Eugene sent me another message in less than two minutes. This time, his tone softened with me.

[I'm so sorry, Bro! I was being too sensitive. Tina is such an extraordinary woman, and I'm always fearful that someone would snatch her away from me. Don't be mad at me, all right?]

[Take more photographs of Tina for me later when you have your meeting.]

I rolled my eyes at how fast the way he changed his tone in his messages. I held back my frustration and quickly cleaned up to rush to the office.

Eugene was a university student who Tina had hooked up with. Since Eugene found out she was the boss of her own company, he came running to the office to announce his 'ownership' of her. However, this young man must either be dimwitted or read too many romance novels. He treated every male employee in the company like his love rival. As Tina's university classmate and the general manager who built the company with her, I naturally became enemy number one in his eyes.

He guarded me as if I were the greatest threat and had no idea that my full focus was on making money. I had no interest in starting a romance with anyone.

It was 9.30 am. Tina and I appeared on time in the meeting room at Kent Charleston's office to go through the details of our meeting notes. We still had 30 minutes until our 10 am appointment when my phone on the table kept ringing. The message notification sounded particularly sharp in the quiet meeting room.

Tina glanced at my phone and frowned while berating me like the boss she was, "You need to keep your phone silent during working hours. Do you need me to point that out to you?"

I picked up my phone to look. As I had expected, they were all messages from Eugene.

[Are you in the meeting room now, Bro? Have you met Mr. Charleston? Take a picture for me!]

[I need a full body picture of you too. I have to check if you're dressed appropriately today.]

[You're with Tina, aren't you? Why isn't she replying to my messages? Remind her to check her phone right now!]

I could feel the veins in my temple throbbing. I took a deep breath and turned to Tina to remind her politely, "Miss Kayden, your boyfriend is trying to reach you."

When she heard the word 'boyfriend', she picked up her phone right away and turned to leave right after glancing at the messages. I was taken aback as she left me alone in the meeting room. Kent was about to arrive at the meeting, and she chose this moment to reply to her messages?

Two minutes after Tina left, Kent and his secretary pushed the door open. He frowned when he saw the empty seat next to mine. "Where's Miss Kayden?"

Kent was a traditional man of fifty-plus and a renowned figure in the industry who was experienced. He emphasized efficiency and was a stickler for the rules. He was extremely unhappy about what he saw.

I quickly smiled to smooth the situation and made up an excuse. After that, I took the lead in the conversation and started to talk about how we can work together on the project.

After 30 minutes of negotiation, Kent nodded continuously, and things seemed to be moving well.

That was when Tina pushed the door open to enter the room. She did not look anxious at all as she slowly took the seat next to mine and asked about the meeting progress. When she found out that the meeting was a success, she was clearly relieved. After that, she brought up details of the contract with Kent, and I took the opportunity to get some water from the pantry.

When I got to the pantry, I took out my phone to see over a hundred of messages on it. There were dozens of missed calls, and it did not take me much to figure out they were from Eugene. Before I could take a look at them, a call came in.

I hung up, and he continued calling. I hung up again, and he still called… After this repeated several times, I knew I could not avoid the messages any longer and could only pick up the call.

The moment the call got through, Eugene roared at me. "Andrew Sanders! How can you ignore my calls again? Are you guilty about something?"

I could hardly contain my anger. "I told you before that I was in a meeting, Mr. Larson. This is a contract that involves millions of dollars. Can you handle the consequences if anything happens to this contract?"

All Eugene did was scoff and reply indignantly, "Can you handle the consequences if I fought with Tina and it affected her work?"

This reply rendered me speechless. I had no idea what he was thinking. The way his brain worked was a complete mystery to me.

Before I could say another word, Eugene continued being pushy, "Turn on your camera right now! I want to see where you are and who is with you. Get a 360-degree angle of your surroundings clearly!"

Frustration filled me to the brim. I clenched my phone and tried to be as patient as possible. "I'm in a meeting, Mr. Larson. Can you stop making a scene? Please contact Miss Kayden if you need anything. I'm just a manager, not a messenger between lovers."

"Turn on your camera! Turn it on, and I'll believe you! Otherwise, whatever you tell me is a lie!"

I had nothing to hide, so I turned on my camera and aimed it at the door of the meeting room I had just walked out of. "See that? I told you I was in a mee…"

"Aaaarggghhh! Andrew Sanders, you b*stard! Are you trying to have an office affair with Tina? Don't even think about seducing her as long as I'm around!"

The last of my patience had been exhausted, and I hung up right away. I even deleted him from my contacts and all social media.

After this series of actions, I looked at my phone's clean homepage. Even the air suddenly felt fresher than usual.

Back inside the meeting room, Tina and Kent were chatting happily. It looked like they were about to move into the next phase of signing the contract.

Kent took the contract and said to Tina with a smile, "Plenty of major companies are eyeing this project. Some of their tenders are higher than yours, but we're old friends, and I trust working with old friends, especially Mr. Sanders here. He's quite a talent. He's professional and highly capable. It isn't easy to find a subordinate like him."

His high praise did not make me full of myself. It was an acknowledgement of my work capabilities. Tina was clearly relieved, and she started to quickly return compliments to Kent. When Kent was about to sign the contract, a loud bang was heard as the meeting room door was flung open.

Kent's secretary was trying to stop Eugene, who had barged in furiously. The secretary was apologetic as she tried to explain, "I'm so sorry, Mr. Charleston. This gentleman claims to be Miss Kayden's boyfriend and is insistent on 'supervising the meeting'. I couldn't stop him…"

Before she could finish, Eugene pushed the secretary to the side and came running toward me. He raised his hand and slapped me.

Slap!

The crisp sound echoed loudly in the silent meeting room. Everyone was shocked.

I put my hand to my burning cheek and looked coldly at Eugene, whose face was covered in tears, and his eyes were swollen like walnuts. He had been crying all the way here. However, he acted like he had suffered a great grievance, as if the person who was slapped was him.

Tina quickly went over to him. She sounded anxious, "What are you doing here, Eugene?"

Before Eugene replied, he looked at everyone around judgmentally and turned to look at Kent, who was in the middle of the meeting room. The screen was still displaying our PowerPoint presentation, and the table was covered with documents. Everything pointed to this meeting being a normal business meeting.

Eugene realized the trouble he had caused, and he immediately launched into 'gentle mode'. He held Tina's hand with a pitiful look on his face. "I… I send you messages, but you didn't reply them right away. I came over here because I was worried something had happened to you."

He looked at me timidly while speaking and insinuated, "Mr. Sanders deleted me from his contacts and didn't reply to my messages. He wasn't even particularly nice to me. I…"

The more he spoke, the more pitiful he sounded. Eugene's eyes turned red as he repeated the words 'I'm sorry' and 'It wasn't on purpose'.

I tried my best to suppress my anger. Before I could say anything, Tina suddenly grabbed me by the arm and insisted, "You! Apologize to Eugene!"

I was stunned. I could not believe my ears. "Miss Kayden, I was the one who was slapped for no good reason!"

"So what?" Tina frowned. It was ridiculous how indignant she was acting. "You knew how sensitive and insecure Eugene can be. Why didn't you reply him in time? This is a reflection of your failure to do your job! I didn't instruct you to delete him from your contacts. Why would you delete him?"

If Kent was not present, I would have flung the documents in my hand onto both their faces.

I tried my best to suppress my anger and immediately displayed my phone's screen on the big screen. The screen was filled with hundreds of messages from Eugene with ridiculous orders. From checking my location to instructing how I should dress. They also contained requests from him for me to remind Tina to say loving words to him.

Eugene turned silent, and he tried to look away. Tina was also stunned by the screen filled with messages.

"Tell me, Miss Kayden." My voice was cold, but it filled the room clearly. "Do you mean to tell me that I should turn my back on millions worth in contract just to cheer up your boyfriend?" I paused and followed up with another question, "Are you his girlfriend, or am I, his girlfriend?"

Tina's face flushed red, and she started to change the topic. "Watch your tone with me, Andrew! How dare you speak to me that way? Do you still want your job?"

She started to spout nonsense indignantly. "The contract might be important, but Eugene is even more important to me! You're a senior member of this company and my right-hand man. Isn't it your job to take care of the company and my personal life?"

I had no idea what to say. It was pointless to argue with those who were unreasonable.

When Eugene saw that Tina's attention was not focused on him, he started to create more drama. He pulled on Tina's hand and said in a sobbing voice, "Stop it, Tina… I know Mr. Sanders doesn't like me. He might have been interested in you for a long time and became jealous that we're together, which is why he's been mean to me…"

He started heading out the door as he spoke in an incredibly sad manner. "I'll leave! I know no one cares about what I think if I continue staying here…"

Eugene cried and ran out of the meeting room after that. Tina did not even look at me, nor did she bother about Kent, who was still present, and ran out after him.

The meeting room was left with only me, Kent, and his secretary. Kent looked particularly irritated. He laughed coldly and said sarcastically, "I had no idea Miss Kayden thinks her boyfriend is more important than a million-dollar contract. Is this the sincerity your company is showing me?"

His attitude had turned cold, and he was no longer showing any friendliness. "We need to re-evaluate your company's ability. That's all for today. You should leave."

A wave of helplessness came over me. I was the only one who understood the feeling, as I had spent multiple sleepless nights modifying the proposal in order to push for this to happen. I ran through the details many times and even sent plenty of gifts customized for Kent in order to build a more personal connection between us.

All of my hard work had been destroyed because of a boss who was busy being in love and her boyfriend, who was a complete control freak.

A cold look appeared in my eyes. If Tina did not know how to act appropriately, there was no blaming me next.

As Kent was about to leave, I quickly called out, "Please wait, Mr. Charleston!" He turned to look at me questioningly as I took a deep breath to take out another set of documents from my bag. I handed it to him.

"Please take a look at this contract, Mr. Charleston. You can decide later if you want to continue working together."