Jack threw the papers on my desk. "Next time you want to change anything, ask me first," he said. I had changed a long sentence and corrected its grammar -- something I thought I was paid to do. Several days later, he made me angry again. I went to his office, prepared to lose my job if need be, but not before I let the man know how I felt. "What?" he said nervously. Suddenly I knew what I had to do. "Jack, the way you've been treating me is wrong. And it's wrong for me to allow it to continue," I said. "I want to make you a promise. I will be a friend." The next day I brought some cakes to Jack's office. Every time I saw Jack in the hall, I smiled at him. After all, that's what friends do. One year after our talk, I was told that I had breast cancer  . When I was in hospital, my friends tried to find the right words to say, but no one could. The last day of my hospital stay, the door opened and Jack walked over to my bed. "Tulips  ," he placed some bulbs   beside me and said, "If you plant them when you get home, you'll be there to see them when they come up." Tears filled my eyes. In a moment when I prayed for just the right words, a man with few words said the right thing. After all, that's what friends do. Now, I have seen those tulips push through the soil every spring for over ten years. What promise did the author make to Jack?
She would work harder from then on. She would treat him the same way. She would bring him some cakes. She would treat him like a friend.