A Business Love

chapter 23.1

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The next day, Julian was in a meeting with Massimo, ready to execute his little plan. There was no way in his mind that he would stand by and watch Jessie kill herself at work.

"How are things with your team by the way?" casually asked Julian at the end of their meeting.

"Good, good!" answered Massimo, not knowing what more to add.

"I've had a meeting with Giacomo and he told me that the social media exposure was bringing in a lot of sales so far. He's very happy."

"Yes, indeed, we already have good results. My little kiddo, Jessie, she's working really hard. She comes up with a new idea almost every week. She can't execute them all; she doesn't have the bandwidth, but once she does, I can tell you, she'll be unstoppable."

Julian hid his satisfaction finding it almost too easy to bring Massimo to where he wanted to. "Didn't you hire someone in your team to help recently?" he asked.

"Yes, I did!" answered Massimo surprised that Julian remembered that. "But Jessie needs a dedicated analyst. She's doing the job of two people right now. As per your recommendation when we first presented the budget for this project, we are waiting for the manpower exercise to get this new role approved. We won't have it until next year."

"You know what? I'd like to see the partial ROI. Maybe we can reconsider."

Massimo's eyes lit up. "Yes, absolutely, Julian. We can get you that info."

As soon as Massimo got back to his office, he called Jessie in.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I have very good news! Sit down!"

"Okay! What is it?" asked an excited Jessie while sitting down in the chair in front of his desk.

"I just got out of my meeting with Julian. He may be willing to approve the second analyst role outside of the manpower exercise. Which means you could have some help before next year."

Jessie acted surprised, but inside of her she couldn't believe what Julian was doing and she felt like a complete hypocrite in front of Massimo.

"Wow, that's awesome!" she pretended.

"I thought you would be more excited," he said with a suspicious look.

"No, I am! I was...just not expecting this."

"Me neither! So, I need you to calculate the partial ROI so that I can send that info to Julian ASAP before he forgets about that conversation and changes his mind."

She was completely appalled. Julian knew full well what the partial ROI was as she had told him just the day before. This little circus made her wholeheartedly uneasy.

"I've already calculated it actually. I always track it," she said.

"Great! That's even better. Send it to me ASAP."

She went back to her office and did not hesitate one second to call Julian's phone line.

"Hi Jess. I leave in 5, I'm meeting with a client," he answered knowing perfectly why she was calling him.

"Julian Moretti. What have you done?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he lied.

She sighed. "You can't do that, amore. That's not fair," she then said.

"What's not fair about it? The partial ROI is great, and I'm aware of the situation. It's a very objective decision."

"Yeah, very objective," she said sarcastically. "I don't need things to be handed to me just because we're dating!" she pleaded.