A Zoom Love Story

three

The next morning, he awoke at 7am to see an email from his assistant. He glanced over the schedule that she had sent over, double checking the links and times.

His first meeting of the day would be a peace of cake— a meeting with the other partners at the firm to check in. Those meetings always go well, since they all adore James. A hard worker like him that brings in as many cases and clients as he does is impressive.

He got ready as he usually does, then prepared for his meetings by reviewing his notes and any minutes he has. He joined the call a few minutes early and was joined by two of the partners. They chatted for a few minutes, until Emily joined the call.

"I wish Emily was my assistant. She's always on time and does a great job." Luke, the younger partner noted.

"Emily is great, I'm lucky to have her. Funny thing, I was late to the meeting with John's firm last night because Emily sent me the wrong link."

"If I had a dollar for every time I've joined the wrong call, I'd be rich." Allen, the older partner, chuckled. He is struggling to adapt to being completely virtual, as he is many years older than Luke and James.

"Uh oh, what call did you join? Let me guess, some sort of knitting group with a bunch of old ladies?" Luke asked, teasing James.

"No, but you're pretty close. Some candle makers in Maine were drinking and making candles." James explained.

"I found them on Facebook when the pandemic began. Her name is Annie and she owns a small candle shop in Rockland, Maine. She does these little candle making nights on Zoom where you can order a candle making kit and make it from home!"

"That sounds like something you'd do." James joked, causing all of the men to laugh.

"You should try it, James. You never do anything besides work. It's really fun and you'd like Annie! It's a nice group and it's good to support small businesses, now more than ever." Emily suggested, making the men laugh more.

"Yes, James, you should! You can make us all candles and give them to us for Christmas!" Luke said, causing the men to laugh again.

"That would be lovely, James. Make me one and I'll put it in my bathroom." Allen joked, which he rarely does.

"You know what? Maybe I will." James shrugged, taking a big sip of his coffee.

"I would pay to see James take a candle making class." Luke joked again, then the two other assistants joined the call.

"Now that everyone is here," Luke began, "we will actually begin this meeting. Emily, please send James whatever information he needs to join your candle making group."

James rolled his eyes at Luke's comment and then the meeting formally began. As Luke began reading through some ideas he had, he saw Emily had sent him an invitation to like Annie's page for her shop on Facebook.

Before accepting, he looked at a picture of the shop. It was certainly small, but there were lots of candles and cute decorations inside of the store. Only three hundred people like the page and he opened her website, where there were millions of candles.

He clicked out of the link, since there was too much to look at. Emily then invited him to the Facebook group for the Tuesday night group, where Annie posted the link weekly and the links for the candle making kit.

As he was looking over the candles and kits, Emily texted him that she was surprised that he was actually looking at the links and followed Annie's business. He thought it was cute, much like Annie herself.

She's a beautiful young woman with red curly hair and the most stunning green eyes. He didn't even think about it after he left the call on Tuesday, since he went right back to working.

He realized that he had blown his chance. She was a beautiful, young woman running a nice business. Feeling foolish, he put his phone back done and focused on the call.

Emily sent him another message, realizing that he wouldn't go through with it without help. She decided to order him a kit— with her card, but his name. His heart skipped a beat for a moment.

What a silly activity for a Tuesday evening! But then he remembered that Annie said it was important to take time for yourself and try new things. He laughed at the thought for a second. Why even waste time doing it? What could he possibly gain from doing it?

Realizing he had been lost in thought for quite some time, as his boss said his name, he paused in embarrassment.

"James and I were discussing this earlier, he fully agrees that working with John's firm is in the best interest of the firm." Emily said, snapping him back to reality and catching him up.

He began to focus and shared his thoughts about the other firm, glad that Emily had his back. Although he was very focused on the call, he couldn't help but think about Annie...