Ryan had left home so late that morning, even without being in the mood to go to work, he was left with no choice to it; coupled with the state of his company -if the sky should fall, he still had to go.
The tension in the airwas very much unpleasing and Ryan did not like it a bit, but he paid less attention to it -his present mood was likely enough to cause another tension in additional to the already existing one.
He did say no word as he walked past the receptionist, finding it hard to respond to her greeting; the receptionist's voice, on the other hand, wasn't as cheerily as it used to sound, something was off about it.
Ryan wasn't that daft not to find out, but at that moment, whatever thing that might have happened to request such a reaction from her was far from his business; he didn't want to get himself involved in it.
"Where is Miriam?" Ryan, who still couldn't pinpoint the reason behind his question, asked the receptionist in demand. "Has she resumed work already?"
"Earlier than usual, sir." She was quick with her reply, even though she was fielding him with an unnecessary reply. "She's been impatiently waiting on your arrival, Sir."
At first, Ryan was tempted to ask why Miriam must have been waiting for him from the receptionist, but then he realized that she was not in the best position to tell him.
If Miriam has been waiting for him about something important, then she is the only one in the right position to tell him, but here he wants to hear from the receptionist.
Without saying any word, Ryan left the receptionist counter and headed to his office. As he approaches his office door, his eyes caught a glimpse of Miriam's back who stood there before his office's door, and it was obvious that she had been waiting for a very long time.
Ryan wondered what the problem might be that would have made her stand there, he could only hope that everything's fine.
"Miriam..."Ryan called slowly, announcing his arrival to Miriam, who seemed startled by her boss's arrival.
"I have been waiting a while for you, boss." Miriam said, heaving a sigh of relief. "I was afraid of you not coming to work today, but then I realized you don't like missing a day at the office."
"Is it that very urgent?" Ryan questioned, unlocking his office door. "For you to have to stay here waiting for me, which is very unlikely."
Ryan entered his office, with Miriam following suit.
"It's about Mr. Sebastiano." Miriam muttered with a pale expression, she had allowed her boss to settle down before breaking the news to him.
"What happened to him?" Ryan lilted, uninterested. "It has been long since I heard from him."
"He's here, boss, and he's making a lot of fuss too." Miriam told him. "He's in the meeting room."
"Why is he making a fuss?" Ryan was startled. What could have gone wrong with Mr. Sebastiano?
"He's threatening to breach the business deal, too." Miriam's voice was laced with concern.
At first, Ryan thought he was probably hearing things. Why would Mr. Sebastiano want to breach the deal he had hoped for?
"-and he threatened not to leave until he set an eyes on you, even when we persuaded him that you would come to see him in his company."
"Tell him I'll be seeing him in five minutes time." Ryan muttered slowly. For the first time, his mind was not at ease.
******
"Is he not yet arrived?" Mr. Sebastiano questioned harshly immediately he saw Miriam. "Do you guys think it's all a joke?"
"You should take it easy, Mr. Sebastiano." Miriam said, trying to soften Mr. Sebastiano's anger, but he seemed to be getting more furious at each word she says. "He would be here very soon."
Mr. Sebastiano was about to say a reply when he saw Ryan approaching the room, he swallowed whatever he had to say to Miriam instead.
"Its good to see you again, Mr. Sebastiano." Ryan uttered cheerily. "I learned you've been waiting for me."
"What's good about seeing me?" Mr. Sebastiano blurt out angrily. "I guess she did not tell you the full details about of my coming."
"You should have your sit, Mr. Sebastiano, and let us settle this like two gentlemen should do." Ryan suggested, offering Mr. Sebastiano a seat.
"Do you call yourself a gentleman?" Mr. Sebastiano blunder out. "What has gotten into your head, if I may ask? Is it because of your fame that made you behave this way? Is this how a business deal should turn out?" "I'm deeply sorry for what happened, that's why I'm suggesting we talk about it."
"There nothing to talk about." Mr. Sebastiano flared up, vexed. "And we are cutting off any deals we have together, I'm breaching this contract."
Miriam stood there shaking like a jelly fish, she knew the consequence if the contract gets breached. The company is going to lose a lot and probably fail too.
"You can'tjust say this..."Ryan muttered in a croak voice. "You don't need to breach it after we have come a long way, and besides, I've invested a lot in it too."
"You know we've come a long way, eh?" Mr. Sebastiano lilted with a long hiss. "I see no point in talking about this anymore, I need to take my leave."
With this, Mr. Sebastiano head for the door and then stop halfway. "I'll send my personal assistant to bring the document for the contract breaching soon."
Ryan watch Mr. Sebatiano left without saying a word, he could not believe that everything came crashing upon his face in just a twinkle of eyes.
"What are we going to do about this?" Miriam questioned, breaking the odd silence arising between them.
"As you can see, we've lost this contract too, like every other ones." Ryan replied with a heavy heart. "Mr Sebastiano is not a man who won't stand by his words."
"We can't afford to lose after all you've invested in it, it'll be a huge loose on our part." Miriam muttered slowly, feeling disheartened too. "He's been making this threat for a while now."
"What?" Ryan raised his eyebrow in shock. "This has been happening under my nose, and you think it's not necessary to inform me about it?"
"I'm sorry, sir." Miriam quickly apologized. "And besides, I've trued calling you countless time today, but you refused to pick your call."
Ryan checked his phone and realized that Miriam and many other people had been calling him but then, he had already activated the 'do not disturb' because he was not ready to pick any calls.
He did not know what to do about this sudden news, he had as well invested his money in a business that he was not sure if it's going to yield him anything good. He only kept his hope high in the business contract with Mr. Sebastiano, who is now threatening to breach the contract.
Everything came happening in a rush, and he finds himself helpless in such a situation...