A Business Love

chapter 44

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Jessie nervously poured some coffee into her cup while frantically looking at her cell phone for the umptieth time since waking up. She was anxiously waiting for a text from Julian, some sort of explanation, some response. When she woke up that morning, she didn't find him anywhere and he hadn't left any note or text to let her know he was gone.

'Don't panic, Jessie, everything is fine. He must have had an emergency or something. You will see him at work.'

But she still panicked. He never left without notifying her, even if she was dead asleep. He was always thoughtful enough to leave her a note or a text message.

Jessie's insecurity was still through the roof, despite Julian's blameless behavior. She was terrified of being dumped overnight. Anything could trigger her insecurity and although she knew that this situation was nothing alarming, she could not help but imagine the worst.

She took a deep breath, shook her head and left for work. Either way, she was sure she would see him there.

Once at work, she checked her phone again. She saw that Julian had read her message but hadn't responded. Anxiety immediately started creeping in again.

'He left me on read?! Ok now, that's not normal! He's completely ignoring me! Something's happening. He must not love me anymore. That's it! He's no longer into me. This is the beginning of the end. Damn it, what have I done again?!'

Julian always answered her within seconds of receiving her messages normally. And she knew that his cellphone was always glued to his hand like his most precious possession.

She saw that he was active on the Teams chat. She didn't want to seem overbearing, but she needed to be reassured, so she wrote to him.

She waited, and waited; no answers.

Jessie was now in complete agony. Julian usually answered her during his meetings, even the most serious ones; that had always baffled her and made her feel special. Sometimes, all he wrote was 'IAM' which was code for 'In a meeting'. No matter how short the text, he always answered.

She opened up his Outlook calendar. Her heart dropped; he had no meeting scheduled right now. Why wasn't he answering if he had no meeting? Now her day was truly spoiled. Her heart was racing as she imagined that it was the end. Just like with everyone else in her life, his infatuation with her was gone, and now he couldn't care less about her. The fairy tale was officially over.

Jessie could feel the stress overtaking her and was in no condition to work. She immediately went to Mariana's office and closed the door behind.

"Oh crap, what's wrong?" said Mariana, looking at Jessie's drooping face.

"I think something's wrong with Julian and I," she blurted.

"How come?" Mariana asked surprised.

"This morning he left without waking me up or leaving any note. So, I texted him, he read my message and didn't reply. Then I messaged him on Teams and he never answered me as well, and he's not even in a meeting. I checked his calendar. It's almost noon and he hasn't given me the time of the day."

Mariana motioned for her to calm down with her hands. "Woah, slow down. Maybe he's just very busy today."

"No, you don't understand! Even when he's in a meeting, he answers me, he always texts back and he never leaves without telling me. That's it. He doesn't love me anymore. He probably woke up this morning and realized that it made no sense to be with me. I swear, if he breaks up with me again, I'm quitting this company, because I won't be able to ever see him again without my heart falling into pieces."