Page 27 of Tell Me What you Think

"Good morning, Olga," she says, and her assistant turns very slowly, revealing a blush so deep it's almost purple, spreading across her face and down her neck.

"Hi, good morning," Olga replies, forcing a smile that comes out shaky with nerves and the shame of what happened — the kiss — before turning her eyes back to the printer.

The vice president walks past her toward her office and slips off her coat while she hears her assistant's footsteps behind her.

"Here's your agenda for the day," Olga announces, sliding the paper onto the desk. "There are no meetings or calls you need to make, so I've only listed what we have left to review today."

"Sounds good, thank you."

Marina moves past her, circles the desk to her seat, and pulls out her chair. They don't exchange another word. Olga darts out toward the door, and Marina hears her typing at her computer immediately. Yesterday at this time, her assistant would have already asked her a couple of questions about Nauta and she would have cleared up her doubts. Now, though, there's an uncomfortable strain hanging in the air, and the vice president regrets not having talked through what happened to clear it.

She turns on her laptop, reviews the agenda sheet Olga handed her, and gets up to grab a coffee.

"I'm going to the coffee machine — do you want…?"

"I had one a little while ago, thanks," Olga answers immediately.

At nine o'clock, Marina clears the left side of her desk the way she's been doing all week so her assistant can set up with her laptop and notebook, and just as she's doing it, Olga appears in her doorway with her hands clasped over her stomach and her eyes wide.

"I was thinking it might be better if I work from my desk today," she says in a rush. "I have to make several calls to vendors about Lisbon and I don't want to bother you with the noise."

Marina looks at her. She knows there are no calls to make today — the vendors she cares about aren't working — and even if there were, for the rest of the week Olga has made every call she needed right beside her, lowering her voice without it bothering Marina in the slightest.

"Of course, whatever you prefer."

Olga nods, trying to hide her relief, and disappears back to her desk.

The vice president stares at the empty space on the left side of her desk, then at the open document on her screen — a contract with a retention clause she'd planned to review with her — but she accepts reviewing it alone because she doesn't want the awkwardness to grow. The whole situation strikes her as one of the most absurd she's lived through in years: they're barely a few feet apart, separated by a wall and a door that's always open, and they spend the next two hours emailing each other.

Attaching the comparative analysis of the clauses in section three.

Received, thank you.

Transfer from the airport confirmed for the sixth.

Perfect.

Marina lets out a breath when she types the reply to the last email and presses two fingers to her forehead, rubbing as if that might ease the stress the situation is giving her.

She keeps reviewing the document in front of her, and when she finds a discrepancy, she opens her email to send Olga a screenshot — but she stops, presses her lips together, and shakes her head, fed up with this ridiculous situation. The logical thing is to do it, to send it and ask her to handle it, but she decides they can't keep going like this. Olga needs to learn to be at her side again so things can go back to normal, or they're going to have a very serious problem.

"Olga, can you come in for a minute?" she calls, raising her voice slightly.

"On my way."

She hears her rustling at her desk, and a moment later Olga appears in the doorway with her notebook and a pen in hand.

"Come closer — you're not going to be able to see anything from there," Marina says, arching an eyebrow.

Olga nearly trips over her own feet as she starts walking. She comes around the right side of the desk and positions herself next to her boss to see what she wants to show her on the screen.

"Here." Marina points to a few highlighted lines, and Olga leans slightly forward to get a better look, but she clasps her hands behind her back as if she's afraid they might brush against something they shouldn't.

"These twelve clients appear on the October list but not on the December one," Marina explains, running the cursor down the column. "I want to know whether it's an error in the document or whether they've lost those accounts and haven't told us."

"I can cross-reference both lists and put together a breakdown of the missing ones with their billing," Olga answers, her voice coming out steady.

"Perfect."