Chapter 7: Second Place.
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"You can't let your failures define you.
You have to let your failures teach you"
-Barack Obama-
*
The days that followed the first day of internship were not at all good. All Yusra could comprehend was the amount of workload she had. There were over 20 files to analyze by the end of that week and Yusra was barely on the fifth file by Wednesday. There was just so much information to understand and break down. The four days felt like eternity to her. You have to do this Yusra! You have to! That had been her mantra. Finally by Friday, she was done with the 23 files handed to her. She had given them a detailed report on each file, all of which were different. From software to web security, she had analyzed them all.
Of course the CEO made her work even harder with his task every day. Each day there was a test they had to go through. On Tuesday, it was protecting her server. On Wednesday, it was blocking attacks from hackers and on Thursday, it was building her own server. Of course this determined their rankings. By Thursday, she had dropped to second and the look on the CEO's face was not so nice. It's as if he expects me to stay at the top, jeez. And he is a devil. A devil in disguise of a man, a beautiful man at that.
She shook her head and cleared her thoughts as she stacked her reports together. There were bright colored stick-on notes at the top of each folder to represent which report it was.
"You done with those?" she turned to see her supervisor, Alec looking at her from the other end of the table. She nodded at him with a smile and handed out the reports.
"A total of 21. Color coded in terms of software and others" she told him and he raised an eyebrow at her work, going through it. Impressive, he thought and looked up to her.
"Nice. Thanks" with that, he walked away.
Yusra breathed a sigh of relief, leaning onto the table itself. The strategic and analytic department had rows of computers in the middle of the room. One end of the room had tables where they had their meetings (the same place Yusra is right now), the other end of the room directly opposite this one has stairs leading to the floor above. The third wall has large floor to ceiling windows with blinds. In front of this wall are around 10 small desks with partitions separating them where the team worked. One of the desks belonged to Yusra.
She kicked off the desk and walked towards her cubicle before taking a seat. She powered up her laptop and stared at the desktop wallpaper. Should I check my email? She checked her email and found out there was a lecture at the campus on Cryptography. Should I attend? Should I not? I should probably. She checked the date and realized it was next week. She groaned in frustration. I can ask Robert. He will say yes since it is a lecture, right? She nodded and stood up. Before applying, she would check with Robert.
She walked over to his cabin at the other side of the room. She knocked on the clear doors and he called her to enter. She opened the door cautiously and walked inside.
Robert set behind a dark black and white desk with his eyes trained on the computer in front of him. When Yusra cleared her throat, he looked up to her with a sheepish smile.
"I am sorry Yusra. What is it?" he asked her and she smiled at him.
"We have a lecture at the campus next week on cryptography. It is not compulsory to attend but since I wish to continue my masters in the same field, I wanted to attend. Will it be okay if I miss work on that day?" she requested him and he frowned, picking up the calendar.
"What date?" he asked her and she told him of the following Thursday. He smiled at her.
"I think we can do without you for one day. Don't worry, you go. I'll inform Markos about it. Its your education so we'll not take any risks" Robert told her and she grinned at him.
"Thank you so much, Robert. Have a nice day" she told him and he laughed, nodding at her. Yusra walked out of his office, elated with the news. With a grin, she began walking towards her desk. What a good day!
Just when she was in the middle of the room by the computers, familiar blue-gray eyes appeared in front of her. She gasped and took two steps back, almost falling. Oh come on! It was a good day!
She watched as his lips curved into a small smirk. She rolled her eyes and took a step to the side, waiting for him to leave. Instead, the devil-ceo (this was the new name Yusra gave him) turned to her.
"Your ranking is second, I see" he told her and she looked at her beautiful black and white all-star converses. Utterly beautiful they are. Well compared to his black dressing shoes, mine are better. Huh. Take that, Mr. Devil-CEO.
Islah looked at her with a small smile.
"Do you remember who came first in your elementary school?" he questioned her and her head snapped up to him. What?
"Do you?" he asked again and she nodded at him. Of course.
"Do you remember who came second?" he questioned again and she frowned. I was first, who was second? I wouldn't know, I have always been the topper. Jeez. Now that I look at it, I have been an arrogant over-achiever who didn't know her classmates! Omg. How rude of me- Fingers snapped in front of her face and pulled her out of her thoughts. Yusra looked up to his blue-gray eyes with fascination.
"You don't remember. Nobody remembers the second or the third place. The only one remembered is the first place. Now you remember that" he told her before nodding and walking away. Yusra watched his retreating form and pondered upon what he said.
Nobody remembers anyone other than the first place? Is this his way of telling me that I cannot do this? That I cannot be first? Oh okay. LET'S SEE YOUR FACE MR. CEO WHEN I GAIN BACK MY POSITI-
"Why do you look like you are plotting a murder?" she tilted her head to her colleague, Cordon who had spoken. She gave him one of her vicious and cunning smiles before striding away. Lets see what he does when I re-gain my spot. He is truly making my life hell.
*****
Hey my loves! As salaam alaikum.
How are you all doing?
Stay safe, happy and smiling! :)
| R - C - V |
xx,
-Aalihha.
YOU ARE READING
Deciphering Love
Romance"One day you would find someone just like you, Islah. And that day, you will stand shaking in your place because she is just your type" - Islah was the kid who did math problems as his hobby. He was blessed intellectually but with his emotions, well...
