Chapter 4 - Priorities

Julia couldn't focus on what Lizzie was saying. She hadn't gotten much sleep in the last few days.

First she'd spent almost the whole Saturday night up talking with her mom. She had been really upset about that letter. Maybe even slightly too much. But then again Julia's mom had always had a thing for drama. This was the total opposite to how Julia was, which had always made her wonder whether she'd gotten it after her father. He'd left before she was born, so there was no way for her to verify that.

By Sunday morning her mom had seemed in a moderately better mood and had clearly been enjoying having her daughter around. Julia hadn't wanted to leave her too soon, so she had ended up leaving for New York in the evening. Once in New York she still had to ditch the car far away from her apartment, afraid that in case someone had been following her, they would have found out her new address. Finally arriving at three am at her apartment only allowed her a couple hours of sleep, as she had a meeting with a customer at nine am.

So now, she was back in the office after the meeting, and discussing its outcomes with her coworkers, Lizzie and Josh. Zoey had appointed them to help her with organizing events. Julia was very grateful for their help, really. Just today Lizzie's enthusiasm was a bit too much. Josh seemed to have realized Julia was not in the best of form, so he was keeping quiet and just nodding every once in a while.

"We gotta have fireworks, Julia!" Lizzie exclaimed. "I know a guy who not only has a huge variety of fireworks, but can also coordinate the whole show."

During the morning meeting with one of the directors from Brady Corp. Julia, or rather Brand Today, had been asked to coordinate the 4th of July annual party the company was organizing for their employees and customers. When they had invited her for breakfast, she'd been expecting that this would be the outcome, but still she was really happy with the assignment. Brady Corp. was one of the most important customers of Brand Today, but they hadn't been interested in their events organizing services before; but rather the legal advisory stuff or some marketing campaigns.

First folks to hear the good news were Lizzie and Josh, as their help would be required throughout the whole process of planning, organizing and carrying out the event. Julia even started wondering whether she shouldn't ask Zoey for more helping hands.

"Julia, are you even listening to me?" Lizzie asked with a friendly smirk.

"Of course! Fireworks, yes, you are totally right," Julia focused her attention on Lizzie. "We can't have a 4th of July party without fireworks! Can you take care of that?"

"Sure!"

"Alright, let's list down some ideas, so that we have something to start with..." She was interrupted by a quick knock on the door, and before she could answer, the door opened and Jack's assistant walked in.

"Jack wants to see you in his office, Julia," she said, not even worrying that she might be interrupting something.

"Sure..." Julia answered surprised. "I'll be there as soon as we finish the meeting."

"Oh..." Agnes seemed to have noticed Lizzie and Josh only now. "Right... He kind of said he wants to see you now..."

"Of course he did," Julia answered with a smile, but did not move from behind her desk.

Agnes, unsure of what to say, just left the office.

"OK, so I guess we will finish later?" Josh was about to stand up.

"No!" Julia exclaimed a bit too harshly. "We are in the middle of an important discussion. Let's finish this and I will handle the CEO later."

Both Lizzie and Josh nodded surprised, but did not comment.

They finished the meeting forty five minutes later. Even though Josh and Lizzie already left, Julia was not in a hurry. She went through her emails and cleaned up the non existent mess on her desk. When there was no other excuse for her to delay any longer, she stood up and walked to Jack's office.

She sent Agnes a warm smile as she passed her desk and knocked on Jack's door.

"Come in." Came a quick reply.

She took a deep breath and opened the door.

Julia hadn't seen Jack's office before. She was expecting black marble and dark walls, so was surprised to see light coloured walls, a leather, rather comfy looking sofa and two armchairs, shelves filled with books and a simple wooden desk. The space seemed cozy. Seeing that desk or rather the mess on it she thought that Jack and Zoey actually had something in common. His sister couldn't get the papers on her desk in order either, despite the constant attempts of her assistant, Teresa.

"You wanted to see me?" Julia hoped her voice sounded cool.

"Well, you took your sweet time to show up," Jack answered, annoyance clear in his voice. He continued typing on his laptop and didn't look up.

All the cool that Julia tried to keep that much, started sipping away. She took another deep breath. I will not let that asshole get to me!

"Contrary to what you think, Jack," she started drily, "I do have work around here, quite a lot of it, actually. So I cannot just drop it all and run to your office at your every command."

"Maybe you simply need help with setting your priorities." Jack finally looked up. She could see he wasn't angry anymore, he was just trying to annoy her.

"I know how to set my own priorities, thank you very much. Keeping you happy is simply not one of them."

"I heard from Jason Novak that we are organizing their 4th of July annual party," he said, ignoring her remark about priorities. "I would very much appreciate being informed of such important developments by my own stuff, rather than hearing about it from the customer!"

Wow, that was fast! Julia thought, surprised at how quickly Jack got to know about the offer from Brady Corp.

"I literally just had the meeting with them, Jack, like two hours ago! And as I said, I have more pressing matters to take care of, rather than running to your office every time I hear about something new..."

"From now on, you will be informing me about your plans towards Brady Corp. and about the costs involved," Jack cut her off with a tone that allowed no objections.

"Anyone else you are controlling this way, Mister Deschanel?"

Julia did not really mind informing the management about the progress of the preparations, but she'd rather be talking to Zoey or Tom Jones, who was the account manager for Brady Corp.

"That's none of your business, Miss Stiles."

"And in which form do you wish to be informed about the developments?" she asked in a sweet voice. "Email? Presentation? Drawing? Singing telegram?"

Jack stood up, walked around his desk and then leaned against it, sending her a charming smile.

"Since you do this job, I assume you are creative... Well at least to some extent, so I believe you will figure out a way yourself."

Asshole!

"Fine!" Julia answered, not in the mood anymore to come up with another biting remark. She turned around and moved to the door.

"Fine." She heard Jack say, as she left his office.

She forced herself not to slam the door. She knew Jack was doing this on purpose; he wanted to scare her off, get rid of her. And even though Julia would really want to just show him the finger and leave, she knew she did not have that luxury. She felt safe and protected, at least to some extent, behind Brand Today's glass walls. She suspected that the moment she would go out there and start her business under her own name again, Nicholas' men would find her. She hadn't agreed to witness protection and to changing her name because she did not want to be pretending to be someone else, she did not want to be hiding.

But isn't it exactly what I'm doing right now? she thought bitter as she reached her office. Her stream of thought was interrupted by Teresa, Zoey's assistant.

"There you are!" Teresa exclaimed. "Are you alright?" she asked, seeing the annoyed look on Julia's face.

"Peachy."

"OK... Whatever it is, I'm sure you will forget all about it during lunch with me," Teresa added with a sweet smile.

"However tempting that might sound, Teresa, I..."

"Oh, don't start that workaholic nonsense of yours again!" she stopped Julia mid sentence. "You gotta eat, girl! And I swear it will be a quick bite!" she added, probably sensing that she would convince Julia with that.

"Fine, you annoying woman! Let me grab my bag." Julia agreed with a defeated smile. She really liked Teresa. She was a small woman around Julia's age. No matter what was going on and how much work she would have, Teresa always had a warm smile for everyone. She was open and easy to talk to, something Julia lacked, so most people in the office seemed naturally drowned to her. She'd been Zoey's assistant since the very beginning of Brand Today, and knew the company and its founders in and out.

Despite Teresa's pleasant company Julia couldn't focus on their conversation, constantly dwelling on the little chat with Jack Deschanel.

Just go with the flow, Jules, she finally urged herself. He wants to know all you do, fine, he'll know. He'll get bored with it soon enough.

Feeling slightly better after having made that decision, she looked up at Teresa who was staring at her in anticipation.

"Let me guess," she said with a smirk, "You haven't heard a word I said?"

"You've always been so perceptive." Julia stuck out her tongue.

"Ok, so please focus now, Julia, this is important."

"Yes, ma'am." Julia saluted with her fork.

"Zoey is flying to Chicago this Thursday..." she looked at Julia with puppy eyes, hoping the other would get the hint. Julia did get the hint.

"And you can't go?" she asked.

Teresa lived with a disabled brother who required support around the clock. She had help from her mother and from a qualified nurse. Still, travelling for a couple of days with Zoey was usually a stretch for her. Zoey didn't mind and usually took some other girl from the company who could be her assistant during the trip. Women in the company were always willing to go on a business trip, so Zoey had never had a problem in finding a volunteer. However, ever since Julia had started working with Brand Today, she'd become the substitute assistant for Zoey, which the latter had been thrilled about.

"Think of all the girls' nights we are going to have!" she had exclaimed when Julia had heard of the idea for the first time. And that they had had indeed.

"Danny is starting that new therapy on Friday," Teresa explained.

"No problem, Teresa," Julia agreed. Anything that will allow me to take a break from the controlling CEO, she thought to herself. "Your family is your priority."

"Thank you, love! Everything is already taken care of; the hotel, the plane, dinner..." Teresa started listing the logistics, but Julia shifted her focus to the turkey sandwich in front of her.

"All set and ready to go?" Zoey popped her head in Julia's office on Thursday morning. They haven't had a chance to talk all week; Julia was head down in the prospects for the 4th of July party and Zoey was closing off a marketing campaign for their newest customer.

"Yep," Julia pointed her head towards a bag standing by the wall. She switched off her laptop and packed it in her handbag. "By the way, why are we going to Chicago?"

"I'll tell you on the jet..." Zoey whispered secretively.

"Getting used to private jets, are we?" Julia teased her friend.

"I can't say I dislike the leather seats, but it's Jack; he says it's good PR if we show that we can afford renting a jet, so..."

"Wait, what? Jack is going with us to Chicago?!" Julia exclaimed, shocked.

"Well, yeah..." Zoey laughed. "We both need to be there."

"Seems Teresa forgot to mention this to me..." Julia whispered, irritated. She was so looking forward to the few days away from the office and New York. Now it seemed that the one thing that was annoying her the most in the office and in New York was following her to Chicago.

Just perfect.

***

Just for a brief second, before he recognized her, Jack was stunned by the beauty of the woman getting on the jet. But then he heard Zoey's voice and realized that the woman next to her, the one he was staring at, was Julia.

To hide his embarrassment he turned to the small plane window and fully focused on the phone conversation he was having.

"I will have one location to show you today, Mister Deschanel," the man on the other side of the line kept talking, unaware of Jack's distractions. "Then we can visit two more tomorrow, and I might have one more for Saturday too."

"Perfect," Jack just answered, giving Zoey and Julia a quick wave. "We should land in Chicago in about two hours." He hung up the phone.

The two women took their seats further away. Zoey sent him a kiss as she sat down. Julia, surely on purpose, took a seat that positioned her with her back to him.

Obviously Jack hadn't been thrilled when Zoey told him who would be accompanying them. He found her idea of a substitute assistant ridiculous; if Teresa did not want to travel, then she should be replaced. But Zoey was always more about people, than results. They each had different management styles, and Jack did not comment on hers as long as it was not interfering with their job. And Zoey's wasn't, at least for now. If only she could just find a different temporary assistant.... He groaned internally.

Once they were up in the air Jack stood up, grabbing his drink and walked over to Zoey and Julia. He sat down next to the latter, knowing that it would annoy her greatly.

"We can see the first location already today," he said to his sister.

"Great!" She clapped her hands.

"Can you tell me already what this is all about?" Julia asked impatiently.

"We, my dear," Zoey started in a mysterious tone. "Are opening a second branch office. This time in Chicago!"

Julia was quiet for a moment, but then, as if realizing something, she smiled broadly and looked at Jack.

"That's really great!" she exclaimed.

Jack knew what she was thinking.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Julia, but it's not me who is going to lead it," he said with a grin, watching the smile disappear from her face.

"Oh."

"So, we are going to Chicago to check out the potential office locations," Zoey concluded.

"How thrilling," Julia whispered and turned to her laptop.

Jack wanted to annoy her some more, but his phone rang at that moment. It was Tom. Jack stood up and walked to the back of the plane. Tom owed him some information, so he wanted to make sure that no one heard their conversation.

As he walked away, he could still hear Julia mumble:

"CEO or not he should not have his phone on in a freaking plane..."

Jack ignored her remark and picked up the phone.

"Tom."

"Hey, man. I have some information you wanted..."

"Some?"

"Well... I'm not finding much for now..." Tom sounded surprised at his own words. This was understandable since he'd never had problems before in gathering information on people in a matter of a few days. Five days had already passed since Jack had asked him to find something on Julia.

"Tell me what you've got so far..." Jack sighed.

"Julia was living in Seattle for a couple of years. She started her own company, Perfect Day, and it seems the company was doing quite well; she even had two people on payroll. She left town a couple of days after the last event she organized, over a year ago. No husband, no children during that time."

"That's it?!" Jack exclaimed, disappointed.

"Told you, there isn't much."

"There isn't much is an overstatement, Tom!" Jacked combed his fingers through his hair, irritated. "Ok, go down there..."

"That's the plan," Tom butted in.

"Go down there, find the two folks that worked for her, get me the names of her clients, talk to her neighbours. Find me something tangible, Tom."

***

There are so many seats on this goddamn jet. Why is he again sitting next to me?! Julia thought, seeing Jack taking the seat next to her.

"Would you mind switching off your phone?" she asked instead. "We are on a plane after all. No matter how private it is."

"Yes, ma'am," Jack answered distractedly, which made Julia shoot him a surprised look.

Did he just do something I asked him to?

"Working on the Brady Corp. event?" His full focus was on her now. Jack was looking at the screen of her laptop.

"Yes," she answered drily, hoping this would satisfy his curiosity, but he kept looking at her screen.

Julia pulled out the print outs she took from the office. These were the three final ideas herself, Lizzy and Josh had chosen after their brainstorm yesterday. Before they would pick the 'winner' she wanted to look through all of them, tweak them a bit and maybe add some new elements to them.

She handed them to Jack.

"These are just rough sketches, but we are most probably picking one of these."

He put the three prospects on the table and looked through each of them thoroughly. The prospects already had ideas for the menu, decorations, music and the leading theme of the party. First one was Josh's idea and had the American flag as the leading theme. The idea was that the party would be very posh, a ball actually. Julia noticed that Jack pushed that prospect aside rather quickly.

The second one was Lizzie's idea and it was a total opposite to Joshe's proposal. Lizzie wanted a laid back barbecue party, not only for the employees and customers of Brady Corp., but also for their families. She came up with the idea of different quizzes and charades about Independence Day and the history of the US. She even suggested that a baseball game be held during the party.

The third idea was Julia's. She wanted the event to give the participants diverse experiences; there would be the main room with a speaker's podium and tables, it would be connected to multiple rooms where other events would be taking place simultaneously; a type of 'unplugged' concert, a movie show of documentaries related to 4th of July, dancing party, and a couple more...

"I like this one," Jack said, pointing to her prospect.

"Yeah, me too," Julia whispered. "But the second one is really good too. It's actually Lizzie's and since she is really good at what she does and very enthusiastic, I wouldn't like to put her down by dismissing her ideas. So, I'm thinking of somehow combining the two..." She trailed off as Jack was staring at her in surprise. "What?" she asked, uncomfortable.

He did not get a chance to answer, as Zoey butted in.

"Are you seriously having a grown up conversation right now and not killing each other in the process?!"

They both looked at her confused.

"What has the world come to!?" Zoey continued her banter.

"And how does Brady Corp. envision the party?" Jack ignored his sister and turned back to Julia.

"They want it to be classy, but cool, funny, but not too much over the top, patriotic, but not lame... So in other words they have no idea what they want."

Julia could swear she saw a trace of a warm smile on Jack's face. He must have realized what his facial muscles were up to, as he put back the mask of indifference a second later.

"Keep me up to speed," he said, standing up. He walked away, taking the seat at the far end of the plane.

"I hope you remember about o u r  company party too, Jules?" Zoey asked with a smirk. "Priorities, my dear."

"Of course I remember! Who said you can't organize two parties at once?"

"Knowing you, you could manage organizing five at the same time."