My Miss Independent

CHAPTER 2

“Nas, let’s go. It’s already one forty-five!” Joy is calling Nas from her cubicle. Joy shook her head upon seeing her friend. Every time she is reminded of her past, she buries herself with work. It is her escape from painful memories.

“I’ll be there in five,” Nas answered back without looking at her friend. She is swamped with work ever since Rich told her about her training in Australia. She has been extending her shift for four to five hours a day these past two weeks. She feels exhausted but at the same time excited that finally, her dream to visit Australia is materializing. She had waited for this opportunity ever since she started working for VAUS, Inc.

“Whew, done!” she whispered to herself, feeling satisfied. She looked at the time, with five minutes left before the meeting, she hurriedly went to the meeting room.

Her team is complete, waiting for her patiently. She noticed that they had not joined the meeting yet. They are always shy to talk to their partners in Australia. They heavily depend on her when it comes to communicating with their counterparts. She is worried that she will be leaving them for six months on their own. But she also thinks that this will be a perfect opportunity for them to grow. With three minutes left, she thought of teasing them.

“Guys, I forgot something. I’ll be back in five minutes,” she said while walking towards the door.

“Wait!” they all shouted, alarmed. Seeing how they all panicked gave her a good laugh.

“Okay, okay, I was just kidding,” she told them, laughing.

Nas loves teasing them before meetings to remove their nervousness. She dialed in to join the video conference meeting arranged by her counterpart manager in Australia, Ken.

“Hey, pare,” Ken greeted Nas from the video conference. He calls Nas “pare,” which means “friend” or “buddy” in the Philippines. He learned the word from another Filipina colleague based in Australia. Ken is the outgoing and friendly manager from VAUS Inc., Australia, and Nas’s counterpart.

“Hey, Ken, pare,” she greeted back. “I’m with the whole team, and they are excited to meet your team,” she added teasingly, knowing that her team will once again be shy.

“That’s good to hear. The team here is also excited to meet all of you. Especially, Fritz.” Ken teased back, snickering. Ken, just like Nas, loves teasing his team too.

Nas heard that Fritz is the shiest and quietest team member of Ken. Come to think of it, it has been a year since they started working with their team, but they have never heard or seen Fritz yet. They only encountered him in emails. Last year, when they had their first video meeting, he wasn’t there either. Nas is now overly curious about this guy. There were some talks that Fritz will replace Ken as Ken is moving to another department soon. If that’s the case, he will be his new partner.

“Oh, finally! We have never seen Fritz yet. It’s about time! Maybe we should start with introductions of both teams, and I’m hoping we’ll see everyone on the camera, not just Ken as we are tired of seeing him already,” Nas added jokingly as she could only see Ken at the moment.

Everyone laughed as Ken rolled his eyes at Nas. She just winked at Ken as they always mock and tease each other in meetings.

Ken adjusted the camera so that everyone could be seen on the video call. He has a small team consisting of five team members, the same as Nas’s team. They have seen all of his team members except for one, Fritz. Nas can only guess that he is the person sitting in the far corner. She cannot see his face clearly as he seems to be hiding from the person sitting in front of him. Very mysterious. She thought. This guy piqued her interest.

“Okay, let’s keep the ball rolling. We have a lot of items on our agenda today. Let’s start with introductions. Ken, we’ll start.” Nas started the introduction by introducing herself. Then her team followed one by one.

After them, Ken’s team started their introduction. Ken is the first one who introduced himself, followed by his team. Fritz was the last one. He went near Ken and sat in front of the camera. Surprisingly, he is very handsome. Nas wondered why Fritz is always hiding and very shy.

He should be proud, she thought. Nas also remembered Ken mentioned before that Fritz is a very tall guy. About six feet tall. If that is true, he is the perfect depiction of tall, dark and handsome. Fritz started talking. His voice is deep and mesmerizing. Nas froze. For some reason, she felt butterflies in her stomach. That voice. It is very familiar. She had heard that voice before. It was the voice she had been searching for for more than half of her life. Mr. Dreamboy from the hill!