CHAPTER TWELVE
Now that Ramon and Jocelyn’s relationship was back on track, they began spending all of their free time together. They visited museums, went to movies and had dinners out at restaurants they wanted to try. Ramon was still working on the details of how to best launch Brilliance so he was still a very busy man. Yet he made time to be with Jocelyn.
To her delight, he took time out to leave little gifts for her to find after he left for the office. The day he left a single red rose beside her pillow she almost wept. Jocelyn’s love for Ramon was growing by leaps and bounds. She was starting to let go of all of her old wounds and was beginning to experience real love.
Ramon was a man she could trust. She decided to tell him that she was wealthy. However; each time she got close to telling him, she would lose her nerve. So she kept putting it off, telling herself that it really didn’t matter. Yet she did wonder how Ramon thought that she could afford a condominium with a doorman. He never asked her about her finances. She assumed he thought she was just one of those people living way above their means.
Ramon’s focus was on the roll out of Brilliance. The activity in the lab was furious. Brilliance was previously formatted to be made in small portions. Now it had to be made in huge vats. Once it was made in the vats, it would be poured directly into gallon cans to be sold to distributors.
Ramon was pondering a marketing strategy. He needed help deciding whether he wanted do a soft entrance strategy by going only with print ads for a few months to test the waters, or whether he needed to do a strong strategy with television commercial. He also wanted to host a launch party at a reality star or Hollywood celebrity’s home. He just needed to convince to right star to let the Holliday Paint Company paint the Brilliance combination on one of their expensive walls.
He decided to ask for his employees input; they usually came up with pretty creative ideas. Ramon believed that his employee morale and employee satisfaction improved exponentially if they felt as though they had a part in the company’s success.
Lilly was directed to send a memo to all employees, notifying them of an important meeting to be held in the conference room. It was scheduled for the lunch hour. Ramon provided food for everyone.
He ordered a large selection of sandwiches, salads, fruit and dessert were available. The catering company did such a thorough job; Ramon had to remember to use the same company the next time.
The caterer creatively cut the fruit into flowers, birds, hearts and other shapes. The taste and the presentation of everything was a lot better than Ramon expected. There was enough mouth watering food to feed all of the employees.
Everyone was at the meeting. Ramon asked Jocelyn and Tiffany to set out the food and to remain close by to make sure everyone had whatever they needed.
Ramon started the meeting by thanking all of his employees for their hard work. He gave everyone a status report on the new product. He assured them there would be bonuses once the new product was put into large-scale production.
Jocelyn was proud of Ramon. She couldn’t help but beam, every time she looked at his face. Her happiness wasn’t borne simply out of love, but also out of respect.
While Ramon was speaking, she happened to look at Roger and Lilly. They kept looking at each other and were not really paying attention to Ramon; they were sharing secret smirks instead. What the heck is going on between them, she wondered. Her gut told her they were up to something.
Ramon asked if anyone had any ideas to promote their new product. Several people started talking at once. Jocelyn shyly raised her hand. Everyone quieted and stared at her.
She knew cleaning ladies didn’t usually speak at employee meetings. But everyone knew she was sleeping with the boss, so she just threw her idea out. She said, “How about sponsoring a contest in a home improvement magazine or ladies’ magazine? The person who comes up with the best use for Brilliance will win a $5,000 prize.”
Ramon smiled at Jocelyn. He liked the fact she was interested in making the company successful. After he said, “I like that idea,” everyone began chattering again. Several very good creative ideas came from people Jocelyn didn’t know. Everything was discussed before the meeting ended.
Lilly and Roger lingered in the conference room chatting after all of the other employees had departed.
Tiffany and Jocelyn placed the leftover food onto carts and rolled them in to the break room and stuffed the fridge with the next day’s first-come first-serve lunch. And because they had only cleaned half of the building before the meeting started, they resumed cleaning.
The large conference room was one of Jocelyn’s least favorite places to clean. It had to be dusted vacuumed and the furniture polished, so she usually left it as the last area to be cleaned for the day.
She wanted to leave work early to prepare a special dinner for Ramon; she hurried to clean the other areas assigned to her. An hour later she opened the conference door and was about to go into the room when she spied a pair of women’s lace pink thong panties on one of the chairs. She saw a male hand grasp the panties. By the time she got the door all the way open, she saw Lilly and Roger hugging each other. The panties had disappeared. Jocelyn suspected the panties were in Roger’s jacket pocket.
Jocelyn uttered a quick, “Excuse me.”
Before she could say anything else, Lilly rushed out of the room brushing past Jocelyn with a haughty look on her face, with Roger following right behind her, his face flushed red with embarrassment. Jocelyn just turned and stood in the door way-flabbergasted. She couldn’t believe their audacity.
She wasn’t sure if she should tell Ramon what was going on or if she should just act like the three little monkeys in the Japanese pictorial proverb See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil. She also wondered if working at the Holliday Paint Company could get any more complicated.
On her way home, she stopped at the supermarket and picked up steaks, potatoes and fresh green beans. The steaks marinated while Jocelyn got the potatoes into the oven. She cut up onions and peppers to add to the green beans to make a stir fry.
While she was finishing up dinner, Ramon came in. He was still excited about his new product. He kissed Jocelyn and told her he thought that her idea for a contest was great. He removed his tie and jacket so he could wash his hands before dinner.
Once they were seated at her table, Ramon bowed his head and said grace for the both of them. He started to eat and then suddenly stopped to slowly dazzle her with his 100-watt smile. He held her hands as he told her he truly appreciated having her in his life and thanked her for having a hot meal ready for him at the end of his day. He expressed his gratitude by saying, he felt very blessed to now have her in his life.
She smiled back at him. “I have always liked to cook; trying new recipes is my new passion.”
He said facetiously, “I thought I was your new passion.”
Jocelyn giggled then cleared her throat, put her fork down and decided to broach the subject of Lilly and Roger’s behavior. She asked him, “Speaking of passion, what is your company’s policy regarding employees dating?”
He stopped eating and looked at her. He questioned, “Is someone complaining about you and me?”
She replied, “No. What if there was a couple dating while they worked for you? Would that be okay? Would one person have to quit and work somewhere else?”
Ramon said, “The Holliday Company has never needed a formal policy regarding two people dating each other while both are employed there. Why?”
Jocelyn said, “I was just wondering if there was ever a problem in the past.”
“No and I really don’t want to talk about someone else’s love life right now. I want to talk about us.”
To Jocelyn’s surprise, Ramon reached across the table and asked, “Will you let me help you with your finances, since I’m practically here all the time now? I don’t want you to lose your condo.”
Jocelyn hesitated a moment. She wondered if she should te
ll him he was dating a wealthy cleaning lady. Finally she said, “I appreciate your offer Ramon, but I’d like to leave things just like they are for now.”
He went on to ask her if she would she consider becoming more involved in his company?
She quickly replied, “No.”
“Why not?” He couldn’t understand her reluctance. “You could keep this condo. You could buy better work clothes.”
Hearing Ramon’ remark about her work clothes made her wonder what was wrong with them. She wore only the clothes to work she no longer needed or wanted. Jocelyn reasoned her work clothes were only going to get stained and dirty anyway.
She threw him off guard when she asked, “What’s wrong with my work clothes?”
Ramon remembered the cooking remark he made earlier in their relationship and realized that he had put his foot in his mouth. So he changed the subject slightly.
“Every woman I know likes expensive dresses and shoes.” He said to cover his blunder.
Jocelyn only slightly mollified said frostily, “I can afford my condominium and I have all of the new dresses and shoes I want. I don’t need a sugar daddy.”
He was upset she had taken his offer as an offense. Once she saw the look on his face, she got up and walked around the table and sat in his lap to soothe his bruised ego.
“Look, you really don’t have to worry about taking care of me. Let’s just leave things the way they are for now. If I need any help, I’ll let you know. Okay?”
Ramon sighed and said, “Okay. But if there is anything you need, and I mean anything at all, just let me know.”
“All right, let’s just spend a nice evening together. We can cuddle on the couch and watch television or we can do other things,” she whispered sexily.”
“Like what? He asked slyly.”
Jocelyn bent her head toward Ramon. He met her half way and kissed her. They both became engrossed in the intense sensations they were experiencing as their kiss deepened. Ramon rubbed his hands up and down her back, and then he reached down and cupped her breast. Jocelyn said, “I guess we’re not watching television tonight.
Ramon murmured, “Maybe later, much, much later.”