Chapter 102

Chapter 102
Ava’s POV

I arrived at Justin’s room to see that his coughing had reduced. Despite that, he greedily took the cup from my hand and chugged down the contents.

“What the hell took you so long?” he questioned, sighing with satisfaction.

I flashed him a glare, wondering if he was serious about that question or not. He looked very serious, and I wondered if the obvious reason wasn’t clear to him.

I let out a breath and sat down beside him. “First of all, this is my first time at your house, and I obviously do not know where every room is located.”

“Fair enough. I’m sorry for picking on you. But you said, ‘first of all.’ What are the other reasons you have?” He raised his brows suspiciously at me.

I looked at the door to be certain it was closed, and once I was sure that it was safe enough to talk, I inched closer to him and said, “Your dad and my aunt are making love in the kitchen.”

His face immediately turned red upon hearing this, and a second later, we both burst into laughter at the same time.

“You are joking about this, right?” he asked.

“I wish I was.”

“Oh my God. I think I have to go and see it for myself.” He got up from the bed to go spy on them, but I stopped him from leaving the room.

“Don’t do that, Justin. That would be disrespectful to both of them. They deserve to have some privacy,” I said, not wanting to anger our guardians.

“Come on, it’s not like I’m going to ask them to stop. I just want to see how they do it.”

“I know, but we could make a mistake and they would find out. Imagine how bad they would feel if they discovered we were spying on them having sex. They would be furious,” I insisted.

His countenance fell and he dropped down on the bed. “You are no fun.”

I didn’t care about his words. He was just a boy sulking, and he was bound to be sour. I sat down beside him, and after a few minutes of silence, he spoke up.

“So, have you spoken to Dale about you taking over his position?”

The moment the question hit me, bile formed in my mouth. The mention of Dale brought to mind the hurt of his actions. I still could not believe that Dale would stoop that low to get back at me. I had honestly thought we were mending our broken relationship, but it was all revenge to him.

“No. I haven’t spoken to him about it, and I do not intend to talk to him about it,” I said.

I felt his gaze on me, and after a moment, he sighed. “Fine, but I think you should take the job. You would make a wonderful manager. And even if you feel unsuitable for the role right now, there are a lot of programs you can take to better equip yourself. I looked up Dale’s role, and it’s basically just product management with a fancy title,” he said.

I snickered at his words. He was right. Most of Dale’s work at the company bordered on product management, but he had one superpower that I did not—he could code. He didn’t have to wait for a team to bring his ideas to life. He could spot errors in the apps the company produced. He could also decide to fix the errors himself without any help. It transcended product management, and it was impressive.

“You would have a team of people who would be willing to work with you, Ava. You just have to let them. You are a smart girl. You would learn on the job despite how technical it seems,” he said to me and tapped my lap.

I stared at him and nodded. It was good to know that he had my back after all.

“Well, I fully intend to resume in that position. I know that it will not be easy, but I’m not about to give up without giving myself a chance,” I said.

“Now, that is the spirit.” He raised his hand for a high-five and I slapped mine on his.

“So what is your first project going to be about?” he asked.

“There are a lot of products he was working on before he was asked to leave, but I understand that if I want to make a bold statement and build some respect, I need to think up something of my own.”

“Exactly. You are seeing the vision and stepping into the role. I like that,” he beamed at me. “So what project is it that you would like to work on?” he asked.

“That’s the problem. I cannot think up anything, and that is what pisses me off the most. How can I do well in the position if I cannot think of something to do? It’s a highly creative role as much as it is technical, and I’m lacking on both ends,” I confessed.

“That is why you have me by your side. You have to quit thinking that you have to do all of this on your own. You don’t, okay? We can think of something together. It may not be perfect, but it should get our brains up and running,” he said.

“Okay, fine. This should be fun. So, what do you have in mind?” I asked.

We spent the next hour listing out possible app ideas. The problem with a lot of them was that they were either not related to what my company was known for, or they had already been created and had too many varieties in the market. I wanted something unique, and that seemed impossible to find.

Finally, a knock sounded on the door and Mr. Rice and Aunt Clara walked into the room. They had bright smiles on their faces, and I didn’t expect anything less—not after the sex they had enjoyed. Aunt Clara announced it was time to go, and my morale dipped. I was returning home to Dale now.