I was running late. I hated running late on a Monday. Jake was taking the first flight out of New York this morning, leaving before 6:30. This didn’t stop him, however, from calling me before he went to bed. We ended up talking way too late, and I had a hard time getting up in the morning.It was 8;30 when I finally arrived at work. When I walked into the lab, the team seemed to be in a frenzy.“Finally!” Katrina yelled as I walked into the lab. “We need to get ready.”“Ready for what?” I asked, going to my office, and placing my things on my desk.Katrina rolled her eyes. “Well, if someone wasn’t running late, they would have already seen their email. They announced Mr. Langley as the new CEO of the Chicago office. But that long transition we talked about on Friday? There was none of that. He is starting today!” She called out as she moved around the lab, trying to straighten things out.
JAKE’S POVI was still in shock that Amalia was one of my lead researchers. When Amalia came out of her office this morning, I didn’t know what to say. First, she looked beautiful. Her hair was in a messy bun, and she just looked beautiful without trying. I could tell she looked tired, and I knew that was because we were up late talking, which made me smile to myself. I could see the surprise written all of her face when she saw me. Thankfully, I was able to pull it together enough to speak to her team.The first chance I got, I pulled her in to her office. Once her office door was closed, I pulled her in and kissed her. I could tell that she was surprised by the kiss, but she quickly kissed me back. Amalia was clearly worried; I could see it in the way that she looked at me. In the moment, I didn’t think of anything except having her in my arms. The last two weeks had been long without seeing her. The relationship was still new, which I think m
AMALIA’s POV“This place is amazing!” I was in awe of Jake’s new home. After a busy week that resulted in a few lunch visits and no additional dinner visits, I was glad that it was Friday, and I could spend more time with Jake. Quite frankly, just having him living this close was nice; knowing that I could see him whenever I wanted even if this had been a busy week.“I knew you would like it,” he said as I stepped into his house. The house was large, much bigger than I am sure he needed.Jake had been very busy over the last week. The new position of the CEO kept him always on the go. Two to three times per week he was doing dinner meetings and he often worked late. The team and I had some good progress over the last week and we were formulating our focus for our meeting with Dr. Ochoa next month. The more focused we could be over the upcoming weeks, the better our questions would be and the more productive the meeting would b
The next couple of weeks seemed to fly by. Jake and I were both really busy with work. He had some funding issues come up that had taken up a lot of time. He was often meeting with donors for dinners. I had been out with Jordan one night and we stopped at a bar. Jake was there with two donors. To say that he looked overstressed was an understatement. While at the bar I had stepped away to go to the restroom and Jake cornered me in the hallway. It had been a few days since we had seen each other, and Jake nearly mauled me. If that woman hadn’t come down the hall to use the restroom, I might have let him take me there.While the relationship with Jake seemed to be progressing, I also felt as if it was stalling in some ways. After the incident with Valerie, Jake had been hesitant to go out. I had not yet talked to Jake about it, but I was hoping to talk about it tonight. Despite even asking about going out to dinner, Jake had declined. It was starting to make m
I spent most of the weekend with Jake or gathering my research. I printed out emails, gathered notes, and printed out my online research folder, which thankfully was all dated. I wasn’t looking forward to having to tell the team about this. This must have been what Katrina had caught wind of at the end of last week. We had not been quiet about our research at work, which did open us up to this type of situation. It happened more often than it should in such a professional field. Ideas were either legitimately stolen or were claimed to be stolen. I had learned from all of these experiences that you needed to keep very good track of research and all steps along the way. That is why I had an online research folder. The program automatically dated everything and even kept a log of when I looked at any articles or websites I had entered in to the online folder.I had asked the team to meet shortly after everyone had arrived. I gathered up the information that I was going to
AMALIA’S POV“Try the move again!” Master Cho called out as we continued to work on wrist escapes. I liked these moves, as they had a lot of practical applications. If someone grabbed your wrist and you needed to escape, any one of these numerous wrist escapes could be used. Mater Cho had also taught me a few countermoves that involved breaking a nose or rib that could be used in conjunction with the wrist escape if the situation warranted it.I grabbed on to Jake’s wrist so that he can practice the move again. He has been a real trooper tonight. I think that Master Cho went a bit harder on the class, and specifically Jake, than necessary when he found out that Jake was my boyfriend. This was the second class that Jake had attended, but the first one since telling Master Cho Jake was my boyfriend. Master Cho was a good support for me when things were bad with Dylan. He just wanted me to be safe and happy. The moves we did today were a bit on the
“He really came to that meeting with no evidence?” Katrina asked, taking a sip of her whisky and coke. Since Monday, the team had been asking me what happened with Terry, but we all agreed that talking about it at work was not really a good idea. I promised to spill it all to them when we went out after work on Friday, and here we all sat. Martin, Stephanie, and Brian all looked at me, waiting for me to answer Katrina’s question.Taking a sip of my drink, I nodded my head. “Yep. Kept saying that he didn’t need any evidence and insisted that it was his idea. As you guys know, I had a ton of evidence. He didn’t stand a chance.”The entire table looked surprised at this revelation. It didn’t make any sense that Terry came into the meeting with nothing to back up his claim, but he had nothing.“Did he really get fired with you in the office?” Martin piped up. “One of my friends worked on his old
“Are you ready?” I asked, turning to Jake as we sat in the driveway of my parent’s house. This was the house that I grew up in. My parents had lived in this house for nearly 25 years. When they first got married, they couldn’t afford much. My dad got a big promotion when I was a young and this was their big purchase. They loved this house and I loved growing up here. The neighborhood was quiet but friendly, a far cry from many of the neighborhoods in the city. My parents lived far enough away from Chicago that they didn’t have to deal with all the crap of the city, but close enough that visiting was easy. Jake smiled at me, grabbing my hand. “Of course I’m ready.” “Well, I am glad one of us is ready.” I said as we exited the car. I could hear laughing coming from the backyard and decided to bypass going into the house and head straight around to the back. Opening the gate, the squeezing noise caught my mom’s attention and she turned quickly towards us. “Amali