Monday 10am

Dare

It was time for the meeting and she was nowhere in sight. When he passed her office earlier, it was still empty just as she left it on Friday. Mr. Obaze has assured him that she will come around, he told him not to call her again and just give her some space.

She agreed not to resign but on the condition that, he steers clear of her, she doesn't want to deal directly with him anymore, or speak to him. 

So going forward anything he wants from her must be communicated in writing, kind of like a restraining order against his tongue lol. Such a drama queen he thought. Well, he was glad she didn't tell Mr. Obaze what he said to her, because Mr. Obaze kept asking exactly what he said to her to make her want to quit.

He agreed to her silly terms so he was surprised when she didn't show up for the meeting on Monday. Did she change her mind and has decide to proceed with the resignation or does she think she can skip general meetings too? He is not going to agree to that one o, and she should not think he has forgotten about what she did.

He really needs to work on his temper but she is irrational too, she acts on emotions without thinking. She tried to stop him from shutting down the crèche because she felt bad for the women without checking the facts behind his decision, she defended the celebrity spending because of emotions and not logic. If she keeps this up, she won't survive in the corporate world.lol.

Okay, but jokes aside where is she? He looked at his watch again, everyone else was seated they were all waiting for her.

She has really won this fight, considering the fact that he is the one on the anxious and begging end waiting for her to forgive him.

He brushed his anxious thoughts aside, if she quits then that is fine, he is going to find a replacement for her. There are so many smart graduates all over Lagos.

He started the meeting without her and almost 15 minutes into the meeting she finally showed up.

"Good morning everyone, sorry I'm late, I had a flat tire" She said flatly. Avoiding his gaze as she settled quickly into her seat.

She looked pale. She was wearing a blue stripe shirt with a navy blue skirt and flat pumps. She looked like she had just woken up from sleep, is she hungover? She was not wearing any makeup but her bare skin still glowed like honey, her nails were coated in a new subtle pink shade. She made one of those thick chunky bob braids.

That hairstyle will forever be funny to him because his mum used to make those for his little sister back when they were still living in Japan. His Mum would go with the 'kuli-kuli braids' (as named by him) on weekends that she was too busy with work to make the usual long tiny ones for her. His sister hated them but he always thought they were cute.

She looked lovely as usual but he didn't like her aura today. She still looked down and it bothered him. Is she still upset or is this emotional blackmail? He forged on with the meeting, told himself not to fall for her tricks by reminding himself that she was the one that started this whole thing.

She kept her own briefings very short and straight to the point. Towards the end of the meeting he paused to issue a stern warning to all of them, told them to stop sharing work information with 'outsiders' especially board members.

When he said that, she rolled her eyes then somewhat hissed silently and continued typing furiously on her laptop, no one saw it but he did because his eyes were on her the whole time. The sound of her nails on the keypad was very distracting and annoying to him.

That was rude but at the same time he was low-key glad that she was back to being her usual annoying self. Better for him to be irritated by her than to be anguishing and worrying over her mental health because TBH he is still haunted by that broken look she had in her eyes when he said those degrading words to her.

After the meeting he saw her chatting away and laughing with the Head of Commercial department.

Good to know she is fine now, she had better not look for his trouble again o. She is only getting away with this one because HE fucked up and lost his temper. Next time, he is not going to his loose temper, she must face the consequences of her actions.

As the weeks passed both of them stayed away from each other. They communicated strictly via emails and notes. If there were something he needed to sign, she would take it to Ada to pass it to him.

He reduced the tasks he assigns to her to limit their interactions too and started to engage Ada more, that one actually needs to make herself more useful in her own interest, she's not going to remain a secretary forever.

The next three weeks was clash free for them. He kind of missed seeing her annoying face every day but it is good she keeps her distance. Obviously, they don't see eye to eye

Moreover, this is actually good FOR HIM considering the fact that he finds her very attractive. Maybe if stops seeing her everyday he'll get over the pesky attraction.

Sofi's POV

Sofi was rehearsing her presentation for the conference as they got their hair done in the salon on Sunday evening. Toyin was paying for it, since she did not bring anything back from her rig trip.

So there is an annual global  oil & gas  conference tomorrow and she going to represent the Company at one of the plenary sessions on 'sustainable gas production'. She has been on the research team for years now; she even designed the proposal for the bid they submitted to the Ministry of Petroleum.

This plenary session is going to give the Company some promo and boost their credibility when they start the next round of oil block bids because the government officials, the banks, and basically everyone interested in the project will attend or will be watching the live stream.

When she picked Toyin up in the morning, TY was not impressed with her midi length dress.

"This your dress is too long nah, what is all these" She rolled her eyes. Lol it is funny that 'TY the good girl' is saying that.

Her curly twists were packed in a shoulder length ponytail, she did her usual nude makeup, and the dress was very formal she wanted to look mature. In addition, she and four other panelists would be sitting on the stage she did not want to go and flash 'pant' for the whole world to see biko.

She is going to be the only woman and probably the youngest on that stage. They'll already be looking down on her, if she goes and adds skimpy outfit into the mix that would be very distracting and no one would take her seriously. 

She even wanted to look more mature than her age at least if they look down on her because she's a woman the maturity side will boost things for her right? She is used to it, most people, even some fellow women look down on women who glam up or look good because they believe looking good and intelligence is mutually exclusive.

It is sad but that is the reality of this life, these people judge you 95% of the time based your appearance and she cannot change people. She just wants to do her job and get that paper.

"But we are not only going for work nah, remember we are looking for 'somebody son' on the side" Toyin smirked. When she explained the outfit.

She is looking for man on the side o, but the man must understand that it's not only beauty she is bringing to the table. Her IQ is bigger than her looks. All these dolling up is just garnishing.

TY rolled her eyes, "abegi  95% of these naija men will take boobs and bum bum over brains. You better flaunt your assets"

"In that case, I want from the pool of 5% that will choose brains over boobs & bum bum" Sofi laughed.

"Ah! Then you better join MFM and start fasting now" Toyin said "Because that is a very tiny pool"

"Please go back to your rig, that's where you belong" They started teasing each other.

You see ehhn, Sofi knows she's thicc small, it's nice when people compliment her but she hates it when they straight up start to objectify her. She hates it when she is reduced to her body or looks.

She has always been conscious of her body ever since she started getting thicc as a teenager. All those annoying boys in her neighborhood would whistle or make weird faces whenever she walked by, so she is very self-conscious when it comes to her body. 

It's not like she is not proud and confident, you should see her when she steps out at night for parties, or for weddings she flexes. But, when it comes to her Job she likes to tone things down, this is not the entertainment industry.

Her career is much more important than man right now, her career will never 'embarrass' her..... or leave her for rich man pikin.

The conference was great and her plenary session was fire! Mr. Obaze and some of the guys from PH called to hail her right after the session, but her celebration was cut short when she was informed that Yinka Bakare was arrested.

So, Chief's first born, Yinka runs an environmental activist organization called 'Green Cabal' that calls out all the oil companies operating in the country for various environmental 'crimes'. She does not spare anyone, one time she even came to protest outside her father's building because of one small offshore oil spill lol.

Apparently, during Sofi's session the 'Green cabal' crashed the main conference. It was very serious, they infiltrated the venue, hacked the monitors and screens in the main conference hall and hoisted there flags everywhere lol. Sofi was actually impressed with the upgrade this time; usually they would just stand in the sun outside the conference venue or Oil company building with placards for hours. They are getting bolder.

She rushed to find one of the conference organizers first to beg them not to press charges, and then rushed to the police station.

This is not the first time Yinka has been detained, usually Chief would just call the IG of police directly to sort it out but he is not around and she doesn't have power to call IG or police even commissioner but she knows how to negotiate she is very diplomatic.

Yinka must not sleep in that cell today o, she thought as her driver rushed to the police station. She that is Ajebo and can look for trouble, all those oloshos and female druggies will so beat her up. Mosquitoes will finish that her light skin, she's going to turn red if she spends one night in Lagos cell lol.

Also, if Chief hears about this before she gets out of police custody he might get a heart attack, she is favorite, despite the fact that they are always fighting; she is his only daughter. The good thing is Amanda said they don't have internet in the holiday villas, so hopefully he is probably going to hear about it tomorrow morning when she is safe and out of jail.

But when Sofi, got to the Station she saw that Gowon was there with her. Shit. If Gowon is here, someone must have called him. She hoped it was Amanda that called him and not Chief.

A/N: Ramadan Kareem to all my Muslim readers 🌙🌙🌙

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