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3

She was greeted by a man in a black suit as she walked through the glass doors of Electro. He was tall and had enormously broad shoulders that screamed ‘bodyguard’. The only things missing were the sunglasses and earpiece; despite his appearance, there was an aura of business around him. Maybe she had buried herself so deep in the business world that she could identify her colleagues. Or maybe she had undergone some kind of initiation that she couldn’t remember because it had been wiped from her memory. Or maybe-

“Good morning madam,” he snapped her out of her train of crazy thoughts, “we have been expecting you, your reputation says you are always early.”

“Morning. I can see my reputation precedes me. It’s nice to meet you Mr.…?” she trailed off.

“Redwood. If you’ll follow me, I’ll lead you to the conference room where our manager will meet with you and you shall discuss the terms of our deal.”

He explained further to her as they moved on and took an elevator to the seventh floor of the eleven-floor building. He told her that he was the personal assistant of the manager, Jason Lawson, and he was the one who had been contacted by Peter the previous day and the entire company was overjoyed that they were about to land such an enormous business deal with such a huge company. In fact, the company was on the edge of bankruptcy and they needed this as a strategy to avoid such. Staffs had been laid off, salaries had been cut and only the most necessary engineers were left in the factories.

She pitied them and she liked this man. However, she automatically built up the wall she always did when she met nice people. They were always the most devilish with hidden agendas behind their smiles.

They reached a conference room with a huge mahogany table in the middle and chairs surrounding it. It had a big digital screen with a drag down projector screen, big windows and huge paintings on the walls. She wondered how much they would gain if they sold those paintings. She was no longer a fan of decorations and she thought them useless to the environment. The factories caused pollution and most of them ended up breaking or spoiling… money spent and wasted.

It looked like Mr. Lawson had been waiting for her because he stood up to greet her immediately she walked in. As she shook his hand, she made a quick survey: bags under his tired eyes showed that he had worked his butt off to keep his company out of bankruptcy, his hands were tense and coarse and he was obviously scared that the appointment would go haywire because this was his company’s lifeline. He was a handsome man with blonde hair, blue eyes and a strong set jawline. It was quite sad to see such a person so rigid and tense. His body language gave off waves of anxiety and well-hidden nervousness. She decided at that moment to strike the deal. She knew his company was good from extensive research and she was ready to take the risk, life is all about taking risks.

“May we start this meeting please? I have to get to the office soon.” she said after the salutations and introductions.

“Of course, please take your seat and we will get started immediately.” His voice was surprisingly smooth and unexpectedly confident. She admired that; he tried his best to control himself and conceal his fear.

The rest of the meeting went on smoothly; they exchanged conditions, negotiated and signed a contract. They were to start work immediately and Mr. Lawson was already making calls when she left his meeting room. His mood had changed not so surprisingly when the deal was struck. His company was now saved and she was more than happy to be a part of it.

She was already on her way back to her office with her copy of the contract when she remembered something: she hadn’t discussed with whoever was supposed to head the project. She had to meet with the person and make sure that he/she understood what she wanted well and she also needed the blueprints of the plan as soon as possible. She took her phone and dialed Mr. Lawson’s number.

“Hello sir, I'm on my way back to your office. There is a matter we are yet to discuss.” she said with a well-practiced tone of urgency in her voice.

“Oh dear, hope there is no problem.” He seemed scared again. She didn’t like it and felt the urge to assure him that nothing was wrong.

“Not at all, I just feel there is a need to get to know the person in charge of the project and also to make sure that the person understands the quality of what I need and not to forget that I need the blueprints as soon as possible.”

She heard a breath of relief on the other side of the call, “Well, if that’s the case then I will get the best of our engineers here to meet you in that same meeting room but I will not be there because I have a flight at one o’clock.”

“That’s not an issue, I’m sure we can handle each other. There shouldn’t be a problem and I'm very sorry for the short notice.” she apologized. Apologizing was a thing she never hesitated to do.

“No problem and once again, thank you for your co-operation.” His gratitude came from within and he was not hesitant to express it. This was a quality she indeed admired in a person, however, no matter how much she admired a person, she always distanced myself from everybody.

Her car turned around and headed back towards Electro. She didn’t need an escort to the meeting room this time and when she got there, she didn’t bother knocking. She walked in and greeted the dark-skinned man with his back turned to her. From what she could see from behind, he seemed tall; very tall. He wore a blue shirt and his blazer hung on the back of his chair. His broad shoulders flexed and his muscles rippled as he stood up; she could see the movements even from beneath his clothing and she didn’t understand why his particular movements seemed very familiar to her.

Once he turned to face her, she knew why his movements were familiar and she stopped dead in her tracks.

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