A Business Love

chapter 38

YOU ARE READING
A   B U S I N E S S   L O V E

Another week had passed. People seemed to want to move on from the Jessie/Julian saga, but Natalia was absolutely stubborn as her hatred was only increasing for reasons she didn't even know herself anymore. She wanted to see Jessie fail, to see her crumble, to break her. She signed on as the president of the "We Hate Jessie" club and made it her mission to make Jessie's life a walking nightmare.

Despite the multiple warnings Natalia had received, she continued to fuel confusing rumors about Jessie. HR had been relentlessly trying to find an angle to fire her since Sylvia's discussion with Julian, but it was all in vain, as Natalia always spread the rumours anonymously.

Many people had given up and stopped believing her, seeing clearly that the whole thing was completely absurd. But the girls who were secretly in love with Julian and green with envy continued to fuel Natalia's fake rumors.

Yet, within herself, Natalia admired Jessie and dreamed of having her life. Whenever she was outside of work, she copied everything Jessie did; the way she dressed, the way she did her makeup and hair and even down to the way she expressed herself.

Massimo was aware of the tensions in his team, but he didn't know about the nitty-gritty details of it all. This is why, in a complete oblivious way, he had sent an invite to everyone to have lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant for none other than Natalia's birthday.

Everyone was appalled when they received the invitation. They were all aware of Natalia's actions and thought they were disgusting.

They all replied to Jessie, one by one, telling her that they were declining the invite. But Jessie, being a good cheer, asked them all to go as she didn't want to create more tension in the team. It was well against their will that they accepted to go.

La Casa di Mama, the small restaurant located not far from the office, was a place of choice for employees of The Moretti Group. The service was fast, the pasta and pizza excellent and they had corporate discounts. They often frequented this place for team lunches.

Natalia was jubilant as she was sitting at the middle of the table while Massimo made her the center of attention. The rest of the team was unsettled, but they all followed Jessie's cues, and she acted in a cordial and polite way which had everyone baffled.

They all wondered how she was able to bear this. If only for them, in her place, they would all have shamelessly used the favors of their COO boyfriend in order to get Natalia fired.

"So, Natalia, what are your plans for your birthday?" asked Massimo enthusiastically.

"I'll be celebrating all weekend long! So, Friday night, I'm having a birthday dinner with my girlfriends –"

She was interrupted by Giacomo, the VP of Sales and Alessandro, the VP of Real Estate that were passing by their table.

"Massimo!" exclaimed Giacomo giving him a handshake.

The three VPs immediately started chatting together, mindless of the other team members. It took a brief pause for them to realize that other people were at the table.

"Oh, you're having a team lunch!" said Alessandro finally looking around.

"Yes! We're celebrating a birthday," replied Massimo.

"Jessie!" suddenly exclaimed Giacomo when his eyes fell on her. "I hadn't seen you there! How are you? It's not your birthday, is it?" he asked while moving towards her.

Jessie was very happy that Giacomo had approached her as she had business things that she wanted to discuss with him. She jumped on the occasion like the true opportunist that she was and immediately got up to join him.