The road to love (editing!!)

Chapter 2 - A Car-versation (edited)

Jessie

Five minutes before my lunch break, Mark burst into my office. "Break out the champagne Jessie girl! We got it!"

"Got what?" I absentmindedly asked as I put the finishing touches to a brochure I was designing for a travel company.

"The contract!"

I stared at him blankly.

"You know... Parker... and sons?" He rolled his eyes at me. "Honestly Jes, sometimes I think you're glued to that computer of yours, oblivious to the world going on around you."

"Parker..." A light went on in my head. "No way?! You got them? You kicked Global's but? Good work boss!" I smiled as I got up to give him a hug.

"Yeah well, I had to really sell them on our company, but now that they're on board the hard work starts. They have a new apartment complex almost built that will need extensive marketing to prospective buyers and renters. That's our baby now, so get those wheels in your head turning, my girl."

"Already turning, Mark. You know me!" I winked at him as I grabbed my purse when I saw Sharon waiting for me at my door to go to lunch. She was seriously going to flip when she heard the news.

"See you after lunch, then we can start brainstorming", I told Mark as I linked arms with Sharon.

"Brainstorming for what?" she asked as we walked to the elevator together.

"You know how you said I should start reading the papers?" I innocently asked as I pressed the down button.

"Yes?" We walked into the elevator and watched the doors close behind us.

Five seconds later she squealed all the way down until the elevator came to a stop at the reception area downstairs.

"JJ, this is awesome! Will they be coming to the office? Do you think they're as cute up close as they look in the papers?"

This was pretty much the only subject of conversation all through our lunch break. By the time I got back to my desk, I had heard both the Parker sons' history from birth to present day. Geez, Sharon was a serious Parker-freak-thing-person. Ask her a question about one of them and she would give you all the official, and even unofficial, gossip available. I think I needed to suggest a new hobby for her soon. Stalking is illegal.

After lunch I grabbed my notepad and a pen, knocked on Mark's door and sat down in a chair in front of his desk to get to work. "Tell me everything" I told him. So he did.

Two hours later I had all the info I needed, plus some ideas we had started working on for the marketing. We'd agreed that I would handle the graphic design of most of the printed materials as this was my strong point, while Mark would work on the pitch itself. Here and there we would call in some of our staff as needed. As this client was still new and needed to be impressed, Mark was not keen on bringing too many people on board to help or handing the client down to his juniors as he normally did.

Knowing Mark, he would do a perfect job, as always. After checking my emails one last time, I smiled as I switched off my computer for the day and found my mind wandering to my traffic hero of this morning. I stretched my back before straightening my desk and grabbing my purse. "Bye boss", I called to Mark as I passed his office and left for the day.

Even though I did date from time to time, I didn't have a boyfriend at the moment. I didn't really miss having someone. My job made me happy and my friends entertained me, but tonight I had a date with my pj's and a girly movie DVD that I'd been wanting to see since it came out in the movies. Aah, life was good.

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The annoying sound wouldn't stop. I hid my head under the cushion as I hit the snooze button again. Finally! Silence... I rolled over to my other side, only to hear my mom calling for me to get up. Urgh, I thought this torture stopped when you left school! Oh wait. I actually liked going to work. Right, time to get up.

I took a quick shower and pinned my hair up, letting a few strands fall loose around my neck and face. After putting the finishing touches to my make-up, I grabbed my favorite pair of white strappy heeled sandals to go with my grey suit pants and white blouse and went downstairs to eat breakfast with my mother.

"Morning hon", she greeted me with a smile as she put a plate of eggs and bacon in front of me. "Careful, coffee's hot."

I smiled a greeting at her as I sat down to eat.

"So what's new?" she asked as she sat down to eat her own food. "I came in too late to catch you awake for our chat last night, it seems" she smiled apologetically.

"Hot date?" I queried, grinning.

"No, just dinner and a show with the girls. We haven't done it in ages. It was fun."

My dad had died a few years before and since then it was just Mom and me against the world. We were always close, which made our chat times so special.

"Well?" she asked again as she reached for her coffee.

"We got a new client yesterday. Actually Mark stole them right away under Global's noses!" My mom knew the story behind the whole Global vs Mojo thing and was a serious cheerleader for our side.

"Wow, that's great! Glad to hear you guys gave them some of their own medicine. Who's the client?"

"Parker and sons"

Mom choked on her coffee. "The construction company?"

"Yes", I said while watching her reaction intently. Why such an excessive reaction to a name? "Do you know them?"

She sipped her coffee again, ignoring my question.

"Mom?" No reply. "Julie Jones, what are you not telling me?" I scolded her playfully.

"Don't you 'Julie Jones' me. I am still your mother! Eat up, you don't want to be late..."

"... again" we said together before smiling at each other. I finished up my breakfast, said a quick goodbye and charged to my car. It was another beautiful day out, so I turned down my windows and cranked up the radio.

Traffic seemed a bit better this morning, but I still got caught at most of the usual places. "Don't kick the chai-ai-ai-air" I was singing along in full blast to Dia Frampton's song playing on the radio when I felt the strange sensation of someone staring at me. I looked over to my right... straight into the most beautiful pair of green eyes I had ever seen. Oh... so that's what they look like. Sigh. As I sneaked another peek, I got the weird sense that he had a familiar face, other than from seeing him in traffic. I just couldn't place it.

My dream guy was sitting in my dream car, laughing at me singing along to my radio. Great. I blushed beet red, because that's what redheads did when they got caught in this kind of position. The traffic started moving again and Dreamguy gave me a tight wave and a smile when his lane moved forward before mine did.

Oh earth just open up and swallow me up, now. The song was still playing as my lane moved and I landed up next to Dreamguy again. Suddenly I heard the same song blaring from my right where he was in the lane next to me. He smiled at me again, put on his sunglasses and promptly started singing along to the song too.

I grinned a wide smile back at him while butterflies flew around in my stomach. What a weird conversation we were having in traffic! We started moving again and I headed into town towards the office. A little further ahead I saw Dreamcar turning off onto a different off-ramp to a different part of town. Oh well, back to business. I still couldn't help wondering though – why did he look so familiar? 

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