After the meeting, Jessica was walking towards her office and someone pulled
her into another room.
She turned around and saw that it was Richard and they were in a room she had
not seen before.
She was a bit confused and she looked around, trying to figure out where she
was.
The room was a bedroom. It had a huge bed, a fridge, television and everything
that a normal bedroom would have.
“Are you okay? You were dozing off in the meeting”, he said to her.
“Yeahhh, I’m sorry for that and thanks for the save”.
“Did you have a sleepless night or you didn’t sleep early?”
“I didn’t sleep early. My friend, Dean wasn’t feeling too good and I had to take
him to the hospital and when we got back home, I had to stay up with him for a
while and so I slept really late, she said, looking away.
“Ohh, I see. Then you can rest in here and when you’re okay, you can get back to
work.”
“What? Do you want me to get fired? And what room is this? I’ve never seen it
before”.
“There are two of this in here. This is mine for when I want to take a quick nap or
get sometime alone”.
“Oh I see. And Erica has hers?”
“Yeah. So yeah, you can take a short nap here”.
“I love the offer but Erica is going to fire me for this”.
“I’ll talk to her, don’t worry about it”.
“No, no, you can’t do that. She’s going to assume there’s something going on or
she might think that I’m using you or something. I don’t want to have any
problem with Erica. She’s been so good to me and she needs me, so I can’t just
sleep in here”, she said to him and he was surprised.
He observed her for a while and he was impressed at how thoughtful and diligent
she was.
“Okay, that’s fine. Then you need to take a cup of coffee to keep your eyes open”,
he said to her and he walked into another room and came out with a cup of
coffee.
“Thank you so much Richard. I really appreciate everything you’re doing for me”.
“You’re welcome”, he said, staring into her eyes.
“I think I’ll drink this is in my office”, she said to him and he nodded.
“Do you need a ride home tonight?”
“I’ll love that”, she said, smiling.
“What time?”
“6pm hopefully, I’ll like to go home early and sleep”.
“Alright. I’m stepping out but I’ll be back before 6. Take care of yourself”, he said
to her and she nodded.
She poked her head out to be sure that no one was in the hallway. She didn’t
want anyone to assume the wrong things.
The hallway was clear and then she stepped out and walked into her office.
As soon as she sat down, Lisa walked in.
“Heyyy”, Lisa said to her.
“Hey Lisa, I feel like I’ve not seen you in years”, Jessica said to her.
“Well, you’re always busy so…”
“Yeaahhh, that’s true. So what’s up with you?”
“I came to see Mr Day but he’s not in his office so I decided to say hi”.
“Oh okay. We just closed from a meeting, I think he’d be in his office soon”.
“Okay, I’ll check again before leaving”.
“Alright”.
“And also, I want to invite you for my birthday this weekend”.
“Your birthday? Oh wow. Happy birthday in advance. Is it on a Saturday or
sunday?”
“Saturday and it’s going to a dinner, so you can bring a plus one”, she said,
winking at her.
“I don’t have that kind of plus one you’re thinking of but yeah, I’ll definitely get a
friend to come with me”.
“Okayyyy, I’ll be expecting him”, she said, winking.
“It might not be a him”, she said, smirking.
“Hmmm, we’ll see. Anyway, I’ll send you the details. I’ll take my leave now before
my boss goes MIA”, she said, chuckling.
“Alright”, Jessica said, laughing and she left.
She sipped her coffee and got back to work.
Later in the day, she called Dean to check up on him and Anastasia picked up
phone.
“Hi Jessica”, she said to her and Jessica wasn’t too surprised about it.
“Hi Anastasia. How’s he doing?”
“He just took his afternoon medication and he fell asleep right after that”.
“Oh thank God. He needs the sleep to not feel the whole malaria pain and
headache”.
“Yeahhh”.
“Has he eaten?”
“Not really. I’ve been trying to get him to eat but he’s not eating. But he drank
malt though. So I think that’s okay”.
“Yeahhh. I’ll see if I can get some fruits for him when coming home”.
“Yeahh, that’ll be great”.
“Alright then, let him know I called. Bye”.
“Sure bye”, she said and she hung up.
Jessica was in Erica’s office and they were going through the pictures of the new
fashion models who applied to be models for the company.
“Wow, this lady is really tall. I think we can pick her too”, Jessica said to her.
“Yeah but we’ve picked like 3 tall women. I think we should add someone who’s a
bit below 5’5”.
“Yeah you’re right”.
They spent their time going through more pictures and they finally selected 10
ladies.
“Good job Jessica. You made this so easy for me. I usually don’t pick the ladies
myself but I just wanted to do it this time to avoid any form of partial selection
from the team in charge of this”.
“Yeah, I understand. It’s good that you did this yourself”.
“Yeahhh. Have you confirmed tomorrow’s meeting?”
“Yeah, I have”.
“Same location, same time?”
“Yes”.
“Alright then. Let’s get to it tomorrow”.
“Okay”, she said to her and she left the office.
She looked at her time and it was about 20 minutes passed 6.
And I told Richard 6, what if he’s already gone? She said to herself and she
decided to go to his office to check if he was in there but he wasn’t there.
She decided to check the bedroom which was by his office.
She knocked and waited for him to open up.
“Richard. Are you in there?” She whispered.
“Yeahhh, come in”, he said to her and when she walked in, she saw him buttoning
up his shirt and his chest was exposed.
“Ooh, I didn’t know you were dressing up”, she said, looking away. For some
reason unknown to her, the sight of his chest, sent a bit of a chill down her spine.
“Yeah I’m just putting on my shirt. Are you ready to go?” He asked.
“Yeahhh. I’m going to pack up my bag”, she said to him and as she was about to
leave, Erica walked in.
“What’s going on here?” She asked, looking at Richard who was buttoning his
shirt and then she looked at Jessica.
“Oh Lord, what do I say to her?” She said, shaking in her shoes.
“Jessica, what’s going on here?” She asked and she began to sweat.
Richard didn’t really care about what Erica had to say but when he saw how
frightened Jessica was, he decided to help her out.
“Same question I was asking her. I was in here, dressing up and she just walked
in. Apparently she saw the door open and wanted to see what was in here”, he
said to Erica.
“Oh yeah, you don’t know about the bedrooms. I actually have one too”, Erica said
to her and Jessica heaved a huge sigh of relief.
“There are two bedrooms in here. This one is Richard’s and mine is at the other
end”, she said to Jessica and she nodded.
“Anyway, Richard I wanted to ask if…” she started to say and Jessica left the room
to her office.
“That was a quick save! Whew!! And Richard is so smart. How did he even come
up with that?” She said to herself as she took her seat behind her table.
“Now, I don’t think I can go with him. I’ll just have to take the bus”, she said,
packing her stuff and she left the office.
When she got to the front of the building, she got a phone call from her sister and
she spoke to her for a while and hung up.
She was about to walk to the bus-top but Richard showed up.
“Jess!” He called out and she turned around to face him.
“Let’s go”, he said to her and she was hesitant about it.
“I’ll be stopping by the supermarket to get some fruits. So don’t worry, I’ll just
take the bus”.
“I can stop by the supermarket”, he said to her and she didn’t know what other
excuse to give.
“I’ll be uhmm…okay”, she said, giving up.
She looked around to make sure that no one was watching them. She didn’t want
any rumor of any sort to come her way.
“Alright, let’s go”, he said to her.
“Okay”, she said to him and she followed him to the car park and she kept some
distance between them.
They both got into the car and he drove off.
“What supermarket do you want to stop by?”
“There’s one very close to my house”, she said to him and he nodded.
“Thank you for getting me out of trouble earlier on”.
“You’re welcome”, he said to her and they were quiet for a while.
“Why are you so nice to me?” She asked. “I know the other time I said something
stupid but now I really want to know because you don’t really talk to anyone at
the office but you talk to me and you’re always helping me out and you’re so
extra nice to me”, she said to him and he was quiet.
She waited for him to speak but he didn’t say a word. This made her a little bit
annoyed but she let it slide.
“That’s the supermarket”, she said, pointing at it and he pulled over in front of it.
“Thank you so much”, she said, stepping out of the car and he nodded.
She went into the supermarket and when she came out, she was surprised to see
his car still parked there.
“Richard”, she said walking towards his window side.
“You done?” He asked.
“Yeah but you didn’t have to wait. My house isn’t far from here, it’s just a walking
distance”.
“Oh okay. But I’m here so, let me drop you off”, he said to her and she got into the
car.
When they arrived at her building, she didn’t get off. She still wanted an answer
to her question.
“Richard, I asked you earlier on why you were being extra nice to me. I want to
know because you don’t even know me like that”, she said to him and he turned
to face her and was staring at her.
The stare was quite intense and she didn’t know how to feel about it, so she
looked away.
“I guess you’re not going to say anything as usual”, she said to him and she was
about to step out but he grabbed her hands.
The hand grab sent some chills within her and it made her feel certain feelings
that she didn’t know existed.
She turned to face him and they both stared at each other.
“It’s too soon for me to be upfront about this but I guess it’s quite obvious that I
have a thing for you”, he said, staring at her.
She stared at him too and she didn’t know what to say or how to feel about it.
“Why did I ask?” she said to herself as she thought of what next to say to him.
“Good night Jessica”, he said to her and she nodded.
“Good night Richard”, she said to him and she stepped out of the car.
As she walked into the building, all she could think about was what he said to her
in his car.
“Why me? No, I just think he wants me in bed. But what if I’m just being
judgmental. No it has to be it because it doesn’t make sense why he’ll have a thing
for me. But he’s been super nice and….arghhhh. I should have just kept my big
mouth shut”, she said to herself as she walked up the stairs and she finally
arrived at her door.
She opened up the door and she saw Dean in the hall with Anastasia. They were
cuddled up in a blanket as they watched a movie.
“Hey”, she said to them and they both turned to face her.
“You’re back”, Anastasia said to her.
“Yes and I come bearing fruits”, she said, smiling.
“I don’t want to eat that”, Dean said, sitting up.
“Well, you don’t have a choice. I’m going force this down your throat”, she said to
him and he frowned.
“I’ll be back”, she said to them and she walked into the kitchen and placed the
fruits on the counter.
She went into her room and took a quick shower and after that she went to the
kitchen to slice the watermelon and apple that she got for him.
She walked into the hall and sat in front of Dean.
“Now that you’re here, I’m going to take a quick shower”, Anastasia said to her
and she left.
“I don’t want to eat that”, Dean said to her and she mimicked him.
“I don’t care, you’re going to eat it. Open that mouth before I force this in your
mouth. You know you’re sick and weak. So I’ve got the upper hand here”.
“Jess, I don’t…” before he could end his statement, she used her hands to put the
fruit in his mouth and she held it down. He grabbed her hands and tried to pull it
off and they got into a struggle.
He was able to get her hands off and he grabbed the other hand too and held it
down. She struggled to pull her hands out and they ended up on the floor with
him on top of her.
They were in that position for a while and he got on his feet and helped her up.
“Dean please eat the fruits. You need it”, she said to him as he sat on the couch.
“No, I don’t feel like eating it Jess. I don’t have the appetite”.
“Just eat about 5 and I’ll be out of your hair. I promise”, she said to him.
“Fine! Just 5”, he said to her and she smiled.
She used her hands to feed him and they both kept staring at each other each
time he took a bite.
This made her a bit happy, she loved sharing such moments with him although
she wasn’t sure how he felt about her.
As she fed him, he actually ate more than 5 because they were both busy staring
at each other and they lost count.
Dean also grabbed one of the fruits and placed it her mouth and she chuckled.
“Ohh you’re trying to get me to eat it too”, she said, laughing.
“You’ve actually made me eat more than 5. You’re a fraud”, he said to her and she
laughed.
“You’ve done so well. Now, I can stay out of your hair”, she said, getting on her
feet.
“Do you want some water?” She asked and he nodded.
“I’ll be right back”, she said to him and she went to the kitchen to put the fruits in
the fridge and when she got back, Anastasia was already there and she was
kissing him.
This annoyed her but she waved it off. “I have to stop being bitter about this.
That’s his girlfriend and they can do whatever they want”, she said to herself.
She dropped the bottle of water by him and she walked away.
She got on her bed and grabbed her phone. As she was scrolling through social
media, she remembered Richard and what he said to her earlier on.
This made her smile and she thought about it for a while and drifted off to sleep
because she was so tired.
Jessica and Erica returned from their meeting with one of their clients and when
they got back to the office, she had to go to the design room to work on some
clothes.
When she was done with that, she went back to her office to rest a bit but that
didn’t last long. Erica called her to type some letters for her.
As she was doing that in Erica’s office, Erica got a call and she mentioned
Richard’s name.
“No, I haven’t seen him in the office today”, she said over the phone.
“Yeah, ask Ellen. They seem to have been hanging out a lot lately”.
