"Sister Zenith, are you okay?" Michael asked with a slight hesitation laced in his tone. When Zenith turned to him, his brows tugged slightly more. "You had plans for the evening, but if you go to present this project to the sir now, you are surely going to be late for it."
Zenith checked the time on her watch, and surely, Michael was right. She would be late for the date if she didn’t leave the office right now. And that made her uncomfortable. Not because she was dying to attend the arranged date, but because something felt deliberate in the entire situation.
Seeing her silent, Michael suggested, "How about I go and do it for you? You can leave, and I will explain to Sir that you had something urgent."
Zenith heard him and at once shook her head. "Oh, he wouldn’t like that. Remember the last time it happened."
Michael pursed his lips. Of course, he remembered. It was hard not to cry in that moment, but because he was a man, he held back his emotions. "Then what are you going to do?"
Zenith picked the file and nonchalantly shrugged. "I will do what’s to be done." She then eyed the file in her hand in an obvious gesture.
"But what about your date then?"
"It’s not as important as my job, and I already dropped him a text." Saying that, she already moved with the file, rounding her desk and coming out to step in the direction of Ryan’s office. "He should understand that it’s something urgent that held me up. And if he can’t understand that, I guess we already would know that we aren’t the right fit."
Michael felt what she was saying was right. Nodding, he then simply said, "Then I will help you wrap up here until you finish presenting to Sir."
"Then I will have to thank you for that." Zenith gave an okay sign to him before walking to Ryan’s office.
Stopping at the door, finally, she paused to knock. And right after she did, she heard Ryan’s voice from inside.
"Come in!"
Pushing the door open, she stepped inside. Walking to his desk, she slowly lowered the file to him before pushing it his way. "Here is the report file you asked us to prepare. You can let us know if there’s any improvement needed." All the while she spoke, her gaze was unintentionally at the file. She never looked Ryan’s way.
And that’s something that only worsened Ryan’s mood further. He felt like she was avoiding him. And that was weirdly making him furious.
He took the file and flipped it, his movements aggressive, revealing his mood.
Zenith flinched for a second at the sharp noise of pages flipping, but then she composed herself.
Throughout the read, Ryan pointed out some trivials and she nodded understandingly, taking notes of it. When done, Zenith leaned it to take the file back.
"I understood, sir," she said, her voice as composed as it had ever been. "I will get it done before the deadline tomorrow." And with that, she was about to bow and leave when Ryan spoke, interrupting her plans.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
And blinking a little in confusion, Zenith stared at him. "Back to my desk to wrap up everything before leaving."
"And who said you could leave early?"
Her brows tugged in a frown, and she checked her watch before saying, "It’s already the log-out time, sir. I am not leaving early." It was the usual time for everyone to leave for the day. How could she be leaving early? 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
"And who made you decide that?" Ryan asked, his brows quirking up in half-amusement and half-challenge.
"Sir, I —"
"While signing the employment contract, have you read the terms and clauses properly?"
Cutting her off smoothly, Ryan asked, standing up from his chair.
Zenith watched him and nodded confidently. "I did, and —"
"If you did, then you must have forgotten to remember the clause number eighteen there," he interrupted her again, continuing, "It’s mentioned there that, being the CEO’s secretary, your work timings would be flexible. You would need to do sudden overtime and stay back at the office whenever needed."
Of course, Zenith remembered that, but the meaning behind that clause wasn’t like this.
"I remember the clause, sir. But that clause was for the special situation where there is an urgent need. And right now, there seems to be none. The Green Valley Project is not urgently needed, and there are just a few improvements needed, which I can easily do before you need it tomorrow."
Ryan stared at her and then slowly walked her way. His every step made her heart beat louder.



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