Judge Me Not ...

Chapter 3

'Jay, Jay you there?' she asked worriedly.

'June, the meeting is at 9 am tomorrow, you have to be here!' his voice was high pitched and he seemed to be shouting.

'It seems I won't be so you will need to start of the proceedings I—'

Jay cut her off rushing in to add, 'No, no, June I can't do this on my ownthis is your baby!'

'Breathe a minute Jay, you can, in fact you have to, we have no other choice, I am stuck here.'

 She could hear the panic in her assistant's voice as he rumbled on decrying their present situation and his impending 'promotion'. He was a good worker but in the seven months that they had worked together, he had never led a meeting of such a magnitude but he had the ability. He was timid but very forceful in a small group. If she had not seen his potential she would have had him relocated to another department months ago. Now, he had to shine and she would be screwed if he failed.

'Come on Jay, you can do this.....' her voice trailed off as he sighed for the umpteenth time.

'Oh no June, I need you here, can I send a helicopter, a private jet? Please don't do this to me now I am not prepared!' he was hyperventilating.

'Be a man Jay!' she spoke strongly as she got off the bed and walked to the window, it was still pouring outside, and she hoped the weather man would be correct for her sake and her job.

'If I believed that you could not do this then I would have told you to cancel; now you listen and listen well.'

'But June, I can't do this, it's your presentation, oh no!' she heard a plopping sound and figured that he had rather ungracefully flopped onto the bed.

'Now listen, you have the presentation notes right?'

'Yes' came the soft reply

'Plus we went through the presentation yesterday and there no glitches right?'

 'I need a drink!' Jay finally said defeatingly.

'No Jay you have to be level headed......... it all depends on you now.'

'I don't want it to!' his voice was resigned but she knew he had made the decision to take this on. He was now trying to fight it like a man hanging onto straw.

'Okay, listen to me, we have been working on this for two months now right?'

'Yes!' came the feeble reply

'Good you know every step as well as me, 'kay?'

'Yeah,'

'Great, so now all you need to do is go over the presentation tonight, everything is on the pen drive, you have a copy plus there is a back up CD so just go through it, you will do fine Jay, I have the utmost confidence in you.'