May The Better CEO Win

RUBY'S POV;

I woke up to the annoying sound of my alarm this particular morning feeling so drained. The most annoying thing ever was preparing to resume work at the coffee shop every morning. Well, I finally got off the bed after several minutes of thinking about my entire life's choices, the worst being the fact that I worked under Ben the boss bully, whose entire life's goal was to make my life a living hell, coupled with the underpayment I had to endure because my complaints about that always seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Today was payday and I wasn't in any way excited about it because I knew what to expect, and that was sad because the bills keep coming in. There were aunt Olivia's meds to pay for as that was purchased on credit, and there were the utility bills that hadn't been taken care of, alongside other bills also, like the self-maintenance bills which I never get to pay for because I considered other things more important than that and would feel guilty if I invested any dime in my self, sad right? Yeah... it had been a minute since I had properly gotten my hair treated and styled or spoilt myself with outfits shopping and little luxuries. I had already started making my mind up on getting a new job because it was high time I . Why it had taken me so long to do this was because of aunt Olivia's medical condition. While I worked in the coffee shop in the mornings for my shift, I was totally free in the evenings to take care of sick aunt Olivia. But now, I had to devise a means to get myself another part-time job which I could do later in the day after the close of work and also get aunt Olivia taken care of too...

"All hail the queen, worship her feet as she comes in majestically," Ben had said to me even though I practically rushed in, almost falling on my feet. Ben looked at me with a huge scorn which wasn't surprising by the way as that was his default expression towards me. But then, there was something quite different about this particular scorn. I felt like Ben had something definitely not good planned out for me.

Settling down, I immediately got myself to work, getting a napkin to clean the dusty surfaces when I suddenly got a text on my phone. I reached out to the back of my pocket while dropping the napkin on the table before me, to concentrate on reading the text. It happened to be from my BFF Rachel, she had sent a text to remind me of our hangout later that day at her bakery and pastry store. She had told us the day before, that she had an issue of which she would be needing our advice, and so i and Lou had to show up. I was just about to reply when Ben came out once more to me.

"Yeah that's just the right thing we should be doing right now," Ben said folding his arms and staring at me wildly.

"Give me a break okay? there is no one here yet, besides it was just a text"

"Yeah right!" he says rolling his eyes at me. "Get back to work!" he shouted as he walked out.

After a really slow day at work, I finally stood before Ben, expecting what I call the most important thing ever, 'my pay'. Without looking, Ben stretched his hands out and handed over an envelope to me which felt rather lighter than usual. I immediately counted the money, and to my greatest surprise I was underpaid once again but this time even lower.

"Really?" I asked angrily. This is all I get? this isn't complete Ben," I said staring at a suddenly deaf fellow.

"Ben?" I called out once more.

"Look Ruby, that's all I can pay you okay? Besides, you can see how slow business has been, look you should know I actually did my best in paying you this month even when you know you don't deserve it", Ben said boldly.

"What do you mean I don't deserve it? I work my ass off and each time I never get a full payment for it!!" I said getting even more annoyed and frustrated as Ben did nothing but stare at me like I was crazy. I angrily stomp out of his office and went away feeling so angry and mad. Since I was used to getting underpaid, I had planned a budget already according to the amount range he normally paid me, but this time around, it was so bad that I would only be able to tick off just one need on my bucket list and that was the devastating thing ever.