A Business Love

chapter 4

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A few days later, Jessie had just finished her meeting with IT, and she was heading back to her work station, when she ran into Deluca. She and him had become well acquainted since their cars were always parked next to each other. They sometimes left the office at the same time and made that five-minute walk together. However, after their first walk, following Teresa's advice, she had made it clear that she was in a serious relationship, to Deluca's despair.

"Provolone!" he exclaimed.

"Deluca!"

"Staying late again tonight?"

"No, actually, not today! I'm going to see the Impacts with my boyfriend."

"Oh, I didn't know you were a fan of soccer!"

She shrugged. "Not really, to be honest. I'm just going for him."

"That's a devoted girlfriend."

"Right? Someone should tell him that!" she said jokingly although deep down, she meant it.

"I hope he knows and can appreciate it. If not, I know people who could," he replied while winking at her.

Knowing that she had a boyfriend didn't stop him from flirting with her. But again, she was completely oblivious to his attempts.

"We'll see once we get there and I'm cheering on a team I absolutely don't care about," she said instead while she held up her palms.

Deluca looked at her confused that she hadn't react to his not-so-subtle comment. The way she was oblivious always baffled him. "Good luck with that!" he ended up saying.

"Thank you! Have a good night!" she said continuing on her way.

Back at her desk, Jessie was finishing up the last thing she needed to do for today. She couldn't stay late because she had promised Michael that they would be going to the soccer pregame festivities. She had to leave at 5 p.m. at the latest.

Lucy had heard Jessie talk all day about how she was going to a soccer game tonight. In a malicious attempt, she purposely waited until a quarter to 5 to send her an email.

When Jessie saw the subject 'To do for tomorrow', she quickly opened the email.

From: Lucy Yang <lucy.yang@morettigroup.com>

To: Jessie Provolone <jessie.provolone@morettigroup.com>

Subject: to do for tomorrow

Jessie, please analyze the data attached. I need the report by 10am tomorrow.

Lucy

Jessie's eyes widened. She contained herself from having a bigger reaction because she knew Lucy could see her from her office.

It was almost 5 p.m. and Lucy was giving her something to complete by 10 a.m. the next morning! She looked through the file and was flabbergasted at the amount of data she had to analyze. It was not a thirty-minute job; it would take her hours!

It wasn't the first time that Lucy had given her things to do on such short notice. Sometimes, she felt like Lucy was either testing her or setting her up for failure.

Jessie was extremely conflicted. She had promised Michael that she would be there for the pregame festivities but with the amount of work Lucy had just dropped on her, she would miss the whole match.

She was determined not to cancel on Michael, but she had to complete Lucy's task; she knew that Lucy was challenging her and she needed to prove her wrong.