Several months before…
"Hello..",
Julian replied hesitantly to the phone call on his cell phone
"Jul,...
Why is it so long to answer..", a spoiled and cheerful voice was heard at
the end of that
"Hey,
Jen, if you call me, please be clear. What's the agenda..., I don't have
time", Julian immediately gushed out, because he actually has already knew
what Jennifer was calling him for.
"Hey,
relax, Jul.. You and me don't have a problem..., this is actually your problem
with Sardi and Rudi, right...", Jennifer doesn't want to lose, "it's
just me, who has good faith and can still respect you as one of the founders of
the company....I'm….."
"Respect
you mean..?", Julian immediately interrupted, "Which one..? "everytime
you called me before, not to solve the problem, but seems you try to make
things worse!!"
"Well okay, I wanna meet
you, but I promise it will be our last meeting", Jennifer's tone changed
to be more serious, "if we still find a deadlock in that last meeting, I
agree that we shouldn’t be to meet again", it can be heard the voice of Jennifer
sighing, "And in that last meeting, we will discuss the dividend for you"
"Ah,
bullshit, at previous meetings you also promised that,
you even made excuses, asked about how I was doing in the progress of my company", Julian laughed mockingly at
Jennifer's offer
"No, I'm not going to be a fool this time. Becausee...", Jennifer paused,
"the meeting will be held in your
backyard while we have a
barbeque party"
"What
do you mean?"
"I've
invited your younger siblings, your brothers, and your cousins, as well as some
of our friends from college" Jennifer was heard smiling softly at her plan
that she thought was brilliant, "Well, while they are partying, we can
find a more private place to talk about our problems", -'indeed, it's like
I can't move on from
him and his family', Jennifer thought,
"But what else can I do..."
"What????! Are you
nuts, Jennifer???", said
Julian inside his own heart, he was so angry with Jennifer that he thought she
was pranking him, 'I'm really wasting my time', thought Julian who regretted
his stupidity in serving Jennifer's phone call, but at the end of it Jennifer
had hung up the phone, followed by several incoming messages from her relatives
and college friends about the barbeque
party that would be held next weekend .
"What???! So....Jennifer
seriously..???!", Julian was even more surprised, 'Well, if that's what you want, Jennifer, I will prepare!',
Julian raged inside his heart.
**************************************************
The backyard of Julian's house that afternoon was
suddenly crowded, filled with the laughter of his brothers and college friends,
even small children, because some of them have already had families and had
children. The smoke coming from chicken, fish and meat that is being burned,
fills the garden, the smell really makes hungry.
Julian's brother and sister prepare cakes and
snacks, while Julian's brother is busy with the barbeque to serve. One and two
of Julian's college friends began to come and greet each other, eating the food
and drinks which provided, they were Indonesian students who were studying at
the University in Melbourne, Julian and Jennifer's alma mater. They are
nostalgic, tell each other stories, reminisce about the past,
Jennifer, as the originators of this event, has of
course already come. With a little bit of Jennifer's wit, she came with
Julian's brother and sister since the early afternoon, because she knew that if
she came alone to Julian’s house, Julian wouldn't necessarily want to open the
door. Even if she comes a little bit late, she will be scolded by Julian's
brothers, because she is the originators
of this barbeque party Jennifer was pretending to be
busy with some of the newly arrived guests, when Julian appeared in his
backyard.
"Heyy Julian, here...", Julian's older
sister, Kak[1]
Poppy, immediately held her younger brother Julian, offered him some snacks,
"try it, taste it", she said. Julian took a small piece of
brownies made by Kak Poppy, "delicious.. Mm..yummy", Julian commented, "seriously, delicious", he
added
"Bang[2]
Jul, thank you for accomodating the house for our party", Crissy, Julian's
younger sister who had helped Kak Poppy with snacks and cooking, chimed in
'Accomodating.?', Julian thought, "What do you
mean, Criss?", said Julian, he became confused, "Who actually came up
with the idea for this party?"
"From Jennifer, off course!", Crissy replied quickly, "But, do you remember that we
used to like making a barbeque party, Bang.. and, certainly also with
Jennifer. When you just graduated from college, when you just came back from
Australia with Jennifer, we often made a barbeque
party at our father's house...", Crissy
reminded Julian, and with her smile she said, "when you were still worked
at the similar office with Jennifer, you often made a barbeque party, here at your house. At that time, there were
also Bang..., bang.. who is their name,I’ve been a little bit forgot, your
office friends, .. Bang... Sardi and Rudi.."
Julian laughed at his sister's innocent and
cheerful face, "Seems you like them, Bang Sardi en Bang Rudi”, he teased
her, although in he felt suddenly a sense of irritation when Crissy mentioned
the names of that two people.
Of course, Sardi and Rudi were not invited and were
not present at this event. According to Jennifer, as she knew from Jennifer's
text message the day before, this meeting was only for the two of them, Julian
and Jennifer, with their friends and relatives, just like at their past time,
when they just graduated from college, so there was no need to invite Rudi and
Sardi.
Julian immediately looked for Jennifer, he wanted
his company's problems to be resolved immediately. He took some grilled chicken
and rice, and also some snacks, not forgetting that he also brought drinks, he
placed one by one on a table in a rather quiet corner of the garden, his
portion and Jennifer's portion, he immediately called Jennifer through his
phone, and waved to her to sit with him, when Jennifer looked at him.
"Hello, handsome...", Jennifer greeted
him pretentiously cheerfully
"Sit down!", Julian replied firmly, he
himself immediately sat down and took his portion of food, "You know, why
am I so upset with the three of you?", Julian went straight to the point without allowing Jennifer to eat. He saw Jennifer only taking a sirloin bake without rice, from all the dishes that Julian had prepared for the
two of them
"Well, because of the distribution of
dividends as the founder of the company", Jennifer replied pretentiously , "and, today I also want to say,
as the largest shareholder and President Director of the company, I agree to
distribute dividends to you every year", she continued, "As a
shareholder dividend, because your name does exist as one of the founders and
owners of the company's capital in the company's letter of establishment"
"Wooowww... so now, you are the President
Director?", Julian chuckled, "if you think this is just about the
dividend problem, Mrs. Director, why don't we just settle it from the
beginning", Julian said while pretending to be official, "Well, I often invite you to meet, but if
you think it's just a dividend problem", Julian coughed, his face
hardened, "why is in every previous meeting, you just drag on, protracted,
and now, you mean to clean up all the problem. Now?.. NOW??!..,after 3 years??!!", Julian's
anger began to explode, until he almost choked
"You know, Julian, company has a lot of jobs.., so we’ve been really busy
and don't have much time", Jennifer replied slowly and lowered her head
slightly, which was precisely her
pretentious style of innocence that
irritated Julian even more.
"There are many jobs... don't have time, hmm...",
Julian laughed, then looked at Jennifer with a mocking look, his head was
tilted closer to Jennifer's face with an angry face, "You already know,
evenit went viral, the viral Apple and Hermes ads, which got an advertising award with the
most artistic advertising, that was my company..", while laughing
mockingly, Julian leaned back and kept his face away from Jennifer,
"And some public service advertisements, jobs
from some government institution", Julian laughed again, "but I
always have time", he stopped his meal for a while and looked at Jennifer
sharply,
"And... hahaha..", Julian laughed amused
at Jennifer, "you know, I can buy a house, a car, give salaries for my
employees,.. all with the profits of my own company that don't need to be
shared with the three of you, SO, why
do I need to insist on dividends from you three..????" Julian
leaned forward, to show Jennifer how this wasn't just about dividend sharing,
and how he knows Jennifer's true "color"
“What do you mean?”, Jennifer replied innocently
"You're such a hypocrite, Jennifer. You still
pretend that you don't know anything, while everyone of you, Sardi and Rudi knew
why I quit from our company, and you’ve never wanted to discuss it, you let me quit,
you dodged, so... you are three, indeed planning to kick me out", Julian
got more serious, "You should remember, I quit and I asked to meet you
before, that's because the three of you are traitors", he continued,
"When we were hired by palm oil
companies in Sulawesi, the one who made advertisements from scenarios,
producers, and others, print and electronic, ... until approved by the Sulawesi
company..." Julian paused and sighed heavily, "me, Jen", he saw
Jennifer start to pale and hold her breath, "but you guys.. after the
Sulawesi company agreed to make an advertising series in Sulawesi, you made the
advertising series yourself, without me, and cooperated with several local
companies, without me...", Julian paused to see Jennifer's reaction who pretended
to be cool with food,
"I was still patient, Jen, I was busy with
other projects, and you guys didn't realize it at all, I still wanted to be
tolerant of you all, and I didn't want to create conflicts", Julian still
stared at Jennifer sharply, "until you ..... made a branch office in
Bandung... without me.." Julian's attitude suddenly relaxed, "I
think, we are soulmates.. Even we broke
up as a lover, we can still be friends and still have the same business
vision..", he laughed sadly, "But I was wrong. You're just the same other
bitch girl, you don't have
anything special in yourself", he looked at Jennifer sharply, "And...
it's been 3 years, only then I can talk about what made me quit. Three years,
THREE YEARS, Jen", Julian looked at Jennifer angrily, "And in the
previous meetings, when I asked you to meet, you were just pretend to be innocent,
pretentious, catchy, you even asked and wanted to know much about
my company, and you even
invited me to the hotel...", Julian
chuckled again, "You're really a fucking bitch whore!!"
"JENNIFER.....!" there were suddenly a startled
by the sound of a call from one of their college friends waving from afar,
"HERE FOR a WHILE..!!", which made Jennifer immediately move up and
go to save herself from Julian,
"Your account number hasn't changed, has it,..don't worry, Julian.. your dividend from
three years ago and starting by next year, I will transfer to the dividend to
you", she promised before leaving Julian who looked at her leaves with an
exasperated and condescending looking eyes.
Jennifer actually almost cried during the meeting,
this was not the plan she had prepared, but she let Julian spill all his dejection thought, after all,
they had no relationship at all, even since at their college time, and Jennifer
already had a new lover. But she still considers Julian as a bestfriend and
even like a brother and a soulmate. And she knows why Julian
still survives with his solitude, it's because of his busyness and his goodness
in building his own new company. At first glance, he glanced at Julian from a
distance who was still enjoying his food.
Julian felt a bit relieved after his stomach was
filled with grilled chicken and grilled fish with chili sauce made by Bang Oki,
Kak Poppy's husband. He had deliberately emptied his stomach since the morning
for this event, 'It's a loss, if I let my house being used but I don't eat
anything', he thought with a faint smile, a smile for the party meal and for
his firmness to Jennifer. He didn't
feel any relief or anything, he just wanted to put emphasis on Jennifer and,
hopefully, Jennifer would tell her other two colleagues, Sardi and Rudi, about
his assertiveness, so they couldn't mess with Julian anymore.
He enjoyed fruit ice as a dessert drink, when
Jennifer's phone which was left on the table suddenly rang, a message came in.
Spontaneously, Julian picked up the phone and read the incoming message that
turned out to be from Sardi,
'What a bitch!!' suddenly, Julian's face turned red with
anger, he put down the phone, and immediately went to Kak Poppy and Bang Oki,
Poppy's husband,
"Kak, I’ll go out, there's a sudden
business at the office, it's going to be a long time, please tidy up my house
again, my beautiful sister..", he hugged and kissed her sister's cheek,
"Bang, I’ll go for a little while Bang, I'm so
sorry, Bang," he hugged
and patted Bang Oki's spine when they shook hands and hugged which made Kak
Poppy look annoyed, "why is it so sudden, anyway..",
Bang Oki smiled, "Be careful, Bro.., but how
is Jennifer?", he asked innocently, because he didn't know Julian and
Jennifer's situation
"Yes, let it be Bang, if she wanna go home,
let her go home alone, indeed I am not her mother..", Julian joked to his
brother before leaving the house.
****************
Julian no longer cares about Jennifer and her
garden party. Julian had to immediately tidy up some of the important documents
in his office. He calls Deddy immediately, Deddy is his assistant and
secretary, Julian asked him to meet at the office, tidy up some important
documents. Thankfully, he has Deddy as
his secretary who is always be ready whenever he needs him.
'What a
bitch!!!' his curse again in his heart. He still remembered the message
from Sardi that he read on Jennifer's cellphone earlier, 'How about Julian’s company, Jen? Have you got any information about a
start-up company that collaborates with Julian's company?', a
short message that made Julian shocked and made him think worse about Jennifer and
her planning of the barbeque garden party today.
'Bastard!!'
he cursed inside his heart, and stepped on the gas
pedal of his car faster
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