Chapter 1

Luminous rays of sunlight streamed into the room though the unusually open window beside the bright peach vanity table announcing the arrival of a brand new summer day.

Melanie Campbell blinked and turned in the fine solid oaken twin bed and shielded my date from the sunlight with a mauve pillow that matched the silk bedding.

Her stomach growled noisily as she sat up drowsy, yawning and stretching. She swung her legs off the bed and began a zombie like trudge to the en-suite bathroom. She relaxed onto the toilet seat and relieved herself of the unnecessary fluids while running her eyes vigorously.

She was washing her hands when she heard her cellphone ring. She turned off the faucet and rushed into the room to answer it and pushing the green button, she said, “Hello?”.

“Morning, baby”, Her best friend, Erin Manchester yelled in a sing-song voice. “Are you ready to head out?”.

“Do you have to shout into my ear? And what are you talking about? It’s still too early to go anywhere”.

“What are you saying? Are you forgetting that you have an interview today? With the only company that bothered to write you back? It’s after 8 o’clock and your interview is by 9”.

“Wait, seriously? You've got to be kidding me. I thought I still had time”, Melanie said, squinting up at the large wall clock above the bedside cum reading table.

“… should be more time conscious…”, Erin continued to say on the other end.

“Oh My God, it’s 8:28”, Melanie screamed in fright, interrupted her.

Erin sighed. “I take it you just woke up then?”.

“Obviously. I wouldn’t be this panicked otherwise”, Melanie replied, running her fingers through her messy curls as she scrambled out of bed.

“You wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t murdered your alarm clock last week”.

“I didn’t kill her, she died on her own”, Melanie told her defensively. “Look, Erin, I have to hang up”, She added, her eyes glued to the alarm clock.

“Fine. Meet me in front of Malone's pizzeria in, say, 25 minutes”.

“Sure, bye”.

Cursing her bad luck, Melanie undressed and raced into the bathroom for a quick seven-minute shower. She swiftly walked out and discarding the towel, she slipped into her underwear and the crisp white starched shirt and black knee length skirt that she had borrowed from her friend. Putting on her only cute pair of black flats, she ran a comb through her long damp maliciously curly hair and hung it in a high ponytail to dry. She fastened a pair of studs to her ears, clasped her mother’s pendant around her neck and wore on her dark framed glasses.

Grabbing her plain shoulder bag which she hurriedly stuffed full with the necessary documents and her car keys, she made for the adjacent room to kiss her convalescing grandmother and her eight year old ginger cat goodbye.

***

Calvin Sinclair got down from the car as he ended the business call he had previously been engaged in for almost all the half hour drive to the company. A lanky young man rushed towards and joined the small group of people behind him as the employees they encountered at the entrance bowed to them.

“Good morning, sir”, The young man said in a breathy voice and the small glance Calvin sent his way revealed how sweaty and disorganized the man looked. He seemed to have been running for quite a while to get to him.

Calvin couldn’t help sighing internally. “My schedule for the day?”, He asked as he raised an eyebrow at the messages that came flooding in.

“Um… Uh…”, The man fumbled with the tablet in his hand and he kept clicking randomly, trying to find where he had jotted down the information.

Calvin stopped and turned to stare at the man that was sweating even more heavily, with his fingers shaking as he met his eyes and tried to curve his quivering lips into an apologetic smile. Calvin was tempted to roll his eyes and groan loudly. The man, Justin Church was a new hire, an intern that had was in the management department, a person he had borrowed since he didn’t seem to have much on his hands to act for a few days as a personal assistant until he found a new one after the previous lady had quit after birthing her child. He knew it probably didn’t seem fair to make the man do work that he didn’t apply for but he did have a increased pay and yet he still didn’t know how properly do anything after an entire week. The former assistant had carefully organized everything important, even meticulously noting his already planned appointments for over a month but it all the efforts seem wasted when this man was concerned.

“When should I be expecting your replacement?”, Calvin asked, picking up the pace as he strode towards the elevator that was reserved just for him.

“Today, sir. The interviews are being held today and hopefully at the end of it, someone would be hired”, Justin Church said, smiling sheepishly.

“My schedule for the morning then?”, Calvin asked as they got into the elevator and he glanced at his wrist watch.

“Right, sir. You have a nine o’clock meeting with the representatives of Hammond Restaurants. The want to pursue our previous agreement of investment”.

“Refer them to Charles Greene, I have other more pressing concerns. Next”, Calvin replied, as they got to the floor of his office. He nodded a response to the greetings and walked into his office.

“Well… There’s something asterisked here that looks important”, Mr. Church told him, squinting his eyes to stare at something he pointed at on the tablet.

Calvin frowned, as he entered his office. “Send the documents that has the schedule to me and leave. Let me know before you let anyone in”, He said and slammed the door. The kind of people he hated the most in the world were incompetent ones, especially those that seemed to try to be better and still end up being worse anyway.

He collapsed heavily into his seat and turned on his computer as his phone began to ring.