The Crying Princess

The elevator doors swung open, and Damon stepped out of the cubicle first with a sulking Patrick right behind him.

A few of the staff turned their heads as Damon walked by, eyes fixed on the ridiculous childish pink lunch bag their boss was holding.

“Mr Damon. I do believe you rejected Ms Naomi's offer earlier this morning. I would like to know why you forced me to hand it over when we got into the car.” Patrick started.

“I have to give you a reason for my actions?” Damon asked once more. His grip on the lunch bag tightened like it could be yanked off by someone else.

“I believe so.”

“Simple. My wife made me a pie, and I want to eat it.”

Patrick smiled. “Are you admitting she's now your wife?”

Damon froze. What the hell did he just say? No! He's trying to get her to leave! To pack up her things and walk out of his house! Not give her reasons to stay!

“When did I say that?” Damon snapped.

Patrick regarded him for a moment. “Like three minutes ago,” he adds.

Damon chuckles in disbelief. “You must be getting really old, Patrick. I never said anything about a wife.” Damon said.

“We are surrounded by CCTV cameras that have audio. I can have the people in the control room fetch this exact moment for us..”

They pulled a stop at Damon's private elevator. “You sure have a lot of free time on your hands, don't you?”

Patrick cleared his throat. "My apologies, sir. But I am right about you calling her your wife.”

Damon stepped into the elevator, and Patrick joined him quietly. The door swings shut slowly.

“Can I have the pie back, sir?”

“No!”

***

“You call this a presentation?!” Tita yelled, tossing the folder at Naomi's face.

Naomi exhaled. This was so not how she intended to start her day. She was on a call with Soonie not so long ago, and her friend had given her the best motivational speech she could think of.

Hell, she was off to a good start until Tita asked to see what she worked on for the presentation, which was less than three days away.

“Are you trying to get us fired?! What the hell is that trash of a presentation?!” Tita yelled.

Naomi sighed. “Can you tell me what part you need me to work on so I can make the appropriate adjustments?”

Tita chuckled in disbelief. “Adjustments? Do you think a bloody adjustment would cut it at this point? Every single slide is trash! Bullshit! Hell, I will not only fire you, but I would also have you locked in the deepest part of hell if I was Mr. Damon!” She snapped

Naomi heard a collective gasp of shock from the rest of her team members. Even though Tita’s office was very different from the rest of the team's, the walls weren't exactly soundproof.

Tita glances at her window in irritation. “Did you all have anything to say? You might as well say it!”

The hall was dead silent.

“You might have divorce money to fall back to, but that is not the case for everyone. That's if you got anything that is.” Tita chuckled and leaned back in her seat. “I can see why he divorced you now. You can barely write up a proper presentation! How the hell are you supposed to keep a man?!”

“My personal life has absolutely nothing to do with this!” Naomi snapped back.

“Really? It doesn't? Tell me, what do you plan to do after we all get fired, uh? Join a brothel?”

Naomi frowned. “Excuse me?”

“Of course. Judging by how scandalous your clothes are, I'm sure you're trying to advertise your whorish self!”

Naomi was shocked, stunned beyond words.

“I…”

“So I'm right.” Tita chuckled, arms folded.

“No! I really don't have time for this. Let me know where I need to work on so I can get back to it.”

Tita smirked. “Start all over. New page, new design. Start from the very top.”

Naomi exhaled and picked up the papers on the floor before heading out of the office.

“Ms Naomi! You can't let her talk to you like that!” Rose, one of her teammates, whispered.

“Yeah! You sent us the presentation and it looks very good. I don't know why she had to talk to you like that.” Paul, another member of the team stated.

“Our employment status depends on it, and I understand if the Team Lead is anxious, but talking about your marital life and calling you a whore? That's way too far..” Didi said, adjusting her glasses.

“I appreciate your concern but you know what the rules state. No teammate is allowed to disrespect their team lead or they will get fired. You know that.”

“Goodness, that rule is obnoxious! I hope the new management fixes this.” Rose whispers again, glancing at Tita's office to make sure she can't hear them talking about her.

Naomi smiles and returns back to her seat. She exhales and throws herself into work for another two hours.

Then she heads back to Tita's office. One glance at it and she ripped it into two and tossed it into the trash can next to her table.

“Again!”

Naomi returned back to her seat and worked another hour, putting the whole thing together only for Tita to send it down the shredding machine and yell. “Again!”

For hours, Naomi kept on working on the presentation only to have it thrown right back at her, tossed in the bin, or even rejected at first glance.

On her twenty-third paper, it was time for everyone to clock out. Naomi took one more look at the presentation on her screen, she was barely done putting it together.

Tita walked out of her office, ready to clock out.

“I'll be having a little dinner for the team. Drinks on me.” Tita announced to everyone on the team.

“Oh. That's…great.” Didi said, forcing a smile.

“Come on, clock out everyone. We have a dinner party to get to. Everyone but Naomi.”

Naomi glanced up at Tita from her screen. “Sorry?”

“You're going to wait behind and get the presentation done right?”

Naomi sighs. “Yes.”

“Good. Let's go, everyone!” Tita cheers as the rest of the team follows her reluctantly.

No one had what it took to stand against her, and sadly, the majority of rules in the company didn't protect the teammates from their obnoxious team leaders.

They could get fired over the most obnoxious issues.

Naomi settles in her seat for another figure hour, mailing all of the work she's done to Tita only for her to send the trash emoji.

Finally, it's midnight and Naomi mailed one last presentation only for Tita to call her. Her heart dropped to the pits of hell as she slid on the receiver.

“Oh. Are you still at the office? You should head home to your family. Oh wait, you don't have one.” Tita bursts into laughter.

Naomi's eyes stung as she sets her phone on her table with Tita still laughing in the background.

She's been at this for hours, holding back her need to scream and tell Tita off.

How dare that…

“Hey, are you there?”

Naomi ends the call, picks up her bag, and heads right out without turning off her desktop. She slowly steps towards the exit, tears in her eyes.

Tita wasn't wrong, she really had no family. Her father was dead, the father's greedy family wanted her dead, and her own husband wanted her gone. She had no family and there was no lie told.

As soon as she stepped out of the company's building, rain started to pour down heavily almost in mockery of her grief.

Naomi stared at her car which was parked at the furthest end of the parking lot because Tita had taken her parking spot earlier that morning.

Naomi broke down in tears as she approached her car, drained in rain. Could her life get any worse?

The heel of her shoe gave in under her, making her fall to the ground into a poodle of dirty water.

Naomi burst into tears, this might be the right time for her to disintegrate into thin air!

The park was dark and lonely, with not a single soul in sight. Not a single phone call from anyone who cared about her.

“What are you doing?”

Naomi raised her head to see Damon standing right next to her, an umbrella in hand.