Reunion - Chapter 5: The walk

Continuing from where we left off from Chapter 4, but this time from James' perspective.

Which made me wonder. If there aren't any "intro" into any of the chapters, would people be able to identify from whose perspective I'm writing for?

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Chapter 5 - The Walk

"Are you sure you want to walk?" I asked after we got out of the office building. "You were pretty dazed back in the office."

"Yeah, it's the least I can do as an exercise." she replied. "Plus it's not really that far, I live 2 stations away."

"You're really sure?" I insisted. "We can take a cab instead you know."

"I don't really like taking the cab. For some reason I find it more dangerous than walking the streets."

"Okay, whichever you prefer then. We should get going; it's already late." I said then started walking.

She tapped me before I could go any further and said, "It's actually this way."

"I knew that, I was just testing you." I said jokingly.

"Whatever." then she started walking.

I'm still elated when she asked me to walk her home. After working with her for a few weeks, I made sure that she won't be too stressed over our new assignment. I didn't really plan to work with her; my plan was to give her some space. After our first meeting, it was very apparent that she still had pent up resentment towards me. But I guess fate, or my boss, had some other plans.

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I just finished my last assignment for one of our bigger clients when I received a call from Terry, our boss.

"James, come to my office in 15 minutes, there's a new project and I want you to work on it."

"Sure thing. Is this a solo project?" I asked.

"No, this is a bigger project and the client is very demanding, so you won't be alone."

"Oh, okay. Who else will work on the project?"

"I don't want to discuss this over the phone. Come to my office and we can discuss from here." then she hung up.

Must be a really big project. It's not very often that two people get to work together on a project. Most of the time, it's only one person, even on bigger clients. To have two people working on one project.... never really thought about it.

I wonder who's it gonna be? I get along well with most people, so whoever I work with shouldn't be a problem.

Well, maybe except for Jessie.

I headed toward Terry's office after I hung up the phone. It's best not to keep her waiting. Terry's nice and all, but she can be a monster when it comes to work. It's not like she's a mean boss; it's just that you seriously don't want to get to her bad side.

When I reached Terry's office the door was slightly open, I guess the other person was already in. I knocked on the door to inform them of my presence, and then I saw who I'll be working with - Jessie.

"Just in time." Terry said. I looked at Terry and then Jessie, who looked surprised.

"James?" she blurted out. I guess she wasn't expecting this. Well, that makes two of us.

"Good, you already know each other. This shouldn't take long then. James, take a seat, I'll discuss with you guys your new assignment." Terry replied.

"Alright." I took a seat beside Jessie and greeted her casually. Act natural, act natural, I kept repeating to myself.

"Wait, assignment?" she said. She didn't seem to be having a lot of fun with the idea.

"Yes", Terry replied, "You'll be working with James on a new project. You two are the best that we have and given the scale of the project I'd have to pick the best people for it. Is there a problem Jessie?"

"No... No problem at all." she stuttered. She seemed surprised, and probably disappointed as well, given the tone of her voice. She obviously didn't want to do anything with me still.

Like Terry said the meeting was pretty short, it didn't take a lot of time because I was familiar with how the project would go. I've had projects like those before and I'm sure that it can be done without the extra head or hand, but given the very strict timeline it would definitely help.

Seeing her reaction during the meeting made me think that it might not be a good idea to actually interact with her a lot, so I decided to divide the tasks so that we would have little interaction. It would be better for us, and probably with the client if we weren't butting our heads every minute or two.

I just hoped that giving her that much space apart from me would earn me some redemption points.

The project was a lot more tedious than I had hoped. The client was very fickle minded about a lot of things, so we had to change the draft a lot of times. Since they didn't want to change the deadline we had to work overtime most nights. It seems to have taken a toll on Jessie. Just today I saw her at her desk, looking so out of it. She eventually decided to go home, but I was caught off guard when she asked me if I could walk her home. Not that I wouldn't want to.

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We've walked for a couple of blocks without really saying anything. I glance upon her every now and then to see if she was doing okay. She didn’t seem to notice though as she was in a pensive mood. A cold wind blew our way and I noticed that she shivered.

"Night air too cold?" I asked. I hope I wasn't intruding on anything.

"Nope, just caught me off, but it's fine", she said, smiling.

She smiled. She actually smiled... at me. That's a new development. Now how to keep the conversation going? Maybe ask about the boyfriend?

"Just curious, why didn't you have Mark pick you up from work?"

"Mark? He's probably sleeping already." she said, not saying anything more. "Why the sudden interest in Mark?" she asked. Judging from the look on her face, she's pretty curious. Well I am curious myself.

"I just don't want to get a call from an angry boyfriend, that's all."

"Boyfriend?" she was surprised. "Mark's not..." then she stopped. "Well, let's just say that you're a bit off course."

"Off course? What does that mean?"

"You'll figure out eventually", she said.

"Why don't you just tell me? I can't figure it out." She's getting better at being cryptic.

"Where's the fun in that?" she replied. "Oh, look at that, we're here. Thank you for walking me home. See you on Monday!" She's suddenly cheerful. I wonder what that's about.

And just like that, she turned and walked away.

"Off course, huh," I sighed. I wonder what she meant by that. She probably won't tell even if I asked, and I wouldn't want to risk being too pushy with it especially now that she seems to have warmed up to me a bit.

Now I won't be able to sleep thinking what in the world would it be.

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