Stella finished off the espresso and changed into one of her other shirts. Hopefully this wasn’t a sign that his entire day was going to be cursed, but it was hardly a promising start.
Stella had cancelled her plans to meet with her friends early due to wanting to arrive at the office extra early to prepare. But that decision was beginning to seem like a bad one. In fact, Stella would have done anything to have been with Lilah and Nicki in that moment. Their friendly banter and sense of good spirits was what Stella needed more than anything.
Well,almostanything.
The truth was that what Stella required more than anything else in the world in that moment was seemingly out of her reach. Stella wanted Logan.
But in Logan’s continued absence, Stella was beginning to wonder whether Logan wanted her...
Stella was feeling just about ready to give the presentation. Her assistants and junior staff had left the room and now it was simply Stella alone with her thoughts.
‘Come on, you’ve got this,’ Stella said, the sound of the birds singing outside the room distracting her. ‘Keep your mind on the goal. You can do this.’
‘First sign of madness!’ Lauren said, entering the office with a broad grin on her face.
‘Huh?’ Stella replied, turning to look at Lauren.
‘Talking to yourself. It’s the first sign of madness,’ Lauren laughed, walking around Stella’s desk in one of her passive-aggressive power moves. ‘If you’re struggling with your mental health, why not raise it with our HR department?’
Stella felt a sudden surge of anger. Mental health wasn’t a subject that was appropriate to joke about, especially not in a work environment. Lauren was playing her usual games, but doing so with extra spite because she knew just how important today was to Stella.
‘Do you actually want anything?’ Stella said, failing to hide her irritation and therefore giving Lauren exactly what she wanted. ‘I mean, if you just want to annoy the hell out of me… whatever.’
Lauren laughed.
Wearing a black polo neck tucked into a pair of jeans, Lauren actually looked like the office bitch. With her perfect bob and brilliant-white smile, Lauren did admittedly look impressively smart and just like the kind of girl who had her own very serious ambitions.
Stella didn’t mind having a so-called rival in the office.
What really hurt Stella however was the way that Lauren would seemingly only use negative, hurtful tactics to climb the ladder. Behind her posturing and snarky comments, Stella didn’t think that Lauren gave a crap about the work itself. It was like Lauren wanted success for success’s sake.
‘Would you just leave, please?’ Stella said, a hint of desperation in her voice. ‘I need to run over some things for the presentation. This is important to me. I actually care about the proposal. You should try it.’
‘Wow. Someone woke up in a bad mood,’ Lauren said, holding her hands up to her chest in a mocking way. ‘Sure, I’ll leave. Just try not to think about me too much during the presentation. Oh, and try not to think too much about your absent boyfriend either. I hear he’s having one hell of a fun time around town…’
On that bombshell, Lauren smirked and turned to leave the office.
Stella didn’t know what to think or what to do. It felt like Lauren had achieved exactly what he had set out to do. Stella couldn’t focus her thoughts and felt full of emotion. This was the worst possible mindset ahead of the presentation.
Snap out of it, Stella.
I need to nail this.
I have to get it just right…
With that, Stella steeled herself and strode out of her office as confidently as she possibly could. It was time to set up the room ready for the presentation.
A lot was depending on this moment.
For Stella it could be career defining, a fact that she was only too aware of…
‘What… the… hell?’ Stella cried, burying her head into his hands as she sought solace in the large, maze-like Japanese garden at EcoPlay. ‘What just happened?’
The presentation had been a total disaster.
From start to finish, absolutely anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. If Stella wasn’t tripping over her words, she was struggling to deal with even the most basic of technology. Stella was usually super-calm and composed when it came to using computer software, but she ran into problem after problem during the presentation.
In the end, it had all gotten too much for Stella.
