"Is she allowed to take
"Yes, but I can't let her
talk to you from here because if I do, my other female employees will think that she has special privileges and they won't stop until they destroy her. However, I gave her a cell phone because Mr. Hague, her father, he calls her constantly, and I don't want them to lose contact." Noah slowly dictated Jessica's mobile number to Hayley Marie and she wrote it down on the calendar right in the center of her desk. They said goodbye and ended the call. Noah went right back to work.
Jessica was mixing the chemicals and plants on her formula. Suddenly, her phone rang and she put her beak down. She turned off the flame so that the formula didn't get burned and ruined and she didn't have to start it over; thus the day before, she worked on it all day. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, lifted the flap, pressed "talk" and answered it. "Hello, this is Jessica Hague."
Smiling, Hayley said,
"Jessica, this is Hayley Marie Daly, Hayley Johnson's daughter. I know that you don't want anything to do with Big Hayley or anyone linked to her, but I'd really like you to listen to what I have to say, because it's important." Jessica stayed silent for a few minutes. "I'd really like us to meet when we're done working for the day. Would you have dinner with me at Stavros’, the pizzeria that's five blocks from Spears International?"
Smiling, Jessica said, "Yes, I'd like to have lunch with you. By the way, I know that not everyone that's linked to your mother is as evil as she is, so I'm not going to make you pay for what she's done to me and the Spears family. The Spears family has treated me like a princess and I support them 100%."
"I'm glad. Although I'm the daughter of their worst enemy, I support them 100%, too. As soon as you're done working, call me on my cell," said Hayley Marie and dictated her mobile number to Jessica. Jessica opened another screen on the phone and typed it with her keypad. Hayley Marie heard her doing this and smiled, thinking, she’ll never lose my number, and said, "All right?"
"Yes," said Jessica. "I've got to register my new formula, so I have to go. Take care, Mrs. Daly."
"You, too," said Hayley. "I'll see you later today. Bye," and hung up. Hayley Marie finished composing an email for her major stockholders, and Jessica finished working up the formula.
Jessica poured her finished anti-acne scrub on a beautiful glass bottle, placed a lid on the bottle and walked to the door, opened it, and got out of the lab. Just when she was about to give the scrub to Scott, Ivy stopped her, being careful not to brush against her and making her drop her precious product. "I'm sorry, Jess," she said.
Jessica smiled and said, "it is ok, Ivy. Do you have something to tell me?" "Yes," said Ivy. "Noah wants," and took the scrub from her, "this finished product. Mr. Spears has his own chemists which make formulas especially for him, and he told me to tell Noah's chemists to give their formulas to him. You're one of Noah's chemists. I call him by his first name because he hired me. We're best friends."
Jessica laughed nervously and said, "Ok."
They walked to Noah's office together. "Even if he's busy, he'll take us in when he sees your finished anti-acne scrub. He's going to be so excited. This is a product of his creation, the second one, in two days."
Jessica smiled and said, "That's what I want, to make him happy, because I owe my success and bright financial future to him. Do Noah and Scott work separately?"
Just when she was about to open the door, Ivy said, "They don't work separately, but each one of them has his own products." "Ok." Ivy opened the door and they went in.
Noah was on the phone with Maury, one of his major stockholders and he dispatched him, just for a few minutes. "Maury, I have to go. We've got a new product," he said and opened up his beautiful smile. "I'll call you back and give you the details once that it's registered."
"Ok," said Maury. "I know you've got a ton of work to do, so don't forget to call me back."
"I won't," said Noah. "Bye," and hung up. Jessica and Ivy sat down together, one on each chair and smiled at him. "So, what's this new product?" he said, smiling. "I didn't have a clue about it."
"It's my new anti-acne scrub, made with all-natural products, plants and botanicals, including aloe to help keep your skin soft. It's for both genders," said Jessica.
Ivy looked at her and smiled. "That sounds great," said Noah. "You know what?" and took the bottle from Ivy. "I'm not going to have any of our models try it. I'm going to try it myself tonight."
"But you don't have acne," said Jessica and Ivy laughed.
"No, but my skin's kind of rough in my back and that means that acne's about to start appearing," said Noah, smiling.
"Oh," said Jessica. "I didn't know that."
"Are you going to tell me about your new products from now on or do you plan on continuing to surprise me with them?" said Noah. "I prefer to keep surprising
you," said Jessica. "Hayley Johnson's at it again, she's jumping on me now, and I don't want her to find out about my products and pay somebody to try to ruin them."
Noah stayed silent and pensive for a few minutes and said, "You're right. When we find out that someone's betraying us, we find out after he or she's already done us harm, so don't tell me about any of the products you're working on. That way, you can finish the product and register it without someone intervening and trying to ruin the process."
"Ok," said Jessica and got up. "I advise you give me an additional job so that Hayley doesn't find out that I'm a chemist. Only Ivy knows," and Ivy nodded, looking at her. "Everyone else thinks that you're still testing me."
"You're right," said Noah. "I'm going to get you to be Maury's secretary. Maury and my other stockholders work on the back of this building, in the fifth floor.
You'll only create a product once a week, and it doesn't matter how long it takes you to finish it. Things that are finished quickly are hardly ever done right anyway."
Ivy and Jessica walked to the door, opened it, got out, and closed it. Since Jessica had forgotten to register it, Noah did it for her in a matter of minutes and then called Maury back. The product was registered and ready to be bottled in a beautiful container with the scrub's name on it. The product would be named, "Jessica's Skin" as Ivy cleverly suggested.
The phone rang several times because Maury was eating his breakfast that his loving wife had just brought him. It was 8:58 AM. Maury put the last half of his delicious sandwich down and answered the phone. "Hello," he said, smiling.
"The anti-acne scrub is registered and ready to go to the factory," said Noah. "Rather than having our models try it, I'm going to try it tonight at home, so that if there's any complication, I pay for it," and laughed hysterically, "instead of the models because they're such delicate flowers, and I don't want to see them crying. If there's something wrong, I'll tell Jessica how to fix it."
Smiling, Maury said, "So Jessica created it."
"Yes," said Noah and turned serious, "but you can't tell anyone. Everyone thinks that the formula's Ivy's, and to keep everyone from finding out that Jessica's my chemist, she's going to be your secretary."
"That's great," replied Maury and took a sip of his mocha- flavored coffee. "I just fired Rebecca, so I need a new secretary."
Noah was about to say goodbye and hang up, but he loved gossip too much to let this juicy gossip slip from in between his beautiful fingers. "Why did you fire Rebecca?" He never knew that Rebecca was capable of doing something bad to Maury and this amazed him.
While Maury and Noah enjoyed their new gossip, Jessica went to the lab, picked up her things, left her gown on her chair, and got ready to go to Maury's office. She opened the door, walked out, and ran straight to the nearest elevator. She pushed the button for the elevator doors to open, ran inside with her high-heel shoes, and pressed the "1" button to go back to the first floor. The elevator doors closed. As the elevator went down, she looked in a mirror that was on the side, to see if she needed any of her own scrub. Acne started to break out right underneath her foundation. "Oh, no," she said. "It's starting to become noticeable. What do I do?"
She arrived at the first floor. The elevator doors opened once again, she walked out, and her elevator doors closed. Suddenly, a dark-skinned, Puerto Rican, sexy but robust woman walked toward her with a beautiful blue-eyed baby girl that looked like a little doll.
She had the most beautiful medium-sized round brown eyes and the most beautiful lips and smile. She smiled and said, "Hi."
Jessica saw the name tag on the left side of her chest. It was Rebecca, the secretary that Maury had just fired due to a terrible misunderstanding with a client, but Jessica didn't know that Maury had just fired his secretary, and she much less knew who she was.
Jessica smiled at her and said, "Hi."
"Do you need help going somewhere?" The employees that passed by were amazed to see Rebecca at this part of the building. She was going to Scott's office to ask him if she could work for him, in any position. She felt that she was in no condition to ask for anything after what just happened.
"Yes, I need to go to the office of Mr. Maury," said Jessica and Rebecca gasped when she heard Maury's name. "I have to address him informally because I don't know his last name."
"His name is Mauricio Herrera," said Rebecca. "Come on, I'll take you to his office." Rebecca and Jessica walked out of the building through the back door and went to the back side of the building, right behind Scott and Noah's building. They walked one- hundred steps because the back side was slightly far and then they walked in. Everybody looked strangely at Rebecca as she walked Jessica to the nearest elevator. They felt badly for her because they knew that she was one of the best employees and that she'd never failed her boss. Something strange was going on and they were determined to learn what it was to help Rebecca. They had no idea that this customer had a personal grudge against Rebecca and that she was doing everything that she could to destroy her. The elevator doors opened, and they walked in, and pressed the button "5" for the elevator to go to the fifth floor. The elevator doors closed and they started going up. "May I hold the baby? I love babies."
"Sure," said Rebecca and gave the baby to Jessica. Since this baby was already five months old, people could hold her any way that they wanted as long as the baby remained comfortable. The baby continued to stand up in Jessica's belly, as she faced her and enjoyed her smile. They laughed crazily together. "You have a way with babies, don't you?" said Rebecca, surprised.
"I have a way with animals," said Jessica as she wiggled the baby up and down, making her laugh endlessly, "but I don't know if I have a way with babies."
The elevator doors opened. They were on the fifth floor. "I think you do," Rebecca said, sincerely, "because instead of crying and throwing a tantrum, Rosemary's having fun with you."
A few minutes later, they arrived at Maury's office. Rebecca opened the door and let her in and closed it. She didn't want Maury to think that she was defying him.
Maury saw Rebecca right beside Jessica and yelled, "Rebecca wait!"
Rebecca went in with Jessica and said, "Yes."
"Hannah told me what happened between you and that bitchy customer. She told me that what happened was her fault and not yours." Jessica looked at Rebecca and smiled. This could mean that she was getting back her job and that Jessica could be getting another job. "She told me that the customer attacked you physically and that you didn't lay a hand on her. She told me the opposite of what really happened."
"What does this mean?" said Rebecca, rolling her eyes.
"This means that I just called Noah Spears, my boss, and that he's just offered you five percent of his stocks," said Maury and Rebecca gasped. "You're one of our stockholders, and depending on how the enterprise does, your stocks will increase every week, as the stocks of everybody else do."
Rebecca was excited, but she had to keep it in and wait until she got home to let it out. She simply smiled and said, "Thank you, Mr. Herrera."
"Don't thank me," said Maury, smiling. "Thank Mr.
Spears. Leave me alone with Jessica, please. Go home and get ready for tomorrow. It'll be a loaded day."
Jessica gave the baby back to Rebecca and Rebecca walked out of Maury's office and walked the door behind her. Jessica sat down in front of Maury. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Herrera. You're very handsome."
Maury smiled sweetly and said, "And you're just as beautiful as I am handsome. Let's talk about the work that you're going to do as my secretary," he said, got up and walked around his desk and then closer to Jessica. "First, I'm going to teach you to use the computer."
Jessica got up and walked around his desk. On her way there, she grabbed the chair that she was sitting in and placed it right beside Maury's wheeled cotton chair.
Maury walked around his desk again back to his place and they sat on the computer together. "I think that desktop computers are better for offices," commented Jessica.
"I agree," said Maury as he pressed his enter key to get back on the desktop. He pressed the "start" button. Jessica did it right after he did. Then, he clicked on the "Internet Explorer", the first application on the "start" menu.
Jessica got connected to the Internet immediately. "Your job," said Maury "is to promote Spears International in different message boards of business groups. You're going to get them to visit our official website and make us proposals."
"So I'm a promoter." "You're going to do
reports on what all of those people tell you. You're going to receive emails that are composed on the "contact us" page and reunite all of those comments in a day, write them in your own words. I want you to do all of this because I know that there will be too many comments for you to send us directly," said Maury and laughed. He was confident that this promotion would render fruit.
"Cool," said Jessica, clapping her hands, "I'm going to be a secretary and a promoter at the same time. Do you want me to send brochures to companies nationwide? All that I have to do is make one brochure and make hundreds of copies. I don't have to do the brochures from scratch."
Pensive, Maury blurted, "You know what? I hadn't even contemplated that, but it's a fantastic idea, Jess," and Jessica laughed, jumped up and down repeatedly and clapped her hands again. "Do you know how to use any peripheral connected to a computer besides the monitor, keyboard, CPU, speakers and mouse?"
"I've never used a printer,
scanner, copier or fax, but I've seen people do it on TV and it's somewhat easy."
"It's very easy," said Maury and got up and walked around his desk. "Come on, I'll show you how to use our copier."
Jessica got up and said, "But you have a lot of work to do, Mr. Herrera."
They walked to the door together. "You can ask any of my colleagues or any of their secretaries, every time I get a new employee; I work them around the building and everything inside of it on my own."
"Why don't you have Rebecca teach me everything that I need to learn in order to work here?" she said as they walked out the door together. "I don't think that she's arrived home yet."
"I like to do it on my own," said Maury, smiling as they walked to the copier. "It's more fun that way. Besides, the work that I do, I do in a matter of hours. The most that my daily work's taken me is six hours and that only happens when I'm tired. I only stick around for meetings. That's why every employee dreams of being a stockholder; not solely because of the money, but because we have to do less of what everybody else does, and it's more the time," they sat by the copier together in two different chairs, "that we spend in meetings than the time we spend doing everything else."
"Cool," said Jessica.
"Sit on the computer," said Maury, and Jessica pulled out the rolling chair and sat on the computer that was right beside the copier. That computer was a special computer that Maury used to instruct his new employees.
Rebecca had prepared it for the next secretary without knowing that she would turn out to be one of the sweetest women that she'd ever met, Jessica Hague. She pressed the spacebar to get the desktop back. "Type a two-page document and I'll time you. Write anything that comes to mind because this won't be given to anyone. I'll make three copies of it so that you get the hang of it." Jessica typed everything she'd learned while working on Spears International. As Maury looked at it, he was impressed. He had to give this to Noah. Chapter 21
The three copies were made at the touch of a button without the help of the word- processor that Jessica was using. Maury wanted to show Jessica how to make copies both ways; from the computer and directly from the copier, and showing her how to do it directly from the copier was the best approach. Now, the people of Spears International used copiers that would fit on the computer desks, to take less office space. "What brand is this copier?" said Jessica as the second page of the third copier was done, and Maury pulled it out.
Maury had stopped his timer one minute before, as soon as Jessica finished typing. "It took you a half an hour to type two pages.
That's not as fast as Rebecca is, but it's excellent, compared to other secretaries I've had. We only use Hewlett Packard and Compaq hardware."
"I want to know how many words I can type in one minute," said Jessica. "We had a Compaq Presario Z-1000 computer, but Mom and Dad had to get rid of it because the water that embedded it caused short circuit and we had to put it out in a race against time, before it would explode."
Maury reset his timer and once it read, "00," he said, "Start typing," and Jessica started typing in less than one-third of a second. "I hear that Noah's taking care of all of the things inside your house."
To make things easier for her, and just so that she didn't have to think of what to type, Jessica typed everything that she and Maury were saying to one another in one big paragraph. "Yes," she replied. "Noah's really sweet. He's helping us." The timer stopped. "Oh, that is good!"
"Click "tools", and from the pull-down menu, select "word count", said Maury and Jessica did as she was told during she was told. The word count displayed the results. It counted sixty words. "Whoa, that's good! You typed sixty words in one minute!" As the document got printed with all of the information at the edges of the sheet of paper, including the date, the time it was commenced, the time it was finished, and what computer it was done from, Jessica looked back at Maury and asked, "How many words does Rebecca do in one minute?"
"Two-hundred," said Maury as he pulled the paper from the paper tray, "and she only gets faster."
"How long do you think it'll take me to type as quickly as Rebecca does?"
"Sixty words per minute are good enough for me, for now. I can't pressure you to be faster," said Maury. "You'll get faster as time passes."
Maury got up. "Ok," said Jessica. "So, when do I start working, right now?"
"You got that right," said Maury, smiling. "Come back into my office. I'll have to decide where you're going to go."
A few minutes later, Jessica was in her place, in a quiet, private small office that was right beside Maury's office. Rebecca had left all of her reports for today in there. When the argument and fight with that customer took place, she didn't have time to print them out. She thought that it would be useless because Maury wouldn't want them, so she didn't bother taking them. Jessica printed all of those reports out in less than ten minutes, gathered them, lined them up, pulled a brand-new file folder from the file cabinet, placed the documents inside the file folder, got up, and walked to Maury's office, and knocked the door. "Come in, Jess," said Maury.
Jessica went in and said, with the file in her hand, "Rebecca left these for you," and placed them on his desk, right in front of him. "Those are important, so rather than deleting them, I printed them out."
Maury put his reading glasses on and started to revise the reports. "Excellent," he said. "These are very important indeed. I wouldn't have forgiven myself if I had rejected them."
"I agree," said Jessica with her hands on her back.
"I'm going to write a check for Rebecca, paying her for all of this, and I want you to wait for the check, take it with you, put it in an envelope, write the address down that I'm going to give you, and put it in the mail for Rebecca."
Jessica agreed, but rather than putting the check in the mail and leaving it out there, a few minutes later, she put it in the mail and waited for the mail man to come and get it. She didn't trust the employees that walked around Maury's territory. She didn't know that these hyenas were jealous of Rebecca and they would do anything and everything to bring her down, including destroying the check, and even so, she didn't trust them. Rebecca was beautiful, charismatic, and above all, efficient, and every secretary would have every reason to envy her rather than admire her. She could tell the difference between admiration and envy. Envy is admiration accompanied with hate.
Jessica went back into the building as the mail man took the check to Rebecca's mailbox, and went back into the elevator to go back up to the fifth floor. In the elevator, she bumped into Brandy. Brandy wanted to see her to apologize to her in the name of her mother. Hayley Marie wanted to do the exact same thing, but Brandy went ahead of her. Jessica didn't notice that someone was right behind her until she pressed the "5" button and heard a woman's voice saying, "Hi."
Jessica got scared and even placed her hand on her chest, but she wouldn't let Brandy notice, so she turned around and said, "Hi. How are you doing?" Brandy's voice sounded similar to Hayley's, so even though Jessica hadn't had the disgrace of seeing Hayley, she could tell right away that Brandy was one of her daughters.
"I'm doing great, and I hope that you are, too," said Brandy and stretched her hand. "I'm Brandy Jean Riley."
Jessica stretched her hand and said, "I'm Jessica Hague. It's an immense pleasure to meet you."
The elevator door opened right behind Jessica, and as soon as Jessica heard the low beep she said, "Oh," and Hayley laughed. They walked out. The elevator doors closed right behind them as they kept walking. "I don't know exactly work you work, but---"
Jessica interrupted her and said, "Well, if you continue to follow me, you'll find out where I work in this building, and you'll be able to visit me as many times as you want."
They kept walking back to Jessica's office. "Thank you," said Brandy. "I'll keep that in mind the next time that I need to see you so that I don't have to wait until you get back home." They arrived in less than twenty minutes and Jessica closed the door. "I wanted to apologize to you in the name of my mother."
Jessica turned around, looked in her eyes, leaned on the desk and said, "I appreciate it, but I think that none of Mrs. Johnson's daughters should apologize in her name. I only spoke to her once, but I know what kind of a demon she is."
"Yes," said Brandy, nodding, with tears in her eyes, "she is a demon. She's so evil and treacherous that I don't think she's my biological mother. I inherited nothing from her from within."
"She'd never sincerely apologize to me or to anyone she's hurt in her life," said Jessica. Ivy was right behind the door, eavesdropping. She wanted Jessica to have a sample of the wonderful product that she'd created. It was in a box and the factory had bottled up 1,000,000 samples of it, in just a couple of hours. The demand for a really effective anti-acne and skin- softening serum was great and the enterprise couldn't waste time.
They had to get this product on the market right now. It was patented and ready to be sold. She couldn't believe the words that were coming from Jessica's mouth. She didn't know Hayley from what she'd heard from other people like the Spears family thought. She knew Hayley personally, and the danger of her approaching them and doing them harm was not distant anymore. It was imminent. Would Didier be able to wipe her out or disable her physically even worse to force her to stay at home for the rest of her life before it was too late? They never knew. Only Scott knew about his hit man, and he wouldn't tell anyone even if he got tortured to talk. "That's why no one in the Spears family can ever trust her." Ivy gasped and covered her mouth with a face of utter horror. "Trusting her is the same as diving into a body of water that's full of sharks. You simply don't do that."
"I'll warn Noah of the imminent danger now that you have had contact with my mother. Don't worry. Hayley Johnson won't hurt anyone in this building. I promise you," said Brandy and walked out of Jessica's office, leaving her breathless and gasping. Although she was Hayley Johnson's daughter, she felt that she could trust her, and she was right--- and the bond that was about to form between Brandy and Noah would prove it to her even more each day. Brandy thought about leaving, but instead of going down to the first floor and going to her car, she went down, got out of the building, walked to the main building, entered, ran to the nearest elevator, pressed the button and rushed in as soon as the doors opened. She pressed "4" to go to the fourth floor and the doors closed. Scott was on the fifth floor. Rebecca was in there with her baby. She noticed that Brandy was quite desperate. Brandy was panting. She had no idea if her new encounter with Noah would be what she wanted it to be or a lot more than what she wanted it to be.
"Is something wrong?" said Rebecca.
Brandy turned around, looked at Rebecca, and replied, "No, it's just that I'm about to see a guy that I'm crazily in love with and I don't know what's going to happen between us." She figured out who she was talking to. It was her best friend of twenty years, the woman that held her when she was just two days old and had been holding her and watching every step of her life ever since.
Rebecca walked closer to her as the elevator doors opened and said, "Perhaps I could help, daughter." She recognized her too.
"Rebecca?"
Smiling, Rebecca said, "Yes!" and they immediately hugged and walked out of the elevator. Scott was walking in.
"Are you satisfied with our agreement, Rebecca, asked Scott, "or is there anything you'd like to change?"
Rebecca turned around, opened up a smile when the doors were about to close again and said, "I'd like to change nothing, Mr.
Spears. Everything is fine." The doors closed and Scott started going down---the elevator. Rebecca and Brandy walked to Noah's office together.
"I'm so scared, Rebecca. I am not ready to lose my virginity yet; I know that I'm not."
They stopped, Rebecca stood in front of her and asked, "Who said that Noah would do that to you right this minute? Who said that Noah would even be your first?"
"If it happened," said Brandy and let her head down, "it wouldn't be because of him, it would be because of me. I'd take advantage of his and every man's weakness."
Rebecca lifted Brandy's head up with her hand and said, "Look at me. If you're not ready, and if you're not having an orgasm right now, you won't take advantage of his weakness. When the woman doesn't want it at the moment, she won't do it unless the man pressured or forced her to."
"She's right," said Ivy as she passed by with the most evil smile on her face, and then turned around and looked straight forward.
Rebecca and Brandy looked at her for a few minutes, laughed like crazy together and turned around and continued to walk to Noah's office. "Look, if you're so worried about it, tell him what you have to tell him, make a silly excuse to him for him to dispense you, and get out."
Brandy laughed and said, "Ok, I'm so nervous. Why don't I just wait until he's among lots and lots of people whisper it in his ear and take off running?"
They got to the office. "Trust me," said Rebecca. "If you continue to feel the way that you feel right now, nothing's going to happen." Rebecca knocked.
"Come in!" yelled Noah. He was excited because in a matter of minutes, the factory had prepared 3,000,000 other samples of the serum.
Rebecca opened the door and went in. Brandy was behind her. "Mr. Spears," he said, "Ms. Riley wants to see you," and ran out more quickly than a shooting star.
Brandy turned around and yelled, "Rebecca, wait!" and then turned around and looked at Noah with a shy, but bright smile on her beautiful face.
Noah got up and said, "What's wrong, Brandy? I'm not going to eat you. Will you please excuse us?" he said to Tatum and Aaron, two of his major stockholders.
"Sure," said Tatum as he and Aaron walked out together, smiling evilly, "but remember to take it to the hotel because this is a public place." Brandy was only twenty but she seemed twenty-one, so they had no idea that she was my mother in law’s little sister. They walked out as Noah laughed at them and then turned serious.
Brandy smiled nervously an