A Business Love

chapter 14

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At 5 p.m., Jessie headed to the fifth floor and rang the bell beside Julian's name. Nancy buzzed her in.

"He's on a phone call in his office. He'll join you right after," said Nancy, smiling as Jessie passed in front of her office.

"Perfect, thank you!" she said, smiling back at her.

She headed towards the same conference room they had been using before. She walked past Julian's office and through his immense glass window, she saw that he was on a phone call. She waved at him with a big smile.

"The...hum...the costs..." he stuttered on the call. He couldn't with her; she constantly made him lose his train of thoughts. He got it together and was able to regain control of his thoughts while he smiled and winked at her.

She melted on place. Seeing him in this gigantic office turned her on in another level. It reaffirmed his authoritative position as the COO and she couldn't hide that this factor did play a role in her infatuation with him.

She went into the conference room, opened her laptop and anxiously waited for him.

"Hello Ms. Provolone," he said while entering the conference room thirty minutes later.

"Julian, I don't know how to thank you for talking to Mauro. Honestly, I truly appreciate it," she immediately said with gratitude.

"Don't worry about it. However, I'm gonna be honest with you. He is pretty stubborn about this thing...We're gonna have to tweak some things up. You're gonna have to cut the presentation down to thirty minutes."

"What?" she said appalled. "How am I going to convince him in thirty minutes?"

He pressed his lips together before saying, "You're not gonna present the strategy per se, Jess. You're gonna have to pitch yourself."

"Oh coconuts! You're stressing me."

"I know you can take it," he assured but with a questioning look.

"Yes, you're right. I can," she reassured him while getting her head back in the game.

"Not to scare you, but he's only going to listen to you with the intent of saying no. So, you have to catch his attention right from the get go. You're gonna have to prove to him that you know what you're doing."

"Ok, how do I do that?" she asked, hiding her stress, but still eager to prove Mauro wrong.

"I'm glad you asked. You have in front of you the subject matter expert. I've had to prove myself to my dad over and over and over again when I was younger. I know exactly what he wants to hear and I will tell you all the little secrets."

Jessie looked at him with grateful eyes. "I don't even know how to thank you anymore. I have no idea why you're helping me so much, but I'm so incredibly grateful."

"Really? You have no idea?" he asked smirking.

"I don't..." she said, trying to get the words out of him.

"Ok, let's focus," he said instead to her despair. It was the perfect opportunity to find out if he actually liked her or if he only wanted to sleep with her, but he had brushed her off instead.

They worked on her presentation, Julian coaching her on how to sell herself. "You have to be selfish," he said. "That's gonna sound bad, but in high level meetings, we don't cite the names of the people that have helped us or gave us the information, unless we're 100% sure that our interlocutor knows the person and that it can advantage us. Otherwise, you almost have to speak as if you've done all the work by yourself."