03| working

BRING BRING! Leah's alarm rang. She woke up groggy.

She wanted to just lay in bed but she knew she couldn't. It was reality. She had to go back to work. She need the money to help start her business.

Leah laid in bed for around five to ten minutes, scrolling through her phone before getting up.

Rubbing her bleary eyes, she then head to the bathroom to wash up and get ready for the day.

Leah then changed into what she picked out yesterday- a matching green jacket and pants, with a white top.

She brushed out her hair, tying it into a high ponytail, as well as putting on some light makeup.

After that, she had her daily dose of tea and some biscuits which she enjoyed thoroughly.

Leah slipped on her heels and grabbed her work bag before venturing off to the office.

She couldn't help but overthink- What if she gets fired? What if she was suppose to be in the office way earlier? What if she needed to be moved to another department?, she thought.

Many what if's came to her mind, making her even more anxious then she already is. Oh how she wish she could kick anxiety in the butt.

She tried not to think about it, and instead focus on the scenery surrounding her and taking deep breaths.

Without realizing, she almost walked past De Luca Corporation when trying to calm herself.

She quickly came back to reality, just in time to not go overshot.

Stepping into the lobby and waving to the receptionist as usual, Leah noticed something different- there was a lot of unwanted attention on her.

She just didn't like people, crowds and attention so she wanted to just dig a hole and live there.

She quickly rushed into the bathroom and locked herself in one of the stalls.

Leah felt like she was going to get an anxiety attack, her arms were shaking very badly and was having trouble breathing.

Beads of sweat was forming and she suddenly couldn't remember what she had learnt.

The only thing she could vaguely remember was taking deep breaths as per usual, so she did that. Slowly, it got better and she felt much better.

With breeze, she briskly wiped her forehead clean from sweat and calmed herself down. She was trying to relax.

Just then, she remembered what she was here for in the first place- her job. She needed to work.

"Oh my muffins" She muttered to herself as she ran off fast, despite wearing heels, catching the lift in time.

This was when she started having a second round of overthinking.

Is he going to fire me? Probably. I'm so useless. All these thoughts were surrounding her mind but she tried to brush it off and think positively.

"Level 27" The voice from the lift announced as she stepped out. She was tasked to head to the highest floor, aka the CEO's level, aka Kane's office.

She braced herself, hoping to not get an earful. Instead, when she stepped in, Kane greeted her with a warm smile.

"Hi Leah, how are you? Take a seat" Kane decided to strike a conversation before actually throwing everything on her.

"I'm good" Leah replied meekly. She found it slightly awkward with the silence so she decided to break it.

"So about my seat..." She trailed off.

"Yes about that, you will be sitting at Bianca's old seat and taking over what she does. Well, technically your job stays the same because of her treatment to you. You will get raise, that's for sure.

I want to ask, do you need someone to help you? Or can you do it by yourself. Let me know, seriously" He explained.

"I'm good being alone" Leah responded as he nodded.

"Okay so that's about it. I do want to deeply apologize for the mistreatment. Apart from the raise, I wanna give you a bonus as a form of compensation.

Is $100,000 okay to you?" Kane asked as sho nodded grateful.

"Wow that's a lot, more than enough. Thank you so much" She could almost feel tears coming out.

"It's the least that I can do. I'm going to briefly explain how it works since you have been pushed up.

So you will report to Enya. Submission of work will also go to her unless stated otherwise. You won't be working with the other departments too much" Kane explained the rest of the admin details, with Leah nodding.

"Yup so you can ask Enya if you need anything. Enya should be at level 15 waiting for you" Kane told her as she nodded.

"I'll take my leave now" She said meekly as Kane nodded, resuming his work.

She felt intimidated being at the highest floor and couldn't wait to leave. However, it didn't go as plan.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The unfamiliar voice sneered at her. Turning around, she saw an old man.

"I was just leaving" Leah said, trying to reduce her stuttering.

"Little girl, I know you kids are just trying to steal things. Just confess now" The man scowled, looking at Leah.

Leah almost wanted to cry, but she tried not to.  However, her tears betraying her as one drop slowly came flowing down.

"Stop crying and just tell me already!" The man yelled at her even more.

Leah could feel another panic attack coming so she took deep breaths and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down.

Clearly, she doesn't do well when people yell at her. Two words- her past. It has really affected her.

Just then, Kane came out of his office as he heard the commotion. He expected a lot of things but certainly not this.

A shareholder from his company was yelling at Leah. To make things even more interesting, Enya came up as she wondered where Leah had been.

By right, she should have been downstairs by then. So she found it weird and decided to come up.

It was really a shock for the De Luca siblings to see Leah getting reprimanded.

"What's going on?" Kane broke up the commotion.

"This little girl was trespassing. I don't even know what she is doing. Thank god I caught her Kane, if not she would probably steal some data" The old man said proudly, as if he did something right.

"Austin, she works here. Stop jumping to conclusions. Just because you never seen her before doesn't mean she's trespassing.

I called her up because we had to discuss some things about her job" Kane explained everything.

Austin was quiet for awhile, but came out with a response. "So, she could be trying to figure out and steal some data from the company.

As a shareholder, I am very concerned about such matters. You know that don't you, Kane?" Austin asked condescendingly.

"I know for a fact that she would not do that. I can pull the security footage if you so desperately need it" Kane retorted back.

Austin just lifted his hand ups in mock surrender. "Okay okay fine. Just relax Kane. I'll be off now" He patted Kane's shoulder, taking the lift.

"Why is he still a shareholder?" Enya looked at her brother with one eyebrow raised. Nobody actually liked him.

"The only reason he is still here was that because our dear father just had to make a deal with him" Kane replied, rolling his eyes.

You might think, just screw the deal. But it's not that easy. The agreement was a three year long one and this was the final year.

If they go against their words, they will likely lose the whole company.

They could only wait for the year to end before they can officially kick him out. The downside was, they were only in the first month, January 12 to be exact.

Till then, they would have to deal with him. "I'm so sorry about this. Enya will bring you down" Kane looked at Leah apologetically.

Leah was still trying to recover from that incident but still gave Kane a small smile.

"Come on, let's go" Enya nudged Leah who nodded, saying bye to Kane before leaving.

"How are you feeling? I know how Austin is. He's a literal douchebag" Enya sighed.

"It's fine, I'm fine" Leah smiled, trying to not to show her breaking point.

"Okay, but if you want, you are free to leave alright" Enya told her, feeling bad about Leah's experience with Austin.

"Okay thank you for caring" She smiled. This time, a genuine one.

"No problem. I left some snacks and drinks and of course work for you. Enjoy" Enya told Leah who smiled gratefully.

"Thank you so much" Leah said, appreciating what they had done.

"Anyhow, I'll let you do your own thing" Enya said to Leah who nodded.

"Thank you so much Enya. You guys did so much things for me it's it's unbelievable" Leah looked at her gratefully. No one has done things like this for her.

Enya smiled before leaving and so, Leah began to work.

•••

She was working very hard and without knowing, it was already lunch time.

Just then, she felt a presence watching her. Looking up, she saw Kane. She was shocked.

"Oh Kane- I mean Mr De Luca. May I help you?" Leah was startled but tried to remain very polite. After all, he was the boss.

"Lunch?" Kane asked as she replied. "I don't think it's appropriate for me to-"

"Please" He gave her puppy eyes, something one cannot resist.

Leah as much as she wanted to disagree, she ultimately agreed because in her defense, who could say no to Kane's puppy eyes. They were a killer.

"Let's go for sushi" Kane exclaimed like a little kid, as Leah laughed, following him along.

~~~

hello humans. i'm back :))

last day of may lol... and happy (early) pride month to all celebrating 🏳️‍🌈

also, thank you for 106 reads 🥳🥳

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💗

love y'all 🥰

i tried to write an anxiety attack so i did some research and hopefully it doesn't trigger anyone. if it does, let me know and i'll include a warning

i hope this doesn't offend anyone 🙏🏻🙏🏻

anyways, hope you all are happy and healthy and see you next time 💓

[word count: 1640 words]

[published on: 31 may 2021]