“And why are you crying? Is Richard forcing you to do this?” he asked her.
“No, he’s not. I’m deciding to do this”.
“Can’t you stay tonight and go tomorrow? And do you have a place to go to?”
“I’ll spend the night at his place and try to get a new place tomorrow”.
“Jessica, you..”
“Goodbye Dean”, she said, wiping her tears and she walked away.
“Jessica”, he said, following her to the living room and he saw Richard standing at
the exit.
“Are you really going to coerce her into moving out?” Dean asked him.
“Deann, stay out of this. No one is making me do anything. I’m choosing to go
because it’s not cool for me to stay with you in the same house when I have a
boyfriend”.
“Jessica, I’ve tried my best to stay out of your relationship but leaving at this time
of the night unprepared isn’t the best. If you’re in a haste to leave, you can do that
when you get back from work or during the weekend. What’s the rush?” He asked
her and she glared at him but he didn’t care.
“What’s your deal man? Why are you putting so much pressure on her?” He said
to Richard.
“Maybe we should reverse things and see how you would react to the fact that
she’s dating you and sleeping in my house”, Richard said to him.
“It’s not the same. If you’ve known her your whole life and she tells me that
nothing is going on, I wouldn’t push this much or force her out of your house in
the middle of the night. That’s not cool. Take a look at her face, she’s not happy
with this but she’s doing this because..”
“I don’t even know. Why are you even doing this Jess? You know deep down
you’re sad about this. Why won’t you tell him that?”
“Dean, stay out of this”.
“I’m not staying out of it. I’ve tried my best to let you make your decisions
without influencing you. I don’t question your actions but this right here, it’s not
cool”, he said to her.
“Richard, let’s go”, she said to Richard and they left.
Dean punched his hands in the wall and walked into his room, angrily.
Richard and Jessica arrived at his house and they walked in.
The first time she came to his house, they both stayed in the living room and she
didn’t really see the full house.
So, she took her time to look around as she walked behind Richard.
They came to a stop in front of a door and Richard opened it.
“This is your room for the night or for how long you want to stay here”, he said to
her and she walked into the room.
It was really huge and beautiful just as she imagined it.
“Thank you”, she said to him and she sat on the bed.
He placed her bag down and sat by her.
“Are you okay?” He asked her.
“Yeah, Just exhausted”.
“Mmm, on our way home, I thought about how things played out and I must
admit, it wasn’t the best and I’m sorry for acting out of character. I shouldn’t have
asked you to move out with a threat on our relationship”, he said to her.
“It’s fine. I knew that you were upset and didn’t feel comfortable about
everything and that’s why I didn’t fight back. You’ve been cool with all my terms
and excuses and if you don’t feel comfortable with this, I’d do anything to make
you comfortable and happy. That’s what we do for people we care about”, she
said, smiling.
“Well that’s a relief. I was really feeling guilty on our way here”, he said to her
and she chuckled.
“It’s fine. I’ll just look for a place tomorrow”.
“After work, I can take you around. I know some cool places that you would like”.
“Mmm, are they in my budget?”
“I should think so but if they’re not, I can help you out”.
“Nah, I’ll just ask for the advance”.
“Alright but if you need help with anything, I’ll be there to help”.
“Okay”, she said, smiling.
“I’ll leave you to bath and do what you want to do. I’ll be back to wish you a
goodnight and if you need anything, let me know and my housekeeper will attend
to you”.
“Okay, thank you”, she said, smiling.
He pecked her on the cheek and left the room.
As soon as he left, she laid on the bed and thought about the whole evening.
She wasn’t too happy with how things went but she felt like everything was her
fault.
As she was thinking about it, she got on her feet and decided to take a shower.
Erica was in her office with Richard when Jessica knocked on the door and when
she saw that Richard was there, she turned around to leave but Erica called her
back.
“Jessica, do you need something?” She asked.
“Yeahh”, she said, turning around.
“I wanted to speak to you about something”.
“Okay, I’m all ears. Take a seat”, she said to her.
“I wanted to speak to you privately”, she said to her.
“Oh okay. Maybe we can do that later, Richard is..”
“I can excuse you two, I’ll come back later in the day”, he said, getting on his feet
and Erica was surprised.
“Okay”, she said to him and he left.
Jessica took her seat and she was really nervous about what she was about to ask
Erica.
“Yeah, what is it?” She asked.
“I’m trying to get a place to stay. I’ve been staying with my friend for a long time
now and I don’t want to be a bother anymore, so I want..”
“You want an advance?” She asked.
“Yeahh”, she said in a shy manner.
“Oh that’s okay. Richard and I were actually talking about that”, she said to her
and she widened her eyes.
“He’s trying to get one for his assistant and so if he can get one for her, then you
deserve one too for your hard work and for all the favors you’ve done for me”,
she said to her and Jessica smiled.
“Thank you so much”.
“You’re welcome. Before the end of the day, visit the HR office and you’ll get a
cheque from them”.
“Thank you so much Erica. I really appreciate it”.
“You’re welcome and I hope the documents have been sent to the Jens”.
“Yeah, I emailed it to them this morning”.
“Great, do you need any other thing?” she asked her
“No, that’s all. Thank you”, she said, getting on her feet and she left.
As she was walking back to her office, Richard pulled her into his office.
“How did it go?” He asked her.
“It went well and I know what you did”, she said to him.
“Me? I didn’t do anything”.
“Stop lying”, she said, laughing. “And I appreciate it. It made her feel more
comfortable giving the bonus to me. Thank you”, she said to him and she hugged
him.
“You’re welcome”, he said, hugging her and she released her grip of him.
“So what time will you be done today, so that we can go and take a look at some
of the apartments”.
“I’m not too sure but I was thinking that I should take some of things from Dean’s
house today cos I’ll need it for the week”.
“You don’t want to take all?”
“No, I don’t want to have to move twice. When I get a place, then I’ll fully move
out”.
“Alright”.
“I’m going back to my office. I’ll see you later”, she said to him and she left.
Later in the evening, Richard pulled over at the car park of Dean’s apartment.
Richard was about to step out but she stopped him.
“I want to go in alone. I don’t like how things turned out last night with Dean and
I, so I want to resolve things with him”.
“Mmm, alright. I’ll wait in the car”.
“Okay, I’ll be back soon”.
“Alright”, he said to her and she stepped out of the car.
