A Business Love

chapter 20.1

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"Jessie, I'm going to Starbucks. Pass me the card," said Mariana appearing in Jessie's office unannounced.

"It's my card. I won it. I don't know why you keep calling it the card," said Jessie while handing her the Starbucks gift card she had won at the team building event a few weeks ago.

"You're right. I should call it our card," replied Mariana.

"You know what, let me go with you. I need some air."

They both left the office to walk to the Starbucks located a couple blocks away.

"How are things on your side?" asked Mariana.

"I am in over my head, but I can manage. The sales reps are harassing me. We constantly have to review the process, as they complain about who receives the most leads and all. They are so eager for their commissions, these salespeople. So sensitive!"

"Yeah, and they're a bunch of immature little boys too."

"Ouch!"

"Am I right or wrong? They're always playing basketball with papers and garbage bins. Giacomo always calls them 'boys' as if they were his brood."

"Massimo always calls me 'kiddo'...You have a problem with that?" said Jessie, suddenly suspicious of Mariana's opinion of her.

"It's not the same thing."

"Well, you know what. They're making the sales. It's fine, they're excited, they're hungry wolves. I have a big meeting tomorrow with them and I'm no where done with the presentation. And Giacomo will be attending." Giacomo was the VP of sales. "I hate being so short in time. I'm gonna be working very late tonight."

"Don't you always?" replied Mariana, unimpressed.

"No, trust me, this is different. I've always worked hard, but this is another level. I feel like I'm doing the job of two full-time employees!"

"Don't kill yourself at work. We're just numbers; if we fall down, we'll be easily replaced."

"I know...Honestly being with Julian makes it so much better," she said with stars suddenly flickering in her eyes, "because I see how hard he works and he makes me feel...normal."

She had been living in a concrete tailormade fairytale since dating Julian. He worked a lot more than her and his drive enthralled her. Plus, their relationship worked perfectly because they had no problem being busy together. She spent most of her evenings at his place as they worked side by side or face to face on their laptops, with multiple passionate kissing sessions and occasional breaks to eat or watch true crime series. Life with Julian was everything she didn't know she needed.

"This is a very subjective opinion," replied Mariana. "This isn't normal to me at all. I could never work as much as you do," she said shaking her head.

"I'm not gonna lie, the amount of work I have is overwhelming sometimes. I can't wait until we hire the new analyst. Lucy will get off my back too."

Mariana rolled her eyes. "Speaking of! I still think it's odd that she's giving you tasks to do. You have too much on your plate already. You need to rat her out to Massimo!"

"I don't want to bother him with that. This is just temporary."

Massimo had reviewed the team structure following Jessie's promotion. It had been made clear that until her replacement would be hired, every team member had to do their own analyses in order to offload her into her new role.