The choices we make [Completed]

Chapter 2 - Shifting gears

Chapter 2 - Shifting gears

It was a different Patrick who faced them two weeks later. He was more involved, giving insightful suggestions, and was very much on point with everything.

Even Olena was quite impressed but she kept it to herself.

Rachel and the rest of her team were gushing enough about the guy, she thought, amused.

"This is quite good," she praised the team. "I'm surprised you were able to capture exactly what we wanted, even if this is our first time to work together."

Allan beamed at the compliment.

"That's because we're good at what we do, ma'am."

Olena nodded, she didn't mind a bit of bragging as long as they had the right to do so. And based on their performance so far, Patrick's team was excellent.

The development of the new prpduct was underway and they needed to get this video project started. It was a critical part of their launch after all.

Having seen how sharp Patrick was with details, Olena felt more relaxed and pleased with her decision to award the project to their company.

She was planning to hand over the coordination to Axel, one of her more senior staff, then have her assistant Rachel join in as part of her training.

Lena herself only needed to get involved in the major decisions.

"So Haidee, are you going to be the lead for your team?" Olena confirmed.

At Haidee's nod, she continued, "From our end it will be Axel. He will be in charge of all preparations and we'll just coordinate internally as needed, I won't be joining the next meetings so I'll see you all at the shoot."

Olena stood up, expecting the meeting to be finished but Patrick suddenly spoke up and Olena sat back down again, waiting to hear what other issues they had to discuss.

"I thought this project was quite important," Patrick said forcefully, a steely glint in his eye. "Shouldn't you be more involved, as the head of the department?"

Olena was taken aback. No supplier had ever challenged her directly like that before.

She raised an eyebrow and directed her reply to Patrick.

"I believe it's my call and it's beyond your scope to be telling me how to do my job."

He didn't back down as she thought he would and instead pushed her further.

"Well, it's because I thought this was a highly critical project that I got personally involved in the first place," he drawled.

"If that's not the case then I'll assign one of the other directors instead."

Lena found herself consciously holding her temper in check.

"Go ahead," she finally replied through gritted teeth. "Just make sure the project is executed with the level of quality we expect."

She held Patrick's challenging stare with her own for a few seconds before turning around and walking out of the room.

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Patrick cursed himself silently as his team made their way back to their office in the company van.

Before coming over, he had made a firm resolve to ignore his reactions to Olena. I'm too old to have a crush, he muttered to himself angrily.

It was definitely against his principle to have an affair with a married woman. He found it distateful and he always looked down on people who cheated on their spouses.

He wasn't about to become one, no matter how attracted he was to that woman.

Her excusing herself from direct involvement in the project preparations was actually good for him, because that meant less interactions between them until the day of the shoot, and hopefully by then he'd have gotten over this childish crush.

So why then did he object?

He wasn't even thinking of voicing his objection until the words were out of his mouth and he had no choice but to stand by them.

Which made matters worse.

Now he had to pull in one of the other directors and brief him on the project. If he can find one who's free, that is.

These days, his company has gotten so many high profile projects that they are almost always short handed and hiring has not been as quick as he would have wanted.

Despite his best efforts, his thoughts drifted back to Olena.

She was wearing work pants today and looked more casual than the first time he saw her but damn, she still looked hot.

Especially when she got irritated with what he said, the fire that burned in her eyes seemed to reach into his soul, searing him with her mark.

He wondered what she would be like in bed, when that fire she only hinted at today was actually let loose in full force.

Cursing himself again, he made a mental note to hook up with one of his friends-with-benefits later. It's been a while since he last got laid, that's probably why his hormones are acting up.

"Boss?"

"Hey Pax!"

Several voices were trying to grab his attention.

Looking over, he saw Haidee and Allan looking at him weirdly.

"We've been calling you for like a minute and you looked like you zoned out," Haidee said accusingly. "What's up with you?"

Haidee was a motherly figure who has been with him almost since the beginning so she felt no qualms with confronting him. Their relationship were more of comrades than an employer-employee.

"Are you sick, boss?" Allan, who was new to the team, asked him.

"No," he said curtly.

Knowing they don't deserve to bear the brunt of his frustration, he tried to calm himself down and spoke again.

"I'm just a bit tired. This is a big project and I've been staying up late fine tuning the plans."

Haidee eyed him suspiciously but said nothing more.

He sat back on the chair, resolving once again to not let Olena get to him next time.

Taking his phone from his pocket, he quickly dialled a number.

"Hi Pinky, are you free tonight?"

He saw Haidee rolling her eyes at him but he ignored her as he proceeded to set a date for later.