“Lisaaaaa, if he’s that good, then you can date him”.
“Oh no. I don’t like him that way and he doesn’t like me that way too”.
“Mmmm, and I don’t like him that way either”.
“But you’ve not even spoken to him before”.
“Lisaaaaa, I really don’t want to get into anything right now”.
“Wait!! I think I just saw my boss. I need to run something by him. I’ll see you
later”, she said, getting on her feet and she ran off.
As soon as she left, Philip walked up to Jessica and sat by her.
“Argh!!!” She said, to herself and when she saw him sitting by her.
“Hi Jessica. How are you doing?” He asked.
“I’m fine, thank you”.
“Ever since you got here, I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to you so I decided to say
hi”.
“Oh okay. Thank you”.
“So are you enjoying your time here?”
“Yeah, I am”.
“And….”
“Woah! It’s passed 2! Oh my God, I have to go. I have a meeting right now”, she
said, getting on her feet.
“I’m so sorry uhmm Patrick? Or is it Paul?”
“It’s Philip”, he said, smiling.
“Oh yeah, Philip. I’m so sorry. I’ll see you around”, she said, running off.
Erica called for a meeting at 2 to talk to her the board and the lawyers concerning
the lawsuit. The meeting had started and Jessica was late
“Oh God. I hope I’m not too late”, she said to herself as she patiently waited for
the elevator to get to the right floor.
As soon as she got off the elevator, she ran to the conference room.
When she walked in, everyone had their eyes on her and Jessica felt like entering
the ground.
“I’m so sorry”, she said to them and she sat by Erica.
“I’m so sorry Erica, I got car…”
“Don’t let it happen again”, she said, giving her a stern look.
“It won’t. I’m so sorry “.
“And where’s your tablet? Or how do you plan to record this meeting and take
notes?” She asked and Jessica realized that she didn’t come with it.
The tablet was in her office and she didn’t have the time to go for it.
“Jessica?!”
“I left it in my office. Can I go for it?”
“Are you kidding me? The meeting has already started and you missed out some
part of it and now you don’t even have a tablet to record anything”.
“I’m so sorry, it would never ha….”
“You can use mine”, Richard said, whispering to them and Jessica was shocked to
see that he was sitting next to her on her right hand side.
“Thank you!” Jessica said, taking it from him.
“Thank you Richard”, Erica said to him and he nodded.
The meeting continued and in less than an hour, they were done.
Jessica waited behind because she wanted to apologize to Erica for her being
late.
Richard also waited behind. He wanted to see how things would play out with
Erica and Jesica.
“Erica I’m so sorry for being late. I really am, I was having my lunch and I got
carried away. I’m so so sorry”.
“Jessica you know how I don’t like lateness”.
“Yeah, I know. I’m so sorry, it wouldn’t happen again”.
“Hmmm, it’s alright. Transfer the audio and notes to your tablet and give this
back to Richard”.
“Alright thank you”, she said, getting on her feet. She could feel Richard staring at
her but she avoided eye contact and she left the conference room.
She got back to her office and quickly copied everything to her tablet.
She quickly ran off to Richard’s office and she was hoping that he wouldn’t be in
there and he wasn’t. She quickly placed it on his table and as she turned around
to leave, she bumped into him.
“Ouch!” She exclaimed.
“Are you okay?” He asked.
“Yeahhh, I just dropped off your tablet on your table. Thank you so much”, she
said, avoiding eye contact and trying to walk away and he stood in her way.
“Do I make you feel uncomfortable?” He asked.
“What? No! You don’t”.
“You look a bit tensed and you’ve been avoiding eye contact. Did I overstep my
boundaries yesterday?” He asked.
“No, no. I practically forced you into saying it”.
“Then why are you acting so strange?”
“I’m still trying to process everything Richard and..”
“Mr Day”, someone said, knocking on the door which was half way open.
Jessica turned around and it was Lisa.
“Thank you so much Mr Day for the tablet”, Jessica said to him and she left.
Jessica was in her office, packing up to leave and she received a call from Erica.
“Jessica, are you still in the office?”
“Yeah, I was just about to leave”.
“Oh okay. Can you pass by Miss Jen’s house to pick up some documents and then
bring it back to me in the office?” She asked and Jessica frowned.
She wasn’t too happy about going to miss Jen’s house.
“Okay, I will”.
“Alright, I’ll be expecting it”, she said, hanging up.
“Argghhhh!!!” Jessica said in frustration but she had no choice. So she requested
an Uber and she left.
When she arrived at miss Jen’s house, she waited for her in the lounge for a very
long time.
“What’s wrong with this woman?! It’s been more than 30 minutes now and it’s
getting late”, she thought to herself.
She saw one of the maids walk by and she called her.
“Hello, excuse me”, she said to her and the maid walked up to her.
“How may I assist you ma’am?”
“Can you let Miss Jen know that I’m still waiting”.
“Okay ma’am”, she said to her and she left.
Jessica sat there waiting and there was no sign of miss Jen.
“Oh God, this woman is getting on my nerves! And I’m so hungry”, she said,
placing her hand on her grumbling stomach.
She was about to call Erica but then Richard walked into the lounge and she was
surprised to see him there.
“Hey”, he said to her.
“Hey”, she said to him and she looked away.
“What are you doing here?” He asked.
“Erica asked me to take some documents from miss Jen”.
“Okay, have you…” he started to say but he was interrupted by one of the maids.
“Hello Mr Day, you’re welcome. Please come with me”, the lady said to him.
“Alright. Jessica, let’s go in”, he said to her and she hesitated.
“Are you sure I can come in?”
“Yeahhh, let’s go”, he said to her and she got on her feet and followed him in.
They walked into a living room and although Jessica found the place to be
beautiful, she didn’t really care about it because she was pissed.
“Miss Jen would be here with you shortly”, the maid said to her and she left.
Richard looked at Jessica who was sitting opposite him and he saw that she was
annoyed.
“Jessica, are you okay?”
“No!” She said, snapping at him. “I’ve been waiting here for almost an hour now
and it’s not even funny. And it’s already getting late. How can she keep someone
waiting for that long?” She said, ranting.
“An hour?? That’s absurd. Let me call her and..”
“Richarddddd”, miss Jen said, walking into the living room with excitement
written all over her face.
“You got to be kidding me!” Jessica said to herself.
“Hey Ellen”, he said to her and she walked up to him and sat by him.
“I was just..” she started to say but he interrupted her.
“Jessica has been waiting for you for almost an hour now. Can you attend to her?”
“Oh”, she said, giving her a side eye.
“I will but first we have to talk about..”
“She needs it now. Erica is waiting for it and it’s getting late. Kindly give the
documents to her”.
“Mmm, I love it when you sound controlling”, she said, smirking and Jessica was
glaring at her.
“Alright, Philomena!!” She called out and one of the maids walked in.
“Go into my study and you’ll see a huge envelope on top of the table. Bring it and
hand it over to this young lady”.
“Yes ma’am”, she said to her and she left.
“So it was that easy and she made me wait here for hours?!!” Jessica said to
herself and she wanted to punch her in the face.
“So, do you have the file ready? My grandma was asking for it. I think she needs
to see everything and then she’ll officially sign everything to you”, miss Jen said
time Richard.
“Yeah, it’s here”, he said to when and he handed over a Pendrive to her.
“Alright. I’ll give it to her tomorrow. So, would you like to take anything?”
“No, thank you. Maybe another time, I have to get going”.
“So soon? We’ve not even had the time to talk”.
“We’ll talk over the phone when I get home”, he said to her and Jessica could hear
everything. It was really annoying her.
“Here it is Ma’am”, the maid said, handing it over to Jessica.
“Thank you”, she said to the lady and she got on her feet and walked out angrily.
When she got to the entrance, she was about to request for an Uber but Richard
walked out and interrupted her.
“Let me drop you off”, he said to her.
“No, I’m good”.
“Jessica, let me..”
“Just go back in and continue your little chat with that self conceited bit…, yes
b*tch”, she said, completing her statement.
It wasn’t like her to use such words but she was so angry and didn’t really care
about it.
“I dismissed her just so that I could drop you off”.
“Richard, I said I’m good”, she said, trying to request an Uber.
“Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?” He asked and she actually
thought about it.
“Why am I angry at him?” She said to herself and she realized that she was angry
at the fact that he was talking to her and offered to talk to her over the phone at
night.
“Why do I care about who he talks to at night”, she said to herself and then it
dawned on her that she was jealous.
“No, I’m not mad at you”, she said to him and her stomach made a funny sound
and it made her feel embarrassed.
“I’m so sorry about that”.
“It’s fine. You’re just hungry and I’m hungry too. So maybe we can just grab some
food on your way home”, he said to her.
“I’ll have to deliver this first”.
“Yeah. After that we can grab something”, he said to her and she thought of ways
to say no but then she gave in.
“Sure”, she said to him and they both walked to his car. He opened the door for
her as usual and she got in. He got into his car and drove off.
Jessica dropped off the documents and then they left.
“Do you have a place that you like eating from or do you want us to go the place
we went to the last time?”
“I think anywhere is fine”.
“No, make a choice”.
“I’m okay with anything”, she said to him and he nodded.
Few minutes later, he pulled up at the same restaurant they visited the last time.
He pulled over at the car park and they both stepped out and walked into the
restaurant.
They walked towards a table and took their seat.
As soon as they took their seat, a waiter walked up to them and welcomed them.
The menu was handed over to them and they looked through it.
Jessica was a bit confused with the dishes they had, so she just placed the menu
down.
“I’ll just go with what I had last time but a smaller portion”, she said to Richard.
“Alright and will you need one to take home?”
“Oh no, just this is fine”.
“Alright”, he said to her and he called the waiter and gave him their orders.
When the waiter left, Jessica looked around and tried to avoid eye contact with
Richard but he had his eyes on her. He wondered what she was thinking about
and why she wouldn’t look at him.
“So are you enjoying your new work so far?” He asked her and she turned to face
him.
“Yeah, I am. Not experienced any hell yet”, she said to him and he chuckled.
“I was kidding about that”, he said to her.
“Yeah, you already told me that”.
“Yeahhh. So I was wondering, how did your mum react when you told her about
your new job”, he asked and she wondered how he knew that but then she
remembered that Erica told him everything.
“I’ve not told her yet”.
“Oh, I see”.
“Yeah, but whenever I see her, I’ll tell her just to see the shock on her face”.
“She’ll be really shocked and probably start appreciating what you do”.
“I hope so”.
They talked for a while till the food arrived.
“Thank you”, she said to the waiter.
“You’re welcome ma’am”, the waiter said to her and he left.
Richard said a short prayer over the food and Jessica was surprised.
“You pray?” She said to him and he was amused.
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” He asked.
“Oh, it’s a good thing. I’m just surprised, no offence”.
“None taken. It’s something that I grew up with, courtesy of my mum”, he said,
taking out his fork and Jessica took out hers too.
“I see. So uhm do you go to church?”
“Not every-time. I’m working on that”, he said to her as he ate his food.
“Well I’m guilty of that too. Ever since I moved in with De… my friend, I’ve really
been slacking with that but when it comes to prayer, I don’t play”.
“I see”.
“Yeah”, she said, smiling.
“Girl, why are you smiling so wide”, she thought to herself and she kept a straight
face.
A part of her was happy that he was a Christian at least. She always pictured him
to be someone who had no regards for that but praying before eating his food,
tickled something within her.
“Dean prays before he sleeps, how about that?” her subconscious said to her.
“Well he’s not into me, so I’ll have to start looking somewhere else”.
“But I don’t trust Richard especially with this whole miss Jen thing and we can’t
do anything because of our work place and I’m not ready to quit or lose my job
over something that I don’t even trust”, she thought to herself.
“Jess”, Richard called out and she snapped out of her thoughts.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah I am. I was just in my thoughts”, she said to him and they continued with
their food.
When they were done eating, they talked for a while and then they left after he
made payment.
“Thank you so much for the food and for the ride”, she said to him when they
arrived at the driveway in front of her apartment.
“You’re welcome”, he said to her and she smiled.
“Can I have your contact?” he asked and she nodded.
He handed over his phone to her and she typed in her number.
“Thank you. Have a good night Jessica”.
“Goodnight Richard”, she said, smiling and she stepped out of the car.
When she got to her house, she walked in with a huge grin on her face.
Dean and Anastasia were in the living room when she walked in.
“Why are you smiling so much? Did something happen?” Dean asked.
“Mind your business”, she said to him. “Hi Anastasia”, she said, waving and she
walked past them.
“No, I have to know why she’s smiling”, he said, getting on his feet and he
followed her to her room.
“Spill”, he said, standing at her door side.
“I’m actually in trouble”, she said to him.
“Trouble? And you’re smiling like that”.
“Yeah. I think I have a thing for Richard”, she said, whining and Dean was
surprised.
“Oh really??”
“Yeahhh but I don’t want to”, she said, frowning.
“How did you finally come to that conclusion? What happened?”
“Well, he took me out to eat and we talked and I just knew it. I’ve been pushing it
for a while now because I don’t trust him or feel like we can get into anything but
then it’s there, I can’t even look him in the face and I don’t even know how I’ll act
around him tomorrow”, she said, facepalming.
