Chapter 4

"Sis, welcome to this company! Finally, after a long stressful process you're here!" Rome hugged me tightly.

He was the one touring to our department. It's a good thing we were in the same management or else, I would be having a hard time adjusting since I'm not really used to working either.

"I hope you'll enjoy here as much as I enjoy the handsome ones here!"he said while giggling.

"Like Mr. Esqueza?" My brow creased.

He hit me gently. "No! No! No! He's out of our league. Rich and handsome people don't have time for ordinary people like us!"

I bit my lip. He was right. Why did I even say that? It was so obvious that we didn't have the same level of living. Even if we had a business before, the distance between our lives was like the two sides of a coin; it won't meet.

"Now this is your desk," Romeo pointed at the table as if it were a prize from a TV game show. "Then the woman next to you who isn't very pretty is Rose."

Rose stopped and adjusted her eyeglasses before giving Romeo a smirk. "Oh my goodness! Stop it, Romeo. Are you even pretty?"

"Compared to you, yes," Romeo replied back.

"Tsk!" Rose stood up and smiled at me. She was looking up at me because I was taller than her even though she was wearing high heels. "Welcome to the purgatory!" She held out her hand for handshake.

I was taken aback. "Purgatory?"

Her mouth fell open. "You haven't met Mr. Zachary Levi Esqueza yet?" She crossed her arms and sat on her desk.

Romeo pushed me to sit on my chair. "She already did Rose, stop scaring her! Let's start working before we have a memo from our boss!"

Rose laughed as she went back to what she was doing. Romeo went to his desk, it's a good thing there is only one desk between us. Today, there was no one at the desk between the two of us so we were always peeking. I rolled my eyes, they were all busy and working so hard. It seems that only Rose paid attention to me because she is also a friend of Romeo.

Who else would notice me? I was an average woman. I'm not even sexy, my body was really thin, especially now that no one was cooking a dish for me. I had eyebags and some pimples under my chin. My face was pale and my hair was almost thin because of the stress lately. Almost every part of the house I had my hair falling out.

An hour before lunch, I'm still not doing anything. So I just familiarized myself with the computer infront of me. I took a deep breath.

"You're doing great, sweetie," Rose teased me.

I laughed at her. "Is it really like this on the first day here?"

She shook her head. "My first day is like my brain will explode with so much things to do. But maybe the leaders are just busy so no one is assisting you yet."

Thirty minutes before lunch. My stomach was rumbling. We had a break earlier but I didn't eat because I also had no appetite this week. So now I felt the pain in my stomach.

"Irisian Marie Villafuente?"

I straightened up. "Yes?"

A man in formal attire came up to me, he was holding tons of documents that almost covered the part of his mouth.

"Sir Adrian, is that for us?" Rose asked immediately next to me

I was still clueless to what's happening. So he was a boss because Rose called him 'sir'. He just moved to my seat and didn't answer Rose. He placed the pile of paper on my desk. I swallowed at the same time my stomach rumbled.

"You've been here since morning but you didn't even ask if there is anything to do. This is your first day and I already know what character you have," he said irritatingly.

My face pale and I was confused as Rose to what was happening.

"N-no one ask me to do anything sir," I explained. "I'm sorry, sir. I'm new, I don't have any idea. But rest assure, it won't happen again."

"Being new is never an excuse," he said as his voice deepened. "Do all that, double check everything if it has typos and grammatical errors." He looked at the watch in his hand. "You have to finish it within the day so it would suffice your ignorance this morning."

He didn't even wait if I had questions or clarifications. He walked out and went straight to his office. Romeo, who had been listening, approached me immediately. I turned pale because of embarrassment, everyone heard what he just said.

"What's that? Why is he being rude?" Romeo asked confusingly.

"Maybe he got scold by our boss that's why he's releasing that energy to you," Rose said.

I agreed to them and didn't waste anymore time to argue. I immediately started to read one by one the papers in front of me. I needed to proofread it first then retype it since no soft copies were given to me.

Lunch came. Everyone stood up including Romeo and Rose. They were concerned and asked me to eat with them but I refused. I needed to finish this within the day, I didn't want to be scolded too. So even I was feeling dizzy from reading and my stomach's aching, I ignored it. I would just eat later and take my medicine for my stomach. I just rubbed it to calm it down while busy reading.

"Why aren't you taking your lunch break?"

I jumped at the voice coming from behind me. Not because I was surprised but because that voice was familiar to me. I slowly turned my head and stood up when I saw Mr. Esqueza. On his side was his assistant who was also just looking at me.

He raised his brow when I didn't answer. "Did we change our company's rule, Mira? Employees should take their lunch on their lunch break, am I correct?"

"Yes, you are, Sir," Mira replied. "Iris, you may take your lunch break. You can do your task after eating."

"I'm sorry," I said shyly as my stomach rumbled. I bit my lip. "I need to finish this all within the day. I can message my friends and ask them to buy some food for me so I can eat it for ten minute break," I explained.

"You want to be fire on your first day?" Mr. Esqueza threatened.

His assistant also swallowed beside him. I shook my head quickly. "I'm sorry, Sir."

"Go take your one hour break right now or I'll fire you, Ms. Villafuente," he seriously said again.

I was shaking when I gathered my bag. I kept apologizing to him like I did a huge mistake already. This was really confusing. Other boss would prefer their employees to work hard, right?

I never looked at them again and went straight into the elevator. I was still shaking when I texted Romeo and went where they were. I ordered everything I wanted. Pasta, rice, salad and also dessert. My acid reflux was suddenly acting up again. I was stressing already and I feel annoyed. I wanted to cry while eating but I stopped because Rose and I weren't close yet.

"Then he said to me, 'do you want to be on fire on your first day?' Like that!" I said as I was imitating Mr. Esqueza said to me. "Our boss wants me to finish everything and the other want me to take a lunch. So who should I follow?? I bent out while eating my food.

"We've been there, sis..." Romeo comforted me. "We understand you. Just eat, go push and tell us what's bugging you..."

"I felt like my chest is going to explode in annoyance, Romeo!" I said while my mouth was full of food. "I'm trying my best not to make a mistake here but why are they making it hard for me?!"

"Maybe the boss are stress out lately, Iris," Rose groaned while putting on make-up. "But they usually don't talk to us, employees alone. They will always talk to our manager first and our manager will talk to us since we are his responsibilities. It's kinda off, don't you think? I smell something fishy..."

I drunk my warm water and gulped while playing with my pasta. "Is this badluck or what? I want to give up already!"

"Hey, sis! Stop that! Just think of the salary! You need money, right?"

"I'm already having a hard time with my situation but your bosses are making it even harder for me!" I almost cried. "I don't know if I'll survive this week!" I ate my potato salad.

I mimicked Mr. Esqueza's voice. "He's like 'Ms. Villafuente, go eat your lunch' right, eat your lunch, my ass!"

The two didn't laugh at what I said. I stared at them because they looked like a frozen statues in front of me.

"Are you guys okay?" I asked worriedly. They didn't move. "Why aren't you saying anything?"

I ate my breadpan while staring at them. They were weird too, I was venting out and here they were, not saying anything. I wanted to shout and punch something but I couldn't!

"Why you guys looking like you're seeing a ghost? Is there a handsome man behind me?"

I was then curious so I turned around. Only to see the face of the person that I wouldn't imagine to be here at this time. Shit. I 'm doomed. I blinked my eyes a hundred times, praying that this all was just a dream.

"Goodafternoon, ladies ..." he greeted us without smiling, his assistant was behind him. "And gents," he glared at Romeo.

"Mr. Esqueza," the three of us said in unison as if we saw a terror Professor back in class.