Fan Fiction |
by Sensitivegal
Chapter Twenty-Nine ‘Hectic Morning In My Studio’
On Monday, Charlene made her way to work. She knew that Daisy would be in her case. And she was right. She went up to Vaness. He looked washed out. It was only the morning. They weren’t that busy with work.
‘Hey, Vaness,’ she greeted him.
‘Daisy’s in your office,’ he warned her. ‘She’s giving everyone a hard time. Kenny’s in with her and I think his going to lose it!’
She sighed. She knew something like this was going to happen. She asked for her tea and entered her office.
‘Well, well, well. If it isn’t the fiancé snatcher,’ Daisy harshly said. Charlene flinched.
‘Can I help you with anything?’ Charlene asked politely ignoring her comment.
‘Help me? You can help me by giving me back my Edison,’ she spat.
‘He wasn’t yours to begin with,’ she replied. She looked at Kenny who was at the other end of the office on his desk. He was really frustrated. His hair was a mess. She felt guilty. ‘Kenny,’ she called out. He looked up not meeting Daisy’s eyes. ‘Have you gone and got me the files from the Yu Graphics?’ He looked at her confused. She looked intensely at him trying not to give it way to Daisy who was looking at her.
‘Oh that file!’ he said catching on with her drift. ‘I’m really sorry but I forgot to bring it.’
‘Then you better go and get it!’ she said mildly. He stood up and rushed out of the office taking his chance to get away. ‘So…’ she began. ‘What business would you like to talk about?’
‘You know what business it is!’ Daisy yelled impatiently. She was furious that Charlene was acting like a polite host as if nothing happened yesterday.
‘I know, but unlike you, I’m gonna forget that since you are the manager of this place, are you not?’ she reminded her. ‘This is business.’
‘I’m the boss not the manager!’ she roared. So that is why everyone thinks she’s the owner. She tells people she is.
‘Boss?’ she mocked. ‘Pur-lease! You’re the manager! Ah Si Reeves is the boss.’
‘Ah Si Reeves is not here is she?’ Daisy didn’t let her talk as she carried on. ‘She never once came to this company! I don’t think she even exists! What kind of name is Ah Si?’ she roared with laughter.
‘If you’re finished…’ Charlene began impatiently. ‘I’ve got work to do unlike other people.’
‘If I was allowed to fire you,’ Daisy threatened. ‘I would have done it the first second you entered this building!’
‘And if I was allowed to fire you I would have done that the second I seen your face!’
Daisy huffed and walked out cursing. Charlene had a satisfying grin on her face. Kenny came in the room. He looked relieved that Daisy had gone.
‘How did it go?’ he asked curiously but quietly. He didn’t want Daisy to listen if she did come back.
‘Great!’ she exclaimed. ‘Let’s get on with getting the evidence.’
‘Not so fast,’ he came and stood in front of her. ‘You’re with Edison?’
‘Yes,’ she smiled dreamily. ‘I’m so happy.’
‘Girl, snap out of it!’ he shook her as she was daydreaming. ‘When did this happen?’
‘On his birthday party, this was boring by the way.’ Then added, ‘Daisy’s idea.’
‘So basically she’s furious that you took Edison from her and she’s taking it out on everyone except you?’ he looked confused as he was saying it.
‘Sorry,’ she felt guilty. Daisy has no right to take it on her employees.
‘I thought by now you’ll be fired!’
‘She can’t fire me since she didn’t hire me in the first place.’ Then, ‘I was hired by Ah Si.’
‘And ‘Ah Si’ is the owner?’ He asked even though he knew what the answer would be. She nodded. ‘What did people think you were in America?’
‘The manager.’
‘And what are you doing here if you’re a manager?’
‘No one here knows what I did in America.’ Then, as he was going to interrupt, ‘No more questions please,’ she begged.
‘Answer one more question though,’ he said. She waved her hands for him to continue. ‘How are you planning to find out the evidence if you’re in her wanted list?’
‘Stop exaggerating,’ she said. ‘Wanted list?’ She laughed.
He shook his head trying not to believe that she was calm about the situation. He walked over to her chair and sat down not caring the eyes pierced on him. He turned the chair to face the front. He looked at her. ‘So, can we get some work done?’
She laughed. ‘Yes, boss!’ she gave him a salute. ‘What ever you say, boss!’ she then went and stood next to him. ‘Get off my chair, boss!’
Before he could answer the phone buzzed. She clicked the button to get through to Vaness.
‘Yes?’ she plainly asked.
‘There seems to be a crises down at the studio,’ he in a bored tone said.
‘On it!’ Taking her finger off the button she looked at Kenny who was already up.
They walked to the door. She opened the door for him. ‘I bet its Daisy’s doing,’ he couldn’t help but accuse, she assumed.
‘Why are you accusing if you didn’t see the problem yet…’ she said. 3 minutes later Kenny raised his eyebrow as they stared at the scene in front of them. Charlene frowned at the site of what was happening. ‘We don’t know yet,’ she said, hoping it was true. She didn’t want Daisy causing trouble. She was already in big trouble.
She waved her hand at him. Understanding her he blew a loud whistle using his thumb and finger to blow. Everyone stopped at his or her tracks. What were they doing? Her very own models were beating up some guys.
‘What’s going on?’ she raised her voice enough to be heard. Everyone spoke at once. ‘Stop!’ she yelled. The quietened down. ‘One of you answers,’ with the corner of her eye she saw Ruby smack the guy next to her. ‘Ruby,’ she picked out. ‘Why don’t you start since you can’t keep your hands off that guy?’ Ruby looked shocked as she was found out. Kenny frowned at how she made it sound like.
‘That guys a pervert!’ Ruby pointed at the guy she had smacked.
‘Whom are you calling a pervert, witch!’ he spat.
‘Kenny,’ Charlene firmly called his name. He stopped at his track, as he was about to pounce at the guy. Satisfied that he obeyed she looked at the guy next to Ruby. ‘Who are you?’
‘I’m the new photographer, Vic Zhou,’ he introduced himself. ‘And who are you?’
‘Their boss,’ she pointed at the six girls. ‘I don’t think I hired you.’ she frowned at the guy.
‘That’s because Daisy hired me,’ he said in a matter-of-fact tone.
She caught a glance of Kenny giving her an I-told-you-so-look. She ignored it, moving her attention back at the Vic guy. ‘Okay,’ she walked in the centre of the room. ‘You’re the new photographer?’ She pointed at the guy. Continuing before he interrupts, ‘And Daisy hired you?’ She clasped her hands together. Great! She muttered inwardly. ‘So… what’s with the commotion?’
Again her models began talking at once. She hushed them with a glare. She motioned to Barbie to speak.
‘We were alright with the fact that we have a new photographer but we’re not alright with the fact that his a pervert!’
‘For the last time woman I’m not a pervert!’ Vic yelled.
‘Okay, you’re not a pervert,’ Charlene began. ‘What I want to know is why they think that!’
‘Let me answer that,’ Miriam cut in. ‘He was feeling us up!’
Charlene gasped. Outraged at them all one by one saying what he had done. If she weren’t the type that would like to know both stories before taking action she would have kicked the photographer and its crew out of the building. But she then asked Vic to say his part.
‘I wasn’t touching them like they say!’ he declared.
‘And how were you touching them?’ she asked.
‘I was showing them how they should pose!’
‘We know how to pose, you big jerk!’ the models yelled.
‘Okay. Let’s try this…’ she hoped this idea will work. ‘You show me exactly what you did to them,’ she ordered Vic more than say. ‘And Kenny will judge it. Now does that seem fair?’ Everyone agreed. Vic came beside her and got her in position he wanted her to. He took photographs. Couple of minutes later she stopped him. ‘How was it Kenny?’ All eyes were on him.
‘I didn’t see anything wrong with that,’ he answered. ‘Did you think he was touching you differently?’ he asked Charlene.
‘No,’ she said. ‘So it’s settled then,’ she clapped her hands together. ‘Case closed. If every thing sorted I guess we should get back to work!’ she and Kenny made a move to go. She turned back at Vic. ‘To make less trouble I think you should let them pose how they wish and avoid touching them,’ she strictly advised him. ‘I turn my back for a second and you’re both kissing!’ Charlene turned to Kenny and Ruby. ‘And I thought Vaness and Cecilia were bad!’ she sarcastically declared.
The couple jerked apart. Everyone except Cecilia was laughing. She was sulking. Charlene made her way back to her office with Kenny by her side that had quickly caught up with her. She stopped outside.
‘Hey, Vaness just wanted to say that you’re not the only sex maniac here!’ Charlene said.
Vaness looked at her confused. Kenny looked at her shocked. ‘I was only kissing her! That was no where near having sex!’
‘If you say so!’ she answered not caring. Vaness chuckled.
‘Why are you laughing?’ he cornered Vaness by his desk. ‘She just called you a sex maniac!’
‘So,’ Vaness shrugged his shoulders.
‘Dumb ass!’ Kenny shook his head. He walked inside the office.
‘Sex maniac!’ Vaness called out behind him. Charlene was belly laughing right now. The phone rang on his desk. He answered the call. ‘Hello, My Studio. How may I help you?’ he greeted. ‘Who may I ask is calling? Please hold the line,’ he pause the phone. ‘There’s and Mr Chen on the line. Would you like to take the call?’
‘You know I do!’ she said. ‘I’ll take it in my office.’ She walked inside her office. The phone rang as Vaness transferred the call to her phone. She answered the phone, ‘Hello,’ she greeted over the phone.
‘Hey, babe,’ came the teasing voice of Edison’s. ‘How you doing?’
‘Fine,’ she said. She was trying to push Kenny off her chair. He wouldn’t move. ‘Did you want something?’
‘I wanted to hear your voice,’ he admitted. A smile crept on her face. Kenny made kiss noises at her. ‘Who’s that?’
‘My sex maniac P.A!’ she said at the same time glaring at Kenny.
‘I am not a sex maniac!’ he yelled.
‘Okay you’re not,’ she gave up. ‘Now get your ass off my chair!’ He finally got off sulking that she was mean. She laughed. ‘Thank you,’ she called behind him as he went and sat on his desk. She sat down on her chair. ‘So, Edison back to our conversation. You were saying about my sexy voice.’
Kenny snorted. She shot him a dagger look.
‘I want to see you as well. Would you like to have lunch with me?’ She got a picture on her head that he was holding his breath as he was waiting for her answer.
Before she could answer her phone buzzed. ‘Hold on a sec,’ she told him. ‘Got a call,’ she added, not wanting him to think she was thinking about it. She pressed the button to mute him and then pressed the buzzer. ‘Yes, Vaness?’
‘There’s a call from Mr Tse. Would you like to take it?’
She thought for a second. Then, ‘Patch it through to line 2.’ She pressed the button to line 2. ‘Nicholas, what can I do for you?’
‘Have lunch with me,’ he quickly said.
‘Edison’s on the other line waiting for an answer to the same question,’ she told him.
‘I’m not asking, I’m demanding!’ he joked. She kept silence. ‘Please,’ he begged knowing that she would say no. Then, ‘It’s important.’
She sighed. ‘Okay,’ she gave in. ‘It better be important!’ she warned him before saying bye. She put it back to line 1. ‘Bad news,’ she guiltily told Edison. ‘Nicholas wants me to have lunch with him.’
‘I understand. How was your morning?’ he asked trying to hide the disappointment in his voice.
‘Hectic!’
‘Because of Daisy?’ she could tell that he felt guilty.
‘Don’t worry. Everything’s fine now,’ she assured him. ‘How was the party when you went back?’ She asked because she hasn’t seen him till Saturday night when he left her home an hour after they cleared everything up. She was busy looking for a house while he was sleeping in.
‘What party?’ She was going to say his birthday party but he carried on. ‘The entire guest were gone except Nicholas, Sam, Stephen and their dates. Those guys trashed the party!’ He didn’t sound angry.
‘You don’t seem angry at all,’ she pointed out.
‘No, I’m not. It was a boring party anyways.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she couldn’t help but apologise.
‘Why are you sorry? I had spent my birthday with you. I was happy with the picnic and the lovely present which I will cherish forever.’ She laughed. ‘I’m not kidding,’ he was serious. ‘This reminds me about your other present. I love the chain. Especially he bit with the two letters, EC. People might think its EC as me and you or EC and Edison Chen. So again I love your chain.’
‘Thank you.’
‘I’m wearing it,’ if she were face to face with him she would have seen his killer smile.
‘That’s the whole point isn’t it?’ she teased.
‘Ha ha very funny!’ he muttered. Then, ‘Have dinner with me?’
‘In an expensive restaurant?’
‘If you want.’
‘How about if a say I wanna cook?’ she asked.
‘I would say when should I come?’ She laughed with him joining her.
‘See you at 7.’ She then said bye with a teasing kiss noises coming from Edison.
The morning was great then on after. At lunch she waited for Nicholas to pick her up. He took her to Daniels’ place in silent. He wouldn’t answer her when she asked what was important. She waited patiently till they were sitting at Daniels’. They ordered their meal and sat silently yet again, waiting for their order to come.
‘So…what’s so important?’ she asked.
‘I wanna propose to Joey…’ his voice trailed off.
‘I thought we went through the plan on how to propose?’ she was actually irritated inside. She would have been sitting with Edison.
‘I know. I want to propose today… I don’t know I can… I don’t think I’m ready…’ He was struggling the words out. He was really confused and scared at the same time.
‘If you don’t take the risk how will you know?’ she softly said.
‘But I’m sca…’ he stopped to lower his voice. ‘I’m scared to take the risk.’ He looked away avoiding eye contact.
‘Everybody is. And it’s okay to be scared,’ she assured him. She squeezed his hand. His eyes met hers. ‘All you need to know is that you both love each other.’
He took a deep breath. ‘You’re right,’ he finally said.
‘And you know I love you?’ He nodded. ‘Now cheer up and let’s eat.’ The meal came just in time. They ate and talked about anything. She wanted to tell him now her secret but couldn’t say it. She had to say it another time. When the timing is right.
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Comment please! Thanks for reading!
Luv Sensitivegal