had pulled that stunt consciously. 

Ray got over with the signing, Rebecca asked that he offered her a ride, which he didn't refuse.

He dropped her off and then headed back home to have a rest.

Lang was taking a little while to send the documents so she just went to her office instead.

"Hey," lang said as soon as she saw Amanda.

"Hey," Amanda responded, moving to the chair across Lang and sitting on it.

"How are you feeling now?" Lang asked.

"I'm not sure, but the work at hand is keeping me distracted. 

Now coupled with the fact that Ray is not making it easier." 

"I thought we were done talking about Raymond,"  Lang suspended the work before her, now fully concentrated on Amanda.

"Yea, we were, until he showed up,"

"He came around?" Lang asked.

"Yep, and was a jerk the whole time", Amanda said, relaxing into the chair.

"This late? That's odd. What did he do this time?" Lang inquired.

"Talking about new rules...," Amanda sat up and placed her two elbows on the table then rested her chin on her palm.

"What rules!?" Lang asked anxiously with an intrigued expression.

"No more eating outside the cafeteria," 

"Uh, no one really eats on their desk, do they?" Lang asked. It was obvious that she didn't understand the rule.

"Like, no more Lunch breaks outside the cafeteria." Amanda rephrased.

Lang had finally gotten it. "What? Shit! Look, this is why you shouldn't go out with your boss, it gets messy when it turns sore." Lang sighed, then rested her back on her office chair.

Amanda took a second to think about what Lang just said. 'was the relationship between her and Raymond now sour?'

"He is just being petty," Lang said, now seating up, returning her attention to her laptop.

"He is still around?" 

"Nope," Amanda responded, getting her chin off her palm and her elbow off the table.

"Oh, okay...

So, what's up?" Lang asked.

"The Timeless new figures?"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot for a second,"

"Thought so," Amanda said.

"In a minute, I will have it sent to your MacBook."

"Okay," Amanda said, standing and proceeding to get to the exit.

She needed to get the report ready as soon as possible as it was almost closing time.

"I will finish late today," Lang said.

"Oh," Amanda let out, turning to face her.

"Seems you got a lot of your desk?" 

"Yea," Lang responded. 

"Mmm, okay," Amanda said now leaving the place.

Amanda closed a little late due to the report. She left her office at almost 6 PM. She wanted to go check on Lang to see how far she had gone with what she had at hand. She was by the hallway, but surprisingly, she saw Mark in one of the offices on that floor. The one and only office engineers had business on that floor.

She stopped, moving to the entrance to say hello.

On getting closer, she saw a big brown box on the table as Mark seemed to be packing stuff in it.

"Hey, what's going on?" She asks.

"Oh, hey," Mark called out before he picked up a mini toolbox, and threw it into the bigger box.

'why was he packing,' she wondered.

"What's happening?" She asked again.