A Business Love

chapter 39

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Jessie heard the alarm from her cellphone ring and she routinely tossed around in the bed trying to caress Julian before closing it, but she didn't feel anything. She woke up startled, only to remember that she was in her former bedroom at her parent's house. She exhaled in relief. She hated waking up and not having him by her side, afraid that he had just up and left her forever.

She yawned and got off the bed as stress slowly washed over her. Today was the day she was finally going to meet Cecilia. She already knew that Cecilia was going to be rude and dismissive, but for the company's sake, Jessie had no choice but to take one for the team.

It was also the reason why she had decided to sleep at her parents' house instead of Julian's place. She knew that he could read her like an open book and she didn't want to tell him that she was meeting with Cecilia, as he would most likely interfere and slip a note to his sister.

Jessie wanted to show Cecilia that she was quite competent and able to handle a case without using her privileges as Julian's girlfriend. So, instead, she had told him that she wanted to spend a little bit of quality time with her parents, which was not completely false.

A notification popped on her phone and Jessie looked at it. She sighed in exasperation when she saw the note. Cecilia had for the hundredth time moved the meeting. Thankfully, it wasn't for another day, but another hour today.

After Sofia had spoken with Cecilia who finally accepted to discuss the issue, Jessie had been a bootlicker, trying to accommodate Cecilia's schedule at every turn for the past week, when in return Cecilia responded with ridiculous delays and one-word sentences to Jessie's polite and kind emails.

And here Jessie was, worrying herself sick about making a good impression on her today.

Her mom came to help her prepare like she always did when Jessie still lived with her parents and she had an important meeting.

"How do you want to do your hair?" Veronica asked.

Jessie was initially going to pull her most professional look to show Cecilia that she was serious and meant business. Hair in a tight low bun, black suit.

But then she thought, "Screw it!"

"You know what? Let's do a half up half down ponytail!" she exclaimed, sick and tired of trying to please Cecilia. She was going to rock her favourite hairstyle, even if Cecilia thought it was a childish one.

"Oh, you're gonna look beautiful!" said her mother.

Even though Jessie was not the typical housewife type of girl that Veronica thought she would be, she saw glimpse of herself in the way that Jessie liked to look girly and she always loved that about her.

"So, I wanted to talk about Julian," said her mother while tending to Jessie's hair.

Her parents had finally met him right before Jessie had moved in with him a couple weeks ago.

"What about him?" asked Jessie.

"I'm gonna be honest with you. For the longest time, I had hoped you'd be back with Michael."

Jessie sighed. "Ok mom, roll the credits on that chapter. That's just not gonna happen."

"I know, I know!" assured Veronica. "Let me finish...I wanted you to be back with Michael, because I love him very much. But after seeing you with Julian..." She paused. "He's the one for you."

Jessie smiled; she already knew that, but the fact that her mother had realized it too was extremely comforting.

"You're clearly fulfilled with him. He challenges you. You look up to him, and that's very important; to look up to the man you're with. And I've seen how he looks at you. As a mother, I can tell you, the way this man looks at you comforts me. Because I know that he will take care of my daughter in the best possible way. I've also seen how you look at him, and how you are around him. I've never seen this light in your eyes in the five years that you've been with Michael. I know I haven't been the nicest about it all, so I needed you to know that."