May The Best CEO Win

RUBY'S Pov;

I woke up to the annoying sound of my alarm, feeling as drained as ever. The most annoying thing activity of my life was preparing to resume work at the coffee shop every morning. Well, I finally got off the bed after several minutes of thinking about my entire life's choices, the worst being the fact that I worked under Ben the boss bully whose entire life goal was to make my life a living hell which it slightly was already, coupled with the underpayment I had to endure because my complaints about that always seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Today was payday and I wasn't in any way excited about it because I knew what to expect, and that was sad because the bills kept coming in. There were aunt Olivia's meds to pay for as that was purchased on credit, and there were the utility bills that hadn't been taken care of, alongside other bills also, like my self-maintenance bills which I never get to pay for because I considered other things more important than that and would feel guilty if I invested any dime in my self, sad right?

It had been a minute since I had properly gotten my hair treated and styled or spoilt myself with outfits shopping and little luxuries and I planned to give myself a little treat this time around.

I had already made my mind up on getting a new job because it was high time I did. Why it had taken me so long to do this was as a result of aunt Olivia's medical condition. While I worked in the coffee shop in the mornings for my shift, I was totally free in the evenings to take care of sick aunt Olivia, but now I had to devise a means to get myself another part-time job which I could do later in the day after the close of work and also get aunt Olivia taken care of too...

"All hail the queen!! worship her feet as she comes in majestically," Ben said to me even though I practically rushed into the coffee shop, almost falling on my feet. Ben looked at me with a huge scorn which wasn't surprising by the way as that was his default expression towards me. But then, there was something quite different about this particular scorn. I felt like Ben had something definitely not good planned out for me.

Settling down, I immediately got myself to work, getting a napkin to clean the dusty surfaces when I suddenly got a text on my phone. I reached out to the back of my pocket while dropping the napkin on the table before me, to concentrate on reading the text. It happened to be from my BFF Rachel, she sent a text to remind me of our hangout later that day at her bakery and pastry store. She had told us the day before, about an issue she was facing of which she would be needing our advice, and so i and Lou had to show up. I was just about to reply to the text when Ben came out once more to me

"Yeah that's just the right thing we should be doing right now," Ben said folding his arms and staring at me wildly.

"Give me a break okay? there is no one here yet, besides it was just a text" I replied walking over to the counter, avoiding his stare.

"Yeah right!" he says and I just knew he rolled his eyes at me because he did that often.

After a really slow day at work, I finally stood before Ben, expecting what I call the most important thing ever, 'my pay'. Without looking, Ben stretched his hands out and handed over an envelope to me which felt rather lighter than usual. I immediately year it open and counted the money. To my greatest surprise, I was underpaid once again but this time even lower!

"Really? this is all I get?" I ask angrily at the top of my voice. "This isn't complete Ben," I said staring at a suddenly deaf fellow.

"Ben?" I called out once more.

"Look Ruby, that's all I can pay you okay? Besides, you can see how slow business has been, look you should know I did my best in paying you this month even when you know you don't deserve it," Ben says boldly to me.

"What do you mean I don't deserve it? I work my ass off and each time I never get a full payment for it!!" I said getting even more annoyed and frustrated as Ben did nothing but stare at me like I was crazy. I angrily stomp out of his office and went away feeling so mad, feeling like tearing up. I'm sure a drop of tear or two came down my cheeks but I wasn't paying attention to even myself as I angrily walked down the road. Because I was used to frequently getting underpaid, I had planned a budget already according to the amount range Ben normally pays me but this time around it was so bad that I would only be able to tick off just one need on my bucket list and that was the devastating thing ever.

Ruby

Walking into Racheal's store, she immediately noticed my countenance and so stopped everything she did immediately and came over to the table I had dragged myself to, on getting there.

"Heyy are you okay?" she asked softly taking a seat beside me while using her hands to tuck my hair to the back of my ears.

I looked at Racheal with dim eyes about to make a sudden decision whether or not to tell her about it since I hated bothering people with my problems, but she was my BFF and I told her almost everything and so before I knew it I spilled.

"Not again!" Racheal exclaimed immediately just after I had narrated what had happened earlier to her; her expression was somewhere between angry and surprised. Without saying any word further, she takes my head and places it on her shoulder trying to offer as much comfort as she could, she understood all I was going through, she understood it all because she had always been there.

Rach