Impressions

Impressions 4

Nakatalikod ang swivel chair sa desk. And she heard him mumbling.

'May kausap' she told herself at marahan na lang niyang inilapag ang kape and slowly walk out the door.

Binilisan niyang tinapos ang pagrevise ng report and saved it to the shared network and flash drive.

Knock on the door to give the drive and to ask if meron pang kailangan. But she was dismissed with a wave of hand bago pa siya magsalita. She decided not to pursue further and thought paano niya mabibigay yung report. She doesn't know his email address nor his phone number.

She waited. While waiting, tinapos pa niya ang ilang documents na nakafile pa sa desk niya.

"Clarisse, alis na ako, matagal ka pa?" asa desk na pala niya si Lisa.

She checked her wrist watch. 8:30 PM na pala. Kaya pala gutom na rin siya.

"Hindi ko pa nabibigay yung report eh. Busy pa ata siya sa kausap niya" aniya.

"O siya, mauna na ako. See you on Monday" ani Lisa at bumeso pa sa pisngi niya.

She watched her leave until she disappeared along the hallway and decided her luck to knock again.

"Sir?"

"What?" tanong nito ng nakatutok ang tingin sa laptop nito. "Where's the report?"

"Nasa shared na po." aniya. And after a pause, "I also have it here"

Inilapag niya sa mesa ang flash drive. He took the flash and inserted it to his laptop.

Dead silence.

She can only hear her own breathing. And it's not calming her.

She watched him scrolled his eyes.

'Maybe sa report', she thought.

She looked down nung hindi na niya matiis na makita ito. He has rolled up his sleeves. She can see the silver watch on his right arm. His tie loose. Hair a little messy. And his beard starting to grow. He may be lacking sleep evidently shown on the light dark color under his trying to be awake eyes.

'Bakit kanina parang hindi naman siya ganyan kahaggard?' she asked herself. 'Nonetheless, ang gwapo pa rin'

She keeps her eyes on her toes while waiting patiently. It's eating her out. The whole of the time.

"Change this."

She startled a little. Because she is lost in her own thoughts by this time.

When she lifts her eyes, she saw him move the laptop's screen to her view.

She nod.

"Make it something of a positive. Add the value. Include the details on how. And the benefits." strongly delivered word.

She moved closer. While writing it down to a piece of paper she brought what he has just requested.

"Clean all the slides. Remove unnecessary colors. Make it plain and simple. We are presenting to the board. Not doing a college report. And we are fighting our operations permit, not some glossy marketing"

Yes, the company is in a property developing. And with the current status, they have to have a good impression as well ensure law compliance in order to continue to operate. The board meeting next week will determine how are they going to walk their way to obtain permit to operate after a series of unfortunate events onsite.

This has been a long overdue meeting that was cancelled twice due to actual problems in operations at the site. First, pagbagsak ng scaffolding ng tinatayo nilang mid rise condominium sa may Magallanes. Several workers were hurt. Second was when they failed sa bidding ng acquisition sa land property sa Cebu and was given to the competitor. The third one, which might have caused the stroke of Mr. Montillano, was the architect and engineers assigned to the Baguio Hotel project run away with millions. How did they do that? Hindi pa rin niya alam. All she knows is that under sila ni Royce. Pati ang supervision ng Magallanes condominium is under her wing being a Civil Engineer herself.

She jotted it down. She raised her head para makita niya si Jeff at kung meron pang dagdag na gagawin. Only to find him intently looking back at her and instantly move his eyes sa flash drive.

Detach it from the laptop. And rested it on the desk.

She quickly grab it.

"I'll work on it" sabi lang niya at lumabas na ng room.

She sat down in front of her desktop and inserted the flash. Look at other files para sa additional details na kailangan sa slides pero gutom na talaga siya eh. Ramdam na niya ang paggrowl ng sikmura niya.

She opened her drawer and found a small pouch of peanuts - sugo. Yung tig piso sa tindahan. Binuksan pa niya ang ibang drawer pero wala man lang kahit isang cracker. Pupunta sana siya ng pantry pero matatagalan pa siya. Gusto na niyang makauwi. Kaya kinuha niya ang maliit na sugo. At akmang kakagatin na niya ang plastic para mabuksan ng biglang nag open ng pinto si Jeff. And she was caught unguarded.

Nagulat rin siya at bahagyang namula. Pero mabilis niyang dinisimula.

"S-sir?" aniyang inioffer ang hawak.

Napatingin lang dun si Jeff.

"Just finish that report and leave it in my desk" anito at dumiretso na palabas.

Bahagya siyang napahinga. At tinuloy na lang ang pagbukas ng sugo. Gutom na kasi talaga siya. Inabot pa siya ng 12:30AM sa paghahanap ng additional information. Pero hindi na niya nakitang bumalik si Jeff.