The Devil's Harem

“Peekaboo,” Opening the door, Alex peeked inside, “Anybody home?” Alex whispered, not wanting to disturb anyone.

And fair enough, no one heard him or noticed the peeking head of someone who did not belong there.

With everyone busy with their work, Alex slowly closed the door behind him and tiptoed his way inside without making any noise.

Sneakily, Alex stopped a few feet behind Hazel and hid behind the shredder. He was going to pull a prank on them.

Clearing his throat, Alex was about to yell, ‘Fire... Fire...’

“Don’t do it,” Hazel said, taking Alex by surprise. He thought that Hazel had seen him.

.....

“Huh....? What is it?” Ellaine asked.

“Uhh... Nothing, it’s my brother... He just texted me about some chit-fund scheme,” Hazel said, “I mean, everyone knows it is a fraud, and he wants me to invest in it.”

“Yeah... I invested some a few years back, and before I could withdraw the money, the company vanished into thin air.” Ellaine agreed.

And with that, they got back to work. Alex also sighed in relief that he was not caught.

He prepared himself for another try.

“Sneaky little bastard,” Alex almost fell on his bottoms when he heard Amber curse, stomping on the ground, ‘What’s going on?’

“What happened now?” Ellaine was quick to ask. Even the slightest squuek was enough to get her attention.

“That rat... He has no place to go except for my desk. That shit is always crawling on my feet. Che...” Amber replied angrily. She was clearly very annoyed with the rat.

“That’s really a pain in the ass. I wish the newbie was here,” Hazel suddenly said, “We would have made him catch that rat. It would have been fun to watch him run around.”

“Who? The rat or the newbie?” Someone joked.

“The newbie obviously,” Hazel laughed.

“Yeah, It was fun when he was around,” Ellaine agreed, “Everything is dull and boring now.”

“I finally had the chance to boss him around like you guys, and he had to leave that very day,” Amber expressed her regret.

“Look at him now, the big boss of a decent company,” Ellaine added.

“Yeah, who would have thought that our newbie would leap so high?” Hazel praised Alex.

“Are you two jealous? He was running your errands not long back, and now he is way ahead of us?” Jennifer pitched in.

“Jealous? No way,” Ellaine denied right away, “I am sure everyone here is happy for him, but don’t tell me you don’t miss seeing his face, have him buy coffee for you...” Ellaine asked.

“And let me tell you. I think the newbie liked doing that stuff,” Hazel added, “Maybe he had those submissive tendencies.” Hazel giggled. Hearing Hazel, no one could hold their laughter, and it was a rare moment of joy for them, and even then, it was because of Alex.

But Alex’s face twitched. Hiding away from their eyes, he thought of giving everyone a surprise, but here the situation was entirely different. His character was being assassinated in broad daylight with everything they had in their arsenal.

“Ahem... Ahem... Uhmmm...” Alex cleared his throat loud and clear to attract everyone’s attention.

As every head turned, they found themselves pleasantly surprised to see the person in front of them.

“Newbie...” Hazel was so thrilled to see Alex that she got up and ran straight into Alex’s arms, hugging him tightly, “You won’t believe me. We were just talking about you.” Hazel said, jumping in excitement.

“Yeah, it’s always like that,” Though Alex was content to see their happy faces, he could not stop himself from commenting, “At least once, just once, try to say something nice about me.”

“What’s nice there to talk about you?” Amber walked towards them, “We used to be pals, but you ran away, leaving me behind.” Amber said, punching Alex’s shoulder.

“You know what? You can always come and work with me,” Alex said, smiling. Then he turned towards others, “And not only you, everyone here is free to come work with me. And I will even pay you better.”

“Don’t you just want to make us run errands for you?” By this time, Ellaine and others have also joined. Hearing her, Alex just smiled, not commenting any further.

“How have you been?” Finally, Jennifer got her chance.

Alex nodded, “I am doing okay... Not as good as I was doing here, but okay...”

“What brings you here?” Still in his arms, Hazel asked, lifting her head.

“I was here to meet Jessica. But I thought I should meet you guys before that,” Alex pulled himself away from Hazel and told them.

“Jessica? What for? From what I have heard from the rumours, you two are not on the best of terms.” Amber asked.

“Well...” Alex paused as he scratched the back of his head, “That was all in the past. Don’t you guys know? We are all going to work together?”

“What do you mean?” Ellaine asked.

“You guys really don’t know,” Alex could tell they were not joking, looking at their confused faces, “Well, that’s a perk you get being the top boss,” Alex gloated.

“Get to the point, kiddo,” Hazel said as she jumped and wrapped her arms around his neck, strangling him, “Don’t try to act smart in front of me.”

“I get it... Fine... Leave me first,” Alex said, trying to tap out of her lock.

“Better,” smacking the back of his head, Hazel let him go.

“Wuuh...” Alex adjusted his hair, “You have gone wild in these few days,” Alex commented, only to receive a glare from Hazel.

“... Let me tell you guys the big surprise...” Alex looked at everyone, increasing the anticipation, “Theation and my company are going to join hands on one of your projects... Isn’t that nice?” Alex told them.

Now, this was indeed news to them. Everyone looked at each other, hoping for some clarity, but everyone looked clueless about it.

“So it’s like that,” Jennifer finally said.

“You knew about it?” Ellaine asked.

“I did know that the company was looking for a new partner on that Veronica project, and we are supposed to get the details tomorrow to work on the promotion with the Marketing department.” Jennifer said, “But I had no idea which company was it.”

“I am sure Karen knows about it,” Hazel suddenly pointed out, and every head turned towards Alex. The incident between Alex and Karen was significant, and although it has been resolved, it was an instinctive reaction whenever Alex was mentioned in front of Karen and vice-versa.

Alex looked over Hazel towards Karen’s office, “Is she...?” Alex asked, hesitating.

Jennifer nodded, “She is inside. Go on. She would be happy to see you.”

Nodding, Alex made his way through the ladies and stood in front of Karen’s office. The blinds were down because of which Karen probably had no idea that he was there. It has been about a month or so since Alex last contacted Karen. It was not because he did not want to. He very much wanted to sit in her lap all day long. But for no particular reason, they slowly drifted away. Now, coming unannounced to meet her made him feel nervous.

Still, he was already here. Leaving without meeting Karen would be even more awkward and rude towards her.

*Knock! Knock!

“Come in,” Alex heard that pleasant voice again. .c

Getting the go, Alex gently opened the door and first peeked inside before taking the first step.

Karen was on the phone, rubbing her forehead and paid no attention to who was at the door.

“I will look into it,” Karen said.

“Yes... Yes... I will look into it, MOTHER!” Karen said, putting great emphasis on, ‘Mother’. Clearly, the person on the other side put great emphasis on the titles and mannerisms.

“Mother, it will be hard to transfer that much money,” Karen swirled on her chair, “How about I send you half of it first?” Karen said.

“... Mother, let’s talk about it in the evening. I will try to think of something,” Karen said. Maybe she remembered that someone else was in the room, “I have work to do.”

“No... Mother, I am not hanging on you,” Karen said, “I am really at work... Hello... Hello... Bitch?” Karen suddenly cursed.

“Fucking bitch...” Karen cursed even more loudly when she heard no hue and cry from the other side.

Annoyed, Karen turned her attention to the person in the room. Everyone more or less knew about the problems she had in her life. Karen never pulled them into a conversation crying out about her problems. But she would lose it whenever she would get drunk like she did when they visited the pub last time.

So, she did not end the call when she heard the knock at the door. Because she knew the kind of person she was dealing with. If Karen had ended the call, she would have run to her son, ballyhooing over nothing and raising another problem for Karen.

But when Karen saw Alex standing in front of her, she unconsciously stood up.

‘What is he doing here?’ this was the first thought that came to her mind, ‘Don’t tell me he heard everything.’

Alex smiled as he nodded, “I came here to meet my lovely ex-boss, and you are right, I did catch a few things.” Alex said.

“... Fucking Bitch.” Alex looked at Karen with a smirk.

* * * * *