บททั้งหมดของ Don't Hate Me, Love Me Instead: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

“Raven whether you like it or not, we’re going to that event.” “A classy event full of rich and mostly snobby people from your old Secondary school for rich kids. Is that an event I want to attend? No Lana.” “Secondary school?”“High school is what you call it.”“Raven, please go with me. Please.” She pleaded. “For the last time Lana, no. Don’t worry about leaving me here alone, I’ll be fine. It is my flat after all.” “If you go with me, I could help you find people interested in art and maybe they’ll let you paint for them. Or you could find an actual job.” I stared at Lana through the mirror. “I’ll go with you, for the people who like art. But I’m not dressing up in fancy clothes.” I said to her and rushed to my room to put on something simple. Black leather pants and a white tank top with a black leather jacket matched with black boots. I applied little makeup and tied up my hair nicely to give me that biker girl look. Yeah, I like bikes. But I don’t own one. “I’m ready.” I sa

“What was that about? I have never seen you so nervous before.” Lana laughed at me. “What are you talking about? I was not nervous.” I denied. “I just didn’t feel like talking.” “Right.” She kept laughing. “Alright, get out of my car and quit laughing at me.” I parked in front of her flat building, where she owned a big penthouse. “You know, if you’re interested, I could be your wing woman.” She teased and winked at me. “That’s it. I’m kicking you out of my car.” I playfully pushed her. “Ok. I’m leaving. I wouldn’t be treated this way if this was my car. It’s be the other way round.” “Well, it’s not. Bye now.” She opened the door and got out. “I’ll call you later. Let me know how the interview goes, okay?” “Okay. And get your car repaired so that I can stop using my free time to drive you around. Or get a chauffeur or something.” “I hear you. Good night.” I nodded and drove off back to my flat. Kicking off my boots after entering, I jumped on the sofa and decided to fall asl

“So you mean to tell me that he denied you the job just because of your outfit?!” Lana asked in disbelief for the tenth time. I groaned. “I’m sorry I asked again but I know Ace very well, he wouldn’t do that.” “Well, he did Lana. Can we move on to the next topic?” I lied to Lana not wanting to tell her about the reason why Ace didn’t give me the job. I didn’t “You look and sound terrible. We’re not going to move on to the next topic because there isn’t any next topic. What we’re going to do is to call Ace and give him a piece of our mind.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you already did that but we’re going to do it again.” She paced in front of me while I fixed my eyes on the TV. “Don’t make things worse for me. Who knows what he’s capable off? What if he calls other companies to tell them that I’m incompetent? And that I didn’t kiss him.” I mumbled the last part, making sure Lana didn’t hear me. “He won’t do that because you have me.” “Let’s just let this go. I’ll think of something

“Mama.” “Yaa, I heard you got a new job.” Yaa is my Ghanaian name. Mama likes to call us by our Ghanaian names because she doesn’t want us to forget our roots, even though we’ve only been to Ghana less than six times. Yaa is the name given to a girl born on Thursday. Ray’s Ghanaian name is Abena. She was born on a Tuesday. Names given to children based on the day they were born are called soul names or kradin in Twi -Mama’s native language- and they are very important in the Ghanaian culture. “I did, Mama.” I replied, trying not to sound exhausted. I returned home after 10:30pm today. If today was just my first day, I wonder how the rest of the days are going to be like. Luckily, Lana sent her driver to pick me up after Ace left me alone in the empty office building. “What job is it?” “Have you heard of Black Global Group of Companies, Mama?” “I haven’t.” “Well, it’s a very big company with branches all over the world and they deal with a lot of things. It’s a group of companies

“So I decided to arrive unannounced today because the production rates were dropping when I last checked. I wondered what was going on here. To my expectations, all that I saw as I walked to the office proved it. Can anyone care to explain to me why this is so?” When we arrived at the brewery, Ace immediately went CEO mode. He grew calm but looked broody and he walked with power and authority. When the employees sensed our arrival, they all scurried back to work. They looked frightened when they saw us walk in. I thought Ace smiles to his employees like he does to me but I thought wrong. He shows no emotion when he’s in front of his employees. I wanted to question him but I knew that wasn’t the right time. Ace asked me to take notes of the things I notice as we walked and I did so obediently. We headed straight to the manager’s office to find the manager smooching with some lady - an employee - on his desk. They were startled to see us. The lady ran out and the manager immediately ga