The Assistant (Stefanielle)

Chapter 20

"It doesn't matter. Let's just get in the car so it will be over quicker,"

Danielle avoided Stefania as much as she could on Friday which continued into next week. Sure, she may have been acting kind of childish but her behaviour wasn't at the forefront of her mind. Stefania's comment rang through her head over the weekend and it bothered her to no end, along with the fact that Stefania hadn't even made a move to try and fix things. On the Friday, she told Sarah that she couldn't do lunch to avoid speaking about Stefania, which she promised to do the evening before.

It also irritated Danielle that Stefania was acting like nothing happened. Going ahead with her meetings and business calls like she wasn't feeling anything towards the situation. Danielle knew it was obvious that she was feeling something because she would be short with her answers, but extra amicable with anyone who came up to a meeting.

She was very aware of the fact that they would be leaving on Friday for the conference and part of her wished that she had listened to Stefania about booking two separate rooms. It was almost ironic that as Danielle thought about this, Stefania made her way from her office to Danielle. The COO stood by the corner for a moment, looking down at the ground before making her presence known.

"Danielle," She said, slowly rolling the syllables off of her tongue.

"What do you need?" Danielle asked, refusing to look up from the computer screen.

"To talk to you,"

"You are right now," The blonde replied quickly.

"Danielle," Stefania said her name again and let out a sigh.

"Yes?" She finally looked up at Stefania, an irritated look on her face. The COO was worked to the bone already with preparing for the conference and putting together for all of her meetings. Nothing about the way Danielle was acting was helping that and it bothered to Stefania to no end that they were letting their personal lives get involved with work.

"Change the hotel booking. Make it two rooms. Like I originally said," Stefania swiftly turned on her heel and headed back to her office. She didn't intend for the conversation to go that way, but her stress was getting to the better of her. Danielle sat there quietly for a moment, debating whether she should go into Stefania's office or not. It hurt more coming from Stefania about booking two rooms, even if she did just think the same thing.

Danielle sighed then pulled up the booking reservation. She was just about to contact the hotel when her work phone rang and her attention got pulled elsewhere.

Thursday slowly rolled around and there was still very little communication going on between Danielle and Stefania. Apparently that affected Danielle's mood more than she realised because Sarah was very inquisitive as to why she wasn't as smiley but Danielle always brushed the comment off.

"You need to bring your travel bag with you tomorrow in the morning. We will have a courier pick us up and take us to the hotel straight from here," Stefania said as she stood by the elevator, but as soon as she finished speaking, Danielle realised that she forgot to change their room booking, her face falling. "What is it?" Stefania questioned, squinting her eyes.

"I uh- the booking is still for one room," Danielle sheepishly replied as she dialled the number of the hotel. Stefania ran a hand through her hair as she watched Danielle anxiously chew on her bottom lip. "Hi, I made a reservation for a room but need to add another one... The booking number is 03367... Okay, thanks. I'll hold,"

"I thought you already changed it?"

"Someone from floor twenty called up and then we had a meeting. It completely slipped my mind," Danielle replied, tapping her foot on the floor. "Hi, yes... Ah, I see. Everything is completely booked for the weekend.... Okay, yes I would still like to keep this booking. Thank you. Bye,"