Chapter 136 - Impressive!

Anita was seething with anger as she went to sit amongst the secretaries and assistants who were there to take the minute of whatever was going to be discussed there on behalf of their boss. 

Anita's secretary was the only person there who bothered to make room for her to sit down since she was directly under Anita's payroll. In the past, every one of them feared Anita because their bosses were under Mr. Wyatt's payroll, and as such if Anita so much as found any of them wanting in any regard, and wanted them out of the company, all she needed to do was report them to her uncle, and her uncle would ask the director in charge of that secretary to fire them. But now that the new CEO had announced to their hearing that it was no longer a family-run company, and it seemed like the CEO wasn't very fond of Anita, they all didn't see any reason to condone her excesses anymore.

Once Anita was seated, she pasted a false smile on her face as she watched the others who were seated on the table, especially Lucy who was seated in her spot. Even though she still didn't think Lucy was qualified enough to be viewed as a threat, since Lucy was nothing compared to her, she also knew that she needed to get rid of Lucy. This was the second time the CEO had embarrassed her because of Lucy, and that wasn't acceptable. 

Why was he so protective of her? How many bosses were that protective of their employees? Perhaps something was going on between the CEO and Lucy that Lucy wasn't telling her? Was Lucy pretending to be naive when she probably had ulterior motives and wanted the CEO for herself? Seeing how good-looking and wealthy the CEO was, how was it possible that any lady around him would claim not to be interested in him? She was just going to have to keep her eyes on Lucy by pretending to be her friend. She had to keep her very close to herself to be sure that Lucy wasn't trying to take her man from her. 

"So? What are we waiting for?" Tom asked Mr. Wyatt when everywhere remained silent after Anita was seated. 

"The director you just sent away from the table is the person that's making the speech," Mr. Wyatt stated irritably.

"Ah! I see. Well, since she can't speak from where she is seated, can nobody else tell me all I need to know?" Tom asked, cocking his head to the side as he looked around the table at the other directors.

Most of them bowed their head or looked away from Tom since they had been instructed to let Anita handle everything that involved speaking with the CEO. They had been threatened by both Mr. Wyatt and Anita that the new CEO was very mean and wouldn't hesitate to fire anyone who made a mistake.

"I don't know how you have managed to run your company until now, but in this place we are disciplined, and we do things in an organized and..."

Harry snorted, interrupting Mr. Wyatt's sentence, "We have run things so well in our company that we are buying other companies that seem not to be doing so well," Harry said irritably since it was becoming obvious that Mr. Wyatt wasn't deserving of the respect they were showing him. 

Mr. Wyatt tried his best not to look embarrassed as he met Anita's gaze across the room. She flashed him an apologetic smile even though she was feeling pretty angry herself. 

Tom grinned at Harry. Of course, they were best friends for a reason. He had been about to say exactly the same thing that Harry had just said. The old man was just as annoying as Anita was, and it was becoming quite clear that Anita's problem was a genetic issue and not just personal. 

"Am I to assume that Miss Miller is the only person here who can speak on behalf of the company? We should probably fire every one of them and retain just Miss Miller, shouldn't we?" Tom asked Harry, making the others around the table sit up quickly. 

The lady who had led Tom to the meeting hall earlier raised her hand when her colleagues urged her to speak on their behalf, and Tom gave her the go-ahead to speak.

"We were only informed of your coming yesterday, and we were told not to bother preparing for anything as Miss Miller would handle the presentation," she explained as she didn't want to lose her job over something that wasn't her fault. 

"Is that so?" Tom asked, turning to look at Mr. Wyatt, and then Anita who was still seated amongst the secretaries. When neither of them answered his question he nodded his head and looked at Harry who also gave him a nod to proceed with whatever he wanted to do. 

Tom stood up from his seat and went to stand beside Mr. Wyatt, "If that is all, you can excuse us so that I can have my first meeting with my staff," Tom said to Mr. Wyatt whose face became beet red with a mixture of anger and embarrassment.

"I beg your pardon?" Mr. Wyatt asked, his eyes shooting daggers at Tom.

"Our business with you ended the day we paid you for the airline in full. All the documents have been signed and as such your presence is no longer needed here. We only came here to honor you, and now that we are done with that, you can excuse us," Harry spoke on behalf of Tom. 

Lucy who had been sitting quietly this whole time thought that this had to be the worst meeting she had ever been present at in her entire life. As far as she was concerned the CEO was ruthless, and Mr. Harry wasn't any different from him. Now she was kind of glad that she was on his good side, and wasn't at the receiving end of his cold and ruthless treatment. She intended to remain on his good side, as it was more profitable to be on his side. 

Mr. Wyatt looked around the table with a flushed face, and no one could tell if his face was that red because he was angry, or because he was feeling very embarrassed.

"You are keeping me waiting," Tom told him coldly, and Mr. Wyatt reluctantly stood up before storming out of the office. Anita stood up as if to go after her uncle, but she paused when she remembered that she had a mission here, and her uncle's humiliation would be for nothing if she didn't stay back. 

Tom sat on the head of the table where Mr. Wyatt had just vacated before looking at Anita, "Are you leaving with him or joining us?" He asked her before looking at Lucy and jerking his head to the seat he had just vacated for her to occupy it. Lucy quickly moved to the next seat.

"I'm staying," Anita said politely.

"Good. Now you can occupy your place on the table," Tom said, giving her the go-ahead to occupy the seat that Lucy had just vacated.

Although Anita was very pissed off by this, she managed to give him a polite smile as she walked over to sit down where Lucy had vacated. 

"So, let's hear what you prepared," Tom said to Anita.

Anita tried her best to tell him everything about the company in detail and state statistical facts where necessary. She told him about the company's areas of strength and weakness, as well as the ideas she had to move the airline to the next level. 

By the time she was done, Tom had to agree to the saying that no one was bad all around. Although she was a golddigger and had a shitty attitude, she was good at what she did in the company. 

Setting aside his personal grievance against her, he gave her a nod of approval as he clapped his hands, "Impressive! That was a brilliant presentation," he said, surprising everyone else in the hall, apart from Harry who knew that Tom wasn't going to let his personal grievance against Anita blind him from seeing her potential in the company.

Anita was slightly taken aback by the compliment. Her lips pulled up in a wide smile as the hall erupted in applause. Of course, he had been won over by her intelligence. She knew that successful men like him were often drawn to intelligent women like her. All she had needed was an opportunity to show him how intelligent she was, and thankfully he had given her the opportunity despite his initial coldness. She was happy to see that he was impressed. 

After they were done with the meeting, Anita and the other directors took both Tom and Harry around the company premises to show them the various departments and the staff that functioned in them. 

Once they all got to the front of the company where the valet was already waiting for them beside the car, Tom turned to look at Lucy, "It's not too late for us to have lunch, is it?" He asked as he glanced at his wristwatch.

Anita's brows creased with a frown when she heard this since she was standing very close to both of them.. He was having lunch with Lucy? Why? She was going to have to do something about Lucy before things get out of hand and the CEO ends up falling for a snake like Lucy.