[This chapter is dedicated to LorenaMur. Thank you for the golden tickets.]
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"Good morning, Dr. Llano," she greeted Gareth formally who was already at his table. The time was quarter to eight. She wondered what time Gareth came to work.
Her vacation leave that Noah filed for her was finally over. Noah was back in LA because of Lucille and his work while she's still here in Mumbai for her internship.
While she was sick, Dr. Sison had Gareth as her temporary assistant. But Dr.. Sison has Gareth continue working with her even now that she's back. Thus, she is going to work with him too.
She heard negative comments about Gareth from June and Luke. Now, she will experience firsthand if those comments are true.
"Call me Gareth, Jess. Can I call you Jess?" He gave her an amicable smile and Jess has to agree that he's good-looking. He has a boyish charm and an easy smile. If she hasn't heard negative things about him, she would probably welcome him as a new co-worker eagerly.
It's nice to work with people that are pleasant to look at. However, Jess is wary of Gareth despite his good looks.
"Yes, Jess is fine." She returned his friendly smile. She's wary about him but she won't let him feel that she's watching her back around him. She doesn't want to start an unnecessary awkward working environment now that she will work closely with him.
She made her way to her designated working table and halted. There's a vase of flowers on her table. She glanced at Dr. Sison and she didn't see any flowers on her table. She creased her forehead and carefully opened the card that was in between the stems of the peach roses.
{Don't work too hard. You can slack off. - LYT}
She has to read what's written on the card one more time before she understands the initial LYT on the card. It was Lucille's initial. But she has a doubt that it was Lucille who sent her the flowers. She has to ask Noah later why he's using her daughter's name to send her flowers.
"From an admirer?"
She was startled by the question from Gareth. "Oh, no. It was from a friend." She replied, swallowing the smile that was about to tear her mouth.
With the question from Gareth, she has a feeling she now knows the reason why Noah used his daughter's name to send her flowers. It would be an issue if she would receive flowers from him with his name on them. It could start a scandal. She couldn't help but chuckle inwardly. 'Nice work, Noah.'
She sat down on her chair and opened her computer. She acted like the flowers on top of her desk weren't something special at all. But when Gareth wasn't looking, she quickly took a photo of the flowers.
Later she could send Noah the photo and tease him about it later. How could he use Lucille's name without her knowledge?
When Noah went back to the states, she didn't ask if she should continue their agreement of sending messages every day. She wasn't sure if he agreed to her decisions about what he did. She didn't ask. But she continues to send him a 'report' of her day.
Noah replied to her messages as if nothing had happened. Messages were sent in the same manner as before that Jess felt like things didn't happen. Everything was just like it was before.
The same with her supposedly added security. Ellise told her she has more people watching over her but she didn't feel their presence. She has to call Ellise if the people she hired were already working and she got an affirmative answer.
Since Gareth looked quite busy, she decided to start working too. She typed in the passcode Dr. Sison gave her and let the computer open the documents she has access to. Instead of waiting for all the files to open she got up from her chair and headed to the coffee corner.
"Uhm, excuse me, Gareth. Would you like a cup of coffee?" She asked out of politeness. Since she was going to make herself a cup, adding one more for him was fine with her.
Gareth lifted his head from being glued to his computer monitor. He glanced over his shoulder and knitted his forehead as if he was trying to process what he heard.
'Why is it a big deal to ask if he wanted a cup of coffee too?' She thought to herself while waiting for his answer.
"Yes, please. If it wasn't much of a bother."
"I'm going to make myself a cup. It's nothing." She told him before she turned her back on him to make the coffee.
Since Jess turned her back quickly, she didn't see the crease between Gareth's eyebrows as he watched her back in disbelief.
She saw an empty coffee mug on Gareth's table but instead of getting it, she used the clean mug from the panty. She didn't dare get his used coffee mug because she has a feeling if she does, it would feel like she was serving him. And she doesn't want that.
She kept her back turned to Gareth while she was waiting for the coffee. When it was done, she poured the coffee into two mugs and carried it back.
She gave one to Gareth then she took her own cup back to her desk. Before she could sit down, she knew there was something different with her computer. Not her computer exactly but the files that her passcode was able to access.
She started her computer before making some coffee. She knew from past experience that it won't take a long time to open all the files. She was expecting it was over before she returned to her table but until now the program wasn't done opening all the files.
'Why was her passcode able to open a lot of documents from the research?' She asked herself confused. She debated whether she should ask Dr. Sison when it finally stopped.
She opened the folder and saw that the files she has now were quadruple from the usual files she got. 'What was happening?'