The Way to a Man's Heart

Chapter 10

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Pavel's POV

The sound of my alarm jolted me from my dream. In my dream Khaotung and I were on a cruise ship. We were on the deck looking out into the ocean, the sea breeze whipping against our faces. My arm was resting lightly on his shoulder. Then I felt Khaotung's arm go around my waist. I turned my face to him. His face was turned upwards to mine. I slowly lowered my face to his ...

Bbbrrrnnnggg ...

Fuck my life, I was  back to reality.

I jumped out of bed and went straight to the bathroom to get ready for the day. This would be my first day of work at the new company that hired me just yesterday.

I tried to make my appearance look as special and as impressive as possible.

I stopped at the lobby where the receptionist instructed me to go straight to Alice, the secretary whom I had already met yesterday. She was going to help me through the process of employment.

I greeted Alice with a cheerful 'good morning' and she responded with a sweet smile.

She opened her drawer and took out a folder that contained several papers for me to sign. After signing the last paper, she handed me another folder which contained a copy of all the papers that I had signed, for my reference. Then she showed me to my cubicle. My desk was spotlessly clean, ready for me to use.  There was a silver laptop on the desk with a post it note on which Alice had written the password. Alice told me that I would have to create my own password once I got into the system. I nodded to her to indicate my understanding.

"All the materials you will be needing are in this filing cabinet," she said, touching the metal cabinet that was standing right beside my desk.

"Thank you, Alice," I said, pulling the swivel chair from the desk to test it.

I sat on it. The cushion felt comfortable. I swiveled it around.

"Is it to your liking?" Alice asked.

"Yes, thank you," I replied with a big smile.

"Let's go upstairs to let Mr. Jarujitranon know that you have finished with the employment process," Alice suggested.

"Will I be reporting directly to him?" I asked.

"For the next three months, yes," Alice confirmed.

"Why, what happened to the manager who's supposed to be my direct supervisor?" I needed to know what was going on in this company.

"He had to go on an emergency leave. His wife gave birth yesterday and Mr. Jarujitranon approved his request for a paternity leave," Alice informed me.

"Oh, I see," I said, starting to feel anxious again at the thought that the owner of the company no less was going to be my direct supervisor in the next three months.

As if sensing my anxiety, Alice smiled to me and said, "Mr. Jaruji is a really nice person. He is very considerate and compassionate towards his employees."

"I did get that impression of him yesterday when he was interviewing me," I said. "Thank you for reminding me."

"No problem," Alice said. "Come on, let's go up to the fifth floor where his office is."

Once more, for some inexplicable reason, my anxiety came back.

"Do you want me to hold your hand?" Alice asked teasingly.

I decided to play along. I took her hand in mine. She got startled at first but then she chuckled softly and allowed me to continue holding her hand as we entered the elevator that opened for us.

Alice pressed on the number five on the number pad on one side of the elevator just beside the door.

She squeezed my hand when the elevator door opened.

We were both startled to see Mr. Jarujitranon standing right outside the elevator.

"I was just about to go down to see how your employment process was progressing," he said to me.

Then his eyes flew to where Alice and I were still holding hands.

To his credit, Mr. Jarujitranon did not say a word about it. But one eyebrow of his was raised so high that it almost reached his hairline.