Inspired by the Holy Spirit
Written by Damilola Babs
From the stable of Reflection Book Hub
Mary knew she was done for. She cried everyday in the hospital. She couldn’t believe she had lost a man like Andrew because of her insensitivity. She never saw him again in the hospital, but her brother told her that he called often and the times he had told her he visited, she had been asleep.
After three weeks in the hospital, Mary was discharged and finally allowed to touch her phone. The first message she saw was from Wisdom. It had the most cruel content anybody could ever send to anybody.
“Pay back is always sweeter and more bitter. See you in hell.” He wrote.
Mary flung the phone and it had almost landed on the wall in front of her, but for Joshua. The guy dived towards it and caught it right on time.
“Aunty Mary!” He shouted, panting. “Take it easy now. Take it easy.” He told his sister. She sat there and cried. Her tears were infectious. She couldn’t believe she had been that stupid.
They left the hospital and soon, they were home. Not even her mother could say anything to her. She knew she hadn’t been the best mother and her advice had brought nothing but pain to her daughter.
“Welcome Mary.” That was all she said and did every other thing without talking. Served her food, prepared her bathe and gave her her medications. Mary wasn’t going to say a word either. She just wanted to heal without stress. Many of her colleagues came to check up on her including Biola and Mayokun. She was grateful. After all nothing was their fault, she was the thoughtless one who should have knew better than take silly advices.
“We have a new CEO,” Biola mentioned. She was interested in that topic. Did it mean that her job was at stake?
“What? Why?” she asked.
“So Mark chose the love of his life over the job of his life and got kicked out. He is now very serious with Emem and last I heard, they are jingling the wedding bells.” Biola told her dropping a glass of water and facing her friend. Mayokun sat facing the two friends.
“So, who is the new CEO?”
“The boss’s brother.”
“Step-brother.” Mayokun interrupted. “Allow your gist dey cook well. No dey give half gist.” He told her and kept listening.
“Don’t worry, for now, Emem is low-key running things for the family in the office and Dolapo Pedro gave up his shares.”
“One gist at a time now,” Mayokun told her. “Anyway, new CEO never come office so you are safe.” He told her and then they kept bantering about other things.
It was one month and a week, Mary was back to work. Everything seemed different. Only her office remained the same, like it had been kept safe for her. The rest of the staff members had been moved, positions had been changed. It was almost like she had been gone for years. Notwithstanding, she maintained her cool and tried familiarizing herself with her clean looking office. It was obvious that the cleaners were still doing their job even while she was away.
“Oh baby!” Biola came in dancing in a funny manner.
“Biola,” she called calmly, smiling.
“Welcome back baby girl. I am so happy that you are finally back.” She told her, sitting on the seat opposite Mary’s chair. The table in the middle separated them.
“Thank you Biola, thank you!”
Mayokun’s knock came on the door. The door was ajar, so they knew it was him.
“Hey girl! Baby!” He called and swayed to her side. His arms were wide open. Mary didn’t resist him. She hugged him and sat back.
“How are you doing now?” He asked her.”
“I am great and I am back to work.” She told him.
“Our new CEO is arriving today and I hear that she is a dashing young woman…” he blinked too many times and added a blush. The ladies laughed. “I am the ladies man, so shooting my shot is not out of place, right?”
“Not out of place at all, Mayokun.” The women told him in unison. Soon, he left and then, Biola left too. Two hours later, a meeting was called and they were told that the CEO was waiting. Mary couldn’t have been more shocked. It was Alicia Brown, the lady she had seen with her ex, Andrew, the Pop Star. She couldn’t hold her laughter. How did Alicia Brown turn CEO in her company. Of course, SUMAL & SONS wasn’t going to make her their CEO, were they?
“Get out of my seat, Alicia,” a male voice spoke from the door and they all turned. It was the man nobody expected, especially Mary. The man that had just spoken was no other than Andrew, her ex. Her breath stopped in her throat and for a while, she thought she was dead. She almost yelled his name out in shock.
“Hey big brother,” Alicia responded casually and smiled, but she wasn’t getting up.
“Don’t do this here, get up.” He charged playfully towards her and booted her off the seat in the board room. She giggled and stood close to her brother who addressed them. Mary could swear she heard nothing except the continuous thumping of her heart beat. She stood there quiet and dazed. Biola and Mayokun also recognized him. He had visited the company a few times before.
“We will be adding a new venture to the company. We will now be having the SUMAL CLOTHINGS. I have explored and checked this venture out in more than a year and I think it will do great. Our office will be needing an extension, don’t worry, it isn’t going to be located here, it would be somewhere in Ikoyi and that has been taken care of already.” He sighed and looked up to his sister where she stood. “Do you think I am missing any other thing out?” he asked his sister who seemed clueless. He shook his head and continued.
“For those who do not know me, my name is Andrew Boluwaduro, your new CEO. And umm, I hope we will all do our jobs and not snoop around. I don’t like shallow people or lazy people. Those are my biggest turn offs. Don’t do that with me, please.” He turned to his sister again. “Anything else?”
“No. Except ummm…I think you should just ask your Stacy.” She told him in one of purest American accent anybody had heard and without being called forward, a slim lady with a figure like that of a runway model walked into the room.
What would Emem be doing? Mary wondered staring at the three.
“You aren’t forgetting anything sir, except that after now you have three more appointments for the day.” She told him and stood aloof watching the rest of the staff.
They were glad the man had no issues, didn’t sack anybody and didn’t complain about anybody. He just spoke about the job and told them about how much he loved excellence.
“Mary, how are you feeling now?” He asked her bluntly without shame and for a second, Mary thought she was going to disappear. She sniffled before talking.
“Umm, I am fine, sir.” She managed to answer.
“I know not many people know about your fashion business. We will be needing your prowess for our clothing line. We hope you oblige and work with me?” He told her fixing his eyes on her.
“Yes sir.” She managed to answer again.
“Very well then, have a nice day everyone and please be at your best. He told them before leaving.
A part of Mary was angry and another part felt very guilty. What more did he keep away from her? The one room, his sister is a popular Pop Star? Was he even poor, was anything about him true at all? Yet, she felt guilty for leaving him. Did she even deserve the salary and promotion she got or did he influence his brother into doing it? How did they even become brothers? She asked herself myriads of questions but tried maintaining her cool.
“Are you okay?” Biola asked once the meeting was done. She didn’t respond, she ran after her ex with so much speed and soon caught up with him outside the office.
Copyright Damilola Babs, 2022
No part of this book shall be plagiarized except if authorized by the author.
