Two: Janitor

I tried to keep myself calm. Since I had begun working, I had attended hundreds of meetings with the top CEOs and chairman of great companies, but this one felt so different. 

First, I didn't have an idea of how the chairman looked like. Second, many people always spoke about his personality. They all said he was a cold, bratty dude, so straight forward. I wasn't so bratty, but I was sassy. Though I was confident, my dauntlessness had limits. And, what if this was a limit? What if I wouldn't be able to handle him?

There was definitely no one I was scared of. But, when it came to my work, I liked to be careful. I didn't want to make the same mistakes I had made in the past. Yet, irrespective of how bad I needed to work with this company, I wouldn't let anything bring me down. If the chairman had an unscrewed nut in his head, I would deal with that in the right manner. The crazy manner. 

Opening the door of my car, I poked one of my legs out, sighing to remain steady. Hopping out completely, taking off my sunglasses, the magnitude of journalists who rushed to me, increased my nervousness even more. They were mere journalists, but it felt like they were throwing daggers at me. 

Jeez, had I forgotten the woman I was? 

Being frank, aside from the fear of this meeting not being successful, what also bothered me was the fact that a couple of my rivals were going to be there. How embarrassing would it be if he had to reject my offer in front of my competitors?

"Neo," I called, and cleared my throat. "Take care of them. I don't have enough time to waste."

Saying that, I managed to walk in the midst of the journalists. With the help of Neo, Leo, and a few other men, Rachel and I were able to get into the company. And damn, when I took a step in, I felt my mouth dropping. Actually, not physically dropping. 

This. Was. Awesome. 

Good Lord, I had thought my company had the best structure in New York City. How the heck did they build a company as good as this? Was I sure the so-called chairman was a billionaire? It felt like a trillion had been spent on this building. 

"Neo." In order to pretend like the beauty of this enormous place didn't have an effect on me, I raised my shoulder high, cleared my throat again. "I see that the crowd out there's pretty much. Ask the driver to park my car in a safe place. I don't want anything to go wrong. The people out there can't be trusted."

"Okay, ma'am," he acknowledged. Turning around, he walked out, Rachel and I left here.

Gesturing with a twitch of my neck, I signaled to Rachel that we should walk to the receptionist. Unlike my company, this place hardly had any workers on the last floor, aside from the guards wandering about. It was just the receptionist, and two other women that were present. Was I sure I was in the right company? I had always thought Green Stars Field was a terribly busy place with so many workers. 

"Oh, good evening, Ms. Warren," the receptionist greeted as she walked to me. She stood in front of me, smiled hard. "How're you today? I'm Tedira, the receptionist of this company."

This conversation was getting too long for me. Clearly, she hadn't said much, but every word she had mentioned, was obviously not something I really wanted to know. All I needed her to do was to direct me to the meeting room. 

"Hey." I tried to return her smile. "I'm good. And obviously, I can see you're good too. Um… so I need to get to the chairman, ASAP. Directions please?"

Her smile kind of vanished a little. Well, duh, I wasn't nice at all, so yep, I didn't feel like I had said anything wrong. 

"Oh, okay." She kind of stammered. Damn, how could she be this unprofessional? This company however wasn't as great as I had thought. The receptionist was stammering? Absolutely ridiculous. 

I forced a smile. "So… directions?"

"Should I call someone to escort you? We've—"

"No," I cut her off, shook my head at her, trying to be as gentle and nice as possible. "I'll be fine walking alone. My men are outside, and would come in as soon as they're able to manage all that's going on out there. Thanks for your offer."

"O-Oh." Another stammer? What the heck? "Alright then. The meeting will be held on the fifth floor, room JP3."

"Oh, good." I would confess, I really didn't understand what she had said, but I wasn't going to ask for her help. With the help of Rachel, I would get there. 

"Here's the pass, ma'am." She gave me a card. 

Looking at it, I observed she was referring to the pass card to get into the meeting board. Again, another complaint about her. She gave me a card without specifying what it was for. To be honest, if this woman worked at my office, I would've sacked her a long time ago.

"Thanks." To ignore my irritation, I decided to head straight to the elevator with Rachel. 

Getting to the fifth floor, I gaped. Yes, Louella gaped. Damn, the hallway was as big, I meant, very big, as shit. What in the world? Was it time to renovate my company? This was making me jealous! Fine, I wasn't competing with anyone, but I hadn't expected this. 

Again, just ignoring the environment, I headed to the meeting room. My shoulders high, my heels crinkling against the hard marble floor, my hips moving like a model's who was on a runway, I was literally being sassy. This was it. Time to face this. 

Only a few feets away from the room, one of the doors on the corridor jerked open, something clashing against my body. I gasped, and in only a second, anger perked into my head. I boiled. My hands rolled in a fist, my jaw clenched, and I glared a little. 

Staring up at the dude who had bumped into me, my eyebrows creased harder. "You've ruined my dress!" I snarled. 

He widened his eyes. He had probably not expected me to shout. Gosh, what was this? First, the receptionist wasn't so professional. Now, the janitor as well? How could he bump into me this way?

"Ma'am—" Rachel tried to interfere, but I shunned her by raising my hand at her. 

The dude sighed. His jaw clenched as well, which annoyed me. "I'm sorry for bumping into you, but—"

"I've got a meeting, and now, you've ruined my dress with this stinking water. Do you know how much this dress costs? What am I gonna do now?!" I continued to lament. 

He glared. What. The. Heck. 

Observing him, I would admit, he was pretty handsome. I found it weird a janitor could look this fine, but well, that wasn't my concern for now. Those cognac brown eyes glared intently at me. This was weird, but I found myself observing his face. Brown eyes, straight nose which stood out in between his arched eyebrows, and pretty, small lips. 

Yes, he was handsome. But, what was the point in being handsome, yet dumb?

He snorted. "Hey, that's enough. Stop shouting unnecessarily. I'm not in for this."

"What?" I snorted, my mouth dropped. "You bumped into me. And now, you're saying nonsense? Is this the kind of people the so-called Seth Lee hires? His workers are literally a bunch of amateurs. I knew it. People like him don't hire sensible people."

He raised his eyebrows at me. "Pardon?"

"Shut up, janitor!" I retorted, and scoffed. "You probably don't know who I am. I'm Louella Warren, okay? Don't speak back. If you infuriate me more than I already am, I can get you fired."

Unexpectedly, he smirked, and folded his arms across his chest. "Really? Oh, well, see, if you—"

"I'm done speaking with you." I flipped my hair past my shoulder, huffed, being like one of those bossy, crazy highschool chics. Weird, right? "I've got an important business meeting to attend. Speaking with a janitor shouldn't be anything close to what I should be doing."

Oh, that was harsh. But, well, did I care? I wasn't sure I did. 

He twitched an eyebrow at me. "We shall see."

I leaned close to him, snapped my fingers at his face. "Focus on your work. Never bump into anyone again. Especially not me. Peace."

With that, I walked past him, not giving him the chance to say anything else. The moment Rachel wanted to speak, I shot her a glare. I never liked to speak when I was angry. She fully knew that. 

What an idiot janitor.

***

Literally, I was getting so tired. Not only were Seth Lee's workers crazy, he himself was. It had been ten minutes already, but he still hadn't come into the meeting room. One thing I didn't like was being around people. Especially being around people that didn't like me. 

There was Kelli Francisco, seated by the other side of this huge glass table, gluing her eyes to her phone, as if I wasn't here. Kelli was another big woman like me. Yes, a competitor. In college, she used to be one of my best friends, until she had ditched me for one of those rich babes. Annoying freak. 

The tall door of the room pulled open. Coming in, were a bunch of dudes. Tall, huge, obviously bouncers. Good. It seemed like the Seth guy had finally arrived. What had taken him so long?

 I sighed in relief, wearing the stern look.

"Ma'am—"

"Rachel, not now!" I cut her off. I knew she wanted to say something unimportant. I wasn't in for any discussion. 

Rolling my eyes, I dropped my hands on the table. And, as soon as I saw… Him, my mouth went opening. Gosh, what? How in the world did this happen? How was this possible? 

"Ms. Warren." Rachel bent to my ear as she stood behind my chair, whispered my name. "This was what I was trying to avoid. He isn't a janitor. He's the chairman."

I gulped. Shit, did I just fuck this up? Not again. This had been a dream!

To worsen this confusion, his eyes caught mine. He squinted them at me, squinted with so much intensity. 

Alright. This would pass. I was strong. I was Louella. 

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