CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Actually," Jena stood up; "I was in the middle of something before you came home. I think I should just get back to it."

"You were in the middle of what? Jena you're equally just coming home now. I was the one who opened the gate for you."

"I was working on something in the car that requires immediate attention. Just suit yourself," Jena patted Lisa's shoulder, grabbed her bags and hurried over to her room.

"Can't it wait? Come on! Don't leave me now, I need help here!" Lisa called after her.

"An immediate attention means that it has to be handled as a matter of urgency, I'm sure you understand that. In the meantime, you should handle your boss, he's not mine but yours, so you should be able to figure something out."

"Come on!"

"And please return my phone when you're done," Jena popped her head out of her bedroom door with a funny smirk.

Lisa laid down on the couch with her phone in her hand and took a long look at the message on her screen with zero idea on what to reply her boss.

She racked her brain continuously for the most effective response but it didn't take quite long before she fell sound asleep as a result of the rough evening she just had.

By the time her eyes flared open in response to the blaring of the alarm beside her, it was already six in the morning, leaving her with an hour to prepare and arrive in her office on time.

Impulsively, she flung her blanket away –which she certainly didn't put over her body– and jumped out of the couch to her room. Time was not on her side and she remembered vividly how well she needed to make an impression in order to keep her new job.

By the time she had finished bathing, it was almost thirty minutes past six. If only she hadn't fallen asleep on the couch, she blamed herself inwardly and quickly ran her hands over some clothes in her wardrobe.

Picking outfits was one of the hardest things to do for Lisa, and today wasn't an exception. She was so much in a hurry that she just hurled one clothing after another behind her, not minding whether they landed onto the bed or the floor.

All of a sudden, her phone rang. She thought of ignoring it at first, but when she remembered that she hadn't put her Sim into the phone, she immediately knew who the caller would be.

"Shit!" She cursed outwardly as a quick flashback reminded her that she never responded to Mr. Kim's message.

"Hello, good morning sir," Lisa greeted immediately she swiped right to the answer icon.

"I suppose you have heard the sound of a car horn before this call. I would appreciate it if you can be outside in the next five minutes." Mr. Kim replied firmly.

"Car horn?" Lisa asked. She did hear a car honk but she obviously didn't make anything out of it.

Lisa's boss signalled for his PA to press the horn again. "Do you hear it now?" He asked her to confirm.

"You're outside?!" Lisa's voice rose. She turned to her mirror in terror; she was still in her bathrobe, her hair was still wet, she hadn't done her makeup and worse of all she had not figured out what to wear to work.

"One minute is almost gone, secretary. It is already so kind of me to be at your front gate, happily ready to take you to work. This is something I have never done before, and as you are aware, I cannot, for any reason, be late to work."

"Yes sir. I should be out in about ten minutes." Lisa replied and hung up immediately.

"Ten minutes!" Mr. Kim shrieked. "It's almost seven!"

"Ten minutes isn't much. It would pass by in the blink of an eye, don't worry," Mr. Fred soothed.

"I cannot believe I'd walk into my office after 8am," Mr. Kim sighed.

"Easy there, easy."

After they had waited for quite sometime, Mr. Kim glanced at his wristwatch and turned to his personal assistant.

"It's fifteen minutes already, I can't believe she... Oh! Shit!" He cursed as the loud unexpected bang from Lisa's gate caused him and Mr. Fred to flinch.

"Good morning sirs," Lisa greeted, immediately she claimed her seat beside the driver's seat. "I'm very sorry for the delay," she bowed to Mr. Kim and his PA sequentially.

"You said ten minutes!" Mr. Kim blurted.

"And I was five minutes late," Lisa whispered remorsefully, with her chin down as Mr. Fred kicked start the engine and hit the road immediately.

"And you almost killed us with a heart attack!" Mr. Kim added. "Your gate? You banged it with such great force that I have to make an appointment with my doctor today to take care of my fast rising blood pressure," he huffed lazily, rolling his eyes dramatically.

"You're exaggerating!" Mr. Fred raised an eyebrow and let out an exasperated sigh.

"What? I'm not! Do you want to tell me that loud noise did not destabilise you?"

"It's not as serious as you as you're implying," he defended.

"Well it's not as serious for you but I was obviously awake throughout the night so it affected me more."

Mr. Fred smiled and nodded quietly. He didn't need anymore conviction, Mr. Kim's grumpy behaviour was only because Lisa had delayed them earlier.

"He hates arriving late to the office," Mr. Fred explained to Lisa in little whispers; "that's the reason for his little nagging."

"I'm very sorry," Lisa whispered back, after texting Jena to thank her for arranging her things and switching back their sims, the previous night. "I wasn't expecting him to show up at my house, so I wasn't ready when he called."

"I want to believe that I'm not the subject of discussion over there," Mr. Kim called from the back.

"Of course not!" Mr. Fred replied, catching his boss' intense gaze from the rear mirror.

Mr. Kim shook his head and threw his gaze out the window. "So, we still have people who very much lie through their teeth."

Lisa and Mr. Fred said nothing, nodding slightly and biting back the smiles that threatened to force it's way out of their lips.

"We're here!" Mr. Fred announced after quite some time as he drove into the parking lot of their company's building.

As Mr. Fred stopped the car, Lisa quickly undid her seatbelt so she could attend to her boss, but he on the other hand was so much in a hurry that he didn't bother to wait for either his personal assistant or secretary to open the door to where he was seated, for him.

He threw the door beside him wide open and with two long steps, he was already quite some distance away from his car with his briefcase in hand. "What do I have on my schedule today, Secretary?" He questioned Lisa who was already running in her four inch heels, to keep up with him.

"You have an exclusive meeting with the board of directors in less than twenty minutes, regarding the R&D project," Lisa replied hastily.

"Which means that you have less than twenty minutes to set up the meeting room," Mr. Kim firmly stated and walked into the revolving door with Lisa.

"Yes sir," she nodded and pushed open the entrance door to the lobby with Mr. Kim leading the way.

Lisa sprang into action as soon as they entered the lobby. She swiftly swiped her company's access card at the counter and rushed to the elevator to start preparing for the meeting to be held on the third floor of the building.

By the time she got to the third floor, she had less than fifteen minutes to put everything in place.

She quickened her pace to the far end of the hall, where the meeting room was situated and it was only when she turned the door knob, which refused to unlock, that she realised she had not taken the keys from the receptionist.