Broken Mirrors – Episode 8d “I will trust you on that one Rasheed.” Doctor said. ***************************************************** Derin couldn’t believe how excited he was about having lunch with Ope. He could count the number of words him and Awazi had said to each other since Sunday on his fingers. The woman was being stubborn; she always wanted it to be him that would apologize first whenever they quarreled. She seemed to have gotten into that habit since he had gone after her that time she left the house, and now he saw many instances in retrospect where this was the case. Well, she wasn’t having her way on this one. He would do this, and she would have to come to terms with it. They had selected the new chic restaurant inside Osborne Estate, minutes from his office. He got there minutes to one, a little earlier than they planned to meet. He was surprised when he got there and met Ope. She had selected a corner away from the door, arranged so that they had a good degree of privacy away from most of the other customers. She was in a figure hugging black gown that hugged the contours of her body like it was sewn onto her frame. Her hair was neatly packed and she was wearing her glasses, peering into her iPad. She looked up as he got to her. “Ah, Derin, you came in early too. I anticipated traffic, but as God would have it, the road was sort of free, so I got here some minutes ago. You don’t look so good. Have you been eating properly?” Wow, Derin thought. His worries were beginning to affect how he looked. “I’m a married man, and my wife makes sure I eat jo.” He patted his belly without any enthusiasm and then sat down. “So straight to business, what is this that you’d like to discuss about your office?” Ope said, her tone businesslike. Derin had expected that they would banter a bit but since Ope had chosen to be all business, he decided to be that way too. “My boss has effectively asked me to end the pursuit of the case.” “Derin, how exactly has he done this? There’s a fine line between the legal and the illegal there, and it’s how he has framed this that would determine it.” “Well, he didn’t say ‘Derin, if you continue with this case, you are fired’. No, he basically said that the case should not affect productivity, I should ensure that I met all deliverables and that I was not going to get any days off work to go to court.” Ope rubbed her chin, pondering for a moment. “Your boss is one smart fox, he’s trying to get you off the case without exposing himself to the possibility of a lawsuit. Thing is, you have a duty and a right to answer court summons where it is material to a case before any court, and your employer has no right to stop that. Now, if he can prove that your appearances in court are affecting your productivity, he might have a case to disengage you, especially where the reasons for drop in productivity are not directly caused by your appearing in court, but by the pressures of pursuing the case. So, you walk a fine line here Derin. You’ll have to make sure that for the duration of the case, you do not goof on deliverables at work. And where you have to appear in court, and your boss threatens you with a sack, tell him he’ll be hearing from your lawyers. If it’s what I think it is, he will back down.” “What do you think it is?” Derin asked. “I don’t know for sure, so I won’t insinuate. Give me his name, and I’ll do my research. Would tell you when I’m certain my about it.” Ope didn’t say anything further and for some reason he couldn’t understand, Derin ran out of things to say. There was an awkward silence between them for a few minutes before she began to pack her things. “I guess we should be going then, you do have to get back to work on time.” “Yes, yes, true.” He responded. She got up, and then as if it was an afterthought, she turned to him and said “Oh, and Derin, you should be prepared to travel either Friday or Saturday, as we’ll be invited for a pretrial meeting around that time. They’ll try to make you look unreasonable for wanting to go to court, in spite of their offer, and would try to convince the court to throw out the case as a waste of judicial time since they’ve made a compelling offer. So be ready.” Then she got up and left, smiling a knowing smile. She didn’t have to look back to know that his eyes followed her to the door. Derin got up slowly after Ope had gone. He wondered how he would be able to tell his wife he was travelling alone with Ope. Watchout for Episode 9
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 07:58:15 +0000
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