Chapter 92: 92

My heart immediately jumped into my throat. The urgency in his tone sent a spike of anxiety through me, and I practically leaped off the couch. My mind immediately went to worst-case scenarios as I rushed toward his office where his voice had come from.

"What? What happened?" I called out as I hurried down the hallway, my footsteps quick against the hardwood floor.

I burst through the office door to find Raymond standing in front of his desk, staring intently at his laptop screen. The blue glow of the monitor illuminated his face, and for a heart-stopping moment, I couldn't read his expression.

"Raymond, what's wrong?" I asked urgently, moving closer. "You're scaring me. What happened?"

Before I could even reach the desk to see what he was looking at, Raymond suddenly sprang to his feet with an energy I hadn't seen from him in months. In one swift motion, he grabbed me in a big hug, lifting me completely off my feet and twirling me around.

"Raymond!" I shrieked, half laughing, half terrified as the room spun around me. "What are you doing? Put me down!"

He was laughing hard, a sound of pure joy that I hadn't heard from him in far too long. He spun me around one more time before I started playfully hitting his shoulder.

"Put me down right now and tell me what's going on!" I demanded, though I couldn't help but smile at his infectious excitement. "You nearly gave me a heart attack calling me like that!"

He finally set me back on my feet, but he couldn't seem to stand still. He started pacing around the room, his hands running through his hair, a huge grin plastered across his face. His energy was almost manic, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a kid who'd just been told Christmas came early.

"Raymond," I said, trying to sound stern but failing miserably as I watched him pace. "You need to tell me what's happening before I lose my mind. Seriously, I thought something terrible had happened when you called me like that."

He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again, shaking his head as if he couldn't quite believe whatever it was himself. He continued pacing, occasionally letting out small laughs or exclamations of disbelief.

I recognized this behavior. Raymond only got like this when something monumentally good happened, something he'd been hoping for but hadn't quite believed would actually come through. I'd seen him like this exactly twice before, once when he'd gotten accepted to his dream university, and once when he'd closed his first major business deal.

"Okay," I said, crossing my arms and watching him pace with amusement now replacing my initial panic. "I'm going to give you exactly thirty seconds to compose yourself before I tackle you and force the information out of you."

Raymond stopped pacing and took a deep breath, pressing his palms together in front of his face as if in prayer. "Okay, okay, I'm good. I'm composed. I can do this."

But then he looked at me and broke into another huge grin, and I could see he was clearly about to start pacing again.

"Twenty seconds," I warned, trying not to laugh.

"Right, right," Raymond said, taking another deep breath. He walked over to his desk chair and gripped the back of it, as if anchoring himself in place. "Okay. Do you remember that deal we've been working on? The one with Meridian Global Enterprises?"

My eyes widened. Meridian Global Enterprises. Of course I remembered. It was one of the biggest deals our company had been pursuing for nearly eight months. They were a major international brand with operations in over forty countries, and their brand had chains of branches, ranging from the financial business to high class top fashion world and many more branches I can’t even remember. They were also partners with the biggest brands and companies all over the world. Landing them as a client would definitely be absolutely transformative for our company.

"Yes," I said slowly, my own excitement starting to build. "Of course I remember. We had to re-submit our proposal three months ago after initially waiting for more than five months without any response from them. Raymond, are you saying..."

"I just got the confirmation email," Raymond said, his voice trembling with barely contained excitement. "Claire, they accepted our proposal. We got the deal. We actually got the Meridian Global contract!"

For a moment, I just stood there, my brain struggling to process what he'd just said. Meridian Global. We'd gotten Meridian Global. The deal we'd been hoping for, working toward, and dreaming about for many months.

Then it hit me all at once, and I let out a squeal that probably woke up half the neighborhood.

"Oh my God!" I screamed, rushing forward to grab Raymond's hands. "Are you serious? We actually got it?"

"We got it!" Raymond confirmed, laughing at my reaction. "Claire, do you understand what this means? This is huge! This is the biggest contract our company has ever landed!"

"Show me!" I demanded, pulling him toward the laptop. "I need to see the email. I need to see it in writing!"

Raymond pulled up the email, and there it was in black and white. An official message from Meridian Global Enterprises' Chief Operating Officer, confirming that they'd selected our company as their primary consulting partner for their operations. The contract value was listed at the bottom, a number so large it made my head spin.

"This is real," I whispered, reading through the email again. "This is actually real. We did it."

"We did it," Raymond echoed, and when I looked at him, I saw tears of joy glistening in his eyes.

We stood there for a moment, just looking at each other, the magnitude of what we'd accomplished settling over us. This wasn't just a good deal. This was career-defining. This was company-transforming. This was everything we'd been working toward since I'd started the business and Raymond had agreed to help me build it into something remarkable.

Then we both started laughing, pure, joyful, slightly hysterical laughter. We grabbed each other's hands and jumped up and down like children, not caring how ridiculous we looked.

"I can't believe it!" I kept saying between laughs. "I can't believe we actually did it!"

"I know!" Raymond agreed. "When I saw that email come through, I literally had to read it three times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating!"

"When did it come in?" I asked, trying to calm myself enough to think practically.