The next few days pa.s.sed by in the blink of an eye. Despite the fact that they were now living in the same apartment, Elle and Adam hardly saw each other. Their schedules conflicted too much these days. It was common for Adam to awake in the morning to find Elle gone with nothing but the warm breakfast on the table to prove she had been there at all.Similarly, Elle often returned to an empty condo after work. Adam wouldn"t return home until after she had already plopped into the bed in the guest room and pa.s.sed out, but somehow every evening Elle found the fridge stocked full of food for dinner.
Elle continued to pour her time and energy into her work. The knowledge that things would only carry on this way for a few more days gave Elle the motivation to power through.
After what seemed like an eternity, Thursday finally arrived. With it it brought a never ending stream of work but also a feeling of excitement. Tomorrow was the deadline for Elle"s project. With tomorrow the messy and tiresome work would finally be over. The results would be announced, and while for everyone else this meant that they would be able to know how much they would get for their bonus", for Elle it meant she would know if she had won the bet.
Elle had been so focused on her own work for the past few days that she hadn"t bothered to communicate with Jacob or her father. Neither of them had bothered to talk to her about the incident either. In truth, Elle didn"t care. She had already prepared the necessary reports to present to the board members. She would be able to defend herself no matter what tomorrow"s outcome would be. Elle was content to focus on her work without having to concern herself with Jacob anymore.
However, it seemed like Jacob had folded to her previous confrontation. He appeared outside her office early that Thursday afternoon.
Elle heard a light knock at her door and looked up to see Jacob standing sheepishly in the doorway.
"What do you want?" Elle asked while looking back down at her work. There was no reply. She was forced to look back up at him. Feeling slightly irritated now she addressed him. "I"m sure you know that our department"s deadline is tomorrow, I"m very busy right now. If you have something to say just say it. If not leave." She said firmly.
"I want to discuss what we talked about last time." Jacob worked up his courage to give her this vague response, just in case anyone else happened to be listening to them. He knew Elle would know what he meant.
"Fine." Elle said. She put down her pen with a sigh. "Come in. Close the door behind you."
Jacob entered her office and shut the door softly behind him, shutting out the rest of the company. For a rare moment it was just the two of them.
"I did what you requested." Jacob said as he handed Elle a stack of doc.u.ments piled in a folder. "I reversed all of the sales I had switched between our departments. The count is back to normal, all your figures are accurate."
So he did the right thing in the end? Elle mused to herself.
"I"ll take the paperwork." Elle said, extending her hand to take the doc.u.ments from him. Afterwards she bent her head over her desk and continued her work, but Jacob still lingered awkwardly in her office. "Is there something else?" Elle asked, clearly losing her patience.
"That"s it? That"s all you have to say?" Jacob asked.
"What? Did you expect me to thank you for fixing your own mistake? Don"t be ridiculous. Get back to work."
Jacob didn"t say anything further. He quietly left her office and returned to his desk. Once he was gone Elle opened up the sales reports and checked the numbers for herself. Sure enough everything had returned to normal. More than that, looking at the number Elle grinned to herself.
Jacob returned to his desk and found that his phone had been ringing incessantly. It was Abby again. For the past few days" things between them had been somewhat strained. He hadn"t been in the mood to go out on dates with her, or be attentive during any of their short conversations.
Abby, on the other hand, was feeling extremely anxious. She could obviously tell that Jacob was being distant but couldn"t tell why. She was calling now to invite him out for dinner again. The last two times she had done so Jacob had politely declined but now he had resolved the problem between him and Elle. Jacob felt that the issues that had been bringing him down and holding him back were now resolved. Although he wasn"t quite in the mood for a date he still agreed to go out for dinner together with Abby.
Later that night he met Abby at a popular restaurant. During dinner Abby struggled to keep the conversation between them going. Although he had finally agreed to see her it was obvious that Jacob"s mind was somewhere else. At first Abby had been determined to grin and bare it until he opened up to her, but eventually she cracked.
"What"s wrong?" Abby finally asked, giving up on trying to force a good mood between them.
"What do you mean?" Jacob asked with a polite smile. "Nothing"s wrong."
Abby obviously didn"t believe him, but she had no idea what had happened to suddenly make him act reclusively. If he was going to deny it then she had no choice but to let the topic drop.
"If you say so." She said softly.
At least he wasn"t still avoiding her. Abby convinced herself that he was just in a winter slump, or tired from his busy work, and that it wasn"t that he was starting to become disinterested in her.
Abby was more right than she knew, but unbeknownst to Jacob and her both a crack in their relationship was already forming.