When Alex walked through the door, the ladies were already gathered around whispering to each other. When they saw him enter, they were ready to bombard him with questions about the girl who stopped by a few minutes back. But before they could ask him anything about her, they were surprised to see band-aids on his face.
Seeing their cute little junior all banged up, all the ladies got agitated and gathered around him in no time.
"Who the hell dared to hit our newbie's face?" Elaine asked, all worked up.
"Tell us, we will scratch his hairs off," Hazel said, showing her nicely trimmed nails.
"Are you alright? Why didn't you take the day off?" Jennifer, on the other hand, was more injured about his injuries.
"Poor newbie, who would be cruel enough to do such a thing to such a handsome face?" someone among the ladies said.
"Must be a pig-faced rascal, cuckolded by a young, handsome man," Ellaine said in anger.
"Ladies... ladies... ladies... Oh my beautiful ladies, why don't we all calm down first?" Alex tried to calm all of them, "I am perfectly alright," Alex said and removed the band-aid from his cheek, "Look, these are just some superficial scratches. Nothing major..." Alex showed them.
"No need to get all riled up," Alex said as he grabbed a bottle of water from the table and passed it on to Ellaine. But he was touched as to how they all cared about him.
Alex looked at every one of them, 'They are not that evil after all,' Alex thought to himself.
"Come, sit here and tell us what really happened, and don't you leave a thing?" Hazel grabbed his hand and dragged him to his desk. After he was comfortably seated, they all gathered around him to listen to what he had to say. They wanted to know everything in detail to come up with a plan of action.
Although Alex and Amber were new to their department, they were part of the family. Alex was even more so. Though they teased him, made him do unnecessary work, the fact that he remained modest and obedient won their heart. Alex was close to everyone. Even the devil of the PR department, Karen, was lenient on him. In short, he was the apple of everyone's eye.
Seeing them act like that, even Alex now wanted to see what they would have done to the baldy if they were there. Looking at their eager and anticipating face, Alex began to narrate the events of yesterday.
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"I went to dinner with a friend and after..." Alex tried to narrate but was cut off."And that friend would be that girl who just came looking for you, right?" Elaine was the one who intervened.
Alex didn't know that Susan had entered the department to look for him. He thought that maybe she only waited for him outside.
"Umm... yeah," Alex admitted to it after giving it some thought.
"Not bad... not bad at all, kiddo. You got yourself a girl in the first week itself," Hazel praised Alex as she pinched his cheeks, making him wince in pain.
"It's not like that," Alex said, "If you will all just listen to me without interrupting, it will all be over soon, and you will know what exactly happened," Alex said, pulling Hazel's hands away from his cheeks.
"It's just..." and then Alex explained to them what happened from the day he came to Theation for the interview. How he met Susan, planned for dinner, their dinner date and everything after that.
"That son of a mother trucker, douchenozzle. If I ever get a hand on him, I will get a stick covered in cowshit and plough his arsebasket with it," As soon as Alex finished his story at the point where he woke up in the hospital, Ellaine had her foul mouth run rampant.
Alex was stumped by the sudden vulgar outburst from Ellaine, but no one else looked surprised, not even Amber, who joined the company at the same time as him. On the other hand, the other ladies also voiced their agreement with Ellaine.
"Well... about that," Alex intervened while they discussed the matter with each other, "Did you guys watch the news this morning?" Alex asked.
"Which one?"
"The one about the gang fight," Alex said, "The news said that those who got beaten up might have to stay clung to their beds for the rest of their lives," Alex told them.
"Oh! that one...Yeah, heard about that incident," Some of them answered in affirmation.
"Those who got messed up are the ones I had fought with," Alex told them.
"Really? Served them right. No need for us to take action," Hazel said, rejoicing.
"Instant Karma, I would say," Jennifer justified.
"I would say they got lucky," But Ellaine was still not satisfied with the outcome, "They got away cheap after messing with our errand boy."
While all of them were gathered around Alex, the devil of the department walked in. Seeing none of them in their seat, she was surprised. But when she saw all of them gathered around Alex's seat, the thought of them goofing around like usual came into her mind.
"Why are you all not in your seats? Do I still need to pay you for goofing around?" Karen said from behind them.
Hearing the devil's voice, all the ladies went stiff altogether. They all slowly turned around, only to find the devil looking at them with a piercing gaze. They all looked at one other, urging the other to speak up.
Karen looked at them, stealing glances with each other, "Still not speaking up?"
Finally, it was Elaine who mustered up some courage and said, "Chief, we are not goofing around. Alex got injured, so we were just asking him about the details."
All the ladies moved towards the sides and made a large enough gap for Karen to look at Alex. When Alex saw Karen looking at him straight, he could only wave his hand awkwardly towards her.
"All of you to your seats now," Karen said as she walked towards Alex. Hearing Karen, all the others scattered around, back to their desks in no time.
"Are you alright?" Karen asked, looking at the scratches on his face, "You should have called me and asked for a day off," Karen was not even the slightest bit stern with him, unlike a few moments back.
"I am doing just fine, Chief. Just a bit of lingering pain. I will be back to normal by tomorrow," Alex assured Karen.
"Don't push yourself too hard. If you feel like going home, just let me know," Karen said as she walked away. She did not ask him when, where and how he got injured. It was not her place to do so.
"She certainly cares about you. You are one lucky guy. Everyone cares about you here," After they were left alone, Amber, who was Alex's desk buddy, said.
"I am glad they do," Alex nodded, "I used to think of them as devils, but they look like angels in disguise now."
"So, is there really nothing going on between you and that girl who came around looking for you?" Amber asked.
"I have already said it. We are just friends," Alex said, averting his eyes from Amber and looking at his system.
"I don't, but for some reason, I don't believe you," Amber said and got back to her work.
'Woman's intuition is scary,' Alex suddenly remembered something his father told him about long back.
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