“You had someone pick you up from work yesterday?”
Donna looked up from her phone with a smile which vanished immediately she saw Keith standing in front of her desk. She stood up abruptly and her phone clattered on the desk, she had not noticed him come in because she had been busy texting back and forth with Wayne.
“I’m sorry, do you need anything Mr Preston?”
The frown on his face was tight and sometimes Donna would wonder if his face was stuck like that, forever wearing a frown. He shook his head and pulled back a seat to sit in. He crossed his legs and extended a hand, gesturing for her to sit back. Donna looked puzzled and she slowly sank into her seat. Her phone dinged, alerting her that she had gotten a new message, she glanced at the phone once and then back at her boss. She managed a smile but he didn’t give one back.
“You haven’t answered my question, Donna.”
She pursed her lips before replying. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get the question.”
He sighed and interlocked his fingers, placing them easily on his knee. “I asked if someone had picked you up from work yesterday.”
“Oh,” she smiled, her phone dinged again and she briefly glanced. “Yes, I still haven’t sorted out the issue with my car so he offered to give me a ride.”
“And he is?” His eye brows furrowed in question.
Donna was getting confused by his questions, why would he want to know about that? But she gave him the answers he was asking questions for. “He’s a neighbor where I live, Wayne.”
“Just a neighbor?” he pressed further, not feeling like he was invading her privacy. She was under him after all and he had the right to know everything that happened with her. It was a boss’s duty to know, or so he felt.
Donna hesitated with that answer, still wondering why he would need to know such information. “Errr… yes?” she replied.
“It would seem like you like this person, no?”
She chuckled, maybe her boss just wanted an idle chat. “Not quite, but he does treat me well.”
“Better than I do?” the thought came to his mind but he shook his head to wave it away, silently wondering why he would even think that.
Donna went on. “…and he does care and he shows it too.”
Keith rolled his eyes without knowing. “He sounds like a fairy tale.”
Her phone dinged again just then and she glanced at it desperately, pursing her lips before shifting her attention back to her boss. Keith noticed and he knew it was because of the fact that he was here and out of respect for him that she was not checking her phone to reply to the messages, and somehow he liked that.
“Fairy tales are boring.” he said in a note of finality.
Donna wanted to disagree but she knew that if she said anything, her boss might counter her and they would fall into a cycle of discussions, but right now she wanted to reply Wayne’s messages so she needed her boos to go.
She chuckled at what he had said last and just nodded, bringing her gaze down to her fingers on her lap away from Keith’s line of sight. He sighed and stood up, adjusted his suit and turned away from her, making his way back into his office.
“Ermm… sir?” she rose to her feet as she had just remembered something she had to ask him. Keith turned to face her and she almost lost the morale to ask what she wanted to when she saw the frown on his face.
Keith rose up an eyebrow when she just stood, watching him without saying anything. “Yes Donna, out with it, what?”
Her lips twitched. “If it’ll be alright, could I have the rest of the day off?”
He cocked his head to the side and turned his body to face her. “You want the rest of the day off?”
“Yes,” he voice shook. “If I could.”
“And why all of a sudden?”
She fidgeted and looked at her phone, the screen had lit up and from the distance Keith stood, he could see that she had just gotten a new message but he could not read the contents because it was not displayed. He could guess it was because she wanted to spend time with this Wayne man and he had probably been the one to suggest it.
He fisted his palms, he could tell her no but then she would only come to him tomorrow, after all he had been the one to set the rules that his employees at least have one day of the week off and Donna had not taken an off day in almost three months because of his very busy and packed schedules. He knew he owed her that.
“Granted.” he said and turned away from her to walk towards his office.
Donna gleamed and began to pack her bag the second Keith was out of her office and had shut the door. She carried only her essentials, and hurriedly made her way out of the office, down the elevator and out the building. She would hail a cab to where she was going to.
Keith sat heavily on his chair in his office and spun it so that he faced the window. He closed his eyes and brought his index and middle finger to rest on his temple, allowing himself drown in his thoughts. Why was the fact that Donna seeing a man bothered him? It bothered him so much that he wanted to send someone to stalk her, or better yet, stalk her himself. He knew it was possible to do and that he was capable enough to carry it out, but why?
They had noting to do with each other and the relationship between them was strictly professional, he had made this clear to her the day she started working for him and now it sounded like the most stupid thing he had ever said.