A Certain Perchance

Leapin' Frogs

Cyd tried to keep up with Ben's easy but long strides, headed towards the meeting room. Standing over 6 feet with legs that seemed to stretch to eternity, his easy strides almost made her jog behind him. He was also talking fast, so she struggled to keep up with listening to him as well.

"… and Kevin told me that she is married to a high government official. We have sent her the draft SPA, and she seems okay with it, so just we need to do the explanations before she signs the documents," Ben explained before momentarily halting to check on her, then continued, "Our client is also from the Philippines. Hence, I thought that it would make her feel at ease with you in the room. Stay by my side as I might need you to interpret some terminologies in your language."

"Got you," Cyd agreed while trying to catch her breath.

They entered the meeting room to meet their client, Annette Tan, a beautiful woman in her early thirties, clad in a simple but expensive red dress, who smiled at them with her face and hair done professionally by salon experts. Cyd has heard of the lady and knew that her husband, a Chinese Bruneian, Tan Tong King, works as a special advisor to one of the Sultan's key government members. They met in Singapore a few years ago while he was on vacation with his family and she was working in an IT company. The man started going to Singapore every weekend, and they got married a few months after their initial meeting. Now with four children, this power couple, who raised some eyebrows when they first got engaged, has proven their naysayers wrong as their union has grown from strength to strength.

An hour later, a visibly satisfied Annette thanked Ben and Cyd for their services. Cyd explained that the documents would be notarized and a copy would be sent to her immediately. Ben turned to Cyd, but she was already busy collecting her things to return to her office.

As soon as she sat at her table, she found a new email message for her. It read, "Thanks, appreciate your help. Ben."

"No worries. Happy to do it," Cyd replied.

Ben's response was instantaneous, and she found herself looking at it for a few minutes – a smiling face emoticon.

Cyd thought, "They do come in strange and stranger every year."

Somehow, Cyd was not entirely sure why, but her feelings of indifference towards Ben had changed dramatically from animosity to curiosity over the last few days. She has confirmed that he was not a big talker but a great doer. He worked on the complex engagements that other associates usually declined to accept. She has assisted him in two more opinions requested by their foreign clients and found him easy to work for and was quite uncomplicated. She did not want to admit it, but unlike Kevin, Ben was clear on his instructions and expectations of her, making her job a little easier to carry out. She also noticed that Ben had also scored cookie points from both Jenny and Lily, as they now carry the devoted look for him, and made sure that his steaming hot coffee was ready as soon as he comes in the morning.

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One morning, Cyd received an email from Melinda, her friend based in Turkey. Melinda works for an international non-profit organization and has traveled to many countries in line with her work. Her husband and son have tried to fit their schedules into her constantly shifting work demands and joined her whenever possible. At one time, she had to work in Kabul, Afghanistan, for six months, to which Cyd kept her company by sending her daily emails.

Melinda's email presented her with a puzzle. It contained six frogs, three frogs sitting on one side and the other three sitting on the other side. The six frogs were all sitting on a rock, separated into left and right by one big rock in the middle.

Cyd carefully read the instructions from Melinda: She must transfer all the frogs from the left to the right side and vice versa by making the frogs jump one time per jump only or leaping over a frog to sit on an available rock. Frogs are not allowed to go back and can only move forward. Melinda ended her note with an additional challenge and wrote, "Most people who tried to solve this puzzle took days with no success but surprise! My darling hubby was able to solve the puzzle in 40 minutes. Can you beat that, Love? Good luck and miss you!"

"She's crazy!" Cyd thought and started to move her frogs, and as expected, she failed. One jump per move, can leap over another frog, cannot jump backward. It was a slow morning anyway, so Cyd tried again for another couple of times, sighing in frustration with every attempt. After a few frustrating tries, she gave up and went back to her work.

Later, she looked at the puzzle again and decided to send it to Carl to let him rack his brains out solving it. She prepared a message that read, "Dear Counsel, my friend's hubby was able to solve this in 40 minutes. Should you be able to do it in less than 40, I will worship the ground you walk on… forever!" She was laughing at the note she wrote when her phone rang. It was Ben.

"Were you able to edit the opinion that I sent you last night? Like paging, punctuations, etcetera?" Ben sounded dry as always, even on the phone, but it got Cyd to sit up with full attention.

"Yes, just finished with it. I'll send it to you right now!" She then hung up and immediately browsed through her files for the document to send out. She prepared the message, attached the copy, and hit the 'Send' button.

"Done!" she smugly said to herself.

Cyd's phone rang again, and she winced when she saw Ben's name on the phone's caller ID.

"Yes, Ben?"

"Can I see you?"

Cyd stood up quickly and headed out to Ben's office. She guessed that it had something to do with the document she sent him and wondered why, as she had even double-checked her work.

Intently looking at his monitor, Ben just told her to come over and stand beside him. Remembering the last time she did that, she said she would rather stand across him with the massive table between them.

Ben looked up, smiled wryly, and explained, "I want you here beside me so that there would be no misunderstanding… whatsoever."

Cyd frowned but walked around the table and slowly saw the image on Ben's monitor. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw the frogs, all six of them, three yellow ones on the left and three green ones on the right.

"How?" She must have sent him the wrong message. Cyd was mortified and stammered, trying to explain. "I, I- I… oh, I think I sent you the wro–"

"40 minutes, you said, right?" Ben cut her off. "Would you like to time me?"

"NO!" she almost squealed.

But Ben was making his moves already. Slowly moving the frogs one move at a time, he transferred the three frogs to the other side and vis-à-vis.

"…and 15, done!" Ben looked at her. "So, how did I do?"

Cyd, still reeling from her blunder, was not able to suppress a grin and exclaimed, "That was not even 5 minutes! Oh, you're a genius!"

Remembering who she was talking to, she immediately collected herself and said, "It was sent to me by a friend from Turkey, and I can't wait to tell her that it took you less than 5 minutes. Doozy!"

"Doozy?"

Ben laughed. Cyd looked at him as she has never heard him laugh before, noticing how rich it sounded. She asked herself whether there were ways to make one's laugh come out luxuriantly strong.

"Well," Ben began, "Now that we have sorted that one out, you think you can send me the file I requested from you in, say, two minutes?"

"Of course, right away!" Cyd turned to rush out of his office but looked at Ben again and quietly said, "I'm sorry for the mix-up."

When Cyd entered her office, she saw the email from Carl and, without opening it, she knew exactly why.

It read, "What am I supposed to do with this file, huh?"

She sat down and started to explain that she had sent him the wrong message. Her phone suddenly rang, and for the umpteenth time that day, it was Ben calling. Again.

"Yes, I was just about to send you the file…?" she said when she picked the phone up.

There was a short pause before Ben's voice came very clear through the phone lines.

"So, how do you intend to do it?"

"Sorry, but I just told you that I was just about to send it to you," She responded, really bewildered by this call.

And Ben responded in a low and slow manner.

"No… I meant the part in your message where you said that you'd worship the ground I walk on. So, how do you intend to do it? Like, till forever?"