A Christian Romance II

Chapter 7 - More than business partners

Debora had barely entered her workplace at the Opera House when Florencia summoned her. As she approached the boss's office, nervousness became her. She predicted that Florencia would like to know the details of her last meeting with Mr. Spencer, especially if she had had the guts to dismiss him for good.

"Come on in," Florencia's voice didn't sound very friendly.

Debora walked into the office with caution and stood there before Florencia, who was sitting while drinking her morning coffee.

"Hello, Florencia!" Debora greeted her, using that as a poor attempt to break the ice.

"Hello, Debora!" She replied with an uncommon tone in her voice, looking up at her worker. "Do you have anything to tell me?"

"Not the news you expect." The young woman warned emotionlessly.

Florencia rolled her eyes. "We can't afford to have you working on any more projects." She reminded - as if Debora wasn't aware of that herself. "You're already working after hours on the current ones, not that I can't pay you, but you can't be here 24/7, Debora!" She vented. "You have to tell this guy off." She commanded.

"I know, Florencia," Debora declared. "I told him off, but he didn't accept. So I'm telling him off slowly." She explained. "I have him on hold until we give him a verdict based on our market research."

"Market research?!" Florencia eyed her in skepticism. "There's no need for market research, Debora!" She exclaimed. "If we're swamped here in the office!" She lectured. "Do you know how much time it takes to work on market research for a project of this magnitude?"

Debora opened her mouth in protest, but Florencia stopped her, continuing her lecture:

"And all that work for free, I reckon." She looked at her waiting for an answer, but the silence that came from her worker enraged her even more.

Debora was numb looking at her, and then replied: "If the market researches are for free, why would I charge?"

Florencia threw her hands to her face in desperation. They didn't have enough people for the workload they had at the moment, and Debora wanting to work elsewhere infuriated her, but she took a few deep breaths while pacing back and forth in the office.

"I just need to understand why you insist on working with this guy."

Debora scoffed. "I'm not insisting, he is!"

"Just tell him no!" Florencia persisted.

Debora rolled her eyes not knowing how to be more clear about what she was saying. "Florencia, I already did. I tried. But if you don't believe me, go ahead and try winning an argument against this guy." Debora dared her boss.

Florencia trusted Debora and her powerful persuasion skills. If she wasn't able to defeat him, most likely no one else could. "What did you do?"

Debora shrugged. "Nothing!" She continued explaining. "I mean, he must be desperate."

"What do you mean?"

"There are perks to event coordination that an ordinary person just can't overcome, so he must have decided to hire a team of professionals. The problem is that most professionals work for secular events only, and churches work on their Christian events. So, there aren't options left: also because he wants a non-denominational," Debora struggled to say non-denominational, "Christian event."

"You must be right." The boss acknowledged.

"The guy is so desperate that he even offered to hire me freelance." Debora scoffed. "I trust that we're his only option."