Chapter 501 - After A Long Time

After she gossiped with Vira about the High Creative Ads company, Lisa found out more about them. It turns out, 9 out of 10 partnering companies fail their cooperation for the same reason.

Money.

Whether it's from High Creative Ads company or any other company, everything comes down to money. But more often than not, it is the advertising company that ends the collaboration with other companies.

After searching deeper on the internet, Lisa just got insider information at the High Creative Ads company. She found out that some of the employees there were famous for their selfishness and greed.

***

Early in the morning, Lisa was ready to go to the office. Even though she didn't get any sleep last night because she hadn't stopped printing page after page of the plans she'd been making lately, the woman didn't look tired. She finally knows the strengths and weaknesses of the High Creative Ads company!

As usual, the insurance office building was already filled with a sea of ​​people. Usually, every time Lisa gets to the office, she always looks for Cicilia first for maybe breakfast or coffee together to start their day. But not today. Without stopping by her desk first, Lisa rushed to Maria's room.

"Enter." the woman exclaimed from inside the room.

Lisa straightened her clothes before opening the door to Maria's room. With steady steps she walked over to the woman's desk. Not forgetting to hand over the brown envelope that she brought, Lisa showed a friendly smile.

"Good morning Mrs. Maria, these are important files about the High Creative Ads company that you and Mrs. Indri need. Please read for a while if you have free time."

Maria just looked up when she heard Lisa's signature voice. The woman looked up then in the next second, she immediately showed a big smile. How happy she was to see the thick eye bags that adorned Lisa's face!

Maria's right hand immediately grabbed the brown envelope from Lisa while still smiling widely. Maybe, in the eyes of others, the woman's broad smile looks happy because the task she gave Lisa was finally completed on time. But actually, her wide smile was because of her pleasure to see Lisa look like a ghost. 

"Okay, thanks for your hard work, Lisa. This time you deserve the thumbs up!" In accordance with her words, Maria raised her two thumbs. "Fortunately, I chose you to work on this project."

It's no secret that Lisa likes to hear compliments. Who doesn't like themselves being praised? But somehow, hearing the words of praise from Maria's lips, Lisa felt uncomfortable. Like, everything the woman said sounded fake and actually mocked her.

Lisa cleared her throat, "If I can go out, I'll let you out first. I still have a lot of work to do."

"As I said before, if this file is received by Mrs. Indri, this big project will surely fall into your hands. Hopefully, the High Creative Ads company agrees to work together with us." Maria said while propping her chin.

"Thank you for entrusting this project to me." Lisa's reply was short.

***

After a week and a half of lack of sleep, all Lisa wanted to do was take a day off and sleep as much as she could. But of course she couldn't do it all. Her work at the office desk is still piling up because she left it just to draw up a plan with the High Creative Ads company.

But at least, after Lisa handed the files over to Maria, she could go straight to sleep after work. Her everyday routine is always the same. Going to the office, having lunch, coming home, shower, then sleeping. It's the same every day.

Just like today. So tired, Lisa couldn't focus with the numbers and graphs that filled her computer screen. Often the woman yawned and had to drink 2 cups of coffee to wake herself up. 

Finally, after the second cup of coffee runs out, the clock shows 4 pm. Without wasting any more time, Lisa rushed to her feet, grabbing her tote bag. Usually, she would wait for Cicilia to come down together. But today, she had no more energy. The woman immediately descended the stairs because all the elevators were full, and stopped a taxi that happened to be passing in front of the office building.

Not long after Lisa got out of the taxi, the jet black car immediately caught her attention. Before she could guess who the car belonged to, she saw the back door of the car open from the inside. Then the figure of a boy came down excitedly and ran towards her.

Indeed, Lisa admitted that she was tired half to death. Her face was paler than a ghost and her appearance was a mess. But as soon as she saw her son running towards her while giggling, her feeling of tiredness instantly disappeared.

Lisa squatted down and opened her arms wide, "Here's Mama's favorite child!"

"Mama!" William shouted loudly. 

Lisa almost fell backwards because William couldn't stop his footsteps and hugged her so tightly. The woman returned William's tight hug and kissed his head.

"Why did William suddenly come here without telling Mama, hmm? If you had told me first, I could've prepared food for you."

William slightly released his embrace and kissed Lisa's cheek. The boy's face looked happy and his eyes sparkled, like thousands of stars living in his eyelids.

"I really miss Mama! Just after school, I immediately told Papa to take me to your house!"

Hearing that made a warm feeling run through Lisa's body. The woman tightened her arms around William's tiny body again and said, "Oh my gosh, it's the same. Mama misses William so much too!"

No matter how tired she was, whether she had to move mountains with her bare hands or cross the ocean, her tired feeling would just disappear when she saw William. 

Not long after, Lisa released her arms and straightened her back. She held William's tiny hand and noticed Oscar's presence. Now the man looks fine. His hand was not bandaged.

"How's your hand? Does it still hurt?" 

Oscar shook his head. "It's gotten much better. But sometimes, it still itches. The doctor has told me how to take care of it.. Thank you, I recover faster thanks to you."