My boss! heck??? My hands which held the collar of my top now stays firm and tight under my grip. The good thing was I saw him and stop myself from getting half-naked in front of my boss.

"Why didn't you tell me it was you, not my mom?" I ask. What the hell he think of himself? And I'm also stupid— See before you act, duh? I mentally groan to myself.

"You wanted help, I helped, either me or your mom! Does it matter, anyway?" He replies, acting cool as a cucumber as if nothing happened. What if I have pulled my dress down. It would be shameful! I couldn't even match my eyes with him. I flipped my hair back and cover my bare skin.

"Sir? What are you doing here?" I ask, my voice breaking in annoyance. How did he even know I live here?

"Where's your phone, first? I called ten times! You know I never call my parents the second time but I had to stalk you from office to here!" He complains and enquires, his voice reflecting authority and frustration. I know he's telling the truth. He's the one after whom people run, not me.

"My phone's on silent mode!" I defend myself. From not letting myself to bother by an unknown woman, I kept my phone on silent mode. This was the best way to avoid her existence.

"Silent mode! I see!" He gloats, then chuckles. "What if your father was dying at the hospital and your mother was trying to reach you but she can't because their clever daughter keeps her phone on silent mode!"

I look at him, totally awestruck. How could he say that? No one gave him the right to speak like that about my parents. Boss or not!

"That has nothing to do with you!" I glare him and he stares me in bewilderment. Yeah! You heard it right. It has nothing to do with you. My deadly eyes indicate him to never ill- speak of my parents, again but I guess my warning has no effect on him. "Why did you came here?"

He looks away for a second and finally answers. "Get dressed! We're going to a meeting!" He orders.

Meeting!

"Sorry?????" I bemused. "Meeting? What meeting?" I ask.

"Meeting with Mr. Castor!" He replied and walk past me. I immediately spun around to hide my bareback. His arms are crossed at his back while he scans the whole room, actually the bookshop.

"But it's too late for the meeting! Moreover, my working time is over!" I tell him. It's really late and why should I work when the day has ended. He could have fixed the meeting at my working time.

He spun and walks toward me. "Did you really read the terms and conditions before signing up for the job!?"

I look away and swoop into flashbacks. I did read the letter and a full-page at it's back, which was scribbled with tiny fonts. Terms and conditions were written there. Apart from basic rules which every single company demand, I don't really remember the other half of the stuff.

"The summary of the page was, 'obey your boss!'" He scowled and I stare. I'm really working hard to make everything right but his behavior is really not helping. With the tone and authorization in his voice, I find so hard to work with him. I wish I can slam my resignation on his face but then what? I'll get a new job elsewhere where I had to face another boss, again. Who knows how he/she will be? Bad or worse,? It's the story of every other boss. A boss does what the boss wants. Everyone has to bear it.

"Fine!" I gave in. "But if you knew we were going to go out, then why you unzipped my dress?"

"I want you to wear something nice!" His words make me gasp in shock.

"Excuse me?" I objected. What does he mean? I don't dress nicely? What else it would take to dress me nicely? And what exactly nice meant according to his dictionary.

"Sorry... Excuse me......" He mimics me. "You know you do it a lot!" He noted and I gritted my teeth. It's not my fault if I get offended from the past two days because all I'm getting is shock upon shocks. "Now are you going to wear a dress or I, myself choose a dress for you, from your wardrobe!" He takes a step toward me and I move backward.

"After you!" I said, my voice jumpy.

Gesturing him toward the staircase, I indirectly indicate him to walk ahead of me because the zip is left open. Without any objections or any comments, he climbed the stairs.

He occupies the couch and I went straight to my room. I pull out an olive belted strappy mini dress. On the way back to my bathroom, my vision started to blur a little because I wasn't wearing spectacles. Without them, my vision weakens slowly.

I quickly take a shower and get dressed. Instead of the ponytail, I kept my hair loose open. After applying a small amount of foundation and lip gloss, I put my spectacles back on.

I wear my heels, an inch higher than the normal ones I use regularly. I lock my room and come out. My boss is reading 'Oliver twist'-a book my mom is reading nowadays. She's really fond of reading but books, especially novel bore me to death. The only books I crave for-economics, accountancy or business studies or any branch of these three work just fine.

As I walked a bit closer, the thud noise of my heels drew his attention to me.

"Nice!" He gets up and commented and I gave him an obnoxious smile.

Dress approved: checked
Dictionary matched: double-checked.

"So the whole bookshop, it's your father's?" He asked when we walked passed it. I shut the door and locked it carefully, making sure it's perfectly locked, twice.

"It belongs to my mom!" I replied casually. He gets inside his Porsche which he parked outside my house. I too, get in and messaged my mother about the sudden meeting schedule. After that, I checked if that unknown person had called or left messages through a new number. There weren't any, except for my boss's number. He did call me for almost 10 times. I saved his number, immediately for future preference.

"What does your father do then?" He asks, his hands firmly gripping the steering wheel while his eyes are fixed on the road.

"I don't know! We don't live together anymore!" I replied and looked away, not because I'm feeling like crying but to ignore further questions. There's nothing I'd like to talk about my father whom I can't even imagine his face.

"Oh!" He gave me a blank stare. I thought he'd feel pity for me but he didn't. Although, I should be sad at his blank remark because he could have shown little sympathy but I felt good, instead. Maybe it's because I've never met my father and I don't feel connected with him. No memories, just blank like his reaction.

"Even though your mother is engaged in the small scale business, don't you think she should locate her business in the main market?"

"Yeah, we thought, analyzed but nothing really good solution came!" I tell him. "It's not easy to get land in the main market, moreover the rental fees are twice the revenue she earns!" I explain to him. A few years back, we tried to acquire land but the cost was high. Somehow, my mother arranged the money but turns out the owner already sold it to another buyer at a higher price. The same thing happened in the case of the rental agreement. Everyone was charging high, so high that it was hard to pay.

So my mother invested the money to renovate our first floor and used the rest money as a wholesaler. She now transports books to a few retailers. Mr. Johnson's one of them.

"Well, if you want I can help you with that. I have a lot of contacts in my circle. Many of them are my investors!" He suggested and I feel my eyes popping out.

"Really?" I said, in disbelief. I mean, really-really??? That is totally unexpected. Feels like an alien just asked me to help in my assignments.

"Of course! One call works effectively!" He answers and stops the car.

"I will talk to my mother!" I say. He gets off his car and so does I. The streets are packed, filled with different people—office employees, couples, a mother with her kid, an old age couple walking hand in hand. The street was filled with indistinct chatter, car horns. All I can see and hear was crowd and chaos but what I can't see was any office or any restaurant. Is there's a meeting or not? And if yes, where is it going to be held?

My boss walked past me, going somewhere. I spun around and he walks toward a two-story building. At the entrance, drunkards couple's come out, one of them almost fall but the bouncer held him. I looked above the entrance, and Animo's Club was shining in red lazor light on the balcony

Meeting in a club?