My Boss Is Secretly A Softie - Chapter 46

Chapter 46: First Meeting
“But sir…,”

“I apologize but I cannot compromise. Boss’s orders,” Merlin ruthlessly cut off the panicked male who gritted his teeth, bowed at him, and then left.

He sighed, the audacity of some employees. Had it been any other person of Terrence’s caliber, he would have had him dismissed immediately. But his boss tended to be tolerant at the oddest of times. Or perhaps he knew that the man would get himself fired eventually with or without his interference.

“And for Miss Elara…,” he frowned, then shook his head, “It’s none of my business. Young love always has its obstacles. I do pray for their happiness at the end.”

He fixed his tie, belt, and shoes; tamed his ruffled hair, and adjusted his glasses— which he had gotten recently due to old age affecting his eyesight, before he left.

***

“So?” Terrence asked. He was in a large luxurious hotel room, dressed casually. However, his usual carefreeness was gone, and his gait was replaced with an uncharacteristic coldness.

Merlin coughed, “I gave him another chance as he requested, but since his conduct was intolerable, I had the company replace him with someone else.”

“His reaction?”

“Not so good. Although he did control himself for the most part, his resentment couldn’t be more visible. It was a great choice not working with him,” Merlin spoke while placing some pictures before Terrence.

He frowned, “This?”

“We’ve been keeping tabs on Miss Elara and from what I can deduce, it seems to be a relationship she’s trying to fix,” he motioned to a couple of pictures, “You can see her friend’s defensive reaction, but Miss Elara seemed adamant on what she’s doing regardless.”

Terrence was silent. Her playing friends with some annoying guy was irritating, but even more was her commitment to it, so much so that she could only call him by midnight and decline his calls and messages at other times.

There was definitely something more to this. His Ela wasn’t the type to do something without reason.

“How is the other thing going?”

He picked up the neatly arranged pictures and looked through them one by one. His Ela looked as lovely as ever except for a constant eye sore stuck to her.

His hands moved, and the pictures rained down beside Merlin who dutifully picked them up.

“We’ve found Dora. Although nothing came from her as she had known John for only a while, and merely had a sexual relationship at the time. But there was one person she did mention which I found interesting.”

Terrence perked up, “Yes?”

“She suspects that person might have been the architect of her misfortune, seeing as her presence brought them, and her absence just happened to coincide with her downfall. Even more interesting is that person’s name, sir,” Merlin paused.

“You should burn them,” Terrence motioned to the pictures, “And get me the same copies but with that one edited out.”

“Yes sir,” he brought out a piece of crumpled paper, “Her name is Lara. Dora gave me this. She had randomly kept it with her all this while in search of Lara— which was as successful as pouring water on rocks. She even visited John, yet nothing. But I did a comparison with Lara and Elara’s handwriting….. They were 100% different.”

Terrence frowned, “How odd.”

“Yes. So that lead is dead for now. But since we now know about Lara, we’ll channel our investigation on her first. Her existence might just be the link we need.”

“And Miss. Terra?” he asked while picking up a glass of wine that had been abandoned on the table for a while.

“She…,” Merlin was silent, his face holding a strained smile before he replied, “She brushed us off and said you should leave her wife alone.”

“….”

Merlin:

“My Ela’s choice of friends sure is interesting. Haha.”

“Please calm down sir!”

“We’ll see.”

‘Oh dear.’

***

Bright lights with different colors illuminated the chaotic room. The loud party was filled with many dancing— some alone, some with partners, and most of them, lewdly.

At the podium was a female dancing her way across the pole while her sexy companions managed to smuggle a bunch of greens from the leering men and even women.

Despite it all, John still couldn’t take his mind off his worries and he sat in silence contemplation.

He had rejected his friends for some alone time and now he was mildly regretting it. How would he interject with the rest of the party without making a scene?

“Is something the matter?” a calm voice spoke. He turned and was stunned.

The voice’s owner had beautiful braids tied up in a lovely manner, enunciating her elegance. Among the group of people who were going at it like animals, she was different. Her vibe was a stark contrast to the room.

The lady easily whipped him up a flamboyant drink, which she served before smiling.

“Wanna talk about it?”

His heart was sent into a frenzy, which he tried to suppress, except his flushed face thoroughly betrayed him.

He glanced at the lady, who merely stared with a smile. Did she notice or was she being nice by ignoring it?

“I broke up with my boyfriend,” he spoke while casually downing the glass of wine and tossing the red cherry into his mouth.

“Must be tough. Why not party it out then?” The lady picked up another bottle, “Want the same drink or another?”

John blinked. “Another.”

“Coming right up!”

“Oddly enough, despite being fine with it, there’s this sense of loss that haunts me,” the lady placed a newly filled glass before him which he took a sip of, “It’s like I’m alright with the break-up. I don’t miss him, but I do miss his company. There’s this gap he helped me fill, and now it’s empty.”

The lady hummed as if contemplating something before responding, “And that’s why the relationship failed.”

“Huh?”

“It’s the same folk tale about finding a half that completes you. Finding someone that fills that space almost never works out, because relationships shouldn’t be done like that,” she replaced the glass with another— a different drink.

“This…”

“No worries. The alcoholic content is as light as it gets unless you’re a light drinker?”

He was, but his ego would never let him admit it, so he simply thanked her and took the drink. Delicious. Maybe the real reason wasn’t his ego, but how good the drink was.

“You’re very good.”

“Thank you. Oddly enough, I learned this skill recently. I guess I’m a natural.”

“You must be, or maybe it’s because I haven’t had much to compare with,” John teased.

She chuckled, “Perhaps.”

There was silence for a while before John broke it, “So what should I do? Be single for a while. Huh?”

The lady grinned, her eyes sparkling under the flashing lights.

“Build yourself up in all aspects, then get a partner. The relationship will be more stable and passionate than your last. The Achilles heel of any relationship is two people with a naive mindset of completing each other entering a relationship with a shaky foundation. People don’t complete you, you complete yourself. They merely help that process,” She stopped with a smile, “I blabbed too much. In simple terms, just take a break and improve yourself as much as you can before entering another relationship. I’m not saying to be perfect, but stability is necessary.”

John nodded. She might have been rambling, but there was reason to her words. Beautiful and intelligent. What a powerful combo.

“Thank you,” she giggled.

“… Did I say that out loud?”

“Yes.”

He blushed, then laughed carefreely, “Having said that, would you mind if I take you home tonight?”

The lady laughed boisterously, looking more beautiful than everything in the room and hypnotizing him.

“Well, you’re down on your luck, mister. I don’t do relationships but we can be friends.”

He was a bit disappointed but relieved that he wanted anything to do with him. She was so striking. The last thing he wanted was to not have a link to her. So he eagerly accepted, and they exchanged numbers.

“Lara Ez—z—z…”

“Ezejiofor.”

“What?”

“I’m Nigerian.”

“Whoa, are all Nigerians this stunning?” he winked at her, eliciting a chuckle.

“Maybe not all, but the majority is. And get this— we’re also very fun.”

John stared at the pair of bright eyes, a bit lost. He looked away shyly before hiccuping. Uh-oh, he was now drunk.

Lara smiled, “I’ll call you a taxi and inform your friends. Go rest up, a club isn’t exactly the best place to go contemplate a breakup.”

“So you purposely got me drunk,” he smiled.

Lara laughed, “Don’t shift blame,” she picked up the empty glasses, “You told me you were a light drinker. I’m as innocent as can be.”

Watching her leave, John stared stupidly with a love-struck face. This break-up was the best. It led him to his soulmate. Platonic or not, having such a person close to him would be a dream come true.

Time proved he was wrong. Very wrong.