CHAPTER EIGHT; TENDER ROSE

“To live in love is life’s greatest challenge. It requires more subtlety, flexibility, sensitivity, understanding, acceptance, tolerance, knowledge and strength than any other human endeavor” – Leo Buscaglia.

    The office area at the upper floor was still busy as she walked in, the office receptionist seeing her, recognized her and mistook her for coming for a follow up confrontation. With fear in which aurora could sense from the moment the lady sighted, she said; 

‘I am sorry ma’am, the boss will be too busy to attain to any of your complain’.

 Even though her complaint brought positive change the previous time, she knew today wasn’t the right day for it. Aurora understood the whole scene and was certain none of them had an idea of who the representative was. She smiled and responded;

 ‘There’s no need to be sorry, I am not here for any complain, I have a meeting with the managerial board’.

 The young lady was startled and quickly apologized , ‘I am so sorry, I didn’t know you were the new business partner representative, I didn’t mean to be rude or anything’. 

Aurora understood her, if she was in her position, she would have thought the same and moreover she saw the young lad was genuinely sorry. 

Aurora replied; ‘Oh! Its fine, I totally understood, you don’t have to be so tensed’.

     The young lad was so relieved, she even didn’t release she was holding her breath all through her realization up until now, when she gave out a deep breath. Aurora smiled at her and then asked if her boss was in, seeing that she had 5mins to the agreed time. 

The receptionist responded; ‘Yes, he is in. we have been all waiting for your arrival’. 

That isn’t hidden she thought, seeing every staff busy with one thing or other. With files in their hands, they seemed to be too distracted that they bump into each other on several occasion, as she was directed to Neville office, what a strain environment to work in, she thought. On arriving Neville office, the receptionist handed over Aurora to Neville’s secretary, who in turn placed a call to his office informing him that Aurora was here. The secretary starred sternly at Aurora while she waited. Aurora sensed that she had an unsure feeling towards her and wondered why she felt that way towards her. At this point she wished she had the gift of mind reading, but she knew better than to let such reaction get to her. Moreover, her encounter in this office could have caused a lot of distortion, in which she was certain of. 

In a few seconds Neville was out, welcoming her to his office.

 ‘That’s a bit too nice, you know’, she said. 

Neville smiled and said, ‘As a business partner, a proper reception should have been held in your honor, but I knew you would disapprove of it, that’s why there’s none but my humble self’. 

At that moment he took a thorough look at Aurora, from the fitting of her outfit, to her choice of accessories and finally to her mild make-up. Neville just took a few seconds to appreciate what was in front of him. 

‘Has anyone told you that, you are a true definition of a goddess’, he said without realizing when it came out, but didn’t feel bad that he said it because that was a fact he was certain she knew. 

Aurora hearing this, felt some sort of electric tingly within her, causing her cheeks to grow some shades darker. 

‘You don’t have to flatter me; the deal is already yours’ she responded. 

‘Who said I was’, he replied. 

The space as getting too hot and Aurora knew better than to push whatever game they were at. She took two steps back and glanced over his office, she noticed a lot of changes had been done in his space since the last time she visited. There seemed to be less space and a little table was sent up at the extreme right hand corner of the room, really close to the cities view. She wondered why he had created another table space in the same office; he could easily just re-arrange his office, whenever he needed a new view while working. Neville noticed her glance and the expression on her face, and then said; 

‘On behalf of my organization, we are sorry we couldn’t afford a personal office for you, but I assure you that this will be adequate to your need for the time being’. 

What! That space was created for her; she was dumbfounded for a second and was confused. How couldn’t he have thought of a different space, why does she have to share an office with him? Her body felt like it was dipped in freezing water, she couldn’t gather her thoughts. Neville being confuse about her reaction asked; 

‘Is it not to your liking? What will you mind I change? Since you have a liking to the cities’ view, your table was set close to it, to ensure you have the best experience as you work here’. Aurora finally got herself out of the faze she was in and said; 

‘I am just thinking if this new arrangement won’t be inconvenient for you, I mean harboring someone in your space while working’. 

‘You don’t see me complaining’, he responded. Aurora wondered how possible it will be for her to concentrate with Neville being in the same space as she. She could imagine the disagreement and conflict they could have within the space. But it’s a known fact that there’s a thin line between love and hate. After getting that off the table, Neville took Aurora around the office introducing her to the various departments to ensure she gets a visual idea of the whole organizational structure. One thing was certain, they were all not expecting a lady to be the representative. What a shame! She thought. What baffled her was that, they all seemed surprise that Neville did the tour himself, it seems it’s usually his secretary that does it. She could still remember her facial expression when Neville introduced her as the representative and her new boss, she couldn’t imagine it. And then came the annoying lick ass attitude, if for anything she really hoped her policies aided in combating such attitude. Even though, she is yet to understand her reason for her dislike, she decided to brush them into the carpet. After the brief tour, Aurora was allowed to arrange her space before her presentation with the head of the managerial board. She loved the view she got to see, the city at its peak or was it that of Neville her subconscious taunted her. She turned to get a look of Neville and noticed he had stolen a glance of her before trying to fake concentrating on his system. She smiled and thought if this how awkward it would be but she knew it is but for just a short. Once she was done setting up, she took a short while to mediate and wait for her presentation, getting up to Neville space, Aurora wondered why he had to keep such stern emotionless expression on his face. Sitting down, she said; 

‘It’s time for my presentation Neville; I guess we need to mobilize all concerned to begin’. Neville put through calls and informed his sectary to prepare all the necessary arrangement. All through the calls, Aurora watched him give all commands with precision as nothing should wrong. When he was done with the calls, he noticed how Aurora was staring and he asked;

‘I am sorry, but it’s barely 4 hours we are in the same space, are you already falling into for me?’ Aurora felt so much shame because she had no clap-back reply and was caught in the act. She smiled and walked over her seat, to get the entire necessary document that will be needed score a point in the hearts of the board. Neville walked her over to the conference room, while all other managerial boards’ member was ready seated. Neville did a brief introduction of her in the conference before handing her over to the Human Resource for her presentation and then stepped out. Isn’t he supposed to be here for this? She thought. She brushed it off and paid more attention to the meeting. Aurora aced the whole presentation; the whole managerial board was impressed with what she had to offer, the policies was feasible and seemed effective. There seemed to be a change of attitude from them, she was certain she earned their respect after the whole presentation due to applaud and accolade she got from her audience. Everyone was talking about it as she stepped out of the conference room; she got so many congratulatory messages as well as praises from the staff. The smiles on their faces showed like they knew a fresh of air had come over to the firm, though she had murmurs of their doubt of Neville accepting it, seeing that he wasn’t in attendance. People doubted he was going to accept the new deal, but she knew he had already accepted it, even though she didn’t seem to understand why he wasn’t there to watch her presentation. 

She strode into their office, ignoring his presence and went straight to her space. She had no idea she found his absence in her presentation hurtful, she really didn’t know what she was expecting but she wanted a support from someone familiar while delivering her policies. She looked up at him and realizes he was so engrossed in his work that she was certain he didn’t notice her walk in.