IF... [BOOK I]

IF... it's his breathtaking records

"Oh, what was it?!"

"Remember the last project I managed to get a deal off?"

Andrew put down his fork and rummaged through his memory.

"Ah! The one that became hot news for a full month at the office?!"

"Haha, the way you put it is a bit-- well, anyway, that's the one" mumbled Jack feeling a bit embarrassed since he brought it up himself "Instead of making it into a single contractor project, we ended up sharing the work with Geraldino's team"

"HUUUH! Eh? How come?!" questioned Andrew with a perplexed face "I mean-- wait! Isn't that client who is known to use only one contractor at a time?! They are pretty strict about that rule, though!"

"Yes, they are now. But, during my proposal arrangement for that specific client, I found out that they had had several projects running with multiple contractors back then" explained Jack while stuffing another potato wedges into his mouth "Even for the big scale projects"

"Eh?! Really?"

"Yeah. However, about seven or eight years ago, one of a huge project crashed and some of their major investors bailed out" explained him further "Little did was known, whether it was an internal mishap or contractors' misalignment. Either way, it was the start of their current strict rule and work play"

"Ah! That makes sense" murmured Andrew tried to swallow such first-rate information from his veteran coworker "But, then how did you persuade them into taking such risk again? Or rather how did you tame our hardcore rival into joining hand with you, Boss?!"

"It was an exhausting push-and-pull battle for all of us contractor' candidates" answered Jack, while setting his plate aside as he took a breather from his lunch "We've spent weeks only for the pitching. No wonder. This project is not like any other. I understand how the client wants to make this perfect. Even in one glance, we realised that the project manager is actually pretty desperate himself"

Andrew looked at him with glimmering eyes, as if he was listening to one of the heroic stories of all time.

"After re-analysing our SWOT analysis, I get the picture that this project won't be optimised unless we make use of our combined facilities and expertise" unfolded him while crossing his arm in front of his chest "We can try finishing it off with our own distinct work style, however, the result won't be as best as the joint work"

"I then proceed to approach Geraldino's team and suggested the proposal merging. Though reluctantly, they decided to go ahead with my suggestion. Blamed it to the excessive stress, but, they sure were a lot more docile at that time, haha"

"Haha, I can imagine, Boss. I was once in that kind of situation -- though just as an unofficial assistant -- and it sure was nerve-wracking. Any kind of breakthrough, no matter how trivial, is definitely welcomed"

"Haha, that could be the case. The next thing we did was re-arranging the merger proposal to suit the client's vision and presented it to the client as one joint venture. We sure did them a shock, but we managed to get them to listen to us until the end of the presentation"

"Did they agree on the spot?"

"No such way, haha! Such deep trauma won't heal over one presentation, how brilliant it might be. We had to lobby the project manager off the pitch for boosting his confidence in our joint commitment" chuckled Jack as he remembered the awkwardness between them during all those dinners "Geraldino's and our company's rivalry is well known for people in the related industry, after all"

"Ah! Listening to you, make me lost several years of my life span. I can't believe you go through all that!"

"Hahaha, I must have used up all my luck to pull this kinda result. I'm worried, haha"

Andrew laughed at Jack's pessimistic remarks. While the person himself, just grinning like a simple blockhead.

"Haaaah~ You're really incredible, Boss!"

"Haha, I still have a long way to go, Andy" replied him while alighting a typical business smile "You too, are doing great yourself, ain't you?"

That moment after, Jack's phone was vibrating. An incoming text message was interrupting their conversation.

Jack asked for permission to check that out, Andrew merrily let the man before him continued his business.

While Jack was busy with anything that came upon that phone of his, another noiseless stare was directed at him.

It was odd, peculiar, and pretty disturbing.

"Even so, I'm still no match for you, Sir" muttered Andrew under his breath.

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