A Business Love

chapter 11

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The next day, Jessie was torn between a feeling of complete euphoria and one of complete stress. At times, she even wondered if what had happened the day before had been a dream or real life. She had so many questions racing through her mind, but mostly, she wondered what Julian's intentions towards her were.

Mariana looked quizzically at Jessie from behind her glass door and immediately wrote to her on Teams chat.

Mariana: How come you are not in my office?!

Jessie: Sorry, I'm super busy!

Mariana: How did things go with you know who?! Give me the tea!

Jessie: It went well!

Mariana: That's it!?

Jessie: Yes!

Mariana: Are you meeting him again or not?

Jessie: Next Tuesday as planned.

Mariana got out of her office, tired of their little chat and receiving information from Jessie in bits and parcel.

"Jessie, can I talk to you please in my office?" she formally asked.

"I'm kind of busy."

"It's urgent. It's about a report. I need help."

Jessie rolled her eyes, knowing Mariana was lying, but she went in her office anyway.

"Jessie Provolone. Tell me everything now," said Mariana with a commanding tone. 

"Fine!" said Jessie unable to resist. "It was...more than good. It was great."

"Do tell more!" said Mariana impatiently.

Jessie bit her lower lip and shyly smile. "I think we may potentially both be attracted to each other."

Mariana's jaw dropped. "I knew it! I knew there was something!" she screamed.

"Shhhh!" urged Jessie terrified that people would know about this. "I'm just...I'm in over my head. The whole vibe was very intense."

"Ok now I feel like I'm watching a soap opera . I need to remember to always have popcorn in my office from now on. What happened? Did you guys kiss?"

"Are you crazy! No! Don't start rumors!"

"Who am I gonna tell anyways?"

"It feels unreal, Mar. I don't know, I'm still trying to process it. I'm so freaking confused. I need to review all the financial stuff that he told me about and I can't even focus. I keep analyzing the whole thing. Like what the heck happened?! And I never felt that way so quickly for someone. It's stressing me out."

"Maybe I was right. Maybe this is love at first sight."

"Any girl would fall for him. The part I don't get is me, why me? It's so weird. He can do so much better than me."

Mariana frowned and shook her head. "Jess, please. You're a real catch and you know it."

"Me, a catch. Yeah, right. Not even in my wildest dreams."

Mariana dismissed her with a hand. "Tell me everything from the beginning, and don't forget the details. Oh, wait!" she said as she took two almond croissants out of her bag. "Here, I took one for you at Starbucks. Ok, now I'm ready!" she said grinning.

As Jessie recounted last night events to Mariana, she kept having flashbacks of Julian's intense gaze, his smell and his raspy voice. "I don't know how else to explain it other than it just felt right. Him and I. And I know I'm delusional, trust me. But I just felt so good being with him, talking to him. It felt right. And like fireworks at the same time."