The Secret Shrink

Breaking the ice -3

Jenny decided to eat her lunches at the cafeteria rather than her office, so she could get some time with Sharon. She calculated her moves carefully and knew much about Sharon's likes and dislikes to use them to her advantage to get her to open up.
"May I sit next to you beautiful," Jenny asked as she balanced her lunch box on one hand and a chair on the other next to Sharon who always sat alone on a very small table very far from the others.
"There is no empty seat," Sharon answered without looking up to see who it was or what they had.
"That's why I brought my own," Jenny said. Sharon looked up and on seeing her she smiled.
"You don't give up do you?" she said taking the chair from Jenny and assisting her to secure a place on the small table. "We can share the table, but you should know I have nothing bothering me, I just like being alone while I eat," She said taking her seat on the now congested table.
"I don't like eating alone. That's why my office always felt lonely. Everyone in this cafeteria seems to have a story or a romance going on, so I thought someone who is sitting alone won't mind since I will not be interrupting any private conversations. And who said I think you have anything bothering you?" Jenny said smiling and preparing her meal. They both looked at each other and laughed.
"Okay you win, welcome to my tiny table away from private conversations," Sharon said in a teasing voice.
They looked around at everyone in the cafeteria who was busy chatting away from them as they ate and laughed. Soon later they were both talking about the project, the organization, and a few personal life experiences. Their laughter radiated outward in the packed cafeteria frequently interrupting their colleagues' private conversations. Soon after their meals were done but they sat there talking until the lunch hour was over.
"Thank you, it was nice to have a conversation with an actual person over lunch, am telling you the past few days have been horrible. Yesterday, I was talking to my paper punch and stapler," Jenny said as they walked back to their workstations. They both laughed at the joke and bid each other goodbye for the afternoon. Jenny smiled as she went into her office and whispered to herself, "Ice broken".
Jenny spent the afternoon talking to Sister Anna over the phone to find any clue as to how to approach the Sharon and Harry situation, but all Sister Anna could tell her was to make sure they were working together no matter what. She knew Sister Anna had to maintain the confidentiality of the two, but she did know one thing, they were once a couple and there is something they needed to figure out that's why they had to work together to ensure none had a chance to quit to avoid the other.
The next phase of the urban agribusiness project involved a lot of hand-to-hand skills in the design, structure, and preparation of the urban modern kitchen gardens. She assigned this to Sharon and Harry and since it was very involving for both their teams, they would spend a lot of time together. Her lunches with Sharon became a daily routine and now all she needed was a way of spending time with Harry to earn his trust.
The gardening sets needed a few technical designs so that was her opportunity and she did not waste any time. When it was time to get the designs to the modern kitchen gardens, which needed a metalwork workshop, he was the perfect person to approach due to his engineering training.
"Engineer Harry, I need your help to secure the best metalworker to give the contract to make the kitchen gardens," Jenny said as she walked over to Harry's work station. She held in her hand's submissions for tender requests from local metalworkers.
"I will be happy to help," Harry said receiving the documents. "What do you need exactly?" He asked.
"I need you to accompany me to visit and vet each one of them on-site since you are more conversant with their machinery so we can pick one with all machinery required to get what we need to be done perfectly and within the deadline limits, I was hoping we could visit them from tomorrow," Jenny answered hoping to receive a positive answer. She had more than 5 applicants so that would be enough time spent together with Harry to earn his trust.
"That I can do very well," Harry said looking at his diary schedule. "I will need the morning though to organize and delegate some of my duties for the next 3 days which is what we will need since their sites are not all in the same location," He continued then lifted his head from the diary to seek Jenny's approval on the morning request.
"Sure, we can start in the afternoon. Ensure all your duties are well covered. Thank you, Harry," she said and walked away smiling. Initially, she was to take Mr. and Mrs. Obachi but when she explained to them the change of plans, Mrs. Mueni smiled, and her face lit up with joy. She already knew what Jenny was trying to do and she was happy someone was doing something. After the briefings about the plans with the whole team, Mrs. Obachi requested to speak to Jenny alone.
"Am glad you are doing something for Sharon and Harry. So far how is it going, dear?" Mrs. Obachi asked Jenny when everyone went out.
"I didn't know anyone noticed. So far am just trying to spend some alone time with each of them to earn their trust. Is there anything you can share about their history that you think is relevant to their current situation?" Jenny answered and took a seat next to Mrs. Obachi.
Mrs. Obachi faced Jenny and held her hands, "The approach you are taking is very good dear, and giving them their time to take the first approach is great. However, they have a history, and am afraid you have limited time," she said in a confident voice. She could read the confusion in Jenny's voice and could see she had questions especially about having limited time. Jenny had no idea their situation was on a timer.!!!