STORY SERIES: MY PRECIOUS

ONE

"Grace!"

Mr. Abba screamed right from his office. His office was an anteroom to the room all other public relation officers of the department occupied, he was the chief head of the department and that didn't mark him nice and friendly. He was scary. Poor Grace shook in fear of the unknown where she sat, she threw her headphones on the table that was filled with stack of files, pushed her chair back, abandoned her desk and ran to his office.

On her way there, she quickly stole glances at her colleagues table, no one's table was filled with old and new stack of files. Their tables were neat, free and spacious. She bet they didn't have to worry where to rest their head when they are tired or where to drop their cup of tea or coffee, neither do they have to worry and stress themselves on the Herculean task before them.

"Please, for heaven sake, what is your problem? How hard is it to keep up with the customers? That is your job, I don't see any reason why it should be overbearing." He said as he threw his eye glasses on the table. Grace adjusted hers.

" Your incompetence has made us loose two top and trending companies, can you imagine the cookies you have made us lost?" He eyed her.

"Sir, I have been keeping touch with them except for these past two days that you redirected Mrs. Ojo's, Mr. Chike’s and Miss Enitan's duty to me. It was too much and I lost track of my own work." She defended herself.

"Shut up there! So are you complaining?" He questioned in a rusty tone. She didn't respond.

"Get out of my office!" He roared.

She apologized and made to leave his office when he stopped her.

"Take this file, It contains the details of Jube Ventures. Work on it because we look forward to working with them, it's all on you." He said and threw the file at her.

Complains were all over her face but she dared not do so. She picked the papers of the file that was scattered on the floor.

"Call me Mr. Bode for me." He ordered without looking at her.

"Yes sir." She said lowly.

She bit her lower lips as she stepped out of the office, why must things go otherwise for her. She felt like hell, she loves her job but it could be tiring and annoying. Mr. Abba doesn't even recognize her as a senior officer in the department, rather he treats her like a junior staff. He uses her to do all his work and still never appreciates her hard work. It was like no one saw how much effort she puts to her job and they don't care how exhausted she feels when she has to do their leftover works and duties they can't attend to.

"Take this call I'm about to receive, it's from Jones and Jones company. They have some issues and they need solutions to it now." Mr. Bode said and dropped his headphones on the file she carried and left for Mr. Abba's office.

At this point, she wished she could cry. Can't they see she also have her work to attend to. She looked around and she saw two of her colleagues giggling at the whole scene. It has become a normal thing for her to take in for everyone, everyone including the junior staffs.

She sighed as she operated briefly on his system, directing the call to her desk. She went to her desk, pushed the piles of files slightly. Though, they made little or no space on the table. The call came in as she dropped the file she had on her hand on a pile. She groaned more during the call while trying to understand the caller at the other end. After what seemed like forever, she dropped the call and screamed lightly. She determined she was not going to go...

...TO BE CONTINUED...