Going Solo

Part 6

Jin

"Why do I have to come to this thing again?" I asked Hugh.

"Because you are Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer for The Public Health Center and my best friend."

"Isn't the Chairman of the Board usually exempt from this sort of insignificant thing?"

"Yes, but my best friend isn't. And because you are COB and CEO you have the perfect excuse to be there. Besides, you're the one who asked your CFO, mwah, to take over as Division Manager until I found someone else. So this is punishment for piling extra work on me."

I groaned.

"Oh come on. How long has it been since we went out for lunch?"

"Yesterday."

"Cereal, on your living room floor, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, does not count as going out for lunch."

"Fine." I drawled.

We took the elevator down to the parking lot and got into our respective cars. I followed Hugh for a couple of minutes, before he pulled into the parking lot of an old bookstore. We got out of the car.

"Here?"

"Yes, here. Here is where we will be waiting for everyone."

"We have to wait for them?!"

"It shouldn't take too long to round them all up. Be patient, will you?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Besides," he drawled, placing his arm around my shoulders,"you might have to be my wing-man, some of these interns aren't all that bad looking. They're actually pretty cute."

Hugh was the type that liked to play around, but he knew work came first. Which is why I didn't reprimand him for implying that he was intending to pursue some of these interns. They came one by one, but they were all on time. Hugh did all the talking. He introduced me and I shook hands with most of them.

"Alright, it's about time to go, but I think we're missing someone?" Hugh looked around, counting the number of people we had.

Great. How much longer would we stand here for?

"Sorry I'm late!"

I looked up only to see a familiar yet, unnerving face.

"Of course.", Of course she would be the one to be late. What other negative qualities did this woman have? Clumsiness, tardiness, what next?

"It's good you're here." Hugh said. "Everyone, this is my good friend and your COB and CEO of The Department of Public Health, Lee Jin Dong. But you all will call him, Mr. Lee. If you all were at the conference yesterday, which you should have been, then you probably already know this." he smiled.

She held out her hand. "I'm Nicole Pearson. Nice to finally know your name." she smirked.

Hugh shot me a look. "Are you two acquainted?"

"Yes." -"No." We both answered.

"No," I said,"we've just bumped into each other... a couple of times."

"Is that right?" Hugh smirked.

"Yeah," Nicole answered.

"Well, let's get going then, shall we?" Hugh said.

Hugh led us all across the street towards a small, French restaurant. There were no parking spaces, which is why I suppose he had us park at the bookstore earlier. We were seated in the back corner of the quaint restaurant. There were only about seven of us, so we were able to fit in the corner booth.

"Everyone order what you want, Mr. Lee and I will be paying." Hugh announced.

I cut my eyes at him, wondering why I was really here.

Everyone ordered their food, and afterward, Hugh ordered a bottle of champagne.

The frail older woman came out, carrying the champagne preserved in a bucket of ice. It was a bottle of Bollinger Special Cuvée 1990.

"I am not paying for that." I whispered to Hugh.

"Relax, I've got it." he said nonchalantly.

After pouring everyone a glass, Hugh lifted his.

"Congratulations, to everyone here, for getting this far. Soon we'll see which two of you will earn the job, permanently. But for now enjoy your success."

Everyone took a sip. As did I.

The food arrived, everyone ate and enjoyed themselves. I wasn't surprised at how much Ms. Pearson talked. Was it Miss or Mrs. ? My eyes roamed across the table and down to her hand. No ring. I was surprised she hadn't entrapped some promising, bright young man, into walking down a dark depressing path. Or maybe she had, and just wasn't married yet.

The sound of her continuing on and babbling about her life, which I had no interest in, began causing my head to ensue in a throbbing pain.

"I'm sorry to excuse myself before everyone else," said one of the interns, Troy. "But, it's about time for me to get going." he gestured to another intern, Yanna.

"Troy's my ride, so I'll be leaving too." she said as she stood up.

The other two interns, left shortly after.

"Well, Miss Pearson, how are you getting home?" Hugh asked.

We all stood and pushed in our chairs as Hugh put down the money for our food.

"I'm going out now to wait for the bus." she said as I headed towards the door.

"Jin, wait a minute, we can't just leave this beautiful lady here."

I sighed.

Was this a part of being a wing-man? I thought I was supposed to give him some alone time.

"Really, I'm fine." she insisted.

"The next bus doesn't come for about an hour. Come on, where do you live?"

"Off of exit 218, it's a while away. I couldn't ask my boss to give me a ride."

"Oh, but of course you can. We are quite chivalrous."

"We?"

"Well, Jin tries his best." Hugh turned to smile at me.

"Either way, I really-"

"You're opposing too much. At first it was polite, but now I'm just a bit offended. You would rather sit over at the bus stop for an hour to wait to go home, than have me give you a ride?"

She sighed, "Alright. I'm sorry. Thank you for offering to take me home."

"Great! Now you said you live off of exit 218?"

"Yes." she nodded.

"Oh man," he frowned."I completely forgot!" Hugh turned to me. "My mom's coming today! Jin, I have to get to the airport!"