Jane's Happy Endings Ch. 12

Veronica and Maria woke up in each other's arms. They were only covered by a blanket as they realized they fell asleep together on the office couch.

Veronica looked into her supervisor's eyes as they could do nothing but chuckle at the situation, they found themselves in.

"What a crazy night," Veronica finally said.

"Yeah," agreed Maria, followed by another chuckle.

The two Latin women shared a laugh at how crazy the previous night was. But suddenly, laughter turned into panic as Maria realized that it was now morning time.

"Oh no!" she screamed. "We weren't supposed to sleep all night!"

"Oh shit!" shouted Veronica. "What time is it?"

Maria looked up at the clock. "Fuck! It's 6:45 in the morning!"

"No way!" panicked Veronica. "What are we going to do!?"

"We didn't finish our presentations!" exclaimed Maria. "And they have to be ready by eight! What the fuck are we going to do?!"

Veronica tried to come up with a quick solution. "We could try to just put something together within the next hour," she suggested. "It might not be great, but at least it's something."

"I don't know what other option we have," replied Maria. "I'm probably going to be fired! How could I let this happen?! Why didn't I set an alarm?!"

"Where's Jane?" asked Veronica, looking around. She began to worry about the sweet young intern. "I thought she was going to come back and nap with us." She then grabbed her cell phone and called Jane.

Jane did not answer but noticed her cell phone ringing, so she walked to the office and opened the door. "You're awake?" she asked.

The two ladies were both shocked and confused to see Jane walk through the door. She looked so tired. Her hair was in a messy bun and she was wearing glasses instead of contacts. She was also just wearing comfortable clothes, a t-shirt, and some shorts. Jane did not have any make-up on and looked like she had been awake all night.

"What's going on?" asked Maria, in a confused voice.

"You two were really tired, so I let you sleep in," Jane replied. "I was actually going to wake you up at seven, but I guess you woke up on your own."

"What about our presentations?" asked Veronica. "They're due in almost an hour!"

"They're finished," responded Jane.

A stunned moment of silence passed by as both ladies were even more confused than before. "What's finished?" asked Maria.

"Everything," answered Jane.

"How is everything finished?" asked Maria. "We had more than just the inventory documents. I had to put together a whole presentation!"

"Yeah, I know," responded Jane. "I finished that too."

Maria and Veronica could not believe the young intern. There was no way she finished all their work by herself. They quickly put their clothes back on and hurried towards Jane's computer.

Veronica immediately noticed Jane's appearance. Her messy hair bun and her glasses. It appeared that Jane had wiped off all her makeup. And she looked even more tired than normal. Veronica could see that Jane really did work all night.

Once they arrived at Jane's desk, Veronica noticed the empty energy drink. "Jane, you stayed awake all night, didn't you?" she asked.

"Yes," answered Jane, with heavy bags under her eyes. She then allowed Maria to sit at her desk as she showed her all the work she finished.

Maria was shocked. "Jane, this presentation...this is amazing. How did you know what needed to be on it? How did you know what to do?"

"I found your previous presentations in the open drive," responded Jane. "I looked at them to see what format they needed to be in. Then I used all the e-mails you forwarded to know what specific information needed to be in there for this meeting. I figured I could finish the tedious bulk of it, and you could just finish whatever needs to be done before the meeting."

"Jane, I don't know what to say," responded the shocked supervisor. "This.... this is better than anything I could have done. I.... I don't know how to thank you."

"But Jane," interrupted Veronica. "I needed to finish my own project as well."

Without saying a word, Jane opened another folder and one-by-one showed each task that she completed. "I finished your project too," Jane replied.

Veronica quickly grabbed the mouse and scrolled through the documents. "How?" she asked. "How did you do all this?"

"Your project was different," said Jane. "I saw everything you started. I pretty much guessed how you would want to finish it. The further I got, the more confident I felt about it. What do you think?"

"It's perfect," said Veronica, stunned into silence. "These designs are great. Everything looks amazing!"

Tears began to roll down Maria's cheeks as the magnitude of Jane's accomplishments started to soak in. She wrapped her arms around the intern's shoulders, hugging her from behind. "Thank you," she whispered. "You saved my job."

"No problem," responded Jane, with a small smile. "You should read through it and get ready for the meeting."

Maria nodded in agreement and walked back to her office to read through and edit Jane's work. Veronica just stood in silence, staring at Jane in disbelief.

The smaller Asian woman looked up at her coworker. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"You're amazing," answered Veronica. She was lost for words. She could not even begin to describe how she felt in that moment.

"Thanks," Jane responded, with a small chuckle.

"No, I'm serious," the Latina continued. "I mean, I knew you were amazing. But this...this is incredible."

"I'm glad you like it," replied Jane. "I worked really hard on it. I wanted to make you proud."

"I'm always proud of you," said Veronica. "You always work so hard, day and night. And then you pull this off without any sleep? There's nothing about you that isn't amazing."

The intern looked into the eyes of her beautiful coworker. The same coworker that she looked up to for so long now. She was touched by her heartfelt words. Suddenly she realized that she was dressed inappropriately for work, still in her comfortable clothes. "I need to get ready!" she said, in a panic.

Just before Jane left for the restroom, Veronica called out. "Jane!"

The young intern stopped quickly and turned around. "Yes Veronica?"

"I've never seen you like this," Veronica said.

"Oh, sorry!" Jane said, a bit embarrassed. "I'm so ugly. I wiped off my makeup last night. My skin gets irritated and I get acne if I leave it on for too long. These are my comfortable clothes and my hair is a mess. My nerdy glasses. I was planning on getting ready before you two woke up."

Veronica just looked at her, feeling her insecurities for the first time in months. But this time it was different. She felt like Jane was not letting her insecurities hold her down.

"Stop," she said, almost in disbelief. "You look wonderful."

Jane wanted to believe her, but she knew how nice Veronica was. "It's okay," she responded. "At this point, it's not going to bother me. I'm usually a seven. But when I'm tired and I'm not wearing any makeup, I'm a four or a five," she said, chuckling to herself.

"No!" Veronica harshly disagreed. "You're an eleven in my eyes. With or without makeup. No matter how tired you are. No matter what circumstances are thrown at you." She felt like she was fighting for Jane to know her true worth.

Jane blushed, truly feeling her worth in her beautiful coworker's eyes. "That's really sweet of you," she said, as she played with her hair. Right before she left for the restroom, she stopped and called Veronica. "You're a twelve, by the way," she said, with a cute laugh.

Veronica was left blushing as she sat there, thinking about how amazing Jane truly was.

The young intern put a little bit of makeup on and tried to make herself look more presentable. No matter what she tried, she could not hide the tiredness in her face. But there was a huge silver lining for Jane. She stared at herself in the mirror, now with the knowledge that Veronica thought she was beautiful no matter how dolled up she was. Jane smiled and blushed at herself, thinking about her beautiful friend.

As the day started, a few corporate members showed up to watch Maria's presentation. A few other executives joined through video conference call. Maria was used to doing presentations, but today was different. She just could not do it alone this time.

She looked over at Veronica with panic in her face. "This is crazy," she said.

"What is?" Veronica asked.

"This is really unorthodox, but we need Jane to present to everyone."

"What?" asked the shocked Veronica. "Why can't you do it?"

"Jane made this whole presentation," said Maria. "She can present it better than I can. She knows it better than I do. She can do this!"

Although Veronica agreed, she was still worried about the sweet intern. "Jane is very intelligent. But she gets nervous pretty easily."

"I understand," said Maria. "Can you help me convince her to do this? We need her!"

"I can try," said Veronica. "I can calm her down. I can take care of her."

The panicked supervisor was suddenly calm. She took a moment to smile as she appreciated how great her employees were. "You truly have a special relationship with her, don't you?" she asked.

Veronica began to blush. "We are just friends that had some fun times together."

"I don't know about that," replied Maria. "I saw the way you two kissed each other. There was a special chemistry. I've never seen anything quite like it."

The loyal worker blushed but tried to brush It off. "I don't know, maybe," she quickly said, as she began looking for Jane.

They found her in the break room, making herself a cup of coffee. Jane looked tired and they felt so bad for her. But Maria needed Jane more than ever before.

"Jane! I need you!"

"What do you need?" Jane quickly responded. She was always ready to help others.

"I can't do the presentation without you," said Maria.

"What do you need me to do?" asked Jane.

"It's your presentation. You did an amazing job on it. Nobody can present it as well as you can. Nobody knows the information like you do," Maria said, encouraging the young intern.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Jane said, almost squirming away from the situation.

"No," responded Maria. "This is your project. I know you can do a better job than me."

Veronica then jumped in, also encouraging her dear friend. "Yeah, come on Jane. You can do this!"

Jane's heart began to race as anxiety rushed in. "I'm just an intern! What if they ask me something and I don't know the answer?"

"I'll be there to step in if you need help," said the supervisor. "If you get stuck at any moment, just look at me and I'll jump in."

Jane took a deep breath. "Okay. I guess I don't have a choice. But I look like a mess! And I need to look at everything again."

Veronica grabbed Jane's hand and quickly led her to her desk. The two women sat Jane down and opened her presentation. "You just read over whatever you need," said Veronica. "I'll take care of everything else." She then began to brush the young intern's hair, trying to help her get ready for her meeting and presentation.

"We have thirty minutes," said Maria. "I'll get everything else ready. I'll get the meeting started and I'll call you in when we start presenting." She then placed her hand on Jane's shoulder and said, "If you need anything, just ask Veronica and she will take care of it."

Jane looked up and nodded. She then made eye contact with Veronica and felt comfort in her gaze. The young intern knew that Veronica would take care of her.

Maria ran over to the other girls and updated them on the situation. She gave instructions to Ashley and Monica. "If Jane needs ANYTHING, you do it for her!"

Ashley and Monica understood the circumstances and agreed with their supervisor. Suddenly the entire office was behind Jane, supporting and encouraging her.

Maria frantically entered the meeting room and welcomed everyone in. "Thank you everyone for being here today. I think you're going to really enjoy some of our ideas. And you guys are really going to appreciate the revenue we were able to bring in."

"Sounds great," said one of the execs.

"Just let us know when you're ready," said another executive.

"Give me one moment," said Maria. "I just need to grab someone."

Maria rushed out and grabbed Jane. "It's time," she said, as she placed her hand on the intern's shoulder.

Jane stood up and nodded her head confidently. All the girls quietly cheered her, giving her hugs and compliments to encourage her. Maria led the once shy intern into the meeting room and introduced her to the company executives and representatives.

The CEO of the company, Jennifer, was caught off guard. "Hello, your name is Jane?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am," responded Jane.

"I've never seen you before."

"Yeah, I'm pretty new here actually," responded Jane.

"So, why is a Jane doing this presentation?" Jennifer asked.

Maria decided to praise and exalt Jane's talent. "Jane is an incredibly talented and intelligent part of our office," she explained. "We all put in a lot of hard work, but she deserves the credit. Her ideas were the best and we couldn't have done this without her."

All the people watching the presentation seemed impressed with the young mystery employee. Jane proceeded to do the full presentation, starting with all the numbers and revenue she put together, and finishing with the two presentations that Veronica and Maria started. There were several questions along the way, but Jane was able to confidently answer all the questions, only deferring to Maria when she thought it was more appropriate for her supervisor to answer. Most impressively, Jane made sure to give as much credit to Veronica and Maria as possible when it came to their presentations, even though she did most of the work.

Maria grew more and more impressed as she just watched in silence. Over the past few years as a supervisor, she had some really good employees. But in that moment, she felt more pride for Jane than she ever felt for any of her other employees.

After an hour, the meeting felt like it was coming to an end. There were far less questions than normal, giving Maria and Jane a quiet confidence that perhaps everything was going well.

One exec looked at Jane and said, "Great job on the presentation miss Jane." As Jane smiled and thanked him, he then asked, "Do you mind stepping out so we can have a word with Maria?"

Jane was not sure what was going on. "Did I do something wrong?" she thought to herself. She feared that Maria might be in trouble because of her. As Jane stepped out, she found Veronica, Monica, and Ashley all standing right outside. They each gave her a big hug, congratulating her on her performance.

"You were amazing!" exclaimed Veronica.

"You think so?" Jane asked.

"Yes! I held my ear to the door the entire time!" Veronica answered.

The once quiet and shy girl was pleased with her effort. She was not sure how the executives and managers felt about her presentation, but she felt she gave a great effort. Despite this, she was still worried for Maria. "What did they need to speak to her privately about?"

Maria stood silently, awaiting the questions her superiors had for her.

"Everything was great," said Jennifer, bringing a sigh of relief to Maria. "But this Jane woman, where did you find her?"

"Jane was actually just an intern that applied out of college," responded Maria.

"An intern?!" responded several people, shocked at her low position.

"Yes," responded Maria. "She was brought in to help out around the office. But the longer she was here, the more responsibility she started to take on. She began doing some of the smaller accounting and number crunching. Eventually, I started noticing the other women constantly doing her favors and helping her out. Veronica strongly suggested we have Jane help finish some of our work before our meeting today. Jane took the initiative of completing everything, only needing minor help and guidance."

The group was stunned at her words. There was no way some young intern could be responsible for so much great work. A few more questions about Jane were asked before the meeting finally came to a conclusion. Everyone left, pleased with what they saw that morning. Several people walked past Jane, smiling at her and offering to shake her hand before they exited.

Maria walked out as well, glancing quickly to find Jane and Veronica. "Can I speak with you two in my office?" she asked, with a big smile on her face.

The two followed Maria into her office, anxious to hear the news. "Ladies, you did an amazing job!" Maria announced. "They loved it!"

Jane and Veronica both cheered, happy with the work that they accomplished. "We did it!" said Jane.

"No," said Veronica, as she gave her a hug. "You did it!"

"Yes," agreed Maria. "We couldn't have done this without you. They were beyond impressed with you. Your composure. Your hard work and dedication. They didn't have enough words to describe you." She then joined Veronica and gave the confident intern a group hug.

Jane was humbled, feeling a sense of accomplishment come over her. For the first time in her life, she truly felt her hard work had paid off. She thanked them both for their constant support and trust.

"I'm so proud of you Jane," said Maria.

"So am I," added Veronica.

Maria then offered Jane a chance to rest. "You must be so tired from staying up all night. Why don't you take a nap on the couch?"

"That's okay," said Jane. "I have a lot I need to do."

"We will take care of it," responded the grateful supervisor.

The accomplished intern was honored, but she still tried to reject the offer. "That's very nice of you but I'll be okay."

"Don't you have massages tonight?" asked Veronica, concerned for her overall health.

"Yes, I do actually," said Jane.

Maria grabbed the young intern's hand. "Jane, I'm your supervisor. I'm assigning you a task. Your job is to take a nap while we work on stuff." She then led Jane to the couch that her and Veronica slept in all night while the intern worked. "I'll work at your desk so you can nap here in peace."

"Okay, fine," Jane reluctantly agreed. "But just for a little bit."

"As long as you need," Maria ordered.

"Please!" begged Veronica. "You need your rest."

They sat her down on the couch and turned the lights off as they left her alone for some peace and quiet. The exhausted intern slipped off her clothes and shoes before quickly falling into a slumber.

Jane woke up a couple hours later while everyone else was gone for lunch. The ladies returned from lunch to find Jane back at her desk, working again. They just couldn't stop the hard-working woman for too long.

The rest of the workday went on like any other normal day. Jane worked through it despite being incredibly tired.

Before the ladies finished for the day, Maria requested Jane and Veronica stay over so she could speak to them again. As the other ladies left, she was able to speak to the two ladies privately. "Thanks once again for doing such a great job," she said.

Jane and Veronica were happy to do such a great job for her. "We need to have a get together some time at my house and celebrate!" Maria added. "How does that sound Jane? Are you free this weekend?"

Jane looked exhausted. And she still had a shift at the massage parlor before she could finally get a night of sleep. "Sorry, but I'm booked up this weekend," she said. "And I'm just super tired. Can we reschedule it for next weekend?"

"I understand Jane," replied Maria, completely sympathizing with her employee. "You just let me know what day works for you."

Jane thanked Maria before leaving for the day. Veronica walked to the parking lot with her and tried to start a conversation. "So, do you have a lot of massages tonight?" she asked.