Chapter 7: Ivor Gave Me A Week Off

The loud voice coming from behind me startled me. When I turned my head, I saw Ivor. He looked at me with an angry look.

“What have you been doing all morning?” He asked.

And I realized I had been sneaking up to Elie without Ivor’s permission. I bowed, hesitating at Ivor’s question.

Suddenly Ivor came in, grabbed my chin, forced me to raise my head and look at him.

“Did you cry?” He asked.

And damn it, at that moment, I felt sorry for myself. I pursed my lips tightly, my eyes were filling up with tears, not answering him.

Ivor let go of my chin, sighing.

“Go back to the company as soon as you can,” he said, then left.

“A man..” I called after him. “A man made me cry, I cried for him.”

My tears flowed out again, I could not control it. The people in the restaurant were also paying attention to us.

I could not see Ivor’s expression because tears blurred my vision.

When I stopped crying, he left a long time ago.

I used the paper the server gave me to wipe away my tears.

Suddenly I felt so stupid, he did not care about me at all. The curious glances of strangers made me feel embarrassed. I had a feeling they see my love for Ivor and are laughing at me because he did not care about mine.

And then I got angry, gratuitously.

Why I had to endure their eyes, they looked at me like I was a clown. My anger turned into envy.

How could Ivor fall in love with a girl he met by chance at a party in less than a month? While I, who had been working with him for so many years, could not get any attention from him.

I had lunch slowly. My jealousy grew when I thought of Ivor and Elie.

Elie was not worthy of Ivor’s love, a selfish thought crossed my mind. It encouraged my desire.

My desire grew, became a goal.

That afternoon, I was not in the mood to work, and there wasn’t too much for me to do. Ivor stayed with Elie at night all week, his mistresses who could cause me trouble dwindled, and now there’s none left.

Thinking about it, I was jealous of Elie. I hold my phone, looking for fashionable suits, which made me sexy. I was so focused that I did not notice that everyone had finished work.

When I walked out of my office. The company was empty.

I heard footsteps behind me, and I turned my head to see Ivor walking towards me.

Maybe he was going to the villa where Elie lived.

Ivor looked at me with a cold eye as always and walked past me.

“Boss,” I called him.

Ivor stopped, looked at me, he asked,

“What’s wrong?”

I said, “Are you going to Miss Jenner’s villa?”

“Is there a problem?” Ivor asked. He frowned, I knew he did not like questions about his life.

“I’m coming with you,” I said.

“For what reason?” Ivor asked. “Romeo will come with me.”

“But I’m your assistant, I should have been in charge of those things,” I said and stared at Ivor.

Ivor looked at me with an evaluative look.

“All right, the driver leaves in five minutes, don’t be late,” he said.

I can’t believe Ivor could swallow my request so easily.

And I silently felt like I was stupid enough to suffer for so long instead of changing everything.

I rushed to get in the car, Ivor was already sitting there. He was dealing with a work that he could not complete while he was at the company.

I thought things had changed, but I was overly optimistic.

Ivor asked me to sit in his car all evening and check the contracts he had signed. This was a superfluous job. He would carefully review all contracts before he signed them.

He treated me like I was a naughty kid; he had to find a job for me so I could kill my time and not mess around.

I only checked half of them, because I was angry. Ivor came back in the middle of the night, and I could smell his body wash and feminine perfume. That was Elie’s perfume. I frowned, took a bottle of male perfume that smelled like the one Ivor used to use, sprayed around my seat.

Ivor did not know what I was doing.

“Did you do what I gave you?” Ivor asked.

“I’ve done the checks, all of them. There were no mistakes in those contracts,” I said, pointing to the documents beside Ivor.

Ivor took a contract out of a pile of documents. That was a contract I had not checked. He gave it to me.

“There’s an error on the second page,” he said.

I was surprised, checked again, it surprised me that what he said was true.

I looked at him with apprehensive eyes, and he stared at me with a serious look, as if he was waiting for my explanation.

“I…,” Of course, I couldn’t explain. I hesitated, bowed my head, hands on my lap.

I looked like a student who made a huge mistake, and Ivor was my teacher.

“You don’t want to work anymore?” Ivor said. I could see the threat in his words.

“No, please, don’t fire me,” I said chokingly.

“Give me one reason, one reason to convince me not to fire you,” Ivor said.

“I… I worked for you for 5 years,” I said, hoping my reasons were convincing.

“5 years? Did you know that for a machine, even if it worked for 10 years for a company, if it broke, they would throw it away immediately?” Ivor raised his voice. “You too, if you’ve worked for 5 years and now you’re working with no results, then you shouldn’t work anymore.”

His words broke my heart.

I raised my head, looking at him with sad eyes. I said, “To you, am I just a machine? If I really can’t work for you anymore, you’ll fire me, right?”

Ivor rubbed his forehead. He said, “I paid you, not to hire a useless employee. Miss Reyes, maybe you’re under a lot of pressure in your private life, huh? I will give you a week off. Come back to the company when all your personal issues are resolved, and you can be most productive.”

“Ivor, no, I don’t want to quit, don’t fire me,” I begged, tears rolling down my cheeks.

“Take away your tears, it won’t work,” Ivor said.

I understood that I could not change his mind.

I locked myself in my house for a week. I just ate, sleeping, crying, watching TV.

The only person who called me was Coco. She told me about the rumor Ivor had fallen in love with, that lucky girl was one of his mistresses, he spent a lot of time with this girl.

It was easy for me to guess that she was Elie. I smashed everything I could in my bedroom, tearing up those boring black suits.

When I was drowning in my most desperate emotions, being hurt by the man I loved, Elie got his love.

I wonder why.

I could not believe in this injustice. I was jealous of Elie; I hated her.

A determination rose in my heart, I wanted Ivor’s love, even at the cost of being fired.

Lahaina’s words echoed in my mind.

“If he doesn’t love you, you don’t have to love a man who will never belong to you. If he loves you, you deserve his love.”