Chapter 8 LOUISE’S RETURN

"Mother?" Chris called as he stood up from his office chair looking surprised.

"When did you return?"

"You need to fire this lady you call your so-called secretary. I mean, you have so many people that deserve to be fired. Yet, you fire the wrong persons?" Louise said as she walked further into the room. She didn't wait till anyone told her to sit before she dragged a chair to herself and sat on it.

"I'm sorry, boss. I had no idea she was your mother. She didn't—"

"Excuse us. We'll deal with that later." Christopher said to his secretary as she nodded her head and without another word from her, she walked out of his office right away, closing the door behind.

“When did you return? You're not supposed to be here, mum.” He said after making sure the door behind the secretary was closed.

“Is that how you greet someone you've not seen for a while now?” She asked as she made herself comfortable on the chair and dropped her handbag on his table.

“It's not up to a week you called me on the phone. Why didn't you tell me you were returning from France? I could have told one of my men to pick you up at the airport."

“So are you saying you didn't miss me one bit?” She asked, folding her arms.

“Mum!” He called as he walked up to her. “Why did you come back? I told you not to come here.”

“Why can't I? My son is the director here and you're telling me not to come here. Is there any tangible reason why I can't come here? Tell me.”

“There isn't, but you can't just come here as you wish. You should have called me.” “But I did.”

“That was after you got here. Mother, this is my workplace. You should—”

“She's back.” She interrupted, trying to change the topic.

“What? Who?” A look of confusion appeared on his face, accompanied by a small frown.

“Your sister. She's back.”

“When?” He asked, surprised.

“Today.” She replied as she turned to look at him.

“Do you now know why I'm here? I hate the fact that the house is going to get noisy. It was better when she was away.” “Mum, Kiara is a grownup already.”

“That's the problem! It's been years already since she left for school, and she's back again with her troublesome attitude. So, why would I not be bothered?” Standing up, she remembered why she was there in the first place.

"Have you reached out to Alexander like I asked you to?" He scoffed before replying.

"That's why you're here, isn't it?" “No. But answer me, have you?” “I told you I didn't fire him. He resigned. If he needs to return to work, he'll do so gladly without anyone forcing him or persuading him to." Christopher stated firmly.

“Are you sure you can handle this hotel without one of your import supervisors?" She asked him with raised eyebrows.

“Mum, I said I can handle this. Go back home.” He told her as he brought out his phone from his pocket and dialed a number.

“I have nothing to do at home, and besides, you can't tell me what to do.” “Why are you here exactly?" Then, he remembered something.

"Is this about what you said you've been looking for for some years now?” Sighing, she nodded her head.

"How many years has it been? It's been so long yet I haven't given up.” The person whose number Chris was dialing picked up the call.

“I need you to come here and escort my mother back to the car.” He spoke to the receiver before hanging up. Then, he turned to his mother.

"You should give up on that. I don't know what you've been looking for and neither do I seem interested, but just like you said, haven't you been looking for that for quite a long time now?”

“I won't stop until I find it." She replied like she had made up her mind already.

“Mum, what is this thing you keep—" His secretary walked in at that momentz interrupting his sentence in the process.

“Escort her back to the car.” He directed her.

“Yes sir.” She bowed respectfully as she helped Louise with her bag, while Louise eyed her before releasing the bag to her. Then, she faced him again.

"You have a personal meeting with Sir Luca in ten minutes, sir.”

"Venue?" "His company."

"Get the car ready after you escort my mother to hers. We leave for his company in five minutes."

"Yes sir."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's been three days since Scarlet's date with Alexander and her encounter with her former landlord, Chung Mei. Since that day, she has gone to approximately eight companies, hotels and industries, looking for job. She did not even ask of there was vacancy for a higher level job. What she told each of the receptionists of each of the organizations was that she could do anything, even if it were to be a cleaner or any little jobs.

Unfortunately, none of them needed a new employee, so she couldn't get a job in any of them. On the evening of her third day, she had stopped by a restaurant down her street to have some pizza.

On getting there, she discovered that it was an old lady running the restaurant all by herself, and she had no one to make deliveries and to serve customers for her. Scarlet saw this as an opportunity, so she asked the lady if she needed a worker. The old lady immediately told her she was in need of one, and Scarlet let her know that if she didn't mind, she could start working for her. The old lady appreciated it and told her she'd be paying her by the end of each month depending on the sales they had that month.

Since Scarlet had no other option, she agreed and resumed the following day. "Scarlet dear!" The old lady called Scarlet who was putting on an apron as she served the customers in the restaurant.

"Yes ma'am." She replied, picking up her tray from the table she just finished serving and then she walked to meet the old lady. "Yes ma'am?"

"I just got a call for a delivery of five boxes of pizza." "Oh, really?" Scarlet asked, her eyes went wide open with a look of happiness on her face. Each time someone ordered a large amount of pizza, she was always excited and happy to deliver it, knowing that it was going to increase her pay by the end of the month.

"Yes dear." The old lady replied with a smile on her face too.

"Have you been sent the address?"

"Yes, I have. I wrote it down here." She said and handed to Scarlet the paper on which she wrote the address the pizza was to be delivered to. Scarlet collected it and read through it.

"Oh, it's not very far from here. That's good." She said.

"Yes. I'll prepare the boxes right away so you can deliver them in time."

"Yes ma'am." She replied and went back to answering other customers. About six minutes later, she arrived at the address the old lady wrote down for her. It was one of the most famous insurance companies in the area.

She took her time to look at the exotic building before jumping down the scooter she had drove there. The old lady she worked for hads a scooter, and that was what made it easy for her to make deliveries for her. Scarlet made use of the scooter to go to places where deliveries need to be made.

She removed the helmet on her hand and hung it on the mirror of the scooter. Then, she carried the five boxes of pizza and walked into the company from the front door. As soon as she sighted the receptionist, she walked up to her.

"Good afternoon," she greeted her first.

"Good afternoon." The female receptionist replied, as her eyes went from Scarlet's face to the boxes of pizza she was carrying.

"Are you here to make a delivery?" "Yes ma'am."

"Were you given a name or were you told what floor the person's office is on?"

"Uhm, the person said I should ask for the director's office and deliver it there." "Oh, the director's office." She said and dialed a number on the telephone beside her quickly. The person on the other end picked it up almost immediately too.

"Hello? Yes, it is me. There's a delivery for the director and she… alright." She hung up and dropped the telephone then faced Scarlet.

"The top floor. When you come out of the elevator, you'll see an office that has the title 'director' on its door. That's the office."

"Thank you." Scarlet said to the lady who simply nodded, then she walked to the elevator carrying the boxes with her. She did as she was told when she got to the top floor. As she knocked on the door and walked in, she met a lady.

"Good afternoon, ma'am."

"Oh, you're the delivery lady, right? Please, go in. The director went out just now, but he has a visitor in there, so just drop the boxes on his table and wait for him. He'll be back in a jiffy." She said and pointed her hand to an inner door while she remained seated.

"Thank you," Scarlet muttered and walked further into the office. She knocked on the inner door and heard someone voice a 'come in' from inside. She turned the door knob and the door opened, as she walked into the office.

The director's seat was empty, but opposite his seat on the other side of the table was another person sitting down. He was dressed in a black suit, and he had his back to her, with his head bent a bit as if he was looking at something below him. She closed the office door and walked further inside to drop the boxes on the director's table.

"Good afternoon," she said to the man, who was engrossed in his phone. When she greeted, he raised his head to look at her.

"You're the delive…" He paused as he looked at the face before him. Baby blues eyes staring into ocean blue eyes, Scarlet swallowed her spit, recognizing the figure before him.

"We meet again, bartender lady." Christopher said to her as he dropped his phone on his table and folded his arms, a smirk on his face.