Chapter 153

153 The Secrets that We Keep

Ace arrived soon after and the meeting commenced. Ace quickly recapped the progress of the project before outlining his expected next steps. Work was assigned logically and quickly to the team members. The next part of the competition was the real deal where we would be presenting the commercial itself to the committee members. That meant that we had to finalize the detailed version of the story board and then work on planning the production of the commercial. Then the production team can take over in the filming and editing of the commercial. After multiple rounds of editing and reviews, we would get our commercial at along last.

It was always interesting and exciting to see what I had dreamt of in my storyboard brought to life on screen as a complete commercial. From all the commercials, only three will be selected for public release. Then the winner will be decided based on a combination of three factors: the donation amount, the committee’s judgement, and the public’s opinion via poll.

All those three elements were hard for us to influence. It was a fair game where the public gets to decide through votes and donations which commercial appealed the most to them. Since we were promoting the end of the dog meat trade and aiming to secure donations to support the cause, it was no surprise that the donation figures would play a significant role in determining the winner.

“Jeremy and Karina, I want you two to work together on the detailed version of the storyboard. It needs to be ready for the production team to fully understand what we want to see for each scene in detail including the transitions. Script writing will also be important, so please get in touch with that team as well,” Ace instructed.

“Yes,” Jeremy and I replied in unison.

We turned to smile at each other as we both looked forward to working closely together on this project. I was confident in our skills, and I was sure that we would produce something great together.

...

Project Alpha was in full swing as we all rushed towards our next deadline. That meant that I spent a lot of my time at work with Jeremy as we both focused on polishing up and designing the details of the storyboard. Putting the rough storyboard in place was difficult work but working on all the details was even harder. Now it wasn’t about the story we wanted to tell or how we wanted to tell it to the audience. We also had to consider every single thing that would appear on the screen while considering how it would actually be shot in production.

“I think the transition of this scene to this one feels weird...” I said as my brows frowned.

.....

“Yeah, I think so too...” Jeremy agreed.

“I don’t know how to fix it, though. It feels like it’s missing something and I’m not sure what. I’m not even sure if adding a simple transition is enough or if we need to add a mini scene of a couple of seconds to this...” I confessed honestly.

“What do you usually do when you run out of ideas?” Jeremy asked as his eyes focused on my face.

Is this some kind of trick question?

“Well, I’ll do some research. Look for some references and things like that. What about you?” I asked in return.

“Same, except I’ve got a special place where I look for references,” Jeremy said before he smiled brightly at me.

“A special place? As in where?” I asked curiously.

“It’s a secret!” Jeremy announced before he started laughing loudly.

The source of this content is nov/el/bin[./]net'

Somehow, I knew that he wouldn’t share the secret to his success with me that easily. I watched as Jeremy continued to laugh as I wondered where that secret place of his could be.

...

Since being paired up with Jeremy, I didn’t spend much time at work with Ace. That didn’t bother me because not having him around helped to keep my focus on my work. I was too busy with Project Alpha that the only times that I saw Ace at the office was during our team meetings. Apart from regular morning meetings, we started having meetings towards the end of the day as well.

Sitting at the meeting table along with my team members, I listened to my colleague presenting the progress of their part of the work. Everything seemed to be progressing smoothly and I was very confident with what we had cooking. The meeting came to its end and after aligning on next steps for everyone, Ace excused himself. Many people stayed on to discuss their work with their colleagues since everyone on the project were all together in one place.

Suddenly, my phone vibrated. I tried my best not to smile like a fool. This wasn’t the first time that he did, so I knew that Ace had just sent me a text. The context of the text was always the same and it always meant the same thing.

“Are you leaving already?” Jeremy asked when I got up from my seat.

“Yeah. I think I’ll call it a day today. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I replied before I smiled a little at him.

He waved at me before turning to talk to someone else. I silently slipped out of the meeting room before making my way to my next destination. The elevator ride up felt like it took longer than normal because of my own impatience. Ace texted me whenever he had to work late at the office and wanted my company. Usually, I spent time after working hours in his office to keep him company in various of ways to compensate for our lack of time together during official working hours.

“You don’t need to keep your voice down. It’s late, no one else is here anymore,” Ace whispered seductively into my ear as he nibbled on its lobe sending shivers of pleasure through my entire body.

I tried to stifle my moans by covering my mouth with the palm of my hands as Ace lifted my body up onto his worktable in a sitting position. Standing in between my widespread legs, Ace hands slowly unbuttons the small pearl buttons of my rosy pink shirt before he bent his head down to suck on the side of my neck seductively.

–To be continued...