Bound To The Seduction

Chapter 2: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

On the screen, there was an embarrassing picture of Manager Chen wearing underwear riddled with holes and his fair butt cheeks visible through the gaping holes. His head had turned towards the camera, and he had his tongue stuck out. His hand seemed like he was about to spank his butt. The picture could not match the grumpy manager at all.

She snapped her laptop shut and unplugged the cord. She finally understood how difficult it was for everyone not to laugh. Her shoulders trembled from holding it in. She stood there not knowing what to do. Finally, she contained her emotions and regained her composure.

"My apologies to everyone involved."
She turned stiffly towards the audience and bowed. From the corner of her eye, she could see Manager Chen's horrible expression and Manager Feng's smug face. Those two were arch-enemies and they wouldn't miss any opportunity to tear each other up.

She raised her head and accidentally made eye contact with Manager Chen, who was about to pass out from anger.

"I apologize for the technical glitch earlier. I would like to clarify that that doesn't represent the main branch at all."

"Okay, we'll give you another chance. But make it fast. We don't have all day." Mr. Smith waved his hand signaling her to get into business.

Sarah grabbed this chance and opened the document again after double-checking that she got the right thing. She crossed her fingers hoping everything goes well this time, and true to her prayers, nothing wrong happened.

She heaved a sigh of relief and got down to business. She rejoiced too soon. In the far corner of the room, a guy with a green shirt seemed uncomfortable when her presentation came up on screen. He took out his phone and sent someone a text message under the table.

Barely a minute into her presentation, the screen flickered and those embarrassing images came back again. She clicked her mouse in quick succession this time but none could get out. Her laptop seemed to have malfunctioned and nothing could work. All she could do was to snap it shut.

Strange, she thought. Everyone had the same thought. Once or twice could be a mistake, but several times in a row could not be a coincidence. Someone was manipulating things behind the scenes.

The guy's screen lit up and a text notification popped up.

'Done.'

This single word erased all traces of nervousness and distress from his face. He adjusted his sitting position to a confident one. A radiant smile plastered his face but this wasn't enough to take away the cold glint in his eyes. "Let's see how you get out of this one, Sarah," he muttered under his breath.

It was not a common occurrence for such tricks to occur in the business world, but it didn't mean it couldn't happen. If it happens to you, you lose your advantage. As hard as it is, that was the truth. You snooze, you lose. It might be morally wrong, but it was also a skill to snatch something under your rival's nose. Sometimes, being too honest in the business world wasn't always a good thing.

This time, Sarah's calmness was nowhere to be seen. Even the tough mountain would collapse from all these pressures. Nothing like this had ever happened to her and she was so focused on getting it right that she didn't know how to react. She trembled and a thin layer of sweat covered her face. She lifted her face and met with the cold gazes of the audience. For a moment, she almost had an anxiety attack. A wave of dizziness attacked her and she bit her tongue in hopes that the sharp pain would clear the fog in her head.

"Young girl, what is up with you?" someone who could not hold on any longer asked.

"I apologize to everyone..."

"Are you sure you are ready for this?" Mr. Smith asked as he glanced at his watch for the second time. "Okay, for fairness' sake, forward your proposal to me now. If you can produce it, I will go through it myself."

Sarah nodded and scrambled to open her laptop again. She disconnected it from the projector and tried her best to get rid of the images. She logged in to her email account to attach the document but to her surprise, the document was nowhere to be found. Even all the previous versions of the document had disappeared as well. Too bad her USB flash drive had miraculously disappeared in the morning.

With all these happening at the same time, she would really be dumb if she still couldn't figure out a thing or two.

"Errm... ladies and gentlemen, there is a small problem," she said in a soft voice, racking her brains on what to do next. She made a hand gesture with her thumb and index finger a few centimeters apart, and added, "A teeny tiny bit of problem."

"Perhaps she doesn't have anything to present and is buying time in the pretext of malfunction." The man seated next to Martin was a master at inciting the public. With his words, everyone had a trace of suspicion in their eyes.

Director Nathan ignored his words and turned his attention to Sarah. "How small?" he asked, amused.

She straightened her back and glanced at Manager Chen. His face had turned a shade darker and a small vein could be seen above his temples. He must be using the little rationality left to control his temper. She figured he must be at his limit now, and anything else going wrong would make him explode. If she had a choice, she wouldn't want to be the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Okay, here goes nothing. She took a deep breath and steeled herself. "My proposal is missing."

A/N: let's vote as we pray for Sarah 😅