A Business Love

chapter 1.1

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Lucy had received a call from Ginetta announcing Jessie's arrival. She was the Marketing Director with whom Jessie had been in contact for this project.

Lucy was extremely annoyed that Jessie was there forty-five minutes early. Jessie's eagerness and enthusiasm constantly bugged her.

Lucy didn't have the patience to entertain a student. But when she had received Jessie's email three months ago, offering to develop a digital marketing strategy for the company as part of her master thesis, Lucy had immediately accepted her offer since Massimo, the Marketing Vice-President, had been asking her for months to develop one for the company.

Lucy didn't have the knowledge to carry on such a project and with Jessie's offer, she saw the opportunity to have someone help her get started, free of charge. And considering Jessie's seriousness over that project, Lucy knew that she had gotten a good deal. She was totally planning on taking advantage of Jessie's work and present a tweaked version to Massimo. Of course, she had no intentions of giving any credit to Jessie.

Lucy walked towards the reception area. "Hi Jessie, wasn't the meeting at 10?" she said with an annoyed look when she saw Jessie sitting on one of the visitors' couches. 

"Oh, hi Lucy! Yes, it is!" promptly responded Jessie while getting up. "I just wanted to be able to prepare and install. If possible, of course."

"Oh. Okay," said Lucy with no emotion.

Lucy was always very serious; Jessie couldn't remember if she had ever seen her smile. She always dressed with a black suit and her black hair was always tucked into a tight low bun. She was a frail but tall Asian woman, which was rare in this company where ninety percent of the employees had an Italian background.

Lucy turned away, expecting Jessie to follow her and not even offering to help with her materials.

Jessie had no choice but to let go of an item and unfortunately, her much needed Starbucks coffee was the victim. She put it on top of the immaculate white marble reception desk and looked awkwardly at Ginetta, "Would you mind putting this in the garbage please?"

She then clumsily followed Lucy as quickly as possible. Lucy was a fast walker. It almost felt like a little jog to follow her.

Lucy directed her in the marketing conference room. "I'll be back at 10, as originally agreed, for the presentation," she said with a fake smile, making it clear that she had no time to entertain Jessie.

Lucy's discontent didn't bother Jessie; having the opportunity to showcase the strategy that she had passionately worked hard on was worth enduring Lucy's condescending behavior. She was persuaded that Lucy's cold attitude towards her would change once she'd realized that her work was serious. 

Jessie looked around the elegant white and light wooden conference room with a beatific smile on her face. The real world. Not a classroom; a real business conference room.

She took her cellphone and took a picture of the room that she then posted on her Instagram page. Yes, she was that kind of girl who snapped photos of her environment and posted them on her social media.  

She then proceeded to set up her material, when she heard someone coming.  "Hello, are you using the conference room?" the man asked.

She turned around and recognized Massimo, the Vice-President of marketing. Her eyes immediately illuminated and her brain flashed 'networking opportunity' signals in red. She had never had a chance to talk to him or even be introduced to him. She had asked Lucy to do so several times, but she had never arranged a meeting in three months.