A Stolen Kiss From THE CEO!

Chapter 5: The Plan

Chloe was so excited when she entered her room. She ignored the moderately furnished room that was beyond her taste and was practically daydreaming about what a beautiful and extravagant life she would have with her soon-to-be husband. She had the blessing of Yvonne and Mrs. Treshvire. She believed that Mrs. Treshvire could influence her husband, Rex Treshvire. Although Ivory was proving to be a hard nut to crack, Chloe figured that with time, she would have no choice but to warm up to the soon-to-be junior Mrs. Leon Treshvire.

“Wow!” She said in a hushed voice, caressing her lips with her right fingers and biting her lower lips gently as she imagined Leon kissing her.

She walked up to the mirror in the room and called Leon’s name She gazed at her reflection as though she had magically invoked Leon’s spirit.

“I can’t wait to have you,” her eyes widened. “you will be mine and mine alone,” she said with such a fierce fire in her eyes.

Chloe picked up her phone and dialed her mum’s number. Immediately her mum responded, and Chloe half screamed in enthusiasm.

“Mum, he kissed me,” she lied, “I can tell he’s crazy about me. He couldn’t even take his eyes off me for a second.”

“Oh honey,” her mum said, “who in his right senses could resist a goddess like you, I’m so happy for you.”

.....

“Thank you, mummy, he is even bringing me home.”

“Interesting! I know you both would make a lovely couple and this would strengthen the bond between the two families. I’ll let your dad know of your progress. See you soon.”

“Okay mum,” she said and hung up.

She was about to dial Silvia’s number when she got a call from Leon.

“Hi,” she said in a sweet and bewitching voice, I’ve not been able...”

“The rain has finally stopped, let’s go,” Leon cut her off and ended the call before she could begin her poor acting.

Chloe frowned slightly at this but remained cheerful as she reminded herself of the need to win Leon over. She came out of her room expecting Leon to be waiting at her door and was shocked to see the good-for-nothing receptionist smiling sheepishly at her and saying that Mr. Leon was waiting for her in his car.

She walked angrily to Leon’s car after raining plagues and destruction on the receptionist. When she entered the car, she slammed the door shut. Leon didn’t say a word as he wasn’t in the mood. All he wanted to do right now was drop her off and head home.

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“How could you send that rude receptionist to my room? Imagine the animal making advances at me,” she faked being hurt and even wiped an invisible tear.

“Sorry about that,” Leon simply said and drove off.

Finally, they arrived at her luxurious mansion.

“So how about lunch or dinner tomorrow, my treat?” She said with a smile.

“I’ll check my schedule and get back to you,” Leon said without showing any interest.

“Good night and see you tomorrow,” Chloe said as she stepped out of the car.

“Good night,” Leon replied and speedily drove off.

...

Ariella slept late the previous night creating new and inspirational designs in her fashion book titled, ‘ARIELLA WARDROBE OF FAME.’

Back in her days in fashion school, she had created masterpiece designs, and ever since then, she kept inventing more elegant and sophisticated designs, a few of which she voluntarily shared with F&K fashion.

Creating a name for herself in the fashion industry and owning her brand had always been one of her driving forces. She had even given herself a target, on the expected number of years she was going to put into working for other fashion companies.

She had decided to work for two years if made a creative director. This would enable her to save enough money to start her brand. But since fate had other plans for her, she decided not to wait anymore. She would resign at the end of the month, and start up immediately.

After all, most of these iconic and known fashion brands didn’t just make a name for themselves overnight. They started from somewhere.

Already dressed and prepared for work, she looked into the mirror with determination and recited her affirmation,

“I am strong, brave, and confident in my ability, I believe and value myself, I am consistent and grow with every challenge, nothing can put me down.”

When Ariella walked into the reception floor of F&K fashion home, she was greeted warmly by the receptionist. The receptionist felt sorry for her due to the previous day’s incident. Unperturbed by her expression, Ariella reciprocated her kind gesture and walked confidently to her office.

When she entered the creative department section, all eyes turned and focused on her. Unshaken by their gaze and some background whispering, she greeted everyone in her usual jovial way and walked straight to her desk.

Denise could not help herself from beaming in excitement on seeing how Ella handled the whole attention that was focused on her. She walked up to Ella and gave her a warm hug.

“Welcome back to the war zone” Denise whispered in her ears teasingly.

“Thanks, dear. Although I’m in the office and not at the war front,” Ella winked at her.

“We all missed your beautiful face and your funny jokes,” Mrs. Tuna said as she walked up to Ella and also hugged her.

“Sorry about yesterday,” Ella said, feeling guilty about her previous reaction. “It was never my intention to work out on you.”

“Don’t bother yourself about that sugar,” she smiled. “It’s all water under the bridge now.”

At that moment, Silvia Kane walked in and everyone stopped what they were doing.

Their gaze went from Ella to Silvia and back to Ella. Ella who was unruffled by their reaction walked up to Silvia and congratulated her.

Silvia was taken aback by Ella’s calmness and politeness. She was told of Ella’s presence by the receptionist and she came prepared, to address her unprofessional misconduct. But now, she was at loss for words.

“I’m sorry about the way I left the office yesterday without a proper excuse and I promise going forward, it won’t repeat itself,” Ella apologized.

“Certainly, it won’t repeat itself,” Silvia said as she gave a dismissive wave of her hand and walked into her office.

Ella and Denise exchanged mocking glances at Silvia’s attitude and smiled. Then, they returned to their work for the day.

The intercom device at Ella’s desk rang and when she answered, Mr. Kyle simply said.

“Miss Ella! my office! now!”

Ella took in a deep breath and walked up to his office, where his secretary ushered her in. As usual, Ella wasn’t surprised at his cold attitude and expression. Surprisingly, Mr. Frost was also seated with an indifferent expression.

“I am very...” Ella was cut off by Mr. Kyle before she could say anything.

“Seat down!” he ordered her in an icy cold tone.

Ella sat down still wearing a calm expression on her face but deep down she was steaming in anger.

“Now you listen carefully,” Mr. Kyle glared at Ella, with his hands crossed on the table. “I do not care how many years, you had put on this job or how experienced you are,” he blurted out. “One thing this company will not tolerate from any of her employees, especially you,” he pointed at her,” is disrespect and disregard of her laid down rule.”

“For every inappropriate behavior,” he continued, “there will be consequences.”

Then he paused as if he wanted her to meditate on what she had done, and feel remorseful about them.

Ella’s expression remained blank and unchanged. Inwardly, all she wanted to do was give this man a piece of her mind or even a mean slap on the cheek, but she put her emotions in check and allowed him to continue with his annoying preaching.

“Aside from the warning notice that has been sent to your email address, there will be a deduction of a day’s payment from your salary. Note, this is your first warning” he concluded.

“Noted Sir,” Ella responded with a stiffened expression. She stared into Mr. Kyle’s eyes and curled her palm into a fist. Redesigning his face with wicked punches would make her day. Her mind painted a picture of both Kyle and Frost heads under her car tyres. And she mentally crushed their heads. This made her smile inwardly.

“Miss Ella,” Mr. Frost began much more calmly, “Your action yesterday was inappropriate and unprofessional. Nevertheless, we’ve decided to pardon you, by giving a mild punishment, knowing that this is the first time you had ever flaunted our rules.”

Ella stifled a bitter laugh.

“Not only were they stupidly playing: good cop, bad cop; did Mr. Frost just say mild punishment? This man is unbelievable! Whatever happened to the verbal warning? Sure, it had to be written and documented.” Ella’s thoughts clamoured for attention.

Ella kept her cool, knowing that her plans and determination to succeed outweighed her fury. Not only was she calm, she even apologized, when it wasn’t even necessary.

Her actions and reactions to their scolding confused Mr. Frost so much that he was practically looking for ways to please her.

“Ella, he said, even softly, I know you may feel disappointed not getting the promotion but, there are a whole lot of other opportunities to be derived from working with this company and there are more promotions to come.”

“Yeah, probably when am old and wrinkled” she thought.

“Take, for example, you have been selected alongside some of our employees, to participate and represent this company at the ‘Cherry Gala,’ this Saturday”

“It is an awesome gathering of all the fashion icons and celebrities, and you will be there to witness it,” he smiled broadly as if he had given her something better than the promotion.

“Thank you very much, Sir,” Ella smiled in return. Although, Inwardly, she was disgusted with both of them.

“You can go back to work now,” Mr. Frost gestured towards the door.

“Okay Sir, thank you again,” she replied, stood up, and left the office.

When Ella got back to her department office, she discovered that a meeting was going on, and it was anchored by Silvia.

“So good of you to join us, Ella,” Silvia said. “Please sit down. As I was saying, in the next twenty-five minutes, everyone should select a partner and brainstorm a new idea for the company’s brand. We’ve all listened to Mrs. Tuna, on the current trend, so let’s all get to work, except Ella,” she said with the snap of a finger.

Instantly, everyone picked their partners and started discussing in low tones.