"Welcome..." the boss said in greeting before he smiled at me.
"Hello..." I said softly.
"Why are we here?" Hayden asked, cutting to the chase.
"I wanted to talk to Malissa and you’re just her driver," the boss replied with a laugh.
He seemed to be in a good mood today. Hayden didn’t find his joke funny, but I thought that it was a good attempt. We took our seat on the long sofa opposite the boss. Hayden sat next to me.
"I told you just now that I wanted to talk to Malissa, right? So, why are you still here, Hayden?" the boss asked.
"You want me to leave?" Hayden asked in annoyance.
"Yes. Leave..." the boss spat.
The two men stared at each other down. Seriously, these two father and son just never seemed to get along at all. I wondered what these two were like when Hayden’s elder brother was around. Did they get along better as a trio than as a duo?
Hayden squeezed my hand softly as he looked closely at me. I could see the worry in his blue eyes but I felt quite fine with being left alone with the boss. Actually, there were somethings that I wanted to say to the boss without having Hayden in the room as well.
"It’s fine..." I whispered to him softly before smiling reassuringly at him.
"Ok. I’ll be waiting just outside..." Hayden said before he gave my hand one final encouraging squeeze.
I watched as Hayden got up and headed for the door. The door opened and Hayden disappeared through it before the door closed again. Satisfied that Hayden was now gone, the boss turned his full attention on me.
"How have you been?" the boss asked, it was the same question as always.
"I’m honestly not sure yet. I haven’t really put in enough thought into it," I replied honestly.
"You don’t have to worry about your grandmother. I’m more than happy to cover for her expenses...until she won’t be needing it anymore..." the boss said as if he could read my mind.
"Oh...thank you. I know it’s strange for me to say this but...I’m sorry that I couldn’t give you anything in return. I’m not marrying Hayden, and, in the end, I couldn’t do anything to convince him to take over as the next head of Torex. I’m sorry..." I said, feeling quite guilty although he was the one who started all of this and not me.
"I wouldn’t be too sure about that..." the boss said before chuckling a little.
"Excuse me?" I said, not quite following what he had just said.
"You may not realize it yet, but I think precisely because of you, Hayden will take over Torex," the boss said, and his eyes twinkled at me.
He seemed quite satisfied with the outcome and I had a feeling that he knew something that I didn’t. Either that or he simply saw the world very differently from how I saw it.
"I don’t think that he would..." I replied, feeling slightly confused.
"Why do you say that?" the boss asked.
Well, because Hayden told me quite clearly that he didn’t want to...
"He told me that he hates this job..." I replied as I reflected back on the moment that Hayden had told me that.
"Is that so? Is that why you didn’t want to convince him to do it?" the boss asked knowingly.
I just nodded silently. That’s right. It just felt wrong to talk Hayden into something that he didn’t want to do. Well, it wasn’t like I thought that I could have convinced him to take over Torex no matter how hard I tried which was why I couldn’t understand what the boss meant about Hayden taking over. Did Hayden have a sudden change of heart?
--To be continued...