As the clock ticked closer and closer to the time when she would normally get off work, Rachel stared at the final word count of the document she was working on. It was a sad excuse for a document, which contained only sixty or seventy words instead of the seven hundred or eight hundred words that it should have.
The director knocked on the office door and came in after a beat of pause. "Are the documents ready, Rachel?" she asked.
It was not until then that Rachel came back to her senses. Flustered at her lackluster pace of work, she managed to mumble out an excuse. "I'm still working on it. It's almost done."
The director frowned. She sighed and said in a somewhat irritated voice, "The document could have been finished in half an hour. You have been working on it for the whole afternoon, but you still haven't managed to finish it yet?"
She raised her arm to glance at her watch and sneered, "I'm leaving in ten minutes. Can you finish it in time?"
Rachel took a wistful look at the almost empty screen in front of her and sighed. Disappointed in herself, she answered honestly, "I'm afraid I won't be able to finish on time."
As soon as she uttered out the negative, the director's face darkened like the sky when a sudden tropical storm approached. She looked thunderous. "Then you'd better finish it and send it to me as soon as possible. I'll deal with it when I get home."
"Okay."
Since the day Rachel started working here, she had never made such a blunder, not even the smallest of mistakes. Her impeccable record meant that her superiors never felt the need to doubt her abilities. Now, it was because of Jack that such an incident happened. Even she herself was speechless in the face of the situation.
She patted her face casually in an attempt to freshen up. Rachel gave herself a short break of a minute or so, using it to perform some stretches so that she could focus better on her work. She took a deep breath in and then carried typing on the keyboard. The marathon to finish the document had started. Finally, within half an hour, she reached the minimum word count and clicked "save." Relief rushed through her veins as she sent the document to the director.
Tilting her stiff neck this way and that way, Rachel reached out and turned off the computer. Within minutes, a black screen greeted her and she could see the muted reflection of her face. Just as she was about to stand up, a knock sounded and Jack entered. He looked a little surprised when he saw that Rachel was still at her office. "Rachel, I thought you wouldn't wait for me." There was a hint of happiness in his eyes. question stopped her. "What are those two doing upstairs?"
"Oh, they said they are going to tidy up the baby's room upstairs. They came at noon but they've been fighting for the whole afternoon, and it's not over yet," Julie answered, smiling warmly at Rachel.
On the second floor, Tracy, with one hand propped on her hip, stared at the wall. She harrumphed and said discontentedly, "The room should be painted pink. It'll look better that way.
"What if the baby is a boy?" With a helpless look on his face, Jonathan pouted at Tracy's statement. He pointed at the wall and decided to give his input. "I think the blue walls we have right now are good enough."
Tracy snorted and retorted, "What if she gives birth to a girl then? Girls don't like a blue room. She must like my idea better."
Tracy herself had given birth to a son and Jack was never a considerate man. She wanted to have a daughter whom she could go shopping with. She had thought that she could get along well with her daughter-in-law, but Rachel was not that kind of girl.
Therefore, she could only resort to pushing her hopes onto the unborn child inside Rachel's belly. Every now and then, she would pray that she was going to have a granddaughter, one who she could dote on. Tracy already had all of it planned out. She would hold her little granddaughter's hand whilst they go shopping and then she would buy her all kinds of pretty dresses and dress her up like a little princess.
Not to be outdone, Jonathan returned with a snort of his own. "If the baby is a boy, he would definitely not like pink. Blue is more popular than pink and easily accepted."
Because of this dilemma, the two of them resembled little children squabbling in a playground.
As Rachel and Jack headed upstairs to see what the argument was about, they heard this conversation. They shared a look and were at a loss whether to cry or to laugh.
Jack rested his hand on his Tracy's shoulder, calming her down with his presence. He tried to placate her, "Mom, it's still too early to think about redecorating the room. We still have plenty of time to make a decision after the baby is born."
"After the baby is born?" Tracy looked up at him and shook her head. "No, it's too late then. It takes a long time to get rid of the smell after painting. We can't paint it after the baby is born! We don't want the baby to inhale all those paint fumes."
"The child will only need their own room after they've reached two or three years old." Jack patted his mother's back gently as he tried to comfort her. After a minute or so of silence, Tracy finally gave in to her son's pleading and nodded in agreement.
Standing at the scene but not involved with the conversation in any way, Rachel found her lips twitching silently as she listened quietly. There was a lot of uncertainty in their future and she didn't know what would happen between her and Jack after the baby was born, but they had already begun to talk about what would happen two or three years later. However, as she saw how invested the two were in the topic of the conversation, she didn't have the heart to remind them about this and spoil their happiness. All she could do at that moment was lower her head and listen passively.
During a lull in his talk with Tracy, Jack turned his head to steal a glance at Rachel. Seeing that she didn't have any reaction towards his words, he felt relief wash over him. He couldn't help but be tightly controlled by her reactions.
If she didn't refute his words, did it mean that she didn't want to, or did it mean she didn't care enough to correct him about it?
Jonathan echoed his son, nodding vigorously now that the argument had been settled. "Yes. It's not too late to discuss the decor after the baby is born. There's no need to be in such a hurry."
Tracy, who had already calmed down, widened her eyes when she heard what Jonathan said. "Someone said that he would go to the decor company to see the decor plan as soon as he saw this room," she spat.
"Didn't you say that you would redecorate the house?"
The two of them started to squabble over themselves again and Jack could only smile helplessly at the sight. Bathing in domestic bliss, he walked over to Rachel's side and held her hand. Bending down slightly to reach her ear, he whispered in a tone that was a mixture of warmth and mirth, "In fact, it's not bad to fight every now and again. We can be just like them in the future, what do you think?"
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