Begin Again novel Chapter 105

Liam woke up sometime before 4:00 AM, surprisingly calm and clear-headed for someone who had spent a restless night on an office couch.

He picked up his iPhone from the floor, grimacing at the spiderweb cracks covering the screen.

Seconds after switching it on, the Apple logo flashed to life before his battery complained about being empty, and the screen went black again.

Ordinarily, he would have lost his shit because he could not be without a phone. Being off the grid even for half an hour meant he was losing money, but after the miserable night he'd had, a dead phone was way down the list of his priorities.

He had too many problems on his plate today. A multi-million Rand deal wasn't going to sign itself, and pushing it off again was not an option. He called his assistant from his office line.

Wide awake and buzzing from her second cup of coffee, Gibby answered almost immediately and promised to bring him a change of clothing and a new phone before his first meeting at 8:00 AM.

By the time she arrived almost two hours later, Liam was clean-shaven, freshly showered and already on his seventh report.

"Good morning, Mr Anderson," she said in an unusually cheery voice as she placed his suit bag and shoes on the couch.

Liam grunted an uninspired greeting and glanced outside his window. It was just after 6:15 AM, and the clouds hanging low in the sky were as dark as his mood. It didn't look like a good morning to him. Not with the thick fog enveloping the city and the dull, aching sensation all over his head.

If he didn't get Dave's nasty hangover cure soon, the mild pain would explode into a raging tension headache within hours.

Gibby pranced over to him and placed his brand new cellphone along with an Americano and a salmon bagel on his desk.

"Slept here last night?" She glanced at the pillows and blanket on the sofa, scrunching up her nose in disgust at the beer cans littering the floor.

Liam nodded and sipped his coffee while he looked through his schedule. He had just under two hours to get ready for his first meeting.

He gently massaged his nape, trying to ease the stiffness in his neck and shoulders. Waking up with aches and pains was the main reason he never made it a habit to sleep in his office.

Gibby hovered around him, dying to have her moment so she could share some sage advice.

He ignored her and leafed through his eighth report.

Some thirty minutes later, when he finally placed it back down at the bottom of his never-ending stack, his assistant was still there, and his office was back to its usual pristine state, and evidence of him going on a bender nowhere in sight.

"What is it, Gibby?" Liam asked, at last, well aware he'd regret giving in to his curiosity.

He always did.

Eden was a shining example.

"I think you should shut down the assistants' chat, Sir." She clasped her hands and anxiously tapped her foot. "The malicious comments carried on after Ms McBride signed the warning."

Liam nodded, picked up his office phone and called the head of communications. "Shut down all the work chats. Any communication from now on will be on email."

Sam tried to argue and negotiate, but he wasn't backing down.

"I warned you before when Nancy splashed Ms McBride's photos all over the general chat. If people can't behave themselves, all the nice things will be taken away!"

"But Mr Anderson," Sam tried again. "Only the assistants' chat violated the company's communication policies. I don't think it's fair to punish everyone."

"I don't remember asking for your opinion, Sam!" Liam ignored her pleas and moved along swiftly. "We'll revisit this in a month or two. But for now, shut them all down."

He called the head of HR next. "Where are with the issuing of warnings?"

Zara stammered and stuttered on her side. "What warnings, Mr Anderson?"

Liam closed his eyes and breathed in hard, sorely tempted to smash the handset on his desk. She was seriously testing his already thin patience.

"Zara," he said in a dangerously calm voice, belying the cold fury burning in his belly. "Since you've forgotten how to do your job, I'll give you a quick refresher course—Issue final written warnings to all the trolls in the assistants' chat. Rose Walker should be summarily dismissed, all her release documents processed, and paid whatever money is owed to her by close of business today."

"On what grounds, Sir?"

"Do I need to read the HR manual to you, Zara?"