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"Do you have to go?" I ask.
"Not until you tell me what you’re going to do next."
"Not much I can do. It’s noon, and I’m stuck here behind this assistant’s desk. I have a ton of emails which have landed in my inbox. I’ve tried to reply the best I can, but without his direction, I’m not sure how much further I can go, and—"
A baby’s shriek breaks the silence of the office.
Gio frowns. "Was that—"
"A child, yes." I glance around the floor. This is the executive floor, so it’s only the senior management who are here, along with their various assistants behind desks similar to mine. And no one seems to be bothered by what I’ve heard. Maybe, it’s from someone’s computer or phone? But it didn’t seem that way and—there’s another cry, and this time, the sound doesn’t stop. And yet, nobody else on the floor seems to be reacting.
"I need to find out what’s happening. I’ll talk to you later, Gio." I disconnect before she can protest, then rise to my feet, pocket my phone, and walk in the direction of the crying child. As I pass each cubicle, I find people glued to their computer screens. Many are wearing earphones; others are typing into their tablets. No one seems curious about the child’s crying. I pass an empty conference room, then a few offices with more executives staring at their screens. Gosh, this place is as cold and severe as my new boss. I reach the end of the floor and peek into the last cubicle to find the HR manager, the one who inducted me, changing a baby’s diaper on her desk. The kid begins to cry in earnest.
"Not a fan of her diaper being changed, huh?"
Adela, the HR manager, shakes her head. "She hates it. I had to bring her in because the babysitter called in sick. I was hoping she’d sleep for most of the day, but clearly, I didn’t think things through."
Just then, the baby flings out her leg and hits a pen holder which crashes to the floor.
"Andrea, no. Stay still. It’s almost over, I promise." She manages to remove the used diaper, folds it and looks around for a place to deposit it.
"Here, give it to me." I grab it from her and head to the restroom that’s in the hallway behind the cubicle.
I'm back in a few minutes and find Adela has finished changing Andrea’s nappy, but the kid is still crying. She presses the child into her shoulder and rubs circles over her back. "There now, hush, baby. Everything is fine. You're fine."
The infant cries louder.
A man pops his head around the adjoining cubicle. "Keep it down. We’re trying to work here. Also, you shouldn’t have brought the kid here. You know this is a child-free zone."
"You think she had a choice?" I scowl at him.
He looks me up and down. "You’re new, I take it?"
"I’m Edward’s Chase’s new assistant."
"Well, I’d say good luck, but it’s not going to help where Priest is concerned. As for you"—he turns to Adela—"I hope you have your CV brushed up. You’re going to need it."
I open my mouth to tell him off when a hard voice interrupts, "Ms. Young, am I paying you so you can waste your time babysitting?"
5
Edward
"Firstly, any time spent baby-sitting is not a waste. Babies are our future and take priority over anything else." She plants her hands on her hips. "Secondly, you haven’t yet paid me, and thirdly—"
The baby’s wails rise to a crescendo.
"—you’re scaring the little mite."
With that, she flounces toward my HR manager and holds out her arms. The other woman hesitates; the baby screams louder.
Someone pops his head out of his room, while another woman looks over her cubicle. Both notice me and retreat without a peep. In the week since I’ve taken over as CEO of the company, my reputation has been cemented as someone not to be messed with. Except for this sprite of a woman who turns her back on me.
My HR manager hands over the baby to my new assistant. She rocks the kid, soothes it, but the child only cries louder. She pats the little one’s back but the infant screams.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” I stalk over to her and hold out my arms. “Hand over the kid.”
She gapes at me. “You?”
