Chapter 2. Fired

Olivia Barnett POV

“You are fired!”

I instinctively shut my eyes after my boss, Josh Morgan Sterling, CEO of Sterling Enterprises and the sole heir to the vast Sterling wealth, delivered his heart-stopping verdict that would change my life.

I bent my head. This is not the first time he has scolded me in front of everyone in the six months that I have worked for him. I should have been prepared, except that the anger I saw in his eyes, in the wide set of his jaw and the rage that shook his entire body made me pause. 

I bit my lip hard, feeling a wave of shame rush through me, horrified at the look of pity my co-workers directed at me. The same people who had become a witness to how I ate Mr. Sterling’s reproach for breakfast. How his yelling, even the tick of his jaw leaves me shaken. 

Today was no better. Mr. Sterling showed no remorse. 

He stomped his way toward his office, banging the door after he got inside.

The echo it created around my heart made me want to cry right there and then. I should have expected it. Every day, Mr. Sterling would always find a way to humiliate me in front of my colleagues.  

I clenched my hands into fists, trying to control the tears.

“He’ll change his mind. Don’t worry. It’s just all bark.” Lucy Cole, my best friend, tried to assure me while we looked at the contents of the folder he shoved at me earlier, before he stomped off.

My brows furrowed when I saw the office receipts.

“What are these?” I asked in confusion, trying to jag my memory.  I did not remember handing him a folder. 

Lucy put a hand to her mouth in shame. “Oh my bad! He asked me for the blueprint of his house, and I gave him this!”

She took the folder, held it between her hand and her chest, and stood up to correct her mistake. She was already on her way to Mr. Sterling’s office when I called her out. I shook my head no.

I don’t think anything at this point would change my fate.

A sense of foreboding assailed me. This is the first time I have seen Josh Sterling this mad. He really means it. He wanted me out. Ever since that day I took office as his secretary he made my life a living hell in the hopes that I quit, but I didn’t. 

Today, he finally got what he wanted. He booted me out. 

Without a word, I took a deep breath, sat back on my desk, and waited for the inevitable. It came out too soon. A few minutes was all it took before HR’s call came through.

I am being served my walking papers. Just like that. No warning, no two-week notice. I am being fired. Today.

While I packed my things, I was thinking of Grandpa Jonathan, the patriarch of the Sterling Family, and his request.

“Help him. Josh needs you.”

Even though Josh’s presence made me nervous, even when he humiliates me in front of everyone else, I didn’t quit in the six months I worked for him. I figured it was a small favor for the man who took me in when I was penniless and orphaned at thirteen.  Besides, I don’t know where to go.

Grandpa Jonathan is the only person I can call family, even when we are not blood-related. I owe so much to that man, and disappointing him is the last thing I want to do.

Once upon a time, Josh and I were friends. But I made the mistake of telling him that I like him. I was fifteen then, and he was seventeen. He was telling me about this girl he liked, which I ironically presumed was me. I told him I liked him, too, and saw disbelief before a sneer crossed over his features.

Later, I learned that it was Daisy Cobbs that he liked, and it broke my young heart because, since then, Josh had never been the same. He avoided me like I was the plague, and he would always treat me harshly while being kind to everyone else.

“I am sorry,” Lucy told me when we sat down that night on a VIP table at the bar to celebrate my joblessness.  

I waved my hand off. 

“It’s not your fault,” I told Lucy, tasting the bitterness in my mouth. 

“I think it is just a matter of time before he finds another way to sack me if I don't go and quit first.”

Lucy snickered before putting the rim of her shot glass to her lips to drink her martini. I did the same.

I picked my cocktail glass, made a mocking salute Lucy’s way, and downed its contents.

In truth, I felt kind of relieved that I no longer had to endure Josh’s bossy, arrogant and demeaning treatment of me, but what worried me was Grandpa Jonathan. He would be very disappointed if he heard the news.

“I don’t know what you had seen in that man. He was so bad to you.” The waspish tone in Lucy’s voice turned dreamy when she added, “ Though, there’s no doubt about it. Josh Morgan Sterling had the face and the body of a Greek god.  I really can’t blame you girl for liking him. ”

I barked a hollow laugh.

Everyone in the office knew how much I liked Josh Sterling when we were teenagers because Josh made it a point to mention that embarrassing bit of information that I confessed to him every time he was mad at me. And that was a whole lot of time if you asked me.

“I really do not understand him. He always claimed he had a girlfriend that he loves, but why does he keep on bringing up the past? Does he get some kind of satisfaction, an ego-boost every time he mentions that once in your life, you have the mistake of having a high school crush on him?”

That’s what I like about Lucy. One moment, she would tease me madly about my teenage crush on Josh and the next, she would berate him totally. 

But her voice had gone an octave higher, so I shushed her.

There is no point in bringing up the past since it already happened, and there is nothing I can do about it.

If there is one thing that I have learned out of that, it is that our decisions in the past have a way of creeping up into the present to haunt us, just like what is happening to my life right now.

“I think one of the reasons Mr. Sterling picks on you is that he believes you haven’t outgrown that high school crush. Maybe it was about time you showed him.” Lucy said, pointing in the direction of our other friend in college, Todd Higgins.

“Lucy….” I tried to warn her. Her mouth is going off like missiles today. It must be the drink. “I think you had enough.”

She nodded before picking up another shot glass, tipped it to her mouth, and downed it. She dropped the glass on the table and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

“You are right. I had had enough to drink. I'd better go.” Then she left me with Todd.

There was an awkward silence. I had known Todd way back in college.

“I agree with Lucy. Mr. Sterling would stop picking on you when it sank into his head that you were over him.” He said.

“I am over him,” I responded indignantly.

Todd shook his head. “Then, date me.” He challenged.  Todd had been asking to date me for years but I always turned him down. 

I looked at Todd as possibilities whirred inside my head. Todd reached out a hand to gently cup my cheek. 

He was offering a lifeline. Should I dare take it?

But before I could react, someone grabbed Todd’s hand to shove it off, then he pushed Todd, making the poor guy lose  his balance to land on the floor.

A gasp escaped my lips.

Todd reacted. He got back up, recovering quickly, but the man swung at him. One punch and Todd was knocked out.  

I saw his eyes roll, then his head lolled before the intruder dragged me away.