Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 89: The Dragon Returns

Chapter 89: The Dragon Returns

Padma, the head of Human Resources sat at her desk. That was not unusual, it was to be expected. But what was unusual was that Padma was at her desk and it had just gone midnight. Her normally well behaved hair was a mess, sticking up in all directions. She had long ago abandoned her six inch heels. Each shoe thrown at a different corner of the office.

There were half empty coffee cups on the floor, open food containers on the on the rug, and at her desk. In fact, even though Padma was at her desk, she was not sitting in the state of the art chair meant for lumbar support. No, Padma, the head of HR was currently crouched beneath her desk, her laptop in front of her as she worked.

What could cause such a change, one would ask? Nothing rattled the head of HR afterall, HR ate pressure as a side dish. But the reason for Padma’s dishevelled state would have many nodding in understanding.

The reason that Padma was the way that she was, was because of the return of the dark ages. And with the dark ages, something sinister had come back too.

The dragon of Haven.

It spit fire and brimstone each time it breathed. And each time it roared and took flight, people lost their livelihoods.

That was how Padma had gotten to her current position, her previous boss, Mr Langley, had stressed himself into an early retirement, constantly looking foe replacements for all of the personal assistants that Derek had fired, or those who had quit to protect their sanity. Padma had been promoted simply because no one had expected her to last long. Everyone expecting her to go in the way of her predecessor and choke under the constant pressure.

And she had fully expected that too. But then the problem of the dragon of Haven had resolved itself when Padma was just a month into her new post. Emily Molson walking through the doors like a woman on a mission, starting right away and handing in her resume later.

They had all taken bets on how long they expected her to last. Padma had won, she had bet that the other woman would last two months while most people had been of the belief that she would last either two hours or two days. But Emily Molson had proven all of them wrong. For two years the woman had stayed strong. A constant by Derek’s side. It had come to the point that they were almost always referred to as a pair.

Derek and Emily.

Emily and Derek.

The CEO and his PA.

That was who they were, practically joined at the hip. The two of them always dashing off somewhere together. Even when they had taken time off in the past, they had gone at the same time.

This time, when Padma had received a notification from Emily stating that she was taking time off, she had thought nothing of it, waiting for Derek’s own request to come through. But it had not, and it had not hit Padma how that could be a bad thing until the day that they had started the interviewing process for the temporary personal assistant.

The dragon had awakened then, slow and steady, slowly coming awake with every horrible interview. It had been so gradual that Padma had forgotten to be wary, and then the dragon had awakened fully. And that was the end of the peace and quiet that Padma had known for the past two years.

There were people getting fired so regularly, it almost felt like watching birds get shot out of the sky, or if they were sticking to the dragon analogy, being burnt to a crisp mid air, and then falling to the earth featherless and pitch black.

And for some of them Padma could admit that mistakes had been made. The likes of Carl had made it past her screening afterall. But then the idiot’d had to go and try to sell information on Derek to his uncle. He was so shameless that when Padma had been seeing him off , he had actually offered to sell her information about her that he had gathered under Derek.

She had flat out told him no and then gone about making sure that others in the industry knew how dangerous he was. Unfortunately people like him were very persistent, he had most likely blackmailed someone into hiring him.

The same could be said for Justin and Alexa. Had she known that those two had been thinking of doing their jobs on their backs, rather than thinking on their feet, she would have deleted their resumes on sight. Sex scandal were big, and the industry was rapidly changing, such things were no longer so easy to sweep under the rug. And even if they were, those were not the kind of bones that Padma wanted to bury. So she was glad Derek had gotten a read on those two and kicked them out before they could wreak havoc on the company’s reputation.

But the others who had left, Padma felt that Derek had been too harsh. There were those like that girl, Margaret were she not such a nervous wreck, she could have been useful had she been allowed to break out of her shell. Even Rhonda, despite being....different had been good at her job.

But they were all gone now, and Padma was slowly losing her mind. She had been staying late for days now, going through resumes herself instead of trusting her juniors with it. Finally settling on a potential for the latest PA, Padma sighed and reached for her laptop. It closed with as soft click, and she crawled out from beneath her table.

Her joints cracked as she straightened, and she let out a loud yawn, her mouth open wide. Her parents would have been scandalized to see her acting in such a manner. But Padma was done for the night and that was all that mattered, her bed was waiting and her pillows would welcome her gladly.

She smiled at the thought, but the smile quickly slipped off her face when she realized that she would be back at it again the moment the new temp was sent packing. Looking at her phone, Padma wanted to call Emily and beg her to cut her leave short and come back to work.

But she knew that she could not. Emily more than deserved a break. And it was not like she had quit, she was coming back. Padma could hang on a few more days. If Emily was never coming back, then Padma would have left too, a human being was not meant for so much stress, she now understood why her former boss had quit.

But at least Emily was coming back, so Padma’s job and sanity were safe. Gathering her things, she made her way out of the office, her bed was calling.