Impressing the Clients

1

Paula's POV

I was awakened by my phone ringing. It was my colleague, Jackie. "You know it's five in the morning, Jack," I spoke up and stood up.

"I know, I'm sorry Paula but you have to get your thick Asian ass here and pick me up. I'm sending you my location right now. I don't have my purse with me, I must've left it in my car," she told me as I heard her scramble at the other line surely getting away from her regular one night stand.

"So you're not staying for breakfast, huh? Jack, you gotta stop with the one night stands if you can't bring yourself home," I scolded her as I made my way to the kitchen to make myself some hot cocoa. "Wow. Sorry, mom. Could you please pick me up? Breakfast's on me," she pleaded.

"Fine. You should've start off our conversation with that, you know. Be there in 15," I heard her chuckle at the other end. I packed my hot cocoa in my tumbler, grabbed the keys, didn't bother to change from my sleepwear and head to her location.

Moments later.

"Thank you so much! You are just in time. I hear him call my name as I went for the front door. Now hurry go!" she told me as she hopped on and I stepped on the gas immediately.

"For the record, this will be the last time I'll rescue you from your own chaos. You hear me?" I scolded her, keeping my eyes on the road. Once again, earning a frustrated sigh from her. "You're lucky you don't get to do this shit 'cause you have a perfectly steady relationship. We're both 26 and look at me, I am left in the sea for the fishers to catch," she complained on how she's tired of being single and wanted what I have, a relationship.

"Honey, you won't be finding a good man in a club. You and I both know and been through that countless times," I felt sorry for her and tried to knock some sense to her. "But you met yours in a club," she reasoned. "But we didn't jumped on each other the first night," I rebutted. "Fine, you win," she sighed.

"Oh! Is this for me? You shouldn't have! But I'm taking this anyway," she grabbed my hot cocoa and drank up. "Careful!" I tried to stop her. "Fuck, that burns!" She made the icky, hurt face as she tried to sooth her burned tongue by inhaling air through her teeth. I cracked up laughing seeing her agony as she lightly elbowed my shoulders, eventually cracking up also.

"So, are you excited for our trip?" Jackie asked as I parked to car on the side of the road to eat our breakfast from McDonald's. "A little. I don't wanna hype myself up. It's a business trip, not a vacation," I answered as I took a bite on my chicken sandwich.

"Who knows, maybe we can finish the project early and have a vacation after," she said while there's food in her mouth.

"Don't get your hopes up. You know our boss, and you know it's our first time to handle a project like this," I picked up a few strings of fries and shoved it all in my mouth. "We even had to enroll refreshers for this project." I added.

"You're right. We really are expanding. We've been designing luxury houses for years and this would be the first we'll be contractors," Jackie responded. I just nodded in agreement and we ate our breakfast in silence. Mostly because Jackie was fucking hung over and I was a big fan of breakfasts.

Jackie and I were both working at Ty Designs for 3 yrs now. She was an architect, I was a structural engineer. Most of the times we're paired up with a project and that brought us closer with each other.

Our boss, Mr. Ty, took a 3-month long construction project in London. He envisioned the company to expand, and to him, this was the perfect opportunity to slowly shift from a design company to a design and construction company. The client's mansion in London was partially damaged at its rear. The client was a friend of Mr. Ty, plus it's our first construction project, so he was very strict about it. Everything should be done 'perfectly'. His word, not mine. So this London trip for 3 months wasn't actually a trip, it's work. Real work with incredibly high stakes.

Good thing, Jackie and I were teamed up for this project.

———

As I arrived home, Ian, my boyfriend, had just made breakfast.

"Oh baby, I'm sorry I just had breakfast with Jackie after I picked her up from her latest adventure," I came up to him and kissed his cheek.

"That's fine, I can eat mine now and yours will be on the fridge just in case you're too lazy to cook later for lunch," he showed a tinge of disappointment but recovers quickly and grabbed his plate.

"Thank you, baby. I still have to pack for tonight's flight," I got myself a glass of water and sat in front of him.

"Let me help you with packing, drive you and Jackie to the airport, then I'll go home to my apartment," he told me. "What would I do without you?" I looked at him lovingly, grateful that he's nothing but supportive. "Well, first off, you'll starve," he joked, making me laugh and nod in agreement. "It's gonna be a long 3 months for me while you're away, I want to make the most out of it while you're here," he added.

We had been together for almost 3 years and I can't ask for more. We both came from middle class family and has been working our asses off to rise from wherever we are right now. Saving up for the big wedding and the house we plan to have next year. Everything's going well.

By the time it's getting dark, we finished packing my stuff and fit everything up in two regular sized travel trollies. I get myself ready for the long flight and we went our way to Jackie to pick her up.

"Baby, later after I get some rest at home, I'll be going out with the guys. I've missed a number of night outs and they're being a pain about it," he told me while his eyes stayed on the road. "No problem, have fun later," I smiled at him. He smiled too and thanked me.

"EUROPE, WE'RE COMING FOR YOU!" Jackie yelled as she hopped in the backseat.

***
Author's note

Hello, everyone! This is my first time writing a book. I've been going at it for quite sometime now and I decided to finally share it with you! I hope you guys like it!

I've decided to have Byun Jungha as the face of main character (I'm not a KPOP and KDRAMA fan, I just stumbled upon her when I was searching for the right character for my story). The rest of the characters will be left into your imagination. But if I found any suitable real life person for the other characters, I might upload them ;)

PS. I like my story's phasing slow so please be patient. Good stuff comes to those who wait.

Comments and suggestions are welcome! Just no bashing. ;)