OFFICE ENEMIES : I HATE YOU EDAN (Workplace Enemies Series)

CHAPTER FOUR

THE VIDEO

Imogen’s POV

I have been practicing the pitch I was to give for the campaign to kick start until the words lived in my mouth without thinking.

Arriving at the office, the conference room on the eighteenth floor was already full when I walked in. Belvane’s senior team were sitting along one side of the long table, there were two men in navy outfits and a woman with silver hair with the kind of posture that depicts that she had never once been late to anything.

Mr Greg was standing near the projector screen, smiling the way he used to when money was about to walk into the building. Edan was already there, leaning against the back wall like he owned the air but I didn’t look his way.

I opened my laptop the moment I climbed the podium, the first slide was neatly waiting, the Belvane device was rendering in soft blue light against a dark background, it has its title in white which reads;

“Rewriting the Odds.”

“You can start whenever you’re ready, Imogen,” Greg gestured at me with a smile.

When I clicked on my laptop, the screen behind me lit up before I started talking. I kept my voice steady as I walked them through the market gap, the clinical data, the emotional hook which will be used in the first wave of the content for the campaign.

I had every transition timed, as all the pulses were measured because this is the work I am actually good at and had gotten me into this room in the first place.

Halfway through the second slide, the screen started flickering, I kept clicking continuously but nothing seemed to change. The image on the screen stuttered, froze, before going blank for a second.

Just then a new video popped up, filling the entire wall. This is a video of me when I was younger, because my hair was longer there. I was sitting with my legs crossed on my old apartment floor in a tank top, my phone was held towards me as I kept twerking to music while biting my lips and making eye gestures.

“Okay, Akash, don’t you dare show this to anyone.” My voice echoed from the video.

The room was silent in an embarrassing way that felt physical. I reached for the laptop with my shaky hands. The trackpad refused to respond as the video kept playing.

Before I could manage to put off the laptop, someone near the back of the room let out a soft laugh which made me slam the laptop shut.

The screen behind me went dark immediately, but the damage was already done as every face in the room had already seen it. The silver-haired woman from Belvane had one eyebrow raised so high that it was looking permanent.

Looking at Mr Greg’s, the usual smile had vanished. And at the back wall, Edan was standing with his arms crossed, his expression carefully bearing the sharpest flicker which was visible at the corner of his eyes.

“I’m so sorry, that was not part of the presentation.” My voice came out cracked as I continuously cleared my throat but no one answered.

“Imogen. Why don’t you take a moment, we will reconvene in twenty minutes.” Mr Greg said in a calm voice, stepping forward as if he was the first to recover from the entire scenario.

I thought about the timeframe he gave as if that would erase what had just happened.

I nodded, picked up the laptop and walked out of the room with my spine straight and my face empty, because if I let anything show, I was going to break in front of all of them.

The hallway outside was feeling too bright as my heels were sounding too loud while I walked towards the women’s restroom before I was able to release the first real breath.

I locked myself inside the toilet at the extreme, set the laptop on the floor while pressing both hands against my eyes until the pressure started hurting.

I thought about the video that displayed on the screen right there at the conference hall. I also thought about Akash, who I had come in contact with way back. He was a friend of a friend.

The video entails a stupid late-night exchange that should have stayed buried.

But somehow, Edan must have gotten into my files in my laptop, where I still thought it was safe, and he had timed it for the exact second I was standing in front of the people who could decide whether my mother ever got the treatment she needed and also help patients who had similar cases.

It was so obvious that he had ragebaited me and that came in a wave which was so clean that it almost felt like a relief.

I wiped my face with the back of my hand, checked myself out in the mirror before stepping back into the hallway.

Stepping back into the hallway, I saw Edan waiting by the water cooler, scrolling through his phone like nothing had happened.

“I know you went through my laptop and orchestrated that scene right,” I said in a low tone of voice which was enough that the nearest assistants couldn’t hear.

“Did I?” He asked, looking up slowly and unbothered.

“I know you played that video on purpose just to get to me.” I almost lost my patience.

“That’s a very interesting theory you have there.” He mocked.

“You think this is funny?” I fired.

“I think that if you’re going to stand in front of a room filled with important people like that to talk about rewriting the odds, then you should probably know too well to lock your files first.” He said, pocketing his phone.

“I hope this is not a game to you, because if it is, expect my return.” My hands curled into fists at my sides.

“Isn’t it? You walked into that elevator yesterday like you still owned the moral high ground. So consider this as a reminder that you don’t.” He tilted his head.

I kept staring at his calm face which still portrays the same man who had once told me that it wasn’t that serious while another girl was sitting on his bed. The same man who is now holding the other half of the only campaign that could save my mother’s life.

“You’re going to regret this,” I said.

“Am I?.” He replied as his expression shifted interestingly like he had been waiting for the war to start properly.

I didn’t answer, rather I turned and walked towards the stairwell instead of the elevator, because I needed the movement in order to buy time to think everything through.

By the time I reached the landing between floors, the plan was already forming.

And I just realized that since he wanted a war, then I am going to give him one with all my ammunition ready.