Chapter 3 HER HURT

Scarlet had stood up by now, holding the letter in her hand. It was going to be a very tough time for her, searching for a new job that pays as much as the hotel does.

So, she did what was required of her. She begged. "Sir, I swear the man told lies. I did what I did in self—" Chris did not let her finish her sentence, as he cut in by slamming his hand on the table. His eyes—the cornea precisely—were beginning to turn red as he glared at the lady in front of him.

"Get the fuck out of my office, woman! I won't let anybody ruin my hard work of so many years by their stupid mistakes and lies." He then scoffed and added, "And what did you even want to say? That the customer lied? Oh, spare me the lies. He wanted to sue you in court, but because it would stain my name and make me infamous, I persuaded him not to."

"But sir, I swear I wasn't—" He immediately picked up the telephone on his table and dialled a number. "Hello? Get me the men. They have a bag of trash to throw out here." The words stung more than the reality that she was just being fired. What hurt more was that her childhood bestfriend who for some reason didn't recognize her, was about to throw her out like trash, and there was nothing she could do about it.

A wincing, pained expression flashed across her face. Her lips pressed tight as her eyes focused on the man before her. Despite her going stone-faced, her eyes were still about to tear up. Her stomach dropped as she clutched at herself, gripping her elbows and rubbing her arms in self-comfort. She still found it hard to take everything in, as she stared into his eyes, trying to figure out if he didn't recognize her. Does he truly not know me? She thought as she rubbed her arms continuously and stared intently at him.

He turned his back to her and stood up from his seat to the shelf behind him. As much as she wanted to yell at him and curse loudly, or vent her hurt to something, anything, she was not able to. A tear slipped from her eyes but she wiped it off immediately. Giving herself the utmost respect, she turned and walked out of the room before whoever he called gets there and tries to harass her.

"Nonsense!" Chris growled immediately as he heard the door of his office close. He made his hand into a fist and used his other hand to scatter the files on his table.

"What audacity! Wanting to drive my customers away right under my nose!" He recalled how the customer had come to meet him in his office without an appointment. The customer happens to be one of the main shareholders of the hotel, and he was currently making a deal with him. If anything goes wrong, he'd cancel the deal and that was it. Chris fumed with anger once again as his pointed nose scrunched and his face drew into a frown.

The lady almost made him lose his deal with the man. If he had, it would have cost him a lot, because the contract was a very important one.

"Balderdash," he muttered to himself again as he walked around his office. This was not his first time firing his workers. He was a perfectionist when it came to his business, and anybody who doesn't do whatever he says, he never hesitates to fire such a person.

After himself, another thing he cared about was his business and he could not let anybody ruin it for him. Not when he had gone this far to get here.

"And one stupid person thinks she can take me back to the past due to her carelessness. Stupid." He paused for a minute in front of the glass window in his office—which was on the top floor of the hotel—and looked outside from it. His mind went back to the lady he had just fired. While he yelled at her, his body felt some way. There was some sort of familiarity he felt towards her. He squinted his eyes, something he does when he tries to think about something. He racked his brain for a few seconds, trying to figure out whatever it was that made him feel that way, but he just couldn't wrap his head around it. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. Then, he rolled his eyes and shrugged it off. Whatever it was, he cared less about it.

Almost immediately, there was a loud bang on his door. "And who is that uncultured person?" He asked loudly just before he turned to see the person that banged his door hard and walked in without knocking or waiting for his permission before walking into his office. He scoffed as he saw who it was.

"And why would you walk into my office like that, Alexander?"

"It's Mr Ryan to you whenever we're at work, Chris." The man, who looked like he was in the same age-grade as Christopher, walked further into the room. On getting to the chair opposite Chris' table, he raised his black suit jacket a little before sitting on one of the chairs.

"I didn't ask you to sit, Alexander." Acting like he didn't hear what he had just said about referring to him as Alexander at work, Chris sternly replied, calling the name Alexander again intentionally to annoy him, as he walked over to meet him. He stood right in front of his table, arms akimbo as he stared at the man seated in front of him.

"Neither did you ask me to come in, Chris. But guess what? I did, and there's nothing you can do about that." Alexander shrugged as his green eyes focused on Chris' blue ones.

"This hotel belongs to me, and so does this office. Mind your words or I could throw you out!" Chris exclaimed the last sentence as he banged his hand on the table, which made Alexander chuckle a bit. He touched his blonde hair as he continued staring at Chris, enjoying the way he was fuming with anger. It was nothing new to him though. He had always known Chris to be be cocky because the hotel belonged to him, and he never wanted to listen to anyone when it came to things concerning his hotel.

"It seems your default way of proving you're the boss is throwing people out," Alexander started in the calmest tone of voice possible. Then he placed his arms on the table, a mischievous smile appeared on his face again as his bushy eyebrows were raised in the process.

"I'm not surprised anyway, it's not your first. One thing I wouldn't allow though, is you throwing out and firing an innocent person." He scoffed and added, "why would you even fire someone without listening to their point of view?" Immediately, Chris burst into laughter. His laughter resounded in the whole office as he pulled his office chair closer and sat on it. Alexander remained seated, but he was beginning to get annoyed with the way Chris laughed at his words. He calmed himself down by stroking the back of his neck; a reflex action he does whenever he wanted to control himself from flaring up.

"And who are you to tell me how to run my establishment?" Chris asked him after he was done laughing. By now, his face held the stern look it usually holds. It was like his default look at work so that everyone can fear him and do whatever he orders them to do.

"I am one of the most important supervisors of this hotel, Chris. If my opinion wasn't needed in the first place, you wouldn't have made me a supervisor." Alexander said and sat upright. He had calmed down by now, so he tried to speak to Chris in every polite way possible.

"You cannot continue to fire your workers anyhow because you want to satisfy customers, Chris. Because you pay them for their services does not make them less human."

"Oh, I can see you're here to lecture me," Chris said as he picked up a book on his table and opened it. He began to flip through the pages as if he was reading them, whereas he was just doing that to avoid giving Alexander the attention he wanted. He knew if he did that, it would annoy him the more, and he would probably leave his office when he sees that he was not given the attention he craved for.

"I am not here to lecture you, Chris. I just want you to know the lady you fired did not deserve that—"

"Because I didn't mention that I am aware of how you have been chasing her around for the last couple of weeks?" Chris cut in, still flipping through the pages of the book.

"Sometimes I even come to work and see you with her at the counter. Now you're here accusing me of firing her?" He suddenly stopped flipping the pages of the book and dropped it on his table. "Now, tell me," he said, glaring at Alexander who sat there speechless. "Should I say you're here to defend her because she's your current chase or you're here to defend her because she didn't deserve to be fired?"

"You're so arrogant," Alexander said as he stood up in anger. Chris' words stung him because he knew there was some truth in it. He was on his way to Chris' office to report some of the affairs of the hotel to him like he usually does, when he stumbled upon Scarlet. She was in tears as she headed for the elevator. He has asked her what happened and she had explained to him everything that transpired between her and the man from the hotel room to how she had just gotten fired. Hearing this, he had stormed to Chris' office to explain to him that Scarlet was not at fault. He had no plans to cause a scene, but seeing that Chris would not stop being rude to him, he spoke his mind.

"You're so arrogant and you act like you rule the entire universe. You lack humanity and you're anything but humble!" He exclaimed, pointing his index finger at him. Chris just sat there staring at him, a wide grin on his face.

"You know what I love to see most? Pain. I love to see the pain on the faces of people like you," he said calmly. "Besides, why are you even screaming? You're in my office and you're shouting at me in that manner? Because of some dirt that I removed from my white before it stains it?"

Alexander banged his hand on the table. "You have no right to call a fellow human dirt.”

“And you have no fucking right whatsoever to tell me what to do! I own this hotel! I made you one of the supervisors and if I wish, I could also fire you just like I did her!" Chris former back as he sprang up from his chair, glaring at him with red eyes on an angry face. Alex shook his head as he stared at the man before him. Chris was a bit taller than him, so he had to raise his head a bit to look up at him.

"I won't let a thing like you make me lose my temper. And over what? Something unnecessary. But I don't blame you, because if it had been someone you truly care about, you wouldn't react this way. But then, you don't have anyone you genuinely care about." Alex said and chuckled.

"Of course, you can't value things you don't have. You would never know how it feels like to care for people because you're a rich and spoilt brat."

"Get the fuck out of my office!" Chris shouted. "Now!" He added. Without another word, Alexander picked up his phone from the table and walked out of the office, slamming the door behind him. As soon as Alexander left, he felt a sharp pain in his chest over what he said just before left.

"How would he know?" He asked himself and scoffed. "That I could never know how it feels to care for people?" He added and laughed. The laughter was more like an anger-filled one.

"He doesn't even know what I've been through. Now that I'm here, trying to maintain my business from crashing, he's here telling me shit?" He scoffed again.

"Bastard!" He cursed loudly, scattering everything on his table once more.