Daphne was lost in thought, staring out the glass door.
She didn’t think they would be denied access to pitch their proposal.
She snapped back to reality when her phone rang and she saw the call was from Ismark CEO, she quickly answered the phone.
Daphne was acquainted with the CEO and so she had been trying to reach him while waiting at the lobby.
On seeing he had returned her call, she was elated.
“Miss Smith, you were calling…”
“Yes, Mr Dalton, my assistant and I are representing SG tech for the bid and we’re currently at Ismark but we weren’t allowed upstairs.”
“What?
How can that be?
I’ll send someone up immediately.” Dalton let out.
After hanging up, Daphne noticed the Maybach she had seen earlier had vanished, it was Trevor’s car.
She looked away, choosing to focus on her work.
Five minutes later, the Dalton’s assistant hurried over to pick them up.
Originally, Manager Vincent had instructed him to deliberately keep Daphne and Cade waiting in order to send them away later, but after receiving a call from the CEO, he had no choice but to invite them upstairs to go through the formalities.
Daphne smiled and shook hands with the assistant without giving him a cold shoulder; the assistant, feeling awkward, led the two to the conference room.
While waiting for Manager Vincent, Daphne and Cade prepared the demonstration equipment.
“Oh, we haven’t gone over who would be the speaker.” Cade let out.
“Don’t worry.
I’d lead the presentation.
I have been meaning to land this project even before joining SG so I know just what this company wants to hear.”
Cade smiled and gave her the thumbs up.
After Manager Vincent arrived, he smoothed things over by blaming the front desk for not letting them up sooner.
Daphne knew he was just putting up an act as he was a very poor actor but she chose to play along and didn’t call him out, after all, you don’t hit a smiling face.
She immediately prepared to begin the demonstration
For the first ten minutes, Vincent pretended to listen, but then he gave up pretending and just focused on his phone and didn’t pay any attention to the presentation at all.
When Daphne noticed this, she asked Cade to take over for her.
After sitting down, Daphne caught a glimpse of Vincent’s chat history out of the corner of her eye.
She realized he was Mabel’s senior in college, and the two were discussing project arrangements following TM’s successful bid.
Daphne’s heart sank as she realized TM had already pulled strings internally.
After some thought, she decided to take a gamble and called CEO Dalton to come over.
Just as she made this decision, the CEO pushed open the door and walked into the conference room.
Vincent panicked upon seeing his boss arrive.
“Sir…sir, what are you doing here?
The presentation is about to come to an end.”
Dalton grimaced.
“My meeting just ended and since I have nothing doing at the moment.
I decided to come hear the proposal.
Daphne, are you finished already?”
There was a sad edge in his tone, like he really wanted to hear Daphne’s proposal.
Daphne smiled and replied, curtly.
“I’m just getting started.”
Dalton instantly looked happy.
“That’s good.
Please go on.” He urged and sat down.
Daphne took the remote control and resumed the presentation.
As they reached the core of the proposal, Vincent, with CEO Dalton present, dared not play with his phone anymore and could only listen intently.
The more Vincent listened, the more surprised he became.
He realized that SG Technology’s products perfectly aligned with Ismark tender requirements, the features were precise with no redundancy, and the quote was even lower than that of competitors.
After the presentation, Daphne urged President Dalton and Manager Vincent to ask questions.
Dalton made no secret of his admiration for the proposal, noting that it perfectly addressed all of Ismark’s current points, a result of customized development.
Dalton secretly marveled at how rapidly Daphne’s capabilities had improved, and couldn’t fathom why TM would let such talent leave.
While in his office, he had confirmed what Daphne had said, that he indeed worked for SG now.
When he met Daphne before at a business seminar, she had been working for TM then and he secretly wished he could recruit her.
But then he heard the other directors around him talking about how hard they tried to get her to work for them but she vehemently refused to leave TM.
If he knew she would end up leaving TM someday, he would have tried his luck.
Dalton then asked Vincent for his opinion on the proposal.
Vincent couldn’t find any flaws, so he tried to nitpick about the delivery timeline, questioning whether the small size of the initial delivery team could guarantee on-time delivery
Daphne responded calmly, stating that they would immediately expand the team after signing the contract and that she would personally oversee the project’s progress to ensure delivery, thereby perfectly defusing the skepticism.
Dalton called a halt to the Q&A, had his assistant escort Daphne and Cade out, then asked Vincent for his opinion on the proposal.
Just as Vincent was about to argue that TM’s proposal was superior; Dalton let out.
“I don’t think any other proposal can beat Daphne’s.
She had my full support.” With that, he stood up and headed out, leaning Vincent speechless.
Damn it!
Mabel had promised to sleep with him if he could secure this contract for her.
He could still remember how soft her body was.
In college, Mabel was quite the vixen, she had her way with men, had her way with making them crazy over her body.
And even until now, he was still crazy.
Staring at Mabel’s text and how happy she seemed to be, Vincent resolved to find a way to persuade his boss and make sure that contract gets to Mabel instead.
********
Daphne and Cade walked out of Ismark, it was evening now and she was surprised with how fast the time had gone.
They quickly went back to SG to grab the rest of their things so they could head home.
Recalling both she and Cade didn’t have lunch, she knew he must be hungry.
“Let me treat you to dinner.” She offered.
Cade glanced at her.
“Isn’t it too soon to treat me?
We haven’t gotten the results yet.”
Daphne smiled.
“Still, we’ve passed this stage after several days of hard work so we should have something good.”
That made Cade pretty excited.
“Okay then, I’m going to choose a very fancy restaurant.” He said, jokingly but seeing Daphne shrugging and giving him the go ahead, he chose the trendy Black Pearl restaurant, which was quite a luxurious restaurant.
After Daphne agreed, they walked together toward the parking lot.
Just as Daphne was about to unlock her car, she heard a voice behind her.
“How was the presentation?”
Turning around, they saw it was Marco.
“It went well, Mr King.”Daphne replied.
“Yeah, in fact, Daphne is so confident about us winning and she’s treating me to dinner.” Cade let out.
“Oh, is that so?
Can I join?
I could treat you both as a way of wishing you good luck with the contract signing.”
Cade stared at Daphne.
Was their all powerful boss wanting to join the two of them for dinner right now?
The two didn’t have the guts to say no to him so they accepted his offer.
*************
After the three arrived at the restaurant, Cade suddenly received a call from his girlfriend saying she was sick, so he hurriedly left early, leaving only Daphne and Marco at the table.
“What will you like to have?” Marco asked, as they both scanned the menu.
“Maybe some stake, Mr King.”
Marco slowly put down his phone.
“Can you not call me Mr King anymore?”
Daphne frowned.
“I mean, outside work hours, I just want to be Marco to you.”
Daphne swallowed, not wanting to overthinking this.
Maybe he was just being nice and so she reluctantly agreed.
Since he was being quite friendly, she decided to share what was on her mind.
“Actually, I’m not so confident and I had only wanted to treat Cade to dinner in case we lost the bid.
I know this can’t make up for his hard work but I just wanted to do something for him.”
Marco cocked an eyebrow.
“Why do you think you’d lose?
That’s unlike you.”
“I’m confident about my proposal but everyone knows that sometimes connections wins and the person handling the project at TM seems to be closely acquainted with Vincent.
Vincent is the one in charge of the bid.
And if Vincent insists of giving it to TM, the chances of SG winning are slim.”
“I already went through your proposal, Daphne, and I think you have nothing to worry about.
Anyone with eyes would know that yours is the best.”
Daphne laughed.
“How do you know that mine is the best?
You didn’t see the other companies’ proposal.”
Marco was momentarily floored by her laughter.
He grinned.
“I just know.”
Daphne felt her spirit lifting again.
Though she was curious as to why he always took her side, she assumed he found her very capable and so she was very grateful and happy about that.
Marco was aware of Daphne’s history with Trevor and knew that Mabel was Trevor’s first love who had just returned after so many years abroad.
He kept this to himself and did not share these details with Daphne.
He didn’t want her to see him as a stalker.
After the meal was served, the two ate in silence.
When Daphne had finished eating, she went to the restroom.
Upon exiting, she happened to run into Trevor’s mother, Valentina.