a/n: I just couldn't sit on Jade any longer with out sharing it with you guys. I'm not sure how long I'll keep it up...but for now..enjoy the completed story. Dedicated to all my readers who were with me before I left and are still here. To my new readers...enjoy my first full length novel in its first draft. Sorry now for any grammar and spelling mistakes. Any and all comments good or bad are welcomed and encourage.

Jade

By Juni Lyn

(Completed on March 14, 2008)

“Aww today is going to be a good day!” Jade said as she opened her eyes to the first morning rays.

The birds were out singing their lovely songs to one another; there was the gentle humming of the morning traffic down below, commemorating the first day of spring. She loved spring; it was her second favorite season, fall being her first. She sat up in bed and mentally reviewed her schedule for the day. She had to meet with three old clients: she was close to ending projects with two of them, and she was sure that there would be others in the future. The other client was still in the beginning stages of the project but all was going extremely well. In fact, the company had already expressed a desire to work with her in their next project. That simple thought expanded her already buoyant mood even more. Then there was the fourth client that she had to meet today; a small shiver went down Jade’s back as she remembered the conversation on the phone the other day. His voice had been dark and rich and sent small shivers throughout her body the whole time they talked. She had been so flustered and unnerved that she had giggled and sounded like an incompetent schoolgirl. She still could not believe that, however he had still wanted to meet with her, so maybe she had not sounded that bad.

She only hoped she could get rid of her anxiety before the meeting this evening; he had suggested they have a business dinner since it would be late when they would be meeting. She thought about suggesting that they meet tomorrow when she only had one other client, but he had sounded impatient so she had not volunteered the information. He had offered to take her to of the trendiest restaurants in town. What better way to get her name out there than to have it linked with one of the richest guy in town? She thought about what was in her closet that she could wear that would be able to, with a few accessories, go from day to eveningwear. The pink strapless dress, she could dress it down with that see-through white sweater she had bought the other day and some white sandal heels.

Then she rethought her decision and decided she did not want her new client to think of her in the wrong fashion so maybe that nice linen colored pinstripe suite would be a better investment. Yeah that could work, I mean it's not like this is a personal date or anything; it's a business date. I definitely do not to warrant that kind of attention from him.

She was just getting out of bed when the phone rang.

“Hello.” She said as she answered the telephone on the nightstand.

“Hi, sweetheart, what are you doing today?” Her best friend Dawnn answered back.

“I have four clients to meet today. You know I told you that last night. The three old clients and that new client, Nicholas Stafford,” she gently reminded her friend. Sometimes she felt like Dawnn did not pay much attention to her. She was usually too busy worrying about herself to notice Jade’s life. But oh well, she still loved her.” Why? What are you doing today?”

“Oh, the same usual; I want to know if we can meet for lunch today. I want to discuss my new plan.

“What new plan? Is this another diet plan that promises to change your life?”

“You could say that I’m going to change my life, but it has nothing to do with a diet.”

“Oh! I am so happy for you! Hold on for a second and I can look and see if I have free time”

She ran into her office and quickly located her calendar book. It was a she thought she was going to be busy today. She walked back to her bedroom and picked up the telephone receiver.

“Hey, Dawnn today is really not a good time. How about we meet tomorrow?”

“Well okay, if you really can’t squeeze me in.”

“I’m really sorry, Dawnn. But tomorrow I want to hear about it, so let’s meet in the usual place.”

“Alright, see you then, bye”

Jade hung up the phone and glance at the clock. Oh, man! She was running late. She would not have time to fix her usual breakfast, so she would have to pick something up on the way to the office. She really did not like doing that, but she had no choice if she wanted to get to the office and sufficiently prepare herself. Oh well, today is still going to be a good day, she still thought.

Less than an hour later, Jade was dressed and ready to go. She was wearing the linen colored pinstripe suit, with matching colored pumps. She had on some nice antique looking chandelier earrings and the pendent necklace that matched. She was ready to go. She stepped outside her town home and ran into her new neighbor. He had just moved in no more than a week ago. It had only been him moving in; she had heard something about him being newly divorced- well according to Ms. Newton, the neighborhood gossip, who had told all the single ladies in the neighborhood. “He was a looker after all,” she had said. He was taller than she was but in her heels, she met him eye to eye. He was a shade darker than she was; he was more of a rich mahogany brown while she was a light cinnamon brown. His eyes were a warm shade of light hazel. His hair was cut short in a tight fade. He had a well-defined muscular body, albeit a bit lean, he probably was a basketball player in his younger years. She gave him a bright smile.

“Good Morning Mr. ---“She started but then she realized she didn’t know his last name.

“Barrett, Good Morning to you Miss. Clark”

“Call me Jade, how did you know my name?”

“Then call me James, and Ms. Newton told me your name. Your name was mentioned along with the other names of the “available” women in the neighborhood.”

“Oh I should have known. Well, welcome to the neighborhood. I have to go. I am running a bit late. Perhaps we will run into each other again.”

“I hope so, have a nice day.”

“Thank you and you too. Goodbye.” With that, she headed to her blue Dodge Focus. What a nice man, and he really was a looker. She would not have minded staying there to talk to him some more, but she really had to get going or she would be thrown off schedule. It was usually hard for her to get back on track of things once that happened. So off she went and promised herself there would be another time when she could get to know her new neighbor.

Within thirty minutes, Jade had reached her office and was sitting behind her desk sipping some hot tea, going over the notes for the clients she had to meet. There was the McNeil Corporation; this was the third resort she had worked with them on, and it was going better than ever. The construction was almost finished. Then both the Carpantar and Butterfield’s projects were at the final stages. Today for both all she had to do was a semi-final walk through to see if there was anything that needed to be changed or attended to before the resorts would be ready for guests. After that came the new client. From what her assistant could find out, he was the CEO/President of a Fortune 500 company. His company was not into resorts and hotels but consulting of some sort, so Jade was a little confused as to why he wanted her services. Perhaps he was looking into expanding into the hotel industry. He came from one of the wealthiest families in the state. However, according to the grapevine, five years ago he had a fight with his father and started his own company to spite the old man. Well, Jade thought, he certainly did well for himself. Reading all this made Jade even more nervous about meeting this guy but for the life of her she could not understand why.

“Today looks like it’s going to be good.” Nick said to himself as he looked outside his office window that was situated on the top floor in the corner of his company. He had put five long years into this company and he had enjoyed every minute of it. Unfortunately, that had left little time for anything else. Not that Nick had minded, not until recently when he had found himself with out a date to his younger brother’s wedding. He had dated off and on over the past five years but nothing serious nor anything he wanted to revisit. All the women he had dating knew the score, he was not looking for anything permanent. He had made that perfectly clear and they had all understood that, all except the last one, Susan, she had informed him of the wedding plans the night he had decided to break it off with her. It had been an ugly scene, one he did not want to replay. That had been more than a month ago, but she had been calling him at the office and home nearly everyday, it was really becoming annoying. However, that still left the problem that he needed a date for his kid brother’s wedding. Man, he still could not believe his younger brother was getting married; it had shocked him entirely when his brother had called and told him. When his personal assistant walked in to review his schedule for the day, Nick was still looking out of the window contemplating what he was going to do about getting a date.

“Umm…excuse me sir, I thought we should go over your schedule for the day, seeing as how you are going to be really busy today.” Jason his assistant said.

“Yes, yes, of course Jason come on in, shut the door.” He said as he turned away from the window “What’s on the agenda for the day?”

“ Well you have that meeting today at 9:30 with the Vernier Company, a telecom meeting after that with John and his company, a business lunch with the Cresent Company’s President, then two afternoon meetings, so you can renegotiate some contracts with your two main clients. In addition, Brad Johnson called and wanted to meet with you tonight over dinner, but you have that business dinner with a Miss Jade Clark. Maybe you can reschedule the meeting with her and still meet Mr. Johnson?”

“No, I will meet with Miss Clark as planned. Schedule the meeting for Johnson tomorrow or when ever I have the free time.”

“Sir, I assure you in would be in your best interest to meet with Mr. Johnson, he is a very affluent member of society, and you can always meet with a different designer if this Miss Clark can not meet with you when it’s more convenient for you.”

He just looked at Jason and said nothing, he was the boss and no one told him what he should and should not do, Jason knew that.

“Yes sir, I’ll get right on scheduling the meeting with Johnson for tomorrow, is there anything else I can do for you.”

“Do you have the daily reports for me already?”

“Yes”

“What about that other report?”

“Yes it just came in.”

“That will be all Jason.”

Jason got up silently, let himself out, and closed the door behind him. Nick picked up the last file Jason handed him. It was the file on Jade Clark, which he had ordered. He flipped through the file quickly picking out the bare facts, well at least the facts that were important to him, like was she single.

There was not even a boyfriend or an apparent lover. That was good, very good. Nick leaned back in his chair and remembered the first time he laid eyes on Miss Clark. It had been at Steven Conrad’s open house party for the new resort he had just opened in Claremont. It had been a big success; everyone who was anyone was there. He had gotten a glance of her from the corner of his eye. He had asked Steve who she was; he had told him the reason for the success of the resort. He had tried to meet her face to face but she had been running all over looking to all the fine details and answering questions from admirers. He had not push it for they were going to have the whole weekend to meet, so he had sat back and waited patiently. However he had waited the whole time in vain, because he never saw again the whole weekend, she had left the next day due to business. He had managed to get her name and number before he had left the resort. He had waited though to call her, at first he didn’t think he was going to but when it had been more than a two weeks and he had not been able to get her out of his mind he knew that it was time to call. He had called and had heard her voice and thought he was going to go right out of his mind. She had been nervous he could tell she had giggled. He definitely was not going to prolong seeing her again. He had gotten her to agree to have dinner with him; he had no plan of actually discuss business with her however. He wanted to get the chance to get to know her and for her to get the chance to know him. He could hardly contain the expectancy filling him up right now. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything he could do; he had a filled day, which was good it would keep his mind from wondering.

He picked up the other files lying on his desk. He flipped through those to as well. Everything looked good and in order, his company’s stock had rose 25 points over night. Today was going to be a very good day.