Chapter 4 Acing The Examination

Richard's POV

I had done one hundred push-ups this morning, had jogged more than usual, and my weight lifts at the gym increased too.

"Man, you're doing well."

"So when is it?"

I turned towards the voice. It was Fred, my office colleague.

When is what?" I arched an eyebrow at him.

"When are you going to ask her out?"

A chuckle escaped my lips. How did he sense it?

"I don't know"

"I think I would, I'm waiting for the perfect time. I wouldn't want her to reject me."

"Well man, I gotta go, just take a deep breath and ask her out. It would most certainly go as planned."

"I appreciate the pep talk, thanks man."

I drove back to my apartment and hopped straight into the shower. A promotional exam had happened for the interns last week, and I was secretly rooting for Charlotte.

" I hoped she aces it"

I knew I had to do something sooner rather than later, Fred's words ran through my head at that point,

"Just take a deep breath and ask her out."

***

Charlotte's POV

A prayer was on my lips when I tapped on the email, I had seen the notification pop up and in a flash, had hurriedly clicked on it.

Congratulations! I stopped reading and squealed a little in my seat, breaking the quiet atmosphere. Questioning stares were sent towards my corner, so I used my laptop as a shield. With my hand over my lips, I contain my excitement.

When I came back up, Anna, an intern, muttered to me. "Did you pass?"

I nodded excitedly and hurriedly left my sister an offline text on iMessage. We had spoken about the exam and she kept reassuring me that it was going to turn out well. Getting up casually, I made my way towards the restroom and there I let it go. I couldn't hold the excitement in any longer, this was a huge step in my career and not only that, I had been promoted.

Promotions and positions came straight from the Chairman's table, and it seemed I had gotten on his good side, even though he appeared to not care about anything in the world. I straightened my skirt and eased my breathing.

"Get out there! and kill it."

That's what Mum always said and it was something I had always kept close to my heart.

Someone bumped into me as I left the restroom, a brunette hair hitting my face, of all people, it had to be Sandra.

"Hey!" I could sense the pretentious attitude oozing from her and the smile she gave made it even more noticeable.

"Hello!"

She waited a second longer and I knew she wasn't going to apologize.

"Sorry about that, I didn't know you were there."

"Oh yeah thanks," She gave me a once-over scrutinizing my outfit. I felt small under her gaze. Sandra was the talk of the company, her change of nail colors was something even I struggled to keep up with.

She walked past me, bumping my shoulder lightly as she did.

I wasn't going to let it get to me besides, I had already passed the exam, and that meant my career was good to go.

The break period was filled with incessant chattering from everyone. What we couldn't say during the normal work hours, we did during the break. My table was filled with interns talking about how difficult the exam had been, and how they had managed to scale through.

"Did you get promoted?" I asked out of excitement but was met with surprised stares. Then it clicked in me, I was the only one who had gotten promoted but why?

"Did you get promoted?" One of them had asked. Tess had a gothic lifestyle, and it did wonders for her cause, she was raking in thousands of followers every day on her social media. She had claimed at one point that she was getting followed by celebrities.

I nodded, but the excitement was not there. It was wrong to be happy about something when you knew others couldn't get it, and it was a different case altogether when that thing was a promotion. I felt their stares, boring holes in my head, when a thought crossed my mind, "Would we still be friends?"

"I'm happy for you," Tess said. I could see the genuine smile on her face, and it gladdened my heart. The next person said the same words and so did all of them at the table. This was going to be a huge change for me. I won't lie, I was going to miss them. "We should celebrate." She suggested out of the blue.

"Uh..."

"That would be awesome." Anna and Stan said in unison. Shocked was an understatement, I was stunned.

"I don't know, I don't think that's necessary."

"Nonsense, it is. From the bottom of my heart Charlotte, I'm so happy for you."

Yeah, they were making me feel bad, no matter how sweet their intentions were, this didn't sit right with me, but Tess' mind had been made up.

"O,k when do we get to celebrate?"

"Friday night."

I had four days to go, four days to come up with a lie-something they would buy. Tess closed her laptop, I watched as her eyebrows flinched as she took a bite of her lips. Stan, there-haired like we fondly called him, just stared at me in amazement, but there was something else in the way he looked at me. I wasn't blind to know that he probably thought I had shagged Sir Richard.

"So uh, did you apply for a promotion or something? Asking out of curiosity."

I froze, dumbfounded although I had seen this coming. How could they?

I barely had any relationships in high school, and had even been stuck that way almost all through college, except in my finals, when I decided to give love a try.

Sam Coleman was the first guy I had ever been on a date with. He had approached me one morning after class, the confidence exuding him made me shake and so did his aura, it had people scampering away but not me. Sam Coleman was the least of my focus, right up until he asked me out on my first date ever.

A coffee date at Starbucks wasn't the way I had imagined it to be. Sam and I sat and discussed for what felt like hours, with him carrying the conversation. I had felt horrible after that, he had seemed so interested in wanting to get to know me more. Poor Charlotte, even love was difficult to find.

I almost tipped my cup over, but I had caught myself just in time. A second too late, and I would have had the contents spilling all over the table even on my skirt.

"Oh good you caught that just in time." Tess sighed in relief. Anna helped me get up. I thanked her and picked up my cup, I took everything in a gulp and hurriedly left.

The break was over and I rushed into the restroom. For some reason, this place just felt the most comfortable to me, it was out of prying eyes too and I needed to breathe without my colleagues around.

I started recollecting my thoughts, and the realization of being promoted sunk further into me. I was going to be moved upstairs now, and Sir Richard was going to be there.

He was wonderful to stare at, even with a headset on.

***

Dinner was pasta, I had bought it on my way home and had it microwaved. Picking up my phone, I went through my Facebook. Just then I noticed something, a notification had come through hours ago, it was a friend request from Richard. On it was written his full name, Richard Hans.

A smile crossed my face, and I tapped on his profile and started going through it. I won't lie, I had tried finding him on Facebook but it didn't go through. I had even asked a colleague under the disguise that Sir Richard was too rich, but even with the name she had given me, it didn't pull up any search results. But here it was right at my fingertips, and so I clicked on the confirm button. I was now friends with Sir Richard on Facebook.

Richard had been to a total of twelve countries from what I could count. He attended college in Oxford, had gone to high school overseas, and there was this photo of him being prom king, dancing with a girl.

My heart skipped at the photo, jealousy swimming within. Having to remind myself that all these photos were before me was a hard thing to do. In some of the photos, he was in a plane with a group of girls, in other ones, he was either at the beach with half-naked women or what looked to be a club. Ninety per cent of the photos on his page were with women.

It got me wondering if he didn't think I was going to go through his page. I had thought he was noticing me the way I did to him. There were times I would catch him looking my way, I had tried convincing myself that it was all in my head, but it wasn't and it did seem like he was noticing me. But piecing all this together, everything had been happening in my head.

Richard had a wonderful time in college. There were pictures of him and a group of friends with, of course, a girl in the picture. They were at a club vaping.

There were a couple of videos, and I saw a girl with blonde hair. On a closer look, I had seen that girl before, in some of his pictures. It got me thinking maybe that was his girlfriend or probably a fling. I scoured through more photos, looking for a place where he had tagged her. It took quite some time but I was able to find it, and I wasted no time tapping away.

The blonde girl's profile was up to date. She was living the fantastic lifestyle with some black dude, whom I had also stalked, and it happened to be that he was Ghanaian. Interesting! There were comments on his page from the girl, all were loved up and filled with cute emojis, but I wasn't satisfied. Yes, the blonde girl probably had moved on, but I felt there was more to it.

Doing the unthinkable, I went through his tags and it took me to another friend's profile, who was also a mutual with the supposed ex, Jane Norman. I replaced her last name with Richard's, and it rolled off my tongue smoothly, jealousy struck me again. She had been perfect for him.

My heart was feeling heavy, this Jane had experiences with Richard that I didn't. At a point, he would have thought she was the one, his everything and it only saddened me further, when I pictured them together having sex. I stopped, taking a deep breath, I tried to once again remind myself that all this happened before me, before I came into his life, but reassuring myself, this only did little to stop the ache.

I had to stop for the night, surely, there would have been other girls before Jane, and I didn't want to keep breaking my own heart. I never knew a crush could hurt this much.

I fell on my bed after dinner, I tried distracting myself by thinking of the movie I had just finished seeing on Netflix. Picking my phone, I went through my Facebook once again and this time, I got a message from Richard Hans. I opened it and all it read was a "hi".