Mr. Alec Washington

Chapter 1: Mixed Signals

Alec Washington lifted his head up to the arrival of his secretary, Jourdan Dunn. She wore a black suit jacket with a white blouse and black pants that just happened to have a speck of cupcake crumbs on the right leg. In her hand, she held a vanilla cupcake that she received from her co worker, Gabriel Coronel. It was his birthday, and he brought in cupcakes to celebrate the event.

Originally, Jourdan figured that it would be a bad idea to disrupt Alec's concentration because he was a workaholic. He got irritated when people decided that they wanted to be social during work hours. However, Gabriel convinced her to offer the cupcake to their boss because the employees have noticed a certain chemistry between Alec and Jourdan. Rumor at Winate Technologies is that Mr. Washington has gotten soft due to a certain secretary named Jourdan Dunn.

Jourdan did not see the impact she had on Alec that had everyone talking. However with everyone insisting that a certain spark was there, she decided that it was possible that he might have some feelings towards her. After all, she did go out on with him to dinner just last week when they had to spend late hours in the office tackling the release of the new coding system that should make their computers easier to use.

No romantic progression had been made in Jourdan's eyes, but according to Gabriel, something else happened the next day. Everyone had finally heard a laugh from the cold-hearted-stone-faced-incapable-of-smiling Mr. Washington. It was all due to Jourdan making a joke in order to make the meeting with the representative from Best Buy less awkward.   

"Did I ask you to bring me cupcakes or the 10AB3 file?", Mr. Washington lifted his right eyebrow when he demanded an answer from Jourdan.

"The 10AB3 file that is still in the file room. I will go and take care of that now Mr. Washington", she replied and scurried out of his office to the file room. Once she entered the file room she scanned quickly for the 10AB3 file. It was on the desk in the far left of the room unattended. Grateful that no one came in the room and tampered or hid the file from her view, she gathered it with her free hand and rushed out of the office. Noticing a mini trash can on the outside of the file room, she quickly tossed the cupcake into it. Picking up her pace, she marched into her boss's office with the file stretched out in her hand. Placing the file on his desk, she swiveled around quick about to exit in a swift manner when he called out to her.           

"Ms. Dunn, I hope we will not have the same mistake occur twice. Do I make myself clear?" he inquired.

Jourdan nodded her head.      

She quickly left the office a bit humiliated,with her head slightly down and shoulders slumped in defeat to her office.

Gabriel was waiting for her, leaning against her desk, arms crossed in anticipation.  

"So, what happened?"

Jourdan lifted her head and shook it slightly with a sigh.

"Nothing, it was foolish of me to believe that our boss could hold any romantic feelings for me", she plopped down in the seat behind her desk. Gabriel now faced her with his hands on the desk.

"Sorry I persuaded you to try. If you need me, I'll be in my cubicle. Gotta go before the bossman catches me slipping on the job", he said walking backwards.

"It's okay. We're still on for dinner though, right?" she asked sitting up straighter and looking through a pile of documents on her desk.

"Of course love. See you at five", he stated still walking backwards. He didn't realize that he almost bumped into Jourdan's assistant Justin.

"Justin, glad you're here. Can you write up the -Gabriel, anything else that you need?" Jourdan asked Gabriel who was standing in the doorframe.

He nodded his head.

"Yeah actually, make the time seven. I forgot that I have a rough draft presentation due today", he replied then left Jourdan's office.

Jourdan shook her head with a slight chuckle before turning her attention to Justin.

"Sorry about that. Could you write up a synopsis of these documents on the O'Brien case", she asked while pointing to the pile of documents on her desk.

"Sure thing Ms. Dunn", Justin replied and left to his desk right outside her office.

Justin was a college paid intern who basically assisted Jourdan in minimal and tedious tasks. To keep a work environment, Jordan often called Jourdan "Ms. Dunn" because that was his boss even though Jourdan was only 2 years older.

Jourdan had just graduated from Carnegie Mellon four years ago at the age of 19. She skipped 5th and 7th grade which led her to get her college diploma early. She was the typical nerd that wore glasses and braces in middle school. However she pulled off the look so she was not picked on for having braces and glasses, but rather, people often complemented her. She was a track and gymnastic star though she gave up being an olympian because her focus was on schooling. Her drive to eventually be an entrepreneur is still in her.She just figured she should get some experience with Winate Technologies. But soon she'll be competition for Alec Washington, the CEO and founder of WinTech (the logo). She grinned at the thought. But her smile was quickly wiped off her face when Alec entered the room.

"We have a meeting in two weeks time with Microsoft. I want you to do research on their latest advancements and make sure that they are not copying our style, and vice versa. Please report back to me on this information in exactly a week from now", Mr. Washington briefed Jourdan on her responsibilities.

Jourdan nodded her head.

"How far back do you suppose I should research?" she questioned.

"Three months max. That is the last time we had business with them," he quickly informed her then exited her office.

Jourdan shook her head with a snort. There was no way anyone in WinTech should ever assume that there was a certain chemistry between herself and the oh-so-famous Mr. Alec Washington. But that never stopped anyone from scheming.