Chapter 3 ceo3

My eyes widened as I quickly pulled my arm from the lady grip, and pulled the cart out of their way, feeling my face heat up in embarassement.

The lady waited outside as the men walked in. Before the doors closed, my dark eyes met penetrating bright blue orbs. Then they were gone.

The woman turned to me, and if looks could kill I would have been six feet under. She glared at me in so much anger someone would have thought that I had just told her her red suit did not match her red hair. It really didn't.

"What were you thinking?! Do you have any idea who that was?! you c...."

I couldn't read her lips after that because she shook her head and spoke way too fast. But by the way she was moving her hand wildly, I could have guessed she wasn't pleased.

I guess I screwed up, I thought fishing my note book from my pocket. I was just about to write something when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw her throw her hands up, her red lips muttering something before she stalked away. 1

See what I said about being too impatient to communicate with me. 1

I sighed and tucked my notebook back into its place, then turned with my cart to head for the stairs. As I turned, there were people talking amongst each other as they looked over at me and the red fuming woman walking away.

I guess I managed to give them something to gossip about this morning. News of the deaf girl that made a racket in the presence of a very important person would be raging through the building by the end of the day.

I wonder who that man is. By the way the woman talked and how he held himself standing ahead of the three men, I would guess he's some high-ranking official in the corporate.

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I finished my portion of the work for the morning in time for my lunch break, cleaning staff had different hours compared to regular employees, since some teams took the lunch break as an opportunity to finish stuff when employees weren't around.

My lunch break was at eleven o'clock, which worked well for me since I started my day early.

After taking the cart back to the fifth floor where our 'wing' was, I grabbed my lunch and headed for my usual spot. I had been eating there for almost ten months, ever since I had first discovered it.

The rooftop.

Well, not exactly the rooftop itself. More like a spot in it. I doubt anyone knew about it since I had never stumbled upon anyone. But then again, I never really stumbled upon anyone in the whole rooftop, very rarely I'd spot someone smoking along the wall or two people talking about something that looked very secretive. Other than those rare occurances, the rooftop was pretty much vacant.

I walked towards a structure built in one corner of the rooftop, a room the size of my apartment, and that was always locked. I had no idea what was in there, but I didn't care much for the room itself.

I held the lunch bag under my arm so I could climb the ladder. It wasn't much, around ten steps before I arrived to my favourite spot in the world so far.

Right on top of that lone room on the rooftop.

I had an amazing panoramic view of the wild busy city. Even though the building wasn't the tallest one around, the view was still amazing.

I could actually see the sky which was an impressive sight in such a crowded city. When I first moved here I wondered how people didn't feel suffocated living in the middle of such high buildings. They were so busy that they couldn't even afford a little second to crane their necks and look up to the blue sky.

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It bothered me at first, especially since I had lived my whole life in a small town where the sky seemed so close.

But you get used to it. Like everything else in the cramped life of the city, you just get used to it. Fortunately, I found my little spot of heaven. Sitting with crossed legs, I let out a deep sigh. The tall buildings and far away scenery of water, the people that looked like small specks of dirt, and the clear blue sky that stretched out forever, everything in this place made me feel good.

It reminded me that people are such tiny unsignificant creatures in this whole wide world. Sometimes we get so lost in our problems and our selfishness that we forget we're not the centre of the universe.

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It reminded me that if tomorrow, for some reason, I wasn't here anymore, that the world would keep turning like normal, and life would go on without me.

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It wouldn't stop turning just because someone passed away. It wouldn't stop turning because a student failed his exam or because a business leader lost millions of dollars in an affair gone wrong.

It doesn't even stop turning for the thousands of innocent people and children who were being slaughtered everyday in the four corners of the world because of greed and politics and power games.

We were so insignificant.

My eyes flittered over the view around me. I imagined the sounds I would've heard if I hadn't lost my hearing five years ago. Horns honking, engines revving, Hundreds of voices melding into undistinguished noise in the distance.

Well, at least I could enjoy the silence, not much could be said about people down there with all that noise. I took my small notebook and opened a new page, then just started doodling.

It had once been an important part of my life, drawing, painting, anything I could use to make the images in my head tangible. But after the accident, everything went from bad to worse and I could no longer find the time nor the energy to do it properly. And art school seemed like such a faraway dream.

If I really wanted to draw there would an aditional cost I still couldn't afford yet; the money I'd use to buy some real drawing tools would be enough to get me a few proper meals and perhaps more.

My eyes left the buildings' sketch I had done on the small lined page of the notebook, to look at the real thing. The Blue sky contrasted harshly with the gray buildings that looked like lifeless, stony boxes, yet held so much life and activity inside.

I wish I had some colors, I thought looking at the blue sky I couldn't reproduce on my drawing.

A similar blue flashed in my mind. Hard blue eyes that showed no emotion. A steely facade that had no crack. Sharp and smooth lines of handsome features. The face of the man from earlier didn't leave my mind as I took a bite out of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was hardly a filling meal for lunch, but the fridge was almost empty and I had to keep something for Jim to have dinner with.

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I should go grocery shopping.

I usually allowed myself to daydream during this little time everyday. But when I remembered what had happened earlier, I felt a deep sense of mortification. The cool breeze felt good against my heated cheeks.

I hoped I wouldn't get into trouble. I doubted the man would be so petty as to complain, though. He didn't look arrogant to me. Cold and frigid, yes. But arrogant? he didn't look that way. But then again, I didn't know even him.

For my sake, I hoped he wasn't.

I swallowed the last bite of my sandwich right as my phone vibrated. I frowned and fished it out. It was a message, from Jim's school. Since they knew about my hearing, they only communated throught text. And this one said that Jim would be in deep trouble when I get home

That little scoundrel! He skipped one weeks straight!

I sighed and typed a polite and apologetic response, wondering why I wasn't notified when he skipped the first few classes. I gathered my things and climbed down the ladder, being extra careful about not losing my balance.

Ever since the accident five years ago when I lost my hearing and my parents, I had occasional issues with my balance. I'd experience rare moments of vertigo that left the world spinning around me. But those instances of dizziness and imbalance were a lot less frequent now.

I landed safely on the ground then walked back to my work. The afternoon went by like usual, I kept my mind from wandering again and finished everything I had to do, then dragged my cart back to the elevator, down to the fifth floor.

The locker room was busy, like usual. But what wasn't like usual were the looks everyone kept sending my way. Most of the ladies of the cleaning staff were nice, chatty among themselves. I was normally kept out of that loop for obvious reasons, but today, as I opened my locker door, Mrs. Doolittle and three other women walked up to me with wide curious eyes.

"Is it true?" Mrs. Doolittle said, "did you get into trouble?"

I frowned taking out my notebook, 'what do you mean?' I wrote and held it up for her to read. She had just opened her mouth to reply when her eyes flickered away from me to the door over my shoulders. Her blue eyes widened before she gave me an apologetic look and walked away with her friends.

I turned my head in time to see my immediate boss, Sadie, the woman responsible for the cleaning crews of this building, looking at me in an annoyed scowl. Jane stood next to her, a smug smile plastered on her face.

Sadie gestured for me to follow her as she walked out of the door. I gulped and walked towards the door, my heart almost beating its way out of my chest. Jane passed me by as she walked in, bumping my shoulder while doing so. I rolled my eyes and walked out. She was the least of my worries at the moment. And she would be the least of my worries if I no longer had this job.

Sadie usually didn't come here daily, she was always at the cleaning company's offices. She only appeared once every week or so to make sure we were doing our job properly. Apparently this contract was very important for the cleaning company.

"Someone told me you made a scene today", she said narrowing her green eyes at me. With her five inch heels she was much taller than me. I had my notebook ready when she finished talking.

'Did someone from the company complain?'

A certain blue eyed man, perhaps? I added in my head.

She frowned then shook her head, "No, I heard from Jane. She said you angered a very important person", she crossed her arms looking at me with an arched brow.

I internally sighed in relief, since no one actually complained it wasn't that serious. Sadie didn't really have any authority to sack me, and if there was no actual complaint then there was nothing she could do.

'It was only a slight misunderstanding, I didn't anger anyone. She just blew it out of proportions', I wrote as she impatiently tapped her foot on the marbled floor.

She narrowed her eyes at my response again, then looked at me in a chilling gaze, "Still, I'm not taking any chances of it happening again. I'm going to make adjustments to the schedule and switch things around so you won't get in anyone's way again...".

I blinked up at her, relieved that I wasn't in trouble, but a little nervous about the changes she would make.

"Be careful, Miss. Hooper, I won't tolerate another mistake", she pursed her lips as I nodded, then walked away, but not before muttering something that I didn't catch, that was probably not meant to be caught by me.

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