CHAPTER 17

The next day, Laura's alarm woke her up as usual, but this time, she wasn't as excited as she was the previous day, instead, it was replaced with anxiety.

This time, she arrived at work much earlier than she did the day before. Reaching the 90th floor, she walked even more determined on the hard tiles until she reached Malthus' huge desk; where she was also positioned for the meantime.

Laura sat on her designated seat. "You can do this, Laura," she said as she remembered Malthus' words while she packed her belongings to leave, yesterday.

"Laura, you are an outstanding woman, that's why I picked you amongst others," Malthus adjusted his glasses. "You have to let the CEO see that too." He concluded.

Although Malthus' words were short, they were enough to jack Laura up to strong purposefulness concerning work. She sat there preparing her mind and easing her anxiety when she heard the ding of the elevator; someone was on the floor.

She heard various footsteps, more prominent was a step that clanked strongly but slowly. This caused Laura to be even more anxious as she tried to act naturally but failed woefully because she knew too well whose steps they were.

"Ah Laura, you're here early," Malthus said.

Hearing this, Laura reflexively stood facing the direction of the voice. She saw at a distance, two tall men walking toward her; they were Malthus and…Ralph. Ralph was a bit taller than Malthus, he walked elegantly toward her. Although he walked more circumspectly, he was ahead of Malthus. He seemed to have longer strides.

On reaching her, Malthus stopped in front of the desk, while Ralph walked into his office. "Good morning, sir," Laura called out to Ralph but he had already entered, and shut the door of his office.

"Good morning, Laura," Malthus greeted the now downcast-looking Laura. "You came early," Malthus said as he set his briefcase and some files on the desk.

"I'm trying my best," Laura smiled at Malthus, who smiled back and looked down into his briefcase.

"From today onward, you'll be joining me in my secretarial duties," Malthus said as he picked up his tablet from his briefcase. "You'll be responsible for this for the times I am not present."

Laura was shocked. Yes, she knew that she was going to work as an assistant secretary, but she didn't think that she'd be working directly with Ralph, at least not this early.

"Oh…" Laura couldn't find the words.

"Here," Malthus dropped another tab on the desk. "It's for your work. It contains appointments, events, arrangements of travel and accommodations, and meetings for the president; I arranged them."

"The presi—" Laura was a bit confused about the name.

"We address the CEO as the president, here. When you speak to him, refer to him as 'sir'," Malthus quickly said, understanding her confusion.

Laura nodded in confirmation that she had understood. "Okay," she responded.

"We need to go see him now and notify him of his schedule," Malthus informed as he turned around, heading for Ralph's office. "Follow me."

Hearing this, Laura immediately jumped from her seat, grabbed the tablet from the desk, where Malthus had dropped it, and followed him as he knocked and entered Ralph's office.

Ralph was already seated in his seat. Laura looked cautiously at him from behind Malthus, he was fumbling with some documents on his desk; he seemed to be signing them.

"We're here, sir, to brief you on your schedule for today," Malthus alerted Ralph.

Laura saw as Ralph looked up from the documents, and dropped his fountain pen, after covering it up, on the desk. She noticed as he glanced at her with an expressionless face.

"Okay…" Ralph responded. "Please come in."

Even though Ralph treated her condescendingly, yesterday, Laura couldn't help but admire him; he was, after all, the man who brought Landers Tech into the limelight, in just a few years. Who wouldn't respect such? She thought.

Laura followed behind Malthus cautiously as he took his steps towards Ralph. He climbed the pavement to get to where Ralph was, and she did the same too. Reaching Ralph, Malthus halted; she did too. She watched him as he brought his tablet to his face and went through it.

"At 8 am, you have a meeting with Grant & Stephen; the engineering company. The meeting is for the finalizing of the contract," Malthus began.

"That is supposed to take, at most, 2 hours, scheduled for 10 am…" Malthus continued.

Laura's eyes settled on Ralph as Malthus spoke, she observed as he was rolling the fountain pen on his desk; pushing it from left to right, then from right to left. At a glance, one would be convinced that he wasn't listening to Malthus at all, not until he looked up at Malthus.

"Can we make it for an hour?" Ralph interrupted. "What more could I speak about with a woman?" He said nonchalantly as he looked back at his desk and continued playing with the pen.

"Okay, sir. That'll be for an hour, instead of two," Malthus immediately replied.

Laura was taken aback by the interaction she just witnessed. She wanted to be sure, so she lifted her tablet, turned it on and went to the files. She opened 'The President's Schedule for The Month' file, and went through the schedule for the day.

Just as she thought, Ralph was to have a meeting with a co-founder of Lilies; an e-commerce firm, Ms Adams, at 1 pm. They were to form a partnership with Landers Tech. Laura looked up from her tablet at Ralph with uncontained disgust. Did she just hear him correctly?                                                                                                                                                                       

How could he think so lowly of her? Laura internally fumed. All because she is a woman? Who exactly did he think he was? Just because he was the CEO of Landers Tech? How can there be someone with such a deranged mentality? Laura looked at him with spite.

Amid her racing thoughts, and her unknowingly nasty look at Ralph, she noticed he stopped moving his fountain pen on his desk and looked up at her just in time; catching her looking cruelly at him.

"Do you have something to say to me?" Ralph asked, his left eyebrow arching.

Immediately after Ralph said this, Malthus stopped reading from his tablet and looked at Laura. Hearing him, Laura automatically realised her furrowed eyebrows, which were coupled with disdainful eyes, channelled at her boss.

Fear gripped her by the chest; she began coughing profusely.