Exchange Gift

FIRE AND ICE

By: @burijoonche

For: @anaen013

Prompt:
Archenemesis teaming up to organize a Christmas party /  "Baby it's cold outside, So Santa, baby hurry down the chimney tonight"

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A/N: So Team Cats, Dogs and Rabbits of AMACon 3 decided to do a fanfic exchange. Nothing fancy, but something we all love to do, writing, as a gift for our monitos and monitas. I enjoyed doing this, however fluffy or quickie it seems. Our monitas gave three prompts and we get to choose which to do for our stories. I chose two, and I hope to have done justice to it.

Merry Christmas @anaen013! Hope you like this.

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Nea felt like a scratching post. Why she even volunteered to help Maine was beyond her. She loves her best friend to pieces, but to work beside her on an event together with Richard was insanity.

"Meng, you do know you're being unreasonable, right? It's next to impossible to get them to play for that budget, on short notice at that!"

"Well, he said he can get them, he has connections he says, let's see how he smooth-talks his way in this."

She wanted to pull her hair. Maine's hair. And possibly a few really hard slaps.

By some not-so-divine intervention, Human Resources teamed Maine and Richard to organize their Christmas party. Some sick joke, Nea thinks. It was a well-known fact that the two are very hostile to each other. And they have sworn never to work together. But human resources was oblivious to the fiery energy between Maine Mendoza, Junior Marketing Manager, and Richard Faulkerson, Jr., MIS Specialist. Everyone in the marketing department are witnesses to how these two have exchanged heated arguments once for each working day. Either Maine will be fuming and bursting into the IT room, or Richard slamming the door of Maine's office. Not a day passes when curse words are heard. And everyone was careful not to intervene, lest they be caught in crossfire. Either you are on one side or the other. Except Nea. She's been friends with Maine since college and can easily shut her down whenever the other seems to be getting out of hand. Richard, on the other hand, was like the brother she's never had. He joined the company merely a year ago and yet he has wormed his way to everyone's hearts. Everyone except Maine, of course. He was this tech nerd and has made wonders to their management information system. Maine, on the other hand, is a 'slowly but surely' employee. Nea recruited her to join the company three years ago, seeing how Maine was a 'shark' in bagging deals and accounts even when they were interns back in college. She wasn't a warm person, Nea can attest to that. It took Nea three months before she can even coax Maine to join their Friday after-office drinks. It also helps that Nea is the VP for Sales.

So having these two, a fire and ice combination, organize their office Christmas party, is a nightmare.

"Is she insane, Nea?! I said I have connections, and by that I meant my brother knows a guy who is a cousin of their road manager. And I did not say I can get them! I just said that I know some guys! And that budget?! She's a marketing person, isn't it a little too dumb of her to put that amount for a band of that calibre?!"

"Hey, she's insane, but she's still my friend, Faulks. Careful on who you're calling dumb." Nea warned him, slapping Richard's head in the process. She's probably the only person in the whole company who can tolerate the bickering of these two. Not a few have approached her to mediate between them, especially when things were getting out of hand. Like when office property is about to get damaged.

Like a puppy, Richard sheepishly looked at Nea, flashing that irritatingly cute dimple of his. "Sorry Nea, I was out of bounds, I know, but Maine is seriously wicked. And it's the Christmas season! The icicles in her heart should at least be melting by now. Doesn't she even have a kind bone in her?" He rubbed his nape, possibly already tinkering in his head on how to actually get the band. That's probably the genius of this guy. He works on nearly impossible stuff, doing it in the most practical way possible. Their information system was a mess before he came on board. With a few process twitching, the system actually became sophisticated that it worked wonders not just in their communications system but in managing to package the marketing department's pitches and accounts. And that irritated Maine. A lot. She was more of a strategist, a long-term thinker and not an on-the-spot problem solver. She needed the time to think things through, to plan very carefully each pitch and dealings with clients. "Anything hastily done is only good for the garbage can." She slow cooks, as she puts it. Anything slow cooked has a lasting taste, she says, and will be forever etched in any client's minds, making them come back for more.