08| burns

The next day Leah woke feeling quite lethargic. But she still had to get up. It was the money.

She quickly changed into something, a monochromatic outfit. It was a grey blazer, grey top and a grey skirt.

Leah ate her breakfast as usual, biscuits and tea before tying her hair up into a ponytail.

She then quickly grabbed the pasta she made yesterday and chugged in the bag and left the house.

Along the way, she admired the scenery and soon enough, she reached the office.

As usual, Leah greeted the receptionist before taking the lift to level 15.

When she reached her desk, she saw a stranger sitting there, waiting for her she assumed.

Putting on a smile, she asked, "Hi, can I help you?"

"Oh hi! Leah right?" The person asked. Leah nodded.

"I'm Amy and I'm the head of the finance department. Enya told me to discuss the party things" Amy introduced herself.

"Hi Amy! Erm ya. Are you free now? We can discuss? Leah suggested seeing that both of them were already here.

"Yup sure! But it will better meeting with my team. Can we schedule for later at 10.15am? We can do it at the meeting room 1. We will discuss then. Is that alright?" Amy proposed.

"Okay. I'll see you later" Leah said, waving bye to her.

Once she saw the figure slowly disappearing, she began to start brainstorming some ideas and doing some of the new hires given to her

yesterday.

She had quite a bit of setting up to do but was mindful of the time. She didn't want to be late and give a bad first impression to everyone.

When she saw the clock strike 10am, she quickly prepared her materials and did a bit more work for the new hires before making her way over to the meeting room 1.

When she reached there, almost all of the seats were filled. She didn't see any familiar faces, except for Jessica, the one who insulted her.

Just then, Amy had entered the room, clapping her hands to alert everyone.

"Hi everyone. We are going to plan the upcoming event today. I need everyone to work together with me" Amy said.

"Leah, do you have any ideas for the event?" Amy asked her who nodded.

Despite Leah's slight anxiety, she pushed it down seeing there was only about 15 people including herself.

She also didn't want to give people a bad impression.

"Er-erm we can have the venue be at the hot-hotel that the company erm ow-owns" She tried keeping her stuttering at a minimum.

"It is the Signature Hotel. Since it is big enough, there can be a food station, lots of tables for everyone and also the stage, oh and a dance floor" Leah finished up her ideas without any stuttering.

"I estimated the cost- it is about $100,000 with the interior, some prizes and the musicians coming" Leah explained.

"Okay. So how's the food situation then?" Jessica asked in a very condescending tone.

"Since the company also own multiple restaurants and eateries, we can get them to make foods from different cuisines and hold a buffet" Leah explained.

Jessica was hoping to stump Leah and make her fumble but her plan didn't work. She just wanted to embarrass her.

"That's a good idea. Is it okay if you make the call for the venue and food while we do the budgeting and let the event managers know.

They were busy with another event so we were tasked to help you for now" Amy explained.

Leah nodded and left after given the green light, while the rest were still in there, probably given a briefing.

Leah was about to find Enya when she magically appeared, as if she knew Leah wanted to talk to her.

"Oh hey Enya. I was just about to talk to you about some stuff" Leah greeted her.

"I also needed to tell you about some stuff" Enya laughed at how telepathic they were with each other.

"Oh okay" Leah giggled. "You want to share first?"

"Sure. So basically, there has been changes with your job scope. We, well just Austin" Enya couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Said that he wants a second person to tell you.

Unfortunately, we couldn't do much. What we can do this spilt the work in half so that you don't have much interaction with them" Enya said.

"Oh okay. That's cool with me" Leah was just glad Enya understood her anxiety with people.

But for some unknown reason, she was fine around Enya, Kane and Scarlet, though she is still slightly shy around Scarlet.

Geez, I wonder why you are fine with Kane, her thoughts remarked sarcastically.

Shush your mouth, she retorted back, returning back to the conversation.

"For now, it is still not finalized as to what will be split but the event you are planning, the new hire will not interfere" Enya explained.

"So what do you want to tell me?" Leah then remembered what she wanted to tell her- the event.

"So just now, I met up with them so I have a rough plan. Just have a question- when would you want it to happen? Like maybe a specific day?" Leah asked.

"Hmmm" Enya gave some thought. "I'll probably have to ask Kane. After all, he is the boss" She mentioned.

"Okay" Leah said.

"Oh look at the time. I'm going to be late for my meeting! Shit!" Enya cursed in annoyance as she ran off.

"Bye Leah" She remembered the say goodbye before leaving.

"Bye" Leah couldn't help but giggle at Enya's antics.

She decided to finish up the new hires work and managed to complete it before lunch time.

Leah wondered who would be helping her. Would they be nice or just rude?

Deciding not to overthink, she went to the pantry to heat up her pasta she brought.

Planning to eat and do more work, she didn't want to waste anytime seeing she has multiple reports to clear.

Just then, she heard the sound of heels walking into the pantry. She didn't take notice of it, being too engrossed with her food.

I mean who wouldn't? It smelt good, looked good and the best part, tasted good.

She also decided to sprinkle some cheese for a slightly different taste from yesterday.

"Well well well. It's Ms Leah Knight. Didn't I already tell you not to get close to them. I thought I already made it clear for you  to stay away from them.

Behind Jessica, she saw another two girls whom she has no idea who they are.

"It's purely business related" Leah lied. It was kind of the truth.

"Sureee" Jessica purposely dragged out the 'e', clearly not buying her lie.

"Girls" She called the two who were standing there, smacking on some gum. "You know what to do"

The two girls grabbed Leah's arms as Jessica filled up a cup of coffee and found it on her.

Leah tried to get them off but they were too strong for her.

It not only stained her clothes, but it also burned her. To also make matters worse, she had taken off her blazer as she was feeling hot.

"Ahhhh" Leah couldn't help but a scream. Now they were alarmed. They were smart, planned what to do from start to the end, having many back up plans.

But they forgot one thing, she is a human and has a mouth, meaning she can make noise.

Thankfully, there were people nearby who heard the commotion and rushed into the pantry.

They were shell shocked to see such a sight. Two girls holding a petite girl whose clothing is stained. And another girl with a cup.

"Crap!" The three of them said at the same time. "Let's go"

The two girls immediately let go of Leah and just let her flop to the ground.

Luckily, the girls didn't make it far- there was security guards and some male workers who stopped them.

Some of the female workers helped Leah up and to the bathroom to help tend her wounds.

Meanwhile, Enya and Kane were heading down to level 15, where Leah is working at to discuss the event but saw a huge commotion.

One of the staff who saw them immediately came forward and explained the whole situation.

"Oh no. Poor Leah" Enya muttered as she ran to the bathroom.

"I'm going to fire them" Kane was pissed. Everyone could tell.

He didn't want to take his anger out on the security guards or his workers so he tried to speak and calmly as possible.

"May I know where are Jessica and her minions?" He asked.

"They were dragged out by some of the security guards and the make staff. I think they are bringing them to your office" One of the female staff replied.

Kane gave a nod of appreciation and headed back into the lift.

Indeed, there was Jessica and the two girls, Cindy and Vivian.

"Boss, I think you know what's going on. Thought you would want to have a talk with them" One of the security guards said.

"Thank you" Kane said gratefully. "You can leave now"

"Do you really have to be so jealous that you need to target an innocent girl" Kane asked very firm.

"I mean we are suppose to get married!" Jessica whined. "My daddy said that we have an arranged marriage together"

"I already told your dad no way" He was getting annoyed.

"No! That's not what he said. Call him!" She continued whining.

Her voice was giving him a headache. He could just fire her, but being the daughter of Austin Warts has its perks.

He couldn't just fire her but he could have a restraining order against her.

It wasn't much but the deal with Austin was one of the things holding them back.

They needed to find a loophole.

"Cindy and Vivian both of you are fired. Jessica you will have a one month suspension for now, till I deem fit" Kane said, leaving no room for arguments.

"Please leave or I'll get security to escort you" Kane rubbed his temples, glad that they left.

On the other hand, Leah's burns was being treated by a medic staff they called.

Enya had gone into her office to retrieve some clothes seeing it was stained.

It was not much, just a black top with jeans.

"Thank you guys. I really appreciate it" Leah said to no one in particular.

"I brought my spare clothes. You can change into it if you like" Enya said.

"Thank you" She took the rolled up clothes in her hands.

"Okay just let it chill there. Take the medicine we gave you okay" The medic reminded her.

She gave an 'okay' sign, showing her acknowledgment.

"Alright, I'll be off now. Take care!" The medics said before leaving.

"Come on" Enya helped her up. "Let's go and change"

"The rest of you may return back to work. Thank you for your help" Enya instructed.

Leah changed into the clothes Enya brought. She was glad the sleeves were covered.

"I'll return you this on Monday, okay?" Leah felt embarrassed.

"No worries. Take your time" Enya brushed it off.

"I helped you reheat your lunch. It smells good" Enya jokes around, trying to lighten the mood.

"Thank you. You didn't have to" Leah was so grateful was a friend like Enya.

Wait were they friends? She couldn't help but overthink.

"Are we friends?" Leah blurted out on accident.

"Of course we are silly" Enya hugged her carefully though, not wanting to make the burns worse.

"Come on, let's go have some food" Enya said happily.

This is one crazy experience, she thought.

~~~

heyy!! welcome back to another chapter :)

this one is a long one with some drama involved. i'm not exactly sure how to treat a burn so apologies 😬

i tried to research a little lol.

just wanna say thank you for all the reads and votes

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💗

that's it for today and see you in the next chapter :D

[word count: 1965 words]

[published on: 20 jun 2021]