“I wasn’t planning to…” I murmured.
“Regardless of what you say, you’ll have to pick another project. What about this one?” Ace suggested as he took out a small pile of paper and placed it on the table in front of me.
I flipped through a couple of pages and found that it seemed to be another advertisement for a clothing company. There wasn’t anything outstandingly interesting about the project. At least that was what I thought until my eyes landed on a particular name.
“Oh…” I muttered.
“Work with Richard instead. He’s nice and strict so I’m sure that there are many things that you can learn from him. You didn’t really get a chance to work closely with him on Project Alpha, so this is a good opportunity,” Ace said quite seriously.
I felt like the words ‘nice’ and ‘strict’ shouldn’t really go together. Ace was surely half right when he said that Richard was ‘strict’. Richard was probably one of the strictest person that I knew in my life but I wasn’t sure if he was also ‘nice’.
“You’re not doing this to bully me, are you?” I asked before showing him a hopeful smile.
“Nope. Why would I ever do that?” Ace asked in return before he chuckled.
Any hope that I had that he would change his mind died a sudden death in my chest and I heaved a soft sigh. Working with Richard wasn’t going to be a walk in the park like when I worked with Jeremy. Jeremy was just too nice and so super supportive.
Richard…well…
“I think that he’s…a little scary…” I admitted softly.
“All the more reason why you should learn to work with him. He’s a great guy and very smart,” Ace said with confidence.
He wasn’t just smart; he’s also rumored to be a genius, but I had to say that his cold attitude is really a turn off although he was very pleasant to look at. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. It never occurred to me that I might have to work closely with Richard.
“He’s the Ace from the planning department. It’s not bad for your career to work and learn a few things from him. If you don’t have any good reason to refuse, I’ll staff you on this project with Richard,” Ace said with a firm not of his head.
“Ok…” I agreed in a weak voice.
There was no way that I could come up with an acceptable reason or excuse to rebut Ace’s decision. Just like that, my next staffing was decided.
…
It wasn’t long after that conversation that I had with Ace that I found out that something very similar was happening to everyone that was staffed on Project Alpha. Since the project had come to its official end, everyone else was also being staffed to other projects. Essentially, that meant that we were all going our separate ways, at least for the time being. One final meeting was held where Ace gave a very inspirational speech about how we all should focus on our personal and professional development. As a result of that, Ace had ideas for our next assignment.
“Does this happen every year?” I asked Julianna who happened to be standing next to me.
“Yup. Project Alpha is a very big project and that is why it required all of us here. Now that it’s all over, we’re back to working and assisting other more regular projects,” Julianna replied casually.
Since it was my first time experiencing this as a member of the CEO Office, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Julianna turned and showed me a teasing smile.
“I heard that our CEO paired you up with Richard,” she said in a whisper.
“Yeah…” I replied in short.
“Good luck. He’s very strict but don’t you think that cold expressionless face that he has one when he works is like super attractive?” she asked with widened eyes.
I glanced over at the cold expression of the man in question and felt a shiver run up my spine. Julianna must have seen my reaction because she ended up laughing softly next to me.
“I don’t know about that…” I murmured in reply.
“Well, Richard can be scary at times, but I think no one is as scary as Ace…” Julianna said before she winked at me.
“Right…” I mumbled.
I had been with Ace for too long and somehow, I had forgotten a little how scary Ace could be. When I first met him and when I started working for him, I was so frightened and intimidated by him that it felt like I was walking on broken glass all the time when I was around him. I had no idea when that changed or perhaps it was because the change was gradual. Now that I thought about it, Ace seemed a lot less scary than he was before. Either that, or I had somehow gotten used to being around him. I couldn’t help myself and I ended up shifting my gaze in his direction. Ace was chatting with someone, and he had a smile on his face.
Maybe it was just my own imagination, but I think that Ace has been smiling more often since the end of the competition. If I could somehow deal with Ace, then maybe I have what it takes to work alongside Richard as well. I had no idea how long this optimistic streak of mine was going to last but I was determined to do well on my next assignment.
After walking out of the meeting room, Jeremy approached me. It had been a while since I had a chance to see him and that made me quite happy that we could catch up for a bit.
“I heard you’re pairing up with Richard for your next project,” Jeremy said to me.
“Oh, yea…” I replied with a slightly sinking feeling in my heart.
“Don’t look so sad. He’s very helpful even though he doesn’t quite look it,” Jeremy said before he flashed me a bright smile.
--To be continued…
