A Business Love

chapter 10

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A week later, like every morning, Julian lying in his bed, took his cellphone and looked at his calendar. As usual, it was full of meetings; some important, some less. But today, a particular meeting caught his attention. He read: one-on-one session with Jessie Provolone at 6 p.m. He hadn't forgotten about it, but he was so busy lately that he didn't remember it was today.

He felt a rush of adrenaline as he excitedly jumped out of bed. He'd have a whole hour and a half to get to know her with no distractions. He would finally be able to make his own opinion of her rather than accepting what people were saying about her. He had a feeling about this girl and he needed to get to the bottom of it.

Meanwhile, Jessie had not forgotten about that meeting. To the contrary, she was counting down the days, and now the hours. She was extremely nervous about it. She tried to distract herself all day, but that meeting was consuming her thoughts. The last thing she wanted was to appear stupid in front of Julian; she knew what was at stake.

This time, she avoided the glamour and kept it basic with minimal makeup on, a blue long sleeves lapel collar shirt and navy pants with brown leather loafers. She didn't want to look like she was attempting to flirt with Julian, remembering oh too well how she had regretted her sudden zeal the week before.

5 p.m. Her colleagues were packing their things to leave, and she felt like her day was just about to begin now. She looked at them and envied their unworried life for a moment.

"Psst," whispered Mariana as she sneaked beside Jessie.

Jessie rolled on her office chair to face her.

"It's almost time," Mariana whispered with excitement.

"Shhhh!" whispered Jessie scandalized.

"Relax, I didn't even mentioned names," responded Mariana while rolling her eyes.

Jessie didn't want people to know that she was being mentored by Julian. At least, if she failed and he didn't want to work with her anymore, she wouldn't have to tell them. "I think I'm gonna go to the conference room now since it's available. Get my head in the game," she nervously said.

"Do what you have to do, girl. But I want all the details tomorrow."

"Duh! You know I'm incapable of keeping my mouth shut."

"That is true. Ciao bella!" said Mariana blowing a kiss. "Good luck," she whispered with a teasing wink.

When Jessie arrived on the fifth floor, she rang the bell beside Julian's name and she couldn't believe that she was actually doing that. It seemed unreal that she was actually going to spend an hour and a half with Julian coaching her on business financial literacy.

"Hello?" answered Nancy from the intercom.

"Hi Nancy, it's Jessie! I have a meeting with Julian at 6. I was wondering if I could set up in the conference room now?"

"Oh sure! Come in!" she responded as she buzzed her in.

Jessie passed by her office and smiled at her. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome, my dear! Julian is out with clients right now, but he has the meeting in his calendar, so it should be all good. I am leaving the office, but here, I'll give you his phone number if you need anything."

"Very kind of you, thank you, I appreciate it," she said while taking the piece of paper that Nancy was handing to her.

She then headed to the conference room and opened her laptop, trying to distract herself with work, but she could feel the nervousness creeping up. She really wanted Julian to feel like she was worth his time. She prayed that her brain would get the information he was going to give her. She knew full well how fast he spoke business and how destabilized she was by that.