Chapter 276 - 276 Private Time

276 Private Time

The day that we had been waiting for had finally arrived. Thinking to make a big bang launch, Julianna planned a very busy day for the launch day of the commercial that we had worked so hard on. According to her plan, Ace would lead a press conference to announce the launch of the commercial which would go live in the evening of the same day.

“We’ll build up a lot of hype on the day itself. The news would cover the launch for the whole day and then the commercial will finally go live in the evening,” Julianna explained.

“Are you sure that’s enough time to get the word out? It doesn’t seem like enough time,” Jeremy asked with a frown between his brows.

Right at that moment, I had to say that I was on Jeremy’s side of things. One day to get the word out seemed like a very tight schedule indeed, even if it meant that we would launch our commercial at least a few days before our competitors.

“Words travel fast these days. Plus, waiting for too long between the press conference announcement and the actual launch could make people simply forget about it and we’ll lose the hype that way,” Julianna explained.

“Oh, I see…” I murmured after hearing her logic.

“Did Ace approve this?” Jeremy asked while still sounding skeptical.

“Yes, he did. Why would I do something this major without consulting Ace first?” Julianna snapped back like it was supposed to be obvious.

“I guess you’re right. If Ace is fine with it, then everything will turn out fine,” Jeremy said with confidence.

.....

I giggled softly to myself at how easy it was to convince Jeremy. As long as Ace was involved, Jeremy didn’t seem to doubt that anything could go wrong. I was once again amazed at how much Ace influenced and inspired the people around him.

That decision brought us to this moment when the press conference was about to start. Instead of hosting it at some fancy hotel, Ace and Julianna had chosen to host the press conference at the largest auditorium in our office building. I was on pins and needles all night since last night because I was so excited and scared that I would arrive to work late the following morning.

The press conference was scheduled to start at 10AM and that meant that we had to be in a couple of hours earlier than that. I didn’t want to risk anything going wrong and had decided to tag along with the other team members to check everything beforehand.

‘Where are you?’

Ace texted me in the middle of the preparation as I was following the team around to perform various checks in the auditorium. If I hadn’t been holding my phone in my hand, I would have missed the vibration that notified me of the arrival of Ace’s text message.

‘I’m checking things in the auditorium,’ I texted back.

“Umm…when is Ace supposed to be here?” I asked the organizing team.

“Half an hour before the start of the conference,” a member of the team replied.

“Doesn’t he need to get in earlier than that?” I asked in surprise.

“Nope. Ace is used to this, so he should already know what to do. 30 minutes of standby is more than enough for him,” another team member replied before smiling at me reassuringly.

“I see…” I mumbled.

I looked at my watch and figured that it would be a while before Ace would arrive here if that was the case. Although I wanted to see him already, I was thankful for the chance to get everything ready before he made his appearance. At least that was what I thought until the phone in my hand started vibrating non-stop. I glanced down at the phone screen to see that Ace was calling me.

“Hello…” I answered the call while walking way from the other team members.

“Are you still at the auditorium?” Ace asked.

“Yes, I am…” I replied while feeling a little confused.

It hadn’t been that long since I told him via text where I was. As that thought was running through my head, the door to the auditorium opened and I gasped in surprise when I saw Ace walking in. I blinked rapidly in surprise because according to the staff he wasn’t supposed to be here yet. His sudden appearance wasn’t the only thing that surprised me. The fact that he was making a beeline in my direction had me wondering what was really going on.

“Rina…” he called my name as he came to stand right in front of me.

Thankfully, no one was really around anymore after I had walked away from the other team members to answer his call earlier.

“You’re here early. The organizing team members told me that you won’t be here until 30 minutes till the start of the conference,” I said as I stared up into his face.

“Come with me,” he said as he grabbed my wrist and tugged on it.

“Wait…” I protested as I glanced around to make sure that no one saw us together like this.

Ace seemed to be in a hurry, and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen or where he was taking me. There was still some time before the start of the conference but not enough time for us to waste. After walking down the hallway for a moment, Ace opened the door to one of the smaller meeting rooms and dragged me in there after him. Him turned and locked the door behind us when we were both inside.

“What’s going on?” I asked blankly.

“Nothing. I just need to talk to you about something,” Ace said as his hazel brown eyes stared intensely into mine.

Suddenly the room felt cold, and the atmosphere became a little tense. I could tell that Ace was serious and I wasn’t sure what had taken over him.

“Is something the matter?” I asked in wonder.

“The press conference is going to happen soon…” he said as he kept his eyes on mine.

–To be continued…