Betty travelled back for her studies after accepting my proposal while I resumed for work in the office. The atmosphere was still filled with Christmas and New Year celebration as designs and decoration were still hanging around the interiord of the bank. I went to my former office to check on Funmi and I met the gossip crew on their seats having discussions and they all faced me the moment they saw me entering the floor, bombarding me with questions.
“ Onihaxy, compliment of the season”
“ how was your break?”
“ where did you travel to?”
“ butnawaooooo”
“ na only you just dey chop all the favours in your unit”
“ you became team lead barely few weeks after your confirmation”
“ you were granted a leave when you haven’t worked for three months as a permanent staff”
“ it’s really good to have an office mama oooooo”
“ hope you have seen your mama today?”
“what did you bring for us sef?”
“ don’t tell us you resumed here empty handed”
I just smiled at them and dismissed them as I sat down on one of the chairs to prepare ahead of the morning meeting. About two minutes later, I received a text from my assistant and text indicated that he wasn’t going to resume with us again, he just got a job with another firm. I was so happy for him and I sent text to him, congratulating him on his new job. When it was 7:30am, I left for my office to meet my team members for our usual meeting. Everyone was present for the meeting except my assistant, from the look on everyone’s face and the movement of their lips; it was so obvious that they were aware of the new situation. Meeting started and we discussed and debated on how we are going to work effectively in the New Year. I charged them, reminding them of why we are doing the project and why we must work together as a team in other to achieve the bank’s goal. we also talked about some errors detected from some of our works and why we must work smartly to prevent further errors.
Meeting was about to end and I broke the news about my assistant who won’t be resuming with us again due to his new job. They all murmured for a while as some were so happy that he won’t be coming again because he used to be a strict and “no-nonsense” person, while others were happy that he had upgraded his career. I told them that it was time to appoint a new assistant and there would be nomination. I mentioned that anyone who would be interested in the post should stand up and I was amazed to see Benita standing up alongside with three other guys and she was smiling to everyone with her killer set of teeth and dimple doing the marketing and campaigning for her. It was time to vote, I told everyone to get a sheet of paper and write the name of any candidate of their choice on the paper and the person whose names appeared most would be the assistant team lead. Every team member started to write names and I went round to collect all the papers. I counted the total number of papers to be sure that it was the same number with the number of voters and later read out the names on the paper. Benita won the election with a close margin and I was wondering what brought about the magic.
“ But Benita wasn’t as smart and vibrant as the other guys in this competition”
“ could it be her smile that brainwashed these people?”
“ this one that she won, won’t she be getting close to me?”
“ won’t there be rumor that I influenced it?”
“ how will I tell Funmi that Benita was the new assistant?”
“ won’t she view it as if I influenced her because of our closeness?”
“ why didn’t I appoint the assistant myself in the first place?”
“ or should I cancel the result of the election?”
“ but on what ground?”
I looked at the other guys in the eyes and all I saw was disappointment, people started congratulating Benita and it appeared as if cancelling the exercise would lead to a war among the team members. We closed the meeting and everyone started with their usual duties. At few minutes past 10am, I received a mail on my system that Funmi and other senior management team wanted to meet with all the team leads and assistant team leads on break time. My heart began to beat heavily as I was thinking about how I was going to present Benita’s case to the management as the new assistant team lead. I ignored Benita and went for the meeting alone. At the meeting, the management emphasizes on the errors from our team members and they warned us not to hesitate in issuing queries to anyone who was found wanting in any way or the other. the meeting ended and Funmi told me to follow her to her office, I stood up with a little bit of fear In me and we walked together until we reached her office. The gossip crew forgot to mind their business as usual and they started whispering to one another as we walked into the room till we entered the office and the door was locked from behind.
.
FUNMI: have your seat Onihaxy
ME: ***pull out the seat*** thank you Funmi
FUNMI: Onihaxy, what have I done wrong?
ME: *** confused**** done wrong as how?
FUNMI: not even a single call from you since you left?
ME: **smiled*** I was with my grandma in the village and the network was so bad. I couldn’t make or receive calls.
FUNMI: then how were you able to send messages to me on Christmas and New Year day?
ME: those messages?, I typed the messages very early in the morning, it was in the evening that the messages was able to deliver
FUNMI: I know you will always have excuses, and I understand it was because of your girlfriends that you couldn’t call me.
ME: not at all Funmilayo. It was because of the poor network.
FUNMI: but you could call Adeola isn’t it?
ME: me?, called Adeola?, when was that?
FUNMI: I saw your number on her received call log, you called on the 29th of December at exactly 2:33pm and the call duration was 3 minutes and 43 seconds
ME: *****chai!!!, this woman na real monitoring spirit**** oook, that’s true. I missed her call that day and I called her back to let know that I missed her call and she told me that she wanted to ask if her mummy was in the office because your number wasn’t going through then and I told her that I wasn’t around.
FUNMI: is that all what the conversation was all about?
ME: **smiled*** yes ma.
FUNMI: hmmmmmmm. Like I told you before Onihaxy, Adeola is more like your sister and I don’t want it to go beyond that. If you mess with my daughter, you will see the most dangerous part of me.
ME: ***smiled** ok ma.
FUNMI: what about your assistant?, he wasn’t at the meeting today . what happened to him?
ME: I was about to tell you about him before, he sent me a message in the midnight, telling me that he won’t be resuming because he resumed another job today in a telecommunication firm.
FUNMI: waooh. that is cool. make sure you appoint another assistant today.
ME: ehhhmmFunmi, actually, I was supposed to appoint another assistant myself but I don’t want it to appear as if I am imposing someone. So, I decided to make it an open election and gave everyone to vote for a candidate of their choice among the four people nominated. youwon’t believe who won the election.
FUNMI: who won?
ME: Benita.
FUNMI: oh, I see!!!!!.so you finally made your wife to be your assistant isn’t it?
ME: I swear Funmi, it was an open election and it was difficult for me to reverse it after the results was counted.
FUNMI: So, will you be able to scold her when she is wrong?
ME: sure, I will
FUNMI: Onihaxy, if there is news of any error or complaint from this your wife, you will be the one to answer for it.
ME: ****chai!!!!!, and this girl is seriously lazy oooooooo*********