The Right Choice

Chapter 23

“I can’t believe how lucky you are,” said Penelope. Her voice was almost a whisper.

“I can’t believe it either,” Jessie said in wonderment as the shock of receiving her own project had still not sunk in. “I never thought that Mr. Browning would trust me this soon. This is truly a hu…”

“Shhh…” Penelope cut her off. “You don’t want anyone to find out so soon.”

Jessie was confused. She asked, “Why not?”

Penelope pulled Jessie closer with her arm and said, “There are people around here who will do anything to sabotage your work. By anything, I mean anything!”

Jessie’s eyes searched their immediate surroundings. They were at the cafeteria near the serving counter and were surrounded by complete strangers. Jessie wondered as to why those unknown to her would try to put her under the bus. They had problems of their own and probably didn’t care.

After her meeting, Jessie had told her colleagues about the project Mr. Browning had asked for her to handle. They had congratulated her and offered to help whenever required; even Sam had been forthcoming. Jessie had been pleasantly surprised at his willingness to help. ‘Penelope was right. Maybe he isn’t that bad after all.’

Now at the cafeteria below for lunch, Penelope was giving her bunch of do’s and don’ts as advice. Some made sense like planning ahead of time, making a schedule and sticking to it as much as possible, following up with the model maker and so on. While, others made no sense whatsoever. As per her, Jessie was to eat the two ‘C’s’ that is carrots, cabbage and three ‘S’s’ that’s sprouts, spinach and soya beans often. ‘They’ll help improve your brain functions.’ Penelope had replied in a shrill voice when Jessie asked the reason for doing that.

Jessie knew that Penelope meant well but some of her advice was downright odd. Just an hour prior to coming for lunch, she had drawn out an exercise chart for Jessie to follow. Apparently it included things like breathing exercises and yoga poses to sharpen her mind. Not to mention that Penelope had suggested running for half an hour at least. Jessie was confused about what was expected out of her. ‘Diet and exercise; I feel like I’m training to run a marathon.’

Jessie wanting to be polite and respectful of Penelope’s feelings had nodded and agreed to follow the schedule religiously. She had hoped that it would be the end of it. But much to her dismay, Penelope was giving her other crucial advice and past references regarding important projects. The entire montage of idea suggestions had continued even as they waited in line to collect their food. Initially though uninterested in it, Jessie’s curiosity was aroused when she heard of actual sabotage taking place.

Realizing Penelope’s fearful tone Jessie asked, “Are you talking about Dexter?”

“Yes!” Penelope said with a solemn look on her face. “A few months before you joined here, he had somehow managed to swap Neal’s flash drive with a tainted one. The minute Neal plugged it in to show the drawings to Mr. Richmond, a sleazy gay porn video started playing.”

“Are you joking? “ Jessie asked in shock. “I can’t believe he’d do something like that. That’s just low.”

“That’s not low. That’s just Dexter for you,” said Penelope.

“Wasn’t he caught? I mean he’s still working here, so clearly he wasn’t. But he should have been.” Jessie felt a surge of anger arise as she said that.

“That’s the thing.” Penelope moved sideways and while collecting her chicken salad and continued, “There was no proof. No one knew for sure how that happened. Poor Neal, he was not only embarrassed but humiliated. Mr. Richmond was on the verge of firing him but Russell assured him that Neal was the best.”