just for us | one-shots

After parties part 3

"Your meeting starts in 20 minutes, do you need to go over your instructions again?" Miles said while we were getting some sparkling water from the fridge.

"No, love, I remember everything. You'll be there, right?" 

"Sure! Don't worry." I smiled thanking him.

"What would I do without you?" I playfully said while heading to the conference room and we laughed.

I settled my stuff on the table with my phone and IPad. I was responsible for managing conflicts inside our operations teams. For this particular project, we had 10 groups of 5, each group had one supervisor. I was responsible for these supervisors' individual and group performances. 

"Did you see that Laura is now flirting with Joe?" I gasped as Miles said that.

"Oh, my God! Wasn't she the one saying that she'd rather die before hooking up with a guy from Kentucky?"

"Right!? And she did that right in front of him"

"I know! That only makes it juicier." We laughed as the supervisors got into the room. 

I was shocked to see Nate walk into the room, but he seemed just happy to see me. I exchanged looks with Miles to get into sync about how I had to report that to HR right after the meeting. Miles was my closest friend in the company, he knew about us. 

I turned around to whisper into Miles's ear and ask if Nate had to be present for the HR report.

"No... But I think you'll have bigger problems than him." As soon as he said that I turned around and froze. I felt my entire body get cold and I immediately started to feel nauseous. It was Nina, she was one of the supervisors. 

Miles asked if he wanted me to start or even conduct the whole meeting. It took me a while to put my head in place to even consider answering.

"No, love, I'm fine, you don't have to worry."

"You sure? I can totally do this for you."

"I know you can, you're the best! But I can handle it."

"Okay, I'll be here." I smiled as he said that.

"Morning everyone! How's everybody doing today?" Everyone responded with a positive response. The meeting went very well and I explained every instruction. "Alright, now let's get to work!" As everyone was leaving I grabbed my stuff. "Nina, could you stay a little?" She agreed and Miles looked at me with concerned eyes. "Miles, love, could you excuse us for a minute?" He left without saying a word.

"Hey" Nina said a little shy. Hearing her voice for the first time made my entire body shiver. Thank God I had sleeves on today. 

"Hi. So... I won't take much of your time. I just wanted to say that I know our previous relationship may stop you from reporting to me subsequent issues you may have with your team, but I just wanted you to know that I don't feel like that should be a problem. But if you feel like it is, I can put Miles alongside me so we can co-manage the teams and you can report only directly to him. Whatever you feel the most comfortable with, ok?" I said smiling and with a soft tone.

"Oh... Um... Don't worry about that, An! Thank you for asking me to stay and saying that. I think that should be enough to break any barriers our communication might have regarding this project."

She called me An...

She was also very sweet and was smiling.

"Oh, that's great! But if anything arises, please feel free to report to me or even Miles, okay?!"

"Thank you! That'll do just fine." She smiled more but you could cut the tension in the room with a knife. "But hey, if you don't mind me asking, won't you and your boyfriend be a conflict? I received instructions regarding relationships in my group and I was supposed to report that to HR."