276 Blabber Mouth
Denise couldn’t help herself from critically analyzing the lady that her fiance once had a crush on. She was impressed by her level of professionalism and modesty.
Some pretty ladies, who worked as personal assistants to most billionaire CEOs were either flirting with their bosses or b**chy in their manner of approach.
However, Lily had a fascinating and likable charisma. She didn’t need to do much for someone to get attracted to her.
“Why don’t you have some cookies or muffins, and juice, before we start discussing at length.” Denise took some more cookies into a saucer, from the pack she was earlier eating from.
“Thank you so much, ma’am, I’ll go for the muffins and juice,” Lily smiled in gratitude and helped herself to a glass of juice and some muffins.
“Lily, I want to thank you specially for honoring our invitation on such short notice.” Ella slowly sipped her juices while scrutinizing all of Lily’s behavior. “I know how my husband operates and I know it took a lot of courage for you to come down here. So, thank you once again.”
“You’re welcome, ma’am,” Lily beamed. “But, permit me to air my fears concerning this birthday party surprise.
“Go ahead!” Ella replied calmly.
“Mr. Treshvire does not like celebrating his birthday and he hates birthday surprises. We have tried surprising him in the past and it didn’t go well. To tell the truth, five members of the planning committee instantly lost their jobs, after receiving serious chastisement from him.”
.....
“Really!” Ella’s asked in surprise
“Wow!” Denise stared in Ella’s direction as if to say let’s reconsider our plans.
“Yes, ma’am!” Lily nodded her head. “Ever since then, nobody had ever marked his birthday or even sent him a birthday card.
“Thanks for the heads up, Lily. But, things are about to change.” Ella said authoritatively. “I want you to be rest assured that everyone partaking in this surprise party would not lose their job.”
“Okay, ma’am, thank you.” Lily took some muffins from her plate into her mouth and began munching on them happily.
“I would love to ask for one more favor if you don’t mind” Ella sat up straight and put her glass of juice away.
“Another favor?” Lily wanted to say as her heart missed a beat. “Go ahead, ma’am,” she responded and took a quick sip of her juice to mask her slightly quivering voice.
Although she tried her best to maintain a calm composure, a little voice kept warning her to choose her words very carefully.
Knowing who her boss was and what he was capable of, placed her on the edge as she spoke. She didn’t want to either offend the boss’s wife or breach her code of confidentiality.
“Please, I’ll need you to be open and sincere to me, concerning the next series of questions, I’ll be asking. Can you do that for me?”
“I’ll try.”
The slightly worried look that crossed Lily’s face did not go unnoticed by Ella.
“You don’t have to worry about anything. I will never ask you to betray your boss. If you don’t feel comfortable with any question I ask, then you don’t have to give me an answer. I will never do anything to jeopardize your job.” Ella tried her best to reassure her.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Lily breathed a sigh of relief.
“You’re welcome, dear.” Ella smiled in appreciation. “So tell me, what is your boss’s morning schedule like lately? Does he come early and what time does he resume work?
“Mr. Treshvire always resumes work early. Sometimes he can arrive at his office as early as 6:30 AM. and other times, 7:00 AM. But of late, it has been wavering between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM. And if I may add, his mood has been really sour for the past few days.”
“Okay,” Ella scribbled down on her notepad and continued with her interrogation.
“When he arrives at the company, does he come into his office first or go to some other place?”
“He always stops at his office first.”
Lily couldn’t help but wonder why madam Ella was asking questions about her boss’s office. ‘I hope madam Ella knows that the boss’s office is off-limits to everyone including her. Of course, she should.’ Lily smiled to herself and focused her attention on what Ella was saying.
“Okay... How is your boss’s relationship with his employees?”
“Extremely strict!” Lily almost screamed her response. “You don’t want to mess around Mr. Treshvire otherwise, you’re a gonna.
Lily’s response and expression made Ella and Denise burst into laughter. From the way Lily spoke, it felt as though she had been unfortunate to taste Leon’s anger.
“I’m sorry,” Lily quickly apologized thinking she had earned herself a bad name by bad-mouthing her boss.
“Sorry for what?” Denise asked still amused. “You don’t need to be sorry about anything. If you ask me, I think you were too modest in describing your boss. Qualifying him with the phrase, ‘extremely strict,’ only scratched the surface in describing him.”
“So true,” Ella concurred while maintaining her amused expression.
“On a more serious note, who amongst his employees and board of directors would you recommend I talk to? I would like at least ten to fifteen people from his company to partake in the surprise.”
“Umm... there are a few names I can suggest to you,” Lily said thoughtfully. “If I may ask, Mrs. Treshvire. Why are you looking at such a few number of individuals? Surely, the conference room is large enough to comfortably hold more than forty to fifty people. The more, the merrier.”
“Oh no, I don’t intend to use the conference room.” Ella chuckled slightly. “I was thinking I could surprise him in his office. Just a few people would do.”
“His office?” The color drained from Lily’s face at Ella’s statement. A sudden flash of all the calamity that could befall her if she agreed to Ella’s venue choice knocked the air out of her lungs.
“Yes, do you have a problem with that?” Ella’s forehead furrowed due to Lily’s alarmed expression.
“That will be impossible ma’am,” Lily replied breathlessly. “The boss’s office is his sanctuary. No one is permitted to go in there except requested. Even prospective high net-worth clients are never allowed into the office. The boss would rather have his meeting in lounges or hotels that entertain such meetings in his office The office even has a special combination lock that changes every day and I’m not entitled to go into the office except the boss is around.”
“Ugh!” Ella sighed.
“Wow!” Denise gawked at Lily in disbelief. “Are you trying to tell us that aside from you, no one has ever gone into your boss’s office except him?”
“No, that’s not what I said,” Lily said in a tense tone. “The only people permitted to enter into the boss’s office are those he requested for. Take for example today, the arrogant Miss Chu forced her way into Mr. Treshvire’s office and got herself humiliated terribly and kicked out like a cheap...”
Lily almost passed out when she listened to the words coming out of my mouth. She stared into the curious eyes of the two ladies before her and bit down on her lower lips for being a blabbermouth.
In a desperate attempt to retrace her footsteps and prevent a possible irreparable error, Lily quickly changed her statement.
“What I’m trying to say is that Mr. Treshvire’s office is totally off-limits. There are so many conspicuous and luxurious offices in the complex that we can use for the surprise party. If you don’t mind, I could suggest a few to you.”
Unfortunately for Lily, the name, ‘Miss Chu’ and the incomplete statement, ‘thrown out like a cheap...’ had caught but the attention and curiosity of Ella and Denise.
“After critically analyzing all you’ve said, the conference room will do just fine. Also, I will increase the number of participants as you suggested. However, I would like to know more about this Miss Chu that my husband threw out of his office.”
Ella’s voice was firm and her stare was intense as she noticed Lily’s eyes twitch and her composure crumbled at the mention of the name, Chu.
“I’m also interested in that story about Miss Chu. So tell us, who is she?” Denise crossed her hand around her chest and leaned backward as she also noticed Lily’s apprehensiveness.
“Umm... Miss Chu?” Lily scratched her head as she thought of the right words to say to save herself from the mess she created.
“Yes!” Both Ella and Denise answered at the same time.
“Miss C...chu is a new board member in our company.” Lily cleared her throat loudly as though a crumb of muffin had entered the wrong place.
When she noticed that her throat-clearing act wasn’t distracting or dissuading the curiosity in Ella and Denise’s eyes, she started to cough.
“Why don’t you take a little bit of your juice to clear your throat or do you need some water?” Denise asked impatiently. She could clearly see that Lily was faking the cough scene.
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