Nina and Ian's story

Nina was a little nervous, so she did not notice Ian's expression. She heard that he was very strict and would not make room for any mistakes. So she went to the middle of the table and started to give her presentation.

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"What about the fourth slide?" Ian asked sternly.

Under his scrutinizing gaze, Nina gulped as she went back to the fourth slide. She did not notice she had missed it, it was vital to the project, and she didn't know if she was supposed to be glad or scared that he noticed.

"That concludes my presentation, Mr. Lange do you have any questions?" she asked.

"No I don't, we can proceed and sign off this collaboration," he replied.

Everyone in the office was stunned because Ian never agrees to any collaborations so quickly, even when the most distinguished people gave the presentations. He always asked too many questions to the point of grilling the presenter. But it was different with Nina, it was her first presentation, and she stumbled a few times and forgot one slide, but he said yes right away. She was so happy that she could not wait to tell her father so he could praise her.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Lange, you will not regret your decision," she said smiling as she cleaned up all the slides and folders. Ian's face softened when he saw her smile.

When she broke the news to her dad, Mr. Anderson was silent for a few seconds, as if he remembered something, but then he quickly praised his daughter.

But when she shared her news with Ted, he did not seem enthused about it. When she asked him what was bothering him, he started complaining about his work, how he was not being given the job for his caliber but instead they were treating him like a low-life. Like he was not qualified. He started talking about his co-worker that was less qualified but was getting more quality jobs and benefits only because he had connections in the company. All she could do was to offer him words of comfort, and they never got to celebrate her victory.

Nina started noticing that whenever she had good news to share all he did was complain and cry about his problems, so she stopped talking about her achievements. Ted's focus was only on himself, he never even bothered to ask her what was going on in her life. So she started to feel alone in their relationship.

It was lunchtime and Nina was supposed to meet Ted, but her assistant informed that Ian was in her office.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you, Ms. Anderson," Ian asked, he came unannounced and did not care if she had any other appointments.

"No, not at all," Nina said politely, "what brings you to my office?"

"I wanted to talk about the progress report. I'm sorry if I was not able to inform you of my visit. I was in the area, so I thought why not come and discuss business with you," Ian explained.

"No problem, you are one of our important clients, you can definitely come by any time, would you like to start?" Nina wanted to finish as soon as possible so that she could meet Ted.

Ian noticed that Nina looked impatient but he was not in a hurry to finish what they were doing.

"So I guess we covered everything. I think we are done here," Nina said, hoping Ian will understand her hints.

"No, we still have to check this other file," he said seriously.

"Uhm… can we continue this tomorrow?" Nina asked.

"The shareholders want the report by tonight," he lied.

"Oh, okay," Nina's face fell, she was disappointed. At the same time her phone rang, when she saw the called ID, "Excuse me, I need to take this," she said as got up and stood near the window.

"Nina! Where are you? I've been waiting at the restaurant for the past hour. Are you coming or what?" Ted sounded irritated.

"Ted, I'm stuck in a meeting. I am really sorry, I didn't think it would last this long. I do not think I can make it," Nina apologized, feeling guilty.

Ian noticed how Nina's face bloomed when the call came and how she was talking so softly.

"Nina, hurry up," Ian called to her.

When Ted heard a male voice calling her, he became angrier. Was she with another man? Was he the reason she could not have lunch with him?

"Who was that? Is that a man?" Ted snapped.

"It's my business associate," Nina replied, and Ted just grumbled. "I have to go, bye, I love you," Nina said. But he did not say anything and just ended the call.

She was very disappointed as she sadly came back to her desk. Ian did not like that she was wearing a sad face, so he asked, "Who called? You look upset."

He did not know who she was talking to, but when people talked softly, it usually meant the person they were talking to was special to them, so he called her Nina on purpose to stir up some trouble, but because Ted was angry, she did not notice what he did.

"It was my boyfriend, Ted," Nina said with a small smile. Ian gritted his teeth and delayed the discussion some more, not letting her go early.

By the time they finished working, it was already nighttime. When she called Ted, he did not pick up her call. Then the next day, when they met, they had a fight.

After that incident he always made excuses whenever she asked to meet with him, his excuses ranged from he was tired, he had too much work, or that he had a meeting early the next morning.

It was their anniversary when they saw each other again, and Nina took him to have dinner in a 7-star hotel. But when Ted saw the menu he threw a fit, he asked her why she chose that hotel when she knew that he could never afford it.

Nina felt hurt, she explained that the only reason they were there was that she wanted to make the day memorable and special.

To change the topic Nina gave him her anniversary gift, it was a custom made swiss watch, and that was the only time Ted looked very happy. But he had nothing for her because he said he was too busy, Nina was very forgiving, and she said that having him spend the day with her was a gift in itself.

Finally, Ted seemed like his old self, he didn't look as angry anymore but then an accident happened. The waiter serving the soup slipped, pouring the soup in between them, and most of it landing on Nina's hand.

Ted's first reaction was to check whether the watch was safe. He then screamed and scolded the waiter. It was such an expensive watch, he said. He should be thankful that it did not get wet, otherwise, he would have had him fired.

Nina felt embarrassed that Ted was screaming at the waiter, but not even once did he ask if she was okay. Her hand was hurting, so she excused herself to go to the restroom. She started crying, not sure whether she was crying because of pain or because of Ted's behavior.

During lunch, Ian went over to their table to greet Nina, he said he saw her from another table and decided to say hi. This did not sit well with Ted, his inferiority complex kicked in, and he started suspecting Nina of being attracted to Ian. So Ted commanded her to stay away from businessmen like him.

Nina said he was a business associate, so they would definitely see each other more often than not. He got more jealous when he learned that Ian was the reason she was not able to see him for lunch that day. So they started fighting again and did not see each other for a while.

On Valentine's day, Nina decided to surprise Ted when she was able to come back early from her business trip. She planned to go to his house, she would decorate it with hearts and wait for him there. She was so excited.