Smells Like Trouble


    Suddenly, my phone started vibrating on the table in front of me. The vibrations caught Jeremy’s


    attention as well and that made me quickly grab my phone in my hand. Jeremy’s attention returned to


    This belongs ? N?velDra/ma.Org.


    his work while I clutched my phone in my hand as my heart started to race and it wasn’t from joy. It was


    brief but I was quite certain that I had seen Kyle’s name on my phone screen.


    Why is he calling me?


    I told him not to call me anymore and it had seemed that he was doing well on that deal. My brows


    furrowed together as I stared at my phone which was still vibrating in my hand. Instinctively, I started to


    feel extremely guilty, and my eyes nced over at Ace who was sitting at his usual seat at the head of


    the long meeting table. I couldn’t help but wonder what Kyle was calling me about; however, there was


    no chance in hell that I would answer a call from Kyle right in front of Ace while my other colleagues


    were sitting with me in the same room.


    I must have been staring at Ace for a while as my phone continued vibrating in my hand because our


    eyes met. I felt so startled and had to look away from him immediately. In my panic, I quickly declined


    Kyle’s call. There was no way that I could answer the call anyways and I had no intention and no good


    reason to.


    Since Kyle had gotten out of my hair and left me alone, my life with Ace had been decently peaceful. Of


    course, there were still things that Ace hasn’t told me but I didn’t have to deal with as many doubts and


    insecurities like I did when Kyle was involved. I had no idea what his rtionship with Elizabeth was


    like, but it seemed tooplex for my liking and I didn’t want to get involved.


    I nced over at Ace to find him looking at me with a lightly curious look on his face and that made my


    heart leap in my chest. It took a lot of effort but I somehow managed to ster a smile on my face that I


    hoped looked natural and normal. If Ace thought that something was off, he didn’t ask me about it or


    pursue the matter any further and I was so thankful for that. I stared down at my phone before


    breathing out a sigh of relief when Kyle did not give me another call.


    Before I might get another call from Kyle, I decided to shove my phone into my bag where it would


    remain out of sight. With that out of the way, I stood up from my seat and walked over to where


    Julianna was working with her team. It was high time that I tried to do something to help them out. I had


    not forgotten the little promise that I made to myself on the way back to the office. Despite feeling


    slightly shaken by Kyle’s call, it didn’t take me long to gather my wits together and soon I was looking


    forward to my dinner date with Ace.


    “Hey…how is it going?” I asked softly.


    “Not too bad, I guess. Do you want to have a look at our new n? It might be good to get some


    thoughts from you,” Julianna replied as she turned to face me.


    “Oh, in that case, maybe I should call Jeremy over too. Might as well get this done together,” I


    suggested.


    At Julianna’s nod of agreement, I raised my hand and waved in Jeremy’s direction as I called out his


    name to get his attention. Jeremy directed his attention in my direction immediately before getting out


    of his seat and heading over to our side. We bent over to stare at the monitor as indicated by Julianna.


    I had to say that Ace was right that Julianna would figure something out.


    “You guys came out with all this in such a short time…” I murmured in amazement.


    “This is quite detailed…” Jeremy chimed in.


    “I know, right? This isn’t bad given the time that we had, right?” Julianna said confidently.


    “Can we really put this all into ce by tomorrow?” Jeremy asked curiously.


    I had my own doubts as well. Julianna’s n involved a lot of social media marketing that may help


    improve on the donations by directly linking the audiences to their online payment channels where they


    can make their donations directly. It seemed like a good idea and also incorporated a smoother journey


    for the audiences toplete their donation. However, it was clear that a lot of work was involved in


    setting it all up.


    “We don’t really have another choice so we’re going to try our best…” Julianna said before gesturing to


    her team members.


    “Editing themercial and making graphics out of it to make it suitable for social media is going to


    take some time but we have all night…so yeah…” one of Julianna’s team members said before


    Although the situation seemed dire, it was clear that everyone on Julianna’s team was in high spirits.


    From the looks and sounds of it, the whole team would probably be staying over at the office or at least


    tillte at night or early in the morning.


    “We just need to push through this and then we can go partying after this is all over and done with.


    They’ll be a big party and hopefully some big bonuses as well when we win thispetition,” Julianna


    said as her eyes sparkled.


    “I really hope so. I feel like we really deserve it at this point after all the work that we’ve put in…” I


    agreed softly.


    “Did you hear that, Boss? We’re all looking forward to a very big bonus,” Julianna said as she turned to


    look at Ace.


    Ace looked up briefly from hisputer screen before his gaze went immediately back to focus on the


    work in front of him.


    “It’s still a long way until the end of the year…” he replied quite simply.


    --To be continued…