Part 4
It took a combination of grace, and an online sermon on not being offended by Joyce Meyer for Sidney to decide to work on the document for Dave. Still, she took her time. She tapped off a sarcastic reply when she got home, which made her feel only marginally better as it went completely over his head. "Huh" he'd replied when she'd said something in German loosely translated as "o n wa slippers e" or "o ko sori igi" in Yoruba, the language her step mom spoke. She spent a leisurely afternoon talking to her roommate Anika and playing with her new puppy, then she decided to try out a new recipe shrimp alfredo with peppers. She spent a couple of hours working on a brief, then she she finally pulled out the document that he'd emailed to her.
"There's no information on here for anything" she grumbled, and clicked open a google window. Within a few clicks she had better information about the company, its past products and the kinds of freedom the new product would make possible for high-level executives and grad student researchers alike. He is kind of a genius, she admitted grudgingly, as she edited the document one final time and tried to remove some of the repetitious sentences. She was just getting finished when the doorbell rang, and then there was a knock at her door.
"Hey Baby, how are you?" It was Dave, looking as though butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. He enveloped her in a hug, and kissed her forehead.
"Not bad," Sidney replied, trying unsuccessfully to remind herself that he was probably here to babysit her till she finished the press release. "How was yours?"
"Awful" he said, opening his laptop bag and settling onto her bed, his back to the headboard, like he thought he belonged there. The first time he'd done done a month before, she had thought it was cute, though a little bit presumptuous. Over time she had become used to it, but tonight it was particularly annoying. She looked at him, trying to decide why she was dating him. It was probably because he was the hottest smart guy she had ever met, she finally decided. She regularly got brain crushes, and none she'd been in crush with had come in a package as cute as this. But did hotness have a greater utility than thoughtfulness? She didn't think so.
"So we were on the freaking conference call for five hours" he was saying, as she finally tuned back in. "Five hours, Sidney. Just trying to hammer out an agreement without having to get external lawyers involved. I am so tired. If I wasn't so invested, I would walk away. But I've worked too hard to leave. Too much invested." he said as he booted up his laptop. "But how are you", he finally asked, more genuinely this time. "Hope Boss-lady wasn't stressing you out over email?"
"Nope" Sidney replied, turning to her desk and clicking over to MS Word. "I actually just finished your Press Release. Take a look?"
Dave got up off the bed and walked to her and hugged her again. "Thank you so much. I knew I could count on you" he said in a heartfelt manner. Then he sat at the desk while she went to hang up some of her dry-cleaning that had been delivered a few minutes earlier. "Did I tell you the name of the company?" he asked.
"Nope. I googled it. And that better be you guys, or else there's someone out there doing the exact same thing you hope to do, and that would be..." she didn't get a chance to finish.
"Wow, this is amazing, I didn't give you all this background information! You're amazing!" he reached out and pulled her to sit on his lap. "This is so much better than I expected! Thank you so much!"
"Wow... did you think I couldn't write or... " she tried to get up, but he held her on this lap.
"No I had the utmost faith in you!" He reassured her. "But you really went above and beyond. Thank you." He said as looked into her eyes and almost against her wishes, she decided not to bring up the rude text. He hadn't meant any harm, she was sure, as she sat cuddled against him while he made some minor edits and then prepared to email the document to his partners. He just hadn't thought about how his text would be received. And in that moment, with her head against his shoulder and her rationalization complete, she was content.
Will Sidney's contentment last? Read Part 5 here.
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