As she had fallen asleep late the night before, Roxanne slept deeply but was awoken by her phone ringing early the following morning.
Unable to marshal her thoughts into coherence immediately upon waking up, she reached out blindly around her pillow for a long time before locating the source of the noise.
Upon obtaining her phone and squinting at the screen, Roxanne answered groggily.
Colby sounded very anxious on the other end. “Something's happened, Dr. Jarvis.”
Wide awake suddenly, Roxanne sat bolt upright. “What is it?” she asked hoarsely.
“A shipment of medicinal herb supplies we expected to receive this morning is still nowhere to be seen.” Colby looked grave.
The medicinal herb supplier the research institute partnered with was usually very punctual in delivering their supply.
If a morning delivery had been promised, the research institute would have received the goods at the beginning of office hours. The shipment was delayed particularly long that day.
If the medicinal herb supplies were not delivered on time, many projects would be shelved in less than two days. Their progress would, as a result, be interrupted, and the research institute would suffer a hefty loss.
Roxanne froze. “Have you given our business partners a call?”
As she spoke, she turned on speaker mode and swiftly washed up while she listened to Colby's report.
“I did,” Colby answered despairingly at the mention of the problem. “Some of them didn't even pick up. Those who did were vague and refused to offer a decisive answer.”
He preferred it if they had just told him they did not want to be partners anymore. Their beating around the bush was so discouraging that he did not even dare seek other suppliers to order the medicinal herb supplies.
Roxanne's heart sank as she scrambled to get dressed. “Noted,” she replied. “I'm coming over right now.”
Without another word, she hung up.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The Abandoned Wife