Chapter five

The board room had crisp white walls, black chairs, and a long table with a 52" screen hanged up on the wall.

Mr. Kesam sat on the farthest corner of the room with a remote in front of him. Good morning Mr. Grey and Ms. Matthews, how are you doing, was everything good last night? “Ashley was about to speak but Zeph interrupted her "Everything was great, let’s get started, now shall we?"

"Certainly Mr. Grey", as she turned the chair and pressed the button on the remote, the screen came to life and there were five faces on the screen. Three men and two women. Mr. Kesam stood up and introduced the people on the screen. They discussed Zephyr's pitch and Ashely's fingers kept flying on the keyboard furiously taking notes. Fifteen minutes later the screen was turned off and Mr. Kesam and Zeph discussed what might their future entail, the five delegates including Mr. Kesam from different Asian countries accepted his pitch unanimously but Zeph’s company had to make it in a deadline. They were willing to buy his franchise of Food Zeus in their respective countries if he transported the shipment in twenty days and the first batch free of cost.

Ashely had her mouth open with a lost stare mouthing to Zeph 'what are you doing?'

He whispered "I got this, don’t worry".( he has lost it, agreeing to every word they said, how on earth we can do this on such short notice oh my God, what're we gonna do) she put her tablet down and kept staring in her lap, Zeph as if sensing what is she thinking grabbed her hand below the table and squeezed it lightly. A wave of comfort washed over her and she was back to normal. (Alright Ashley, game face, we got this we are going to nail this pitch). In five minutes Zeph stood up buttoning up his coat, "This is where we shake hands, but we can’t" he chuckled humorlessly. Mr. Kesam smiled, “Good Luck Mr. Grey I am sure your team won't let us down".

They moved towards the parking lot, and drove away without a word to each other, back to the house.