MELTING MY CEO HEART - Season 3 Episode 21

Argentina was a generally sunny place, so Liz had chosen to don a wide, yellow colored hat that she had picked up in the hotel’s tourist store as she walked to the car waiting to take her to the city’s main office where she would be working with the rest of Happle’s engineers to implement the software that would change the lives of many, many people in the country.

Will was in different meetings today, but although she was a bit regretful that she couldn’t work together with him more, which might lead to more spicy moments, she was excited to take charge of something and work.

She had always had the habit of pulling out her best when the stakes were high, which was exactly what had happened back during the case of Luke’s diner.

With anticipation rising inside her, Liz got into the car and started the 20-minute journey to the government building which housed the IT section.

Jonathan had mailed her all the details she needed to know, already, and she went through them in her tablet.

Her main duty was to function as a liaison between the engineers of Happle and those of the government, so that there could be a smooth Onboarding and implementation process which would decrease delays.

This was, indeed, a very important job, and that was why Jonathan, a vice president, had been assigned to it although it was typically handled by Directors.

It needed to be carried out perfectly at all cost.

Liz felt the pressure, but it just motivated her to give her best.

She had been expecting some sort of speech from Jonathan and the others in the morning to push that pressure even further, but there had been no such thing.

So, assuming that they might have been busy, Liz had bid goodbye to Will with a brief kiss before heading out.

Now, as she looked out the window and saw a stone building approach which looked like it had been built in the previous generation, she wondered whether this was the destination.

Indeed, as they neared, she saw the name of the government building which signified it as the IT section.

Her experience was in business administration, so Happle had already appointed her an assistant to help her to understand the IT tasks in order to coordinate them and make sure they were going well, who was apparently waiting for her in the office, already.

She had chosen to wear a brown blouse today, with a black skirt, and her hair was neatly tied into a bun so that it wouldn’t get in the way.

As soon as she alighted from the car and walked inside the office, she was greeted by the sight of a young man in his 20s who seemed to be sweating while sitting in the waiting area.

As soon as he heard the sound of her heels, he stood up as if there were springs on the chair he was sitting in.

“M-Miss Elizabeth. I’m Elijah, th-the IT personnel assigned to help you…”

As she saw him stammer in this manner, Liz didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, as she saw him look down with shyness, as if he was controlling himself from looking at her.

How could this kid be in the role of a team manager?

The one assigned was supposed to be one of the leaders of the team which was making the software, which was quite a high position that paid a lot of money.

Hence, she had been expecting another haughty person, but she could never have imagined that it would be someone like this.

Walking forward, she first stood right in front of him, as if waiting for him too look up and into her eye.

Yet, instead of doing that, he only kept looking down, while his face kept getting redder and redder.

From up close, she could tell that he had used copious amounts of hair gel to keep his shabby hair in place, and that he was using a lot of deodorant for some reason.

He was wearing a formal shirt and pant, but they were loose, as if they belonged to someone else.

All in all, this kid was like a puzzle whom Liz felt like solving.

“How old are you, Elijah?”, she asked idly, and her voice, for some reason, made the kid shudder in place and say, “22, ma’am.”

Ma’am?

It felt weird to be called that by someone only a year younger than her, but Liz ignored it, as she did outrank him by a large margin.

“How did you become a team leader t 22, Elijah?”, she asked, to which the kid stammered, “Er…I-I managed to find an exploit in a product of Happle’s which I patched for them. It seems I saved them a lot of money. So I was hired to lead a team of theirs. I graduated from MIT with full honors, ma’am.”

Oh? So this was one of those whiz kids who finished school and college much faster than others?

Liz had only heard of them, but had never seen one in real life.

Also, now that she thought about it, she felt like chuckling as she realized that both of them had reached their high posts in similar ways: by helping the company save a lot of money.

Not intending to dally any further, she said, “All right, Elijah. We can talk more, later. For now, lead the way to where we will be working.”

She said that and waited, but as she saw Elijah stamp his foot with tension and not move, she felt puzzled and was about to ask what the matter was.

Before that, he finally said, “Th-that’s why I’m here, ma’am. They threw me out. Th-that Jonathan seems to have paid off those people to resist. I don’t know why.”

Hearing this made Liz smile coldly, as she realized that their game of chess had already begun.

This smile made Elijah feel a chill in his spine, but what Liz said next made him wonder if he was hearing right.

“All right, seems I’ll have to go grand on the first day, itself. Come on, Elijah. It’s your lucky day. We’re going to meet the President of Argentina, and I don’t know how I’ll make that happen, yet, but I’ll figure something out. Just trust me.”