Embracing Uncertainty

CHAPTER 5 - The Aftermath

3rd Person’s POV

Jess is currently on a conference call with her team and the atmosphere gets pretty intense.

“Why is our campaign not doing any good? We’ve been working our asses off for this but the results that we’re getting do not even meet the benchmark for our KPI*?! Can anyone tell me what’s happening here??” 

*KPI - Key Performance Indicator

Jess scolded like throwing fires in front of her people. For the whole duration that she’s working for the agency, this is the first time that she lashed out on her people so her colleagues are really shocked and couldn’t even utter a word.

“Hey! Why isn’t anyone speaking up right now? The floor is open for discussions. Share your opinions and from there, let’s see how we can pivot our plans and fine-tune our strategy. We’re in the middle of the month already so we only have two weeks left to improve the campaign!” Jess shouted. 

No one still responded after everything that Jess has said to them. As Marlo, the Creative Director couldn’t take it any longer, he sent a message to Jess.

“Hey Jess, I think it’s better if we dismiss everyone now and tackle this by ourselves first. What do you think?”

Looking at the faces of her team members on her laptop screen and heaving a sigh, Jess finally calmed down a bit.

“Okay team, so this is what we’re gonna do. Jot down all the things that you think are the causes of the current results that we got and what we can improve on. I’ll notify everyone once we’re set to have another meeting for this. Meeting adjourned.”

“Thank you, Jess. Bye,” everyone replied in unison.

Before Jess can lash out again, she ends the conference line. 

“So they can speak! They only have their voices when it’s time to end the meeting! Ugh!”

Jess was on the verge of throwing her phone to the wall to let out her frustrations when Marlo suddenly called. 

“Okay before anything else, don’t start venting out on me and let me ask you first, what happened? This is so not you, Jess. You never talked with our team or anyone in the company until now so I bet something came up. So tell me, what’s up?”

“Huh? What are you talking about? We’re not hitting any of our KPIs, not even the median, so there’s a reason for me to be upset! Nothing else happened, it’s just that this campaign is stressing me out!” Jess exasperatedly replied. 

“Cut the bullshit, Jess. You’re not yourself today. If you don’t want to share it with me, it’s fine. But I think you need to cool down. Why don’t you take a day off from work today?” Marlo suggested.

“What? Are you kidding me? We’re in a crisis here and you’re telling me to take a break? No way in hell will I do that!” Jess replied unbelievingly.

She never took a day off just to call down and she wanted to keep it that way.  Being absent from work during a time like this seems like she’s running away from a problem and she doesn’t want that kind of impression especially now that she left homework to her team. 

“Jess, deep down, I know that YOU know that you’re not okay. And you pushing yourself to work will not do any good. What are you afraid of? That Director Shin will scold you for what happened? Well news flash, he already knew and he’s fine with it because he trusts our team. He trusts you. We still have a lot of time to make up for what we haven’t achieved yet. So calm down and don’t be harsh on everyone especially to yourself right now,” Marlo replied. 

Among her friends, Marlo is the most raw and honest friend that she has. He knows when something’s up and how he can help Jess in his own way. He might not be able to help in solving the problem but at least, he contributed something that will help Jess clear out her mind. 

“Alright, got it. I’ll send my leave form now and notify the team that we’ll have our next round of meeting first thing in the morning tomorrow. Message or call me if something comes up; I’ll reply in a heartbeat,” Jess finally gave in. 

“Sure, no worries. Just get out of your house today and chill out. You’ll get your rationality back in no time,” Marlo replied, chuckling.

“Thanks, Marlo. I appreciate it. Ciao!” Jess didn’t wait for his reply and ended the call already. 

After informing everyone that she’ll take a leave today even though she spent almost half the time of her working hours, she grabbed her essentials and made her way to the mall. 

Jess had no concrete plans when she arrived at the mall so for two hours, she just kept on wandering around. At the back of her mind, she knows the reason why she’s being cranky today and as her thoughts and emotions were all piled up, the news about not getting enough results yet for the new campaign of one of their retail clients was her last straw. 

She was like a ticking bomb awaiting for a reason to explode and it finally happened. The sad thing was, her poor colleagues had to endure her scolding.

So now that she had released her frustrations in a different way, she entertained her thoughts about a particular person that’s been bugging her mind.

Maybe it’s true that we should be careful on what we wish for ‘cause we just might get it.

After she left Chen at the embassy, she never heard from him again.

She knows that she should be relieved because finally, she can go back to her old routine and spend her day working but why does she feel so empty?

She feels so pathetic for missing him and she doesn’t know why she got attached to him so easily.

“Is it because we didn’t have a proper goodbye? Or maybe my lack of social interaction?

But who am I kidding? At the back of my mind, I know that at the back of my mind, I wished that I could get something from helping him. That maybe finally, I’ll have the love of my life already. 

Being alone in my own home and working remotely have a lot of disadvantages. Sure, I enjoy being independent and avoiding the everyday traffic just to get to work but it gets lonely sometimes. 

People might think that being an introvert, we want to be alone at all times but we need some company, too.” she thought to herself.

To get her mind off from this loneliness, she decided to check if Wilson is in his restaurant.

This might come off as her being a user friend since she would just visit Wilson because she’s just desperate to talk to someone, but to keep her sanity intact, she still opted to do so. 

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Jess’ POV

The restaurant was full when I arrived and the line was long. Wilson really did a great job on choosing the right place to open this. Grabbing my phone, I called Wilson as all of his staff are busy and I don’t want to bother them. 

Surprisingly, he answered in just three rings. 

“Jess! What a surprise! To what do I owe this call?” Wilson jokingly greeted. 

“You’re so harsh! I just want to check if you’re at the resto now?”

“It’s unusual for you to call and  you never called me back then,” he replied while chuckling. “And yes, I’m here right now. Why? Do you want to dine in?”

“I’m here at the entrance and uhm, as much as I want to dine in the resto is currently full. I also want to catch up with you, that is, if you’re not busy,” I answered while biting my fingernails. 

I don’t usually call my friends and I never initiate a catch up session so I’m really anxious for inviting him.

“Aww you’re surprising me even more! I’m busy but my staff can manage. We have separate tables specially allocated for the staff so you don’t have to worry about the table. Wait for me there, I’m almost near the entrance”

I was about to reply when an arm was wrapped on my waist.

“Oh shi--- Wilson! You startled me!”

Geez.. it was Wilson. I don’t know if I’m just imagining things but when I turned around and looked into his eyes, there’s a hint of glimmer that I haven’t noticed before. I know he’s happy to see me but his eyes are showing different kinds of emotions that I couldn’t define. 

“I missed you,” Wilson uttered while still hugging me. 

“I missed you, too. Can we settle down now? My stomach’s grumbling already.”

And as if on cue, my stomach grumble so loud that I bet Wilson heard it, too. 

Chuckling, Wilson intertwined our fingers before we headed inside his resto.