"Lisa, how is our new boss? Isn''t she beautiful?"
Not long after Lisa returned to sitting behind her desk, Cicilia came over to her. The woman was no longer wearing her zer and her curly hair was neatly tied in a ponytail. Judging from her appearance, especially the tote bag she was carrying, Lisa knew that she wanted to go home.
"She''s… Well, okay." Lisa replied. Indeed, she had said earlier that the demonic woman was beautiful. But after their conversation ended in an argument, Maria''s beauty just faded away in her eyes.
"What? Oh, I see… You''re jealous because she''s prettier than you, right?!" Cicilia said, followed by the sound of her shrillughter. The woman then put her tote bag on Lisa''s desk and continued, "Then, why were you called to her room earlier?"
Lisa sighed at Cicilia''s question. Of course the woman, the gossipmonger at Better Life, was curious about what had happened in the room. But how could she tell her that she just had an argument with her ex-husband''s ex? This office would''ve copsed if such a news were to spread out.
"Just read it yourself," Lisa said while pushing the document folder towards Cicilia, "I''m tired, I want to go home quickly."
Cicilia took the bright blue folder with a curious look on her face. After she opened the folder and saw the title printed in bold on the front of the page, the woman immediately closed the folder with the snap of a finger.
"Crazy! Is this for real?"
Lisa grumbled, "You think I''m joking?"
"Just so you know, thispany has been trying to run the project since the beginning until now! If you want to fail, or want thispany to close because of bankruptcy, you better try to carry out this project! Last year, someone was fired because they almost bankrupted thepany."
"And now, our new boss is telling you to do this?" Cicilia asked in disbelief. This time the woman was almost sitting on Lisa''s desk. She put the blue folder back on the desk and stared intently at her friend''s face. "I don''t know what to say, just don''t let yourself get fired because of this project."
Of course, Lisa knew that the project was quiterge and difficult to carry out alone, especially since she was still a new employee. But she didn''t know that the project turned out to be so difficult that several people were fired for not being able to carry it out perfectly!
"What did I do wrong in the past, why have there always been problems..."
Hearing that made Cicilia suddenlyugh out loud. She patted Lisa''s shoulder, trying to encourage her friend. "Don''t worry, there must be a reason why you were chosen by our superior."
''The reason is because Maria wants to fire me!'' Lisa screamed in her heart.
"This is what I''m going to tell you. To be honest, I worked on that project two years ago but the result was a total failure! It''s not just me, there were also several others who had also worked on the project and the results remained the same. Even though thepany we want to work with varies from year to year, they are definitely never interested. One of the partnerpany''s president even came here to curse Mr. Surya!"
''What kind of project is this, howe they faced such a big problem?'' She wondered, frowning.
"But I don''t know. I thought, since Mr. Surya was fired, this project would be forgotten. But it turns out…" Cicilia took a deep breath and let it out, "This project is still ongoing and now you will be affected."
"My advice is only one, be careful, okay?" Cicilia said while patting Lisa''s shoulder again.
Now Lisa''s head is getting dizzy after listening to Cicilia''s long exnation. It turned out that the risk she got if she epted the project offer was quiterge. If only she had suppressed her ego deeply and restrained herself from epting the offer!
"Thanks, Cil."
***
Even though some of her colleagues have gone home, Lisa still looks serious behind her office desk. The woman''s eyes couldn''t leave herputer screen and her hands couldn''t stop dancing on the keyboard. In thete afternoon, Lisa was apanied by a cup of warm tea and toast that she had made in the office pantry.
When the clock showed a quarter to 7 in the evening, Lisa just got up from her chair. Now the condition of her office desk is much tidier and she can also see the bottom of her desk. Finally, after making sure that nothing was left behind, especially the light blue folder, Lisa went home.
That day, Lisa was really busy and tired from fighting with Maria. Even when she was inside a taxi, Lisa never stopped digging for information to make this big project a sess. She wouldn''t let this project taint her good name and make Maria happily scold her even more.
"Oscar, I''m busy today so please take care of William!"
Lisa rushed into Oscar''s house. She threw her tote bag and the important documents on the sofa. She could have gone straight to Vira''s apartment and did the country''s work in her room. But she had already promised toe to Oscar''s house every night, to help look after William while the man was still injured and also to make sure that he took the right medicine.
Oscar paused from walking down the stairs when he saw Lisa''s disheveled appearance. But the man just nodded his head and sat next to her. At first, the man was curious about what Lisa was doing and often peeked at the woman''s paper. But over time, he became bored and decided to read the daily news in the newspaper.
For the next few hours, there was no sound other than typing on the keyboard. Lisa is still focused on looking at herptop screen while Oscar is watching TV silently. Sometimes the woman looks up, briefly nces at the program ying on the TV then looks back at herptop screen.
"Don''t forget to take your medicine tonight." Lisa suddenly said.
Oscar just cleared his throat and got up from the couch, following Lisa''s firm order.
Not long after he returned to sit next to Lisa, his deep male voice still thick with a foreign ent echoed.
"Lisa, actually… You can go home now. Mrs. Rusminah and I can take care of William.. Instead of doing your job here, you better go home."