Boss Undercover Series Bundle, page 23
“Yeah, whatever. I’m glad you’re up early, ‘cause we need to look over the presentation once more, just to make sure we know who’s saying what today.”
Zack raised his eyebrows. “Oh, about…that.” Then he took a huge gulp of juice from the glass he grabbed from the draining board.
“Yes, what?” Claire asked, resting her left hand on her hip. “Don’t tell me what I’m thinking you’re gonna say is right.”
“Well, yes. It’s exactly that. I’m too shy,” Zack confessed jokingly.
She snorted, waving her free hand about to emphasize her point. “You shy? God, I thought you were gonna say you’re not doing it. Now, that would have been a blow. It’s already frustrating enough knowing I’ve still got work on my desk that needs to be done by the end of this week when I’ve been worrying on this instead.”
Zack shook his head, biting his inner cheek, and instead chose to change the subject safely. “C’mon, let’s look at it then one more time.”
To be honest, Zack was actually anxious as fuck today. It was the end of the world if the board and council didn’t cast a majority vote for the development. It would cost more months of development, and this “undercover” business would stretch longer than need be, considering it was built off one not-so-serious lousy bet. Maybe that was partially the truth. There was Claire. And that felt like it was getting deeper each second they’d spent with one another.
Glancing through their project, he listened to her crack down on who said what as well as point out the extra added points he’d never thought of. Zack could see how talented she was and how it must have hurt to lose that promotion when they both knew it was rightfully hers. Then it made him think of how he could listen to her drone on all day, never getting bored of her speaking. Was that weird? Because half of the time, when a woman spoke, it was only discussing sex. Well, of course, not every single woman that he had spoken to had, but in a romantic affair like Claire, he’d usually gotten past listening to them and ushered them on their way.
“Zack?” Claire said, interrupting his train of thought.
“Yeah,” he replied in a bit of a daze.
“What do you think? Do you understand which parts you’ll take? Also, do you think I should cut some of these bits out?” Claire asked, pointing at the slide displayed on her laptop screen.
“Nah, it’s fine. You’ll—I mean, we’ll do good, babe,” Zack said earnestly before taking another mouthful of juice.
Claire frowned. “I hope so.”
After another hour spent getting prepped for the day ahead, both Zack and Claire were dressed and ready to leave. Claire opted for a dark green fitted dress, matched with a black short blazer, while Zack went along with his usual shirt and trousers combo.
***
CLAIRE
When they arrived at Bensons, Graves was addressing the Sales and Marketing Department, who were presenting their projects. It wasn’t any surprise that Claire had been assigned, alongside Zack, to present to the members of the council. The discussion was over in seconds, and soon Claire and Zack were practicing for the three hours they had to spare.
She was anxious now, pacing the small diameter of her cubicle as she recited her lines, wondering where on earth Zack had stumbled off to. He said he’d only gone to run a quick errand and would return as soon as possible for the booked taxi to take them down to the community conference centre.
Where is he? It was nearing eleven, only twenty minutes till the taxi arrived outside. The presentation was at twelve. This is getting ridiculous.
“Hey, good luck today,” Darren wished her, walking past with a folder cradled in his arms.
“I need it. Hey, have you seen Zack?” she asked, her heart racing quicker by the second.
He shook his head. “No, I haven’t. I’m sure he’ll turn up at the last second. Just relax. Everything will go fine, Claire.”
She nodded, feeling sick to the stomach. And to make matters worse, Jason. He came over, offering her an amorous hug, which she couldn’t exactly refuse. She tucked her hair behind her ear and then tightened her ponytail, ignoring the words of comfort fleeing his mouth.
“Claire.” He smiled, holding her shoulders. “Don’t stress. You’ve got this.”
“W-what?” She swallowed. “I mean, thanks, yeah. Excuse me, I just need—”
“Graves!” she called out, stalking the man who exited the lifts. He stopped at his name. Claire couldn’t even catch her breath back as she demanded to know Zack’s whereabouts. “I haven’t seen Zack. Have you seen him yet? The taxi comes in…” She paused to look at her watch. “Ten minutes.”
Graves shook his head. “No, I haven’t. But if he doesn’t show up, then I’m afraid you’ll have to take this solo. Ten minutes and I’ll see you in reception, Claire. Remember, we’re all counting on you. So sell it like your life depends on it,” he lectured, walking away to his office.
Where are you, Zack?
If she expected wishful thinking to work and magically grant her solution, she was wrong. Zack was nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t answering his calls or messages, and not one person had seen him crawling about the office or elsewhere. At twenty past eleven, without her presentation partner, Claire had to rely on herself to pull the job. She was irritated, angry, and felt so completely mugged off that when she got into the taxi, she nearly bit the head off the taxi driver. “Yes,” she spat, immediately correcting her manners as she added, “Please.”
He’d better have a good excuse.
***
Claire couldn’t bite her nails, nor could she fiddle her fingers about while she waited for Graves to finish his opening speech. He was introducing himself as the spokesman for Bensons Corporations, answering those tricky questions interrogating him on the absence of the CEO who’d they expected to be present. Try being in my shoes, Claire thought, hoping that each time the back door opened from behind the crescent-shaped formation of tables and chairs, it would be Zack. She couldn’t believe he was doing this to her. After yesterday and the day before, she was starting to feel that there could be an establishment of trust and whatever was going on between them could be possible. But with his sudden absence, she was starting to feel like that possibility was dwindling. Funny, her conscience mocked her, you’re not exactly being honest with Jason still in the picture. She ignored it, trying her best to focus on the council officials, some flicking through notes and some studying their phones.
One of the women with bright purple hair sitting on the far end of the table stood up. “Okay, that’s plenty enough of jabbing at Mister…?”
“Clive Graves,” Claire’s boss responded. He cleared his throat as he clasped the palms of his hands together before rubbing them anxiously together. Graves returned to his seat from off the side of left corner at the front of the room where Claire also sat. The opposite side of the room held the competitors, and behind the mixed table of council officials and prime members of the neighbourhood sat the small audience in opposition to Bensons’s investment.
“Yes, Mr. Graves. As we see, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Benson’s dedication towards this case must not be as confident. We’ll proceed with the presentation from Bensons before allowing Label Works to pitch their own reasoning as to why this will be sustained. After hearing from both parties, we shall then make our decision,” she announced, studying a piece of paper in front of her briefly before she sternly nodded towards Graves’ and Claire’s direction.
Shit, it was now or never. Fuck Zack. Fuck, Zack, rang throughout her mind as she settled up to the front, attended to her laptop, and bought up the PowerPoint slide, hoping her knack of confidence would jump in and save her from this misery.
There were nine officials altogether, three neighbourhood watch members, and the twenty-odd audience members watching her like a hawk as she swallowed and prepared for the worse to the best highlight of her career. She felt like her knees could give any second; they were so stiff that it made her feel like a plastic doll in a shop’s front display waiting to be dismembered. You’ve got this, she rallied herself. Just start it and get it over and done with, and then later on, you can sacrifice Zack for the cruelty he forced upon you.
“Good afternoon, everyone.” She chuckled anxiously. “Erm, I work at Bensons Corporations in the Sales and Marketing Department. And I find it most important that you look into accepting these developments in your community. I know you’ve heard from another enterprise about the construction of a three-floor shopping centre, but with the sustainable community we have in mind, we’ll not only attract new homeowners to this area, but their investment into a greener future will be cost effective for the council. Investing in this project is the right thing to do. It will bring revenue that will support the council, which then impacts the local community positively, but ideally, you’d be a part of something bigger, sustainability—” She lectured on, finding the endless courage that she wasn’t sure she could find with numerous eyes sticking to her like bees to pollen.
“This figure here demonstrates the investment we predict for the council to see in partnership with Bensons.” She pointed at the pie chart. “There could be an eleven percent reduction in costs towards waste removal with this sustainable community, meaning money spent by the council, yourselves.” She pointed indirectly towards the council members. “That means it can be invested elsewhere, saving money, which benefits the entirety of the local area.”
There were a lot of slides to get through, but as she hoped, she could decrypt there were facial expressions intensely intrigued, which she could only hope would work in her favour at that important vote.
“Question—” one of the members in the middle interjected, holding a pencil in the corner of their mouth. “Surely, investment would be more prominent from the shopping centre. Visitor numbers will increase into the area, and thousands of new jobs will support the low unemployment rate this area is currently experiencing. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Great, now she was put on the spot. “Sustainably, there wouldn’t be a loss of investment in our project in the long run. We’re building sustainable homes. That means less cost. A shopping centre, although profitable, could see more cost on waste, job losses, and pollution cost and other costs like public transport,” she argued, breathing a sigh of relief inside as she watched the exact same person scribble a few notes onto his pad of paper. Hopefully positive comments.
The woman from earlier tuned in, her bright purple curls bouncing off her slender shoulders. “I think we’ll stop there and push on to the alternative pitch. So please feel free to collect refreshments from the reception area, or you’re welcome to remain here,” she said, tapping the end of her pen several times irritably with a click, click, click.
Claire decided to opt for option number one and headed out the back double doors of the room to reception to grab herself a cup of water or even the much-needed dose of caffeine. It proved that she didn’t need Zack, but it didn’t make it any better knowing she hadn’t even received a word from him until now, when she glanced at her mobile and her notifications read, “Got caught up, sorry.” Well, fuck you, Zack! She didn’t feel the need to text him back, knowing her stubbornness would rather ignore him until they were face to face, where she could confront him.
Graves must have soon followed out after her, as he was grabbing a coffee alongside her, shaking the sachets of sugar. “Well, we’ll just wait and see. Good presentation. I think those figures should speak for themselves,” he complimented, shaking the sugar into the cardboard recyclable cup.
“I hope.”
“Also, I had an email that Zack had a family emergency or something. But to be perfectly honest, it would have been naïve to have had him present. He’s not exactly experienced with the company, nor would I have expected the level of confidence that you illustrated. Good work again. Shame on that promotion.” He patted her shoulder, making her feel it was a bit patronising knowing that he was the one with the power to have given that promotion in the first place instead of Monica.
Jerk, she thought.
It must have been another twenty-five minutes, nearing half one, when the competitors left the room and arrived at the refreshment stand alongside the council officials. There was some light chatter, humour dispersing from the file of people that their ignorance was blatantly obvious when they left Claire and Graves alone in the corner and conversed with Label Works’ representatives.
“So what do you think?” Claire asked. “Do you think they’ll accept?”
“From the looks of things, I’d say Label has sweetened them enough to push in their direction,” he said casually, kissing his teeth as he threw the cup into the bin.
“Oh.”
Graves shrugged his shoulders. “It’s business.”
Sitting beside each other, the room suddenly felt like a boxing ring, two opponents facing three while twelve referees decide the decision of the KO. Either way, Claire was feeling less confident and sensed a one-sided argument.
Again, the purple-haired woman led the cast of votes. Twelve against two. Now, that was a hit to Claire’s art of persuasion. It was a fight that she wasn’t even sure she could win. A shopping centre seemed more investable now than in the future, and with money these days, now seemed better than waiting.
Graves didn’t even seem ticked off. To him, it must have just been another loss that wouldn’t account to his pay cheque in the end. Claire, however, couldn’t help but feel responsible, wanting more than anything to rewind time and try again, anything so it wouldn’t feel like she was to blame.
“Yes, members of the council and neighbourhood watch have respectively decided to opt out of the decision to allow Mr. Benson permission to construct renewable homes. Your pitch is investable, but for what we need, it doesn’t meet our requirements,” she’d pointed out, a constant paragraph of words that had cycled in Claire’s head over and over as she sat in the taxi.
***
ZACK
This news was already posted to Zack, who slammed his fist on his desk in anger. Olivia jumped, a little startled by Zack’s display of displeasure. Her fingers anxiously began to flick through the papers she held.
“Fuck. How stupid can they be? Imbeciles! They’re going to put themselves in more of a loss when the government starts demanding housing. We’re already in a crisis and they decide to put themselves in further! I need to know who even pitched this idea to Label Works. Someone jeopardised us! This project was a green light!” he spat as he shook his head and began to stand up. “Olivia, I need you to find this out. Anything. Ask the fucking Pope for all I care. Just find out. This is ridiculous. Keep me updated.” He stalked out of the room without another word.
***
CLAIRE
When Claire returned by late afternoon, she was grateful to meet Darren halfway, who greeted her for a late lunch. If she could rant endlessly without a judgement to anyone, it was Darren. Darren took her into an embrace before commenting on how beautiful she was looking today.
“Why don’t I look beautiful any other days?” she joked as they headed for the canteen. Darren nudged her shoulder. “Baby girl, you know you’re beautiful any day, even if you’re going down on some guy and you’re half drunk. So how was it? Did Zack show up eventually?”
“Ewww. Why are you so vulgar? And no, he didn’t. Apparently, he had a family emergency, but that wasn’t exactly his words. He just messaged me apologising, and that was that,” she replied with a frown. “I’ll be surprised if I have a job by the end of the day. We didn’t pass the green lights for this damn project. So I feel fucked at this point.”
“I’m sure that won’t be the case.” Darren cocked his right brow up. “You did what you could. And as for Zack, you should really grill him for that. I’d be pissed.” He led them to the table furthest from the rest of the hungry population in the canteen.
Claire was frustrated and ready to pile it all on Darren until Jason, hair combed in a parting, dressed in grey trousers, and waist jacket stalked towards them carrying his tray of apple juice, panini, and bowl of fruit. He wasn’t exactly who she wanted to see at that point. She almost immediately held her breath and held her head down as she poked her hot jacket potato with the fork, hoping he’d divert his course.
He approached the table, smiling broadly as he placed his tray onto the table beside Claire. He was taking complete residency, placing his phone and wallet next to the tray to snag his position within their duo.
“Hi there, beautiful,” he said affectionately, pecking Claire’s cheek before he sat down in the vacant blue chair adjacent to her. Darren looked at Claire with amusement mixed with confusion. She couldn’t muster a word. What could she expect? She hadn’t exactly been honest and ended things.
“So what are we all talking about?” Jason quizzed, picking up his greasy, cheesy panini.
Darren blinked several times before answering Jason directly. “Oh, Jason. Claire w-was,” he paused to look over at Claire, “just talking about how much she was thinking about you,” he resumed, shamefully enjoying the brutal stare Claire sent his way.
“Really? Ah, well, that’s awfully sweet of you, baby. I was thinking just the same about you,” Jason said, his hand reaching over to Claire’s on the table. Claire couldn’t say a word; it was like her voice had been stolen just like the mermaid, Ariel, and passed on to the evil witch in return for human legs. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. And fuck. Particularly fuck. Did she say fuck?
“So how did today go, honey? Was it all right? I was thinking about you earlier, hoping it was going well for you.” Jason smiled cheerily, his thumb caressing the surface of her skin.
Claire gulped discreetly before gradually wetting her bottom lip as she turned her face towards him. “It…was okay,” she weakly reassured him, wondering why on earth she sounded like a shy mouse.
