The Perfect Date - romance / love story

Chapter 9

He knew without a doubt that Breanne was not one of those women. It was a novel feeling. With her in control of her actions and this morning's conversations well... when one person was empowered it was the general rule of thumb that the other felt less. He questioned himself on whether he felt less empowered. He certainly felt intrigued and it was almost like a sadistic streak was urging him to make her want him more permanently. Not that he wanted a permanent relationship. Maybe it was just his ego feeling a little bruised at the unheard of rejection.

With her new sense of inner strength Breanne approached her day with energy as she went from meeting to meeting and set up sessions with the staff to understand whether or not they would be able to meet the requirement of LSS as an outsource company. Breanne had to admit that meeting the staff and getting to know them really did change her perspective on off-shoring. She wasn't a gung-ho advocate but neither was she as sternly opposed.

There were many factors to consider and Breanne had begun to compile a list of pros and cons as she could see them. There were the occasional language barriers and misunderstandings. Admittedly there were staff in Australia who also had comprehension issues from time to time.

More than comprehension it was an inability to recognise common Australian names and places that Breanne thought would cause most angst for customers. Once the identification check was passed the conversations seemed to flow fairly well. Agents struggling with the spelling of a name such as Smith and needing every letter spelt out was not great though. Worse was the difficulty in hearing the difference between the letters such as B, P and D. If LSS was to outsource then there would need to be some ongoing comprehension training to make it work.

There were the definite advantages of cheaper call and employment costs. The staff that she spoke to really seemed to be grateful to be employed particularly as many of them were supporting more than just themselves. Securing a job in a call centre was deemed a worthy career path and helped to pay educational costs for younger siblings or their own children. Breanne would need to remain objective and not let her heart strings get pulled by the people that she was getting to know. Not an easy feat as she could already feel herself growing closer to the teams that she was meeting.

Breanne completed her day with energy. The discussion that she had controlled with Zandro gave her an unusually high burst of energy to keep her operational and then some. Breanne was anticipating Zandro's arrival in the training room and started to pack her belongings eager to leave with him.

Zandro had not only met with some prospective call centres but had participated in back to back meetings since lunch with the call centre that managed Zandra Finance's customers. He felt completely spent and was looking forward to a bit of relaxation, the kind that he knew Breanne would be able to provide him.

Usually he had unwavering energy. Today he operated in a distracted manner which was unacceptable at the high level meetings he had attended. By mid-afternoon the effort to focus his attention had sapped his energy and he even found himself becoming irritated during conversations.

His long term friend and business associate raised an eyebrow at him when he became particularly shirty at something that was said. "What the hell is wrong with you today?"

Zandro shrugged his shoulders in annoyance of being called on his behaviour. "Lack of sleep," he blamed.

"Since when has that ever been a problem for you?" clearly not accepting the excuse.

Zandro and Rinaldo had been friends long enough, "Mind your own business," Zandro retorted.

Rinaldo took a good look at Zandro and then chuckled. "Don't tell me it has finally happened?"