LOVE AGAIN

There’s no other seat empty, everyone in the room glanced towards Val.

Does that mean she should stand up as a punishment?

“Sir but there’s no other…”

“Sir on the one behind me”he cuts in tartly with no humor in his voice as a strict father commanding a stubborn child.

Well that’s his seat, he wants Val to sit on his almighty lord throne?

“Sir but it’s yours…”Val protested.

The rest of us in the room were like potatoes, we watched silently as if we were not in existence.

Mr Prince literally walked over to our side, grabbed her wrist and walked her to his seat. When his hand wrapped Val’s wrist I felt a sudden urge to hold her back especially when I noticed it was her right hand.

Not minding her complaining about the pain in her right hand, he kept on walking till they got to his seat.

“Sit right here, and this will be your seat from now on “he instructed.

Val hesitated and sat down slowly, she looked so sad massaging her arm, I wanted to help but the drama is big enough.

First he asked me in the office my relationship with val

Is he naturally sadist , why is he always irritated with her being with me or is it what I am thinking, it can’t be, Boss is jealous of me because of Val? impossible, there’s no way he would be attracted to Val, he never showed any interest in her.

**VAL’S POV**

I was sitting at the CEO’s seat, everyone facing me, but I couldn’t see them because he stood right in front of me intentionally as he continued to address them.

As soon as I look through the left side to see Dan, he will move his body to that side. The same thing happened when I looked through the right side.

“Any questions?”

He asked.

I raised my hand.

“Yeah Mrs kamsy”

I guess Kamsy also has something to say, she’s truly changed from Miss to Mrs. I tried not to remember the past.

“I want to use the restroom, I am really pressed”.

“Do you need a permission for that, we are not students?”Jennifer asked.

“Why do you need to use the restroom in the middle of our meeting?”.

“She’s pregnant sir, it’s unintentionally”.

The female members chorused.

“And miss Jennifer, you should get your things ready, I can see you wanted a replacement so bad”

He snapped back to Jennifer.

“Next question!!”

“Sir about the modeling practices”Pete suggested.

“I will talk with the host”

He replied.

“Next!!”

I decided to speak out.

“Sir I …..”.

“I can’t see there’s no more questions, get back to work”.

He ignored me, Kamsy noticed and had a good laugh, everyone stood up as the boss left the room.

I sat there embarrassed, Dan came back and meet me.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded slowly.

“Aren’t you coming back to work?”

“My mental health is important to me, if I go back all they will do is laugh and make mockery of me, Kamsy will lead her team on that”.

I bent on my knee, trying to hide my tears, gosh my arm hurts so much.

“Alright, then please don’t think to much, i will be going”

Dan said slowly and left.

As if he was somewhere waiting for Dan to go, Boss entered the room.

I looked up and saw him, I quickly dried off my tears and faced the other direction.

“I don’t pay you to sit here”.

I Ignored him.

“Are you ignoring me?”

I said nothing again.

He laughed out, frustrated and ran his fingers down his hair.

“Wow you people are impossible, an employee is now ignoring the boss, what drama haven’t I seen with this African team”

He said to himself.

Then he came and grabbed my hand and pull me up

“It’s paining me.. pleas…. e stop”

I cried out, I burst out in tears , not minding my age, he did it before I endured it now again, I am sure he did it on purpose, that my right hand, the pain was very much I didn’t just wince but cry.

He stopped facing the other direction then let go of me, I quickly went back to the seat massaging my arm, sobbing

**PRINCE’S POV**

I freezed there for some time, I don’t know what to do.

How could I have forgotten about her arm?

I am such an idiot

How will she be convinced that it wasn’t intentional, being unnecessarily angry at her, for some reasons I don’t know, all I know is I don’t want her near that Mr Daniel and I hate the fact that I got her messing with my head. I hate this feeling so much.

I wasn’t man enough so I am now taking out my frustrations on her.

What am I going to do now, apologize? No it’s fine to let go and walk away from her.

That’s what I should do, staying will only create unnecessary attachment between us.

I walked to the door getting there, I stopped, like I am under a spell.

“Don’t do that Prince, why will you apologize to your mother she’s a woman”.

I could remember my fathers words years ago

“Women are meant to be submissive in all, hurting them is normal if it will keep them submissive, instead of apologizing walk away like a king”.

I was only seven, when my father fed me with those words and advised on abusing women. Earlier before, I had pushed my mother while throwing tantrums in the kitchen. She slipped and got her hand covered with a burning oil.

It was so unexpected and scary, I cried as she cried and I apologized.

Growing up, I saw my dad beat my mother up at every given chance, it was horrible, being a black woman, she was indeed strong enough to put up with him all these years.

He taught me to fight women to submission too but it didn’t feel good to see Mother crying every night , cursing in her native language how she married him. I don’t want to be like my father.

I walked back to Valerie and knelt in front of her, so we could be the same height.

“I didn’t know it was your right hand”I tried to sound as gentlemanly as possible.

She ignored me.

“Let me see your arm”.

She hesitated.

“Please let me see your arm”.

This time she slowly let me examine it. It’s swollen and hot.

I wonder how bad it must be hurting her, I made the wound worse, it’s all because of my arrogance.

“I will get a doctor”.

“It’s okay, I’m fine now, the pain has released a bit”she said with a frown.

“Why didn’t you say so before now, why did you resume work if your arms have not healed yet”.

“Blame me? If that will make you feel better”

She snapped.

“I am sorry”.

“Well sorry doesn’t fix anything”.

I got mad at that statement and stood up in rage.

“You should find yourself lucky I apologized “.

“Why should I? Are you some sort of god?”she sneered.

Really she said that? I tried not to let my emotions control me.

But even if I have my emotions under control, the urge beneath my waistline was unbearable. I am a sex freak though having women on my bed and making them mourn till they couldn’t breath properly had to be one of my hobbies but this is different with her. The lonely room isn’t helping me and in this situation why the heck I am feeling this way.

I walked straight to her and caught her face in my palm but that kiss didn’t last for another second.

A sound slap arrested my cheek and brought my sense back to normal.

My face was still in the direction, her slap left it, regretting my whole existence.

“Enough of your harassment, I am not some toy to play emotions out with, I am sick of letting people hurt me because of my weak heart, I am sick of it”she yelled out in tears.

My dark eyes slowly returned to her face, my anger was raging, how dare she raise a hand on me, I was trying to be nice.

She has no respect for a man? I lifted my hand to slap her back to submission , she bent and hid her right arm beneath her as her first priority then she closed her eyes tightly waiting for my hand to hit her.

I felt so embarrassed, the image of not being a mother was the one I saw. They had the same African hairstyle and skin tone, maybe that contributes to my hallucinations.

I left slowly without a word.