Chapter 284 - What Was Noah Thinking?

[This chapter is dedicated to rentayam. Thank you for your support! Cheers from Noah and Jess.]

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"Good morning!" She greeted Gareth that was already buried at his table so early in the morning. It irked her that even though she came to work an hour earlier than usual, Gareth was still earlier than her. She wondered what time he left for work. 

She asked June what she and Gareth talked about that made her look so uncomfortable but she refused to tell her. Thus, her morning greeting for him, though cheerful, was insincere. She is still wary and uncomfortable around Gareth even though she could not find fault in him, especially his work ethic. The guy is one hell of a hard worker, borderline workaholic!

"Good morning, Jess! You're early." he smiled at her like usual. Friendly and quite charming. 

Jess rolled her eyes inwardly. Telling her she is early when he came earlier and clearly has done a lot of work if she will base it on the number of papers littered on his desk. 

She slowly made her way to her own desk, put down her bag, and proceeded to make coffee. It's her morning routine. She no longer asks Gareth if he wanted one. She now always makes two cups of coffee. One for her and one for him, unless Dr. Sison is in the office then she makes coffee for the three of them. 

The coffee was already boiling when Gareth called her. 

"Dr. Sison was in her office and she said she wanted to talk to you." 

'Fuck. Why only tell me now when I already made coffee just for two.' She heaved a heavy sigh and slowly exhaled her frustration. "Thanks for telling me, I'll go there now." 

She poured the freshly brewed coffee and poured them in two cups. She brought the two cups to their working area, walked past Gareth's table, and went to Dr. Sison's office. If he thinks he can get free coffee this morning, he thought wrong, she smirked to herself. 

Standing in front of Dr. Sison's door, holding two cups of steaming coffee made Jess question her life choices. She needed to knock but with both hands occupied, she sighed and looked from left to right, searching for a safe surface where she could put down at least one of the hot coffee mugs to knock and be able to open Dr. Sison's office's door. 

She was saved from her dilemma when the door in front of her suddenly opened and Dr. Sison came to view. "Good morning, Dr. Sison. Care for some coffee?" She smiled at the old woman awkwardly. 

"I was waiting for you and then smelled the coffee. Come in, Jessica." 

She swallowed her awkwardness and followed Dr. Sison inside her office. She hasn't seen her since she returned from work. They just communicated through email and she was sweet enough to send her a bouquet of flowers when she returned to work but she was so busy that this is the first time they met face to face since she got sick. 

She gently put down the cups of coffee she was holding when they reached Dr. Sison's desk. She looked around and was surprised that her office looks neat. There were piles of papers on her desk and as usual, her bookshelves were overflowing but they looked neat enough compared to her old office back in Palo Alto. 

"How are you feeling now, Jessica?" She asked, picking up her share of coffee, taking a sip. 

"I'm well now, Dr. Sison. Thank you for the flowers that you sent me. They're lovely." 

Dr. Sison nodded solemnly. 

With how serious Dr. Sison looked, Jess felt a heaviness in her gut.

"Jessica," she cleared her throat as she put down her cup of coffee. "I don't want to beat around the bush. Mr. Tiefenbacher came to me before he left Mumbai and we had a serious talk." 

Jess burned her tongue as she sip the hot coffee with what she heard from Dr. Sison. 

"I didn't expect Mr. Tiefenbacher to come to me about a research study that he had already abandoned a long time ago when he left the laboratory to focus on managing the company. He's doing a good job, I heard." She nodded softly. "But, until now, I found it a waste for him to leave the laboratory." 

When Dr. Sison started to talk fondly about Noah, Jess felt a warm feeling circling her heart. She wished to hear more about him. There is no one that can tell her what Noah was like when he wasn't behind his office desk. 

"You're already familiar with the research study that he abandoned since you were given access to it, right?" 

She nodded. She was lost for words and didn't dare to even ask questions. After reading a lot of files of the said study, she had an idea of the study and she was proud and felt a bit of pity, for just like what Dr. Sison said Noah's research was brilliant. 

"The new medicine will keep the company in the top three pharmaceutical companies in the next decade or so."  The pride was evident in Dr. Sison's voice and Jess couldn't help but smile. 

"However…" 

She swallowed the lump at the back of her throat, for she knew the next thing that Dr. Sison was going to say would be something that involved her.

"...the reason why Mr. Tiefenbacher approached me and it was not really about the research. He came to me about you." 

Jess had an idea but still couldn't help but felt embarrassed. She believed Noah when he told her about what his ex-wife did. She didn't really need Dr. Sison to confirm Noah's story.

"Mr. Tiefenbacher doesn't want me to let you work too hard. Can you imagine that jerk? He told me that I should not give you too much work, that's why Dr. Llano will continue to work with me. I'm not complaining about Dr. Llano but…" 

Jess sat straight on the chair from what Dr. Sison said. Her mouth was left open when she realized Noah asked Dr. Sison not to give her too much work. She was expecting him to talk to Dr. Sison but not about telling her not to give her too much work! Dr. Sison doesn't look angry. She's more amused than angry but Jess stiffened on her chair in embarrassment. 

'What was Noah thinking?' She grimaced thinking inwardly. 

~~ANNOUNCEMENT~~

None of the winners of our event last month came forward to ask for the code to redeem for their prize. That's why I've decided to put the code here, and any one of you can redeem the code: AB9GYBKS2ELW6YLYA

Good luck to whoever can redeem the coin first as it can only be claimed a certain number of times.

As always, thank you for reading!