A Business Love

chapter 41

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June. The heat had officially returned. The sun had stopped rising late and setting early, thus the days seemed longer. People were happier. Summer had made its long-awaited appearance.

The whole marketing team was about to go out for lunch with some other colleagues that would join them as well. It was celebration time for Jessie. She had just landed a very important advertising deal with the most popular local TV channel that had the potential to make the private real estate line of business a very lucrative one. She had also created business relationships with notable influencers in the city who were advertising the Moretti Group's skyscraper condos and home's constructions. Jessie was simply thriving, she was on fire and nothing could stop her.

It did help that Julian was her boyfriend and could quickly approve her innovative ideas, but it didn't change the fact that she did have initiatives tumbling down one after the other. Even Mauro was thrilled and it was rare for him to be impressed.

L'appuntamento by Ornella Vanoni, a classic Italian song, was playing in the reception area, while everyone gathered close to Ginetta's desk jovially discussing amongst themselves.

Jessie was waltzing to the song when she saw Deluca arrived from the stairs.

"Deluca! I thought you couldn't come?!" she shouted with much excitement.

"I moved things around just for you my little Jessie," he said while approaching her.

"Oh, you're the best! Thank you!" she said grateful.

"Hey, I hope we have a good reservation because there are a lot of people there," said Deluca looking around at all the people that were gathered.

"Yeah, I don't know, people keep adding themselves! I hope we get enough seats."

Indeed, there were a lot of people there to celebrate Jessie's success, including two VPs apart from Massimo.

Natalia, who didn't have a choice but to be there as well, was looking around, seething with jealousy. Her little smear campaign against Jessie had died down, although she had tried to keep it alive. People just stopped talking about it. Jessie was back to being the company's little sweetheart and judging by the number of people here to celebrate her, people in general didn't think that she was a tease anymore.

Julian wasn't going to be present at this lunch, however he was meeting a client and had to leave right at that time. He rushed to the elevators  to get down to the reception and was surprised at the traffic there was once he arrived on the ground floor. He immediately noticed the VPs that were there, and greeted them while fixing his dress suits.

And then he saw Jessie, waltzing with Deluca and singing with passion the classic Italian song playing. He internally rolled his eyes; he knew this was innocent but he hated when she got too excited about a song and danced with the first person she knew, even if it was a man, completely oblivious to the fact that she was making this man's day.

But she was absolutely exquisite in her red flower summer dress, he couldn't stop eyeing her. Jessie finally saw him from afar and a radiant smile appeared on her face. Julian couldn't stay mad at her; her big smile was too adorable. He could always sense her excitement whenever she saw him somewhere.

Although their relationship was out, they never really exposed themselves in front of their colleagues. Jessie was still hyper aware of people's opinion of her, thus she tried not to spike their curiosity even more, even hoping most days that they would forget that her boyfriend was the COO.

However, she knew that the people that were there to celebrate her wins did so because they believed she was a competent employee. Well, most of them, excluding Natalia and Lucy. Either way, Jessie felt like it was a safe place to casually greet her boyfriend.

She walked up to Julian. "Hello!" she said still beaming with a smile.

"Hi, having fun?"

"Oh Julian, don't start," she said as she knew what he meant. She had seen how he had stared at Deluca.

"I didn't say anything," he raised his hands in an innocent way. "How are you?" he asked always with that alarming intentionality.

The way Julian looked at her with so much tenderness always made it obvious that they were romantically involved. She loved him for that but at the same time, she always hoped he could keep his passionate stares on the low when they were surrounded by colleagues. Jessie could feel the curious stares and she was increasingly getting nervous.

"Good, good. Well, have a good meeting!"

"And have a good lunch," he said seeing that she was starting to be stressed. If it was up to him, and him only, he would have kissed her right then and there. He couldn't care less about people's stares; Jessie was his girl. But he knew how that felt for her and he respected her point of view.

Natalia looked from afar how Julian and Jessie were discussing and her heart thumped with envy. Why? Why did Jessie had to have everything for herself? It wasn't enough that she was beautiful, she also had to be intelligent and have a rich and handsome boyfriend. She had the perfect life and everyone just adored her. Natalia felt like that was unfair. She couldn't care less that Jessie was kind-hearted, she hated her with a passion.

Minutes later, the whole crew finally headed out to the restaurant, happily walking down the street. They liked walking outside to the nearby restaurants when summer hit. Fresh air, walking under the sun for some vitamin D and a earthy meal that would leave them slightly comatose for the rest of the day: the perfect combination.

Jessie was beside Sofia, both with one earphone and singing to the Bruno Mars' It Will Rain song that played from Sofia's iPhone. At the same time, Julian who was driving by, honked Jessie and mimicked a kiss while she waved at him with excitement.

This all felt too good to be true to Jessie; all these people gathered together for her, walking down the street singing songs with someone who seemed to like her, her hot boyfriend blowing her kisses. She had never been a likeable girl, she could have never imagined this scenario in her wildest dreams. She had never been the main character in her own life. And all of a sudden, things were changing. She knew that all these people didn't consider her a friend per se, more like a cool colleague, but she was willing to accept that because it felt absolutely good.