Kyle drove Clarissa to school, but he couldn't help noticing the perfume Mrs. Jones had on. Mrs. Jones didn't bother engaging in conversation with him, keeping her eyes focused on the road as she hummed the song playing on the radio. Kyle liked the silence because this was the first time he was with Mrs. Jones in such a setting. He noticed her initial surprise that the car belonged to him, but she didn't say anything more than that. It was clear that he had come up in a conversation with her husband, but she didn't pry.
Clarissa arrived at school, and Kyle made sure she got in safely by escorting her to the door. He returned to the car and saw Mrs. Jones' eyes fixed on him. "Is something wrong?" Kyle questioned, feeling a bit uneasy. "Nothing, I never knew you were this good with kids," Mrs. Jones said, finally showing interest in a conversation.
"Ah, haven't you been told not to judge a book by its cover?" Kyle said, revving up the engine. "Not when the book is a chapter long," Mrs. Jones responded. "Did you just say I'm a chapter long? That's not very nice…" Kyle retorted, but all this solicited from her was a giggle. "I didn't mean it like that! You are always so gloomy, I didn't know you could have such a side to you," she said while laughing.
"You do know you're making this worse, right?" Kyle shook his head to exaggerate his disbelief, and this only made her giggle evolve into full-on laughter. The ice had been broken, and this allowed him to ask the important question. "Do you want to tell me where we're going?" Kyle asked, and that was when she realized that he had no information regarding where she worked.
"I'm so sorry, it's the T Center," she revealed. "T Center? Isn't that where athletes work out?" Kyle knew that this was a prestigious center, even if he wasn't one to work out himself. "That's right, I'm an instructor there, and that's why we've been able to keep our head afloat when a certain someone didn't pay their rent on time," she said, clearly aiming a jab at Kyle.
"Hahaha! That's my bad!" Kyle conceded. Luckily, the center wasn't far from the school, so it took only a few minutes for them to arrive there. Kyle kept the conversation appropriate, not trying to uncover any information that didn't concern him. He stopped at the Center, and Mrs. Jones stepped out before turning back at him, but unfortunately for Kyle, she caught him looking at her buttocks.
She didn't think anything of this; he was a man, after all, and there was no way he would be able to keep his eyes off them without even stealing a glance. Kyle noticed this and quickly adjusted his gaze to look at her, but those eyes made him uneasy. "Is there a problem?" Kyle asked. "What? Aren't you going to walk me too?" Mrs. Jones said, but this was what confused Kyle – he didn't know if she was flirting or just messing with him.
Considering this was their first real interaction, he had no way to gauge this, and this gave her the benefit of the doubt. She had to be playing, right? "You're a big girl, I'm sure you'll be fine. Tell your husband I brought you here safely, or he'll kick my ass," Kyle teased before driving off. He didn't want to be too casual with her, and this was why he explicitly mentioned her husband in this conversation, to remind her that she was married.
Kyle shook off the entire interaction, despite her perfume still lingering in his car. It did have a nice scent, but his next destination was the Agency.
Isabella arrived early, as usual. She was usually the first to arrive, even though she didn't need to. However, she was big on leading by example, because if the boss could do something like that, then the employees had no choice but to follow suit. Isabella opened up the Agency, as she had laid off a few of her staff. She realized that most of the work they were doing was redundant.
She also needed to show Kyle that she could manage his finances and needed to show returns as soon as possible, or he might change his mind regarding management. Kyle gave her freedom, and she was eager to show she was the right person for the job. She knew that Kyle would expect results soon, and there was no way she would take this second chance for granted.
She already had a few talents willing to sign with the agency, but this had something to do with their place in the rankings. It had bumped up considerably, and upcoming talents used this opportunity to enlist with them while their fees were still low. It was only a matter of time before it would increase to show their new ranking. But there was one employee who always came on time, and that was her assistant, Carly. "Good morning~" Carly sang. Once upon a time, she thought her days here were numbered, but there was something freeing that came with knowing you weren't about to lose your job.
Carly came in barely ten minutes after Isabella, and Isabella was already hard at work. "Get in here, Carly!" Isabella shouted from her office, forcing the young girl to rush to the office. "Are you okay?" Carly asked the moment she saw her, but Isabella simply gestured for her to come closer, which Carly did.
"What's going on, ma'am?" Carly questioned, but her question was answered the moment her eyes came into contact with the computer. "What is this…?" Carly questioned, she couldn't believe her eyes. The applications they received easily entered into the hundreds, it was unbelievable that this happened in just a day. This was something that they had never experienced before.
"I bet you regret laying off those people now, don't you?" Carly said, but Isabella was too excited by these numbers to give a damn about that. She could easily hire more people, because with these numbers, the top was her only destination.