Sarah sat at the long table in the conference room, alongside other twenty attendees, focused on the giant screen at the front. At the far end of the rectangular table sat head Director Smith, an elderly man with a receding hairline and thin-framed glasses. On his left was Director Nathan, a  jovial dark-skinned man with full beard and a bald haircut, and on his right was Director Jones, a middle aged man with a jutted chin who wore a bored expression throughout the presentation as if he was dragged into this meeting against his will.

Today, the board members and directors of Buttero LLC convened at the Marriot Hotel's conference room to decide which subsidiary would take over the big project. Each subsidiary sent at least one sales and marketing representative to present their marketing proposal. The rules were simple. Whoever had the best marketing plan wins.

In front, a man in a  crisp navy blue suit, a representative of another subsidiary, presented his proposal about the expansion into the foreign market, explaining methodically without any glitch. He made strategic pauses, allowing everyone to digest the information before proceeding. Occasionally, the board members nodded in approval, or asked a few questions for clarity. He had, indeed, put a great effort into this project.

 Ten more minutes went by, an eternity for Sarah, before the presenter finished. An applause followed as he headed to his seat, but this had a different meaning to Sarah. It signaled her turn. Her turn to earn a better pay and afford her brother's tuition fee if everything went well. Her turn to show her superiors that they picked the right person. Sarah represented Aston—one of the five subsidiaries, and her manager, Mr. Chen, had accompanied her.

Sarah stood, clutched her laptop, and made her way to the front. She tucked her black silky hair behind her ears while walking, exposing a heart-shaped golden stud earring that flattered her light brown skin. As she took long confident strides, her knee-length black pencil dress outlined her dainty figure without being too revealing. The white waistband emphasized her slim waist, curvy hips, and her not-so-ample chest. On her neck, a small heart-shaped pendant rested on her smooth skin.

Her bearing and professional look had many directors nodding in approval. Well, let's ignore the fact that her palms were sweaty, and her heart pounded in her chest as she contained the slight tremors of her fingers. Her mother once said, 'Even if you are about to collapse from nervousness, try your best not to let any of that show on your face. Only you had to know.' Sarah got everything ready for her presentation before connecting her laptop to the projector.

The big screen lit up, and the title page of a PowerPoint presentation displayed. She had gone through it several times and had everything at her fingertips. She needed it only for a few references and, of course, the facts and figures were stated clearly. She clicked the next slide, but it took a while to open, which was a bit abnormal, though Sarah didn't take it to heart.

She let it load. In the meantime, her attention shifted to the members seated and introduced herself in a sweet and gentle voice—the kind of voice you would like to listen to after a long day. Halfway through her introduction, she noticed most members frown, and their eyes darted between her and the screen. She followed their line of sight and her eyes widened when she saw the screen. On the screen, an erotic image of a woman was there for all to see.

"I'm sorry, I got the wrong thing," she apologized as she tapped her mouse pad frantically, hoping to get the embarrassing picture out of the screen as fast as possible. Sarah never had such images on her laptop at all, yet they popped up on the screen at the worst possible time. Talk about bad timing!

Sarah tried her best to maintain her calm because everything would really be over if she panicked. She focused all her energy on getting the right thing up this time as she could tell the directors were getting impatient. The judgmental gazes from the members brought heat to her face and sweat dripped down her back. At least the sweaty patches wouldn't show on her black dress. All these might seem like a long time, but it happened in seconds.

"Oh, it looks like Aston Group has some interesting hobbies," Director Jones sneered, "to think we placed so much hope on them."

Sarah stayed silent, her mind reeling. Hobby my foot! I'm about to wet myself here, okay?

Sarah double-tapped a specific PowerPoint presentation and waited for the perfect slide to open as she prepared to engage the audience, but soon realized the PowerPoint file would not open. With the impatience settling in the room, she found a relevant video to cover up the delay. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's watch this short clip first before I get into details," she said with a smile, praying no one noticed her trembling fingers.

However, what played out was a short video of her grumpy manager walking around in a bathrobe with his chest slightly exposed. All eyes turned to Manager Chen and his face reddened. An awkward silence filled the room as the eyes glanced from Manager Chen to Sarah.

Sarah glanced at the screen and her eyes widened. Oh shit! the video her naughty colleagues sent her. "Not that," Sarah said, panicking, "I'm sorry, I clicked the wrong thing." She disconnected it fast from the projector while mentally cursing whoever sent her that video. Wait... She had clearly deleted that video. Why was it still in her laptop? What kind of sick game was the heavens playing with her?

"It happens. Please show us what you got," Director Nathan responded amicably, trying his best to hold in his laughter.

This time, she double-checked every detail before opening it, and it was exactly as she had saved it. She had personally written the entire proposal without any third-party interference. Besides, this wasn't her first presentation. She had stood in such meetings in the past and nothing went wrong. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and regain the confidence she needed to clinch this deal. The worst had already happened. What else could possibly go wrong?

Sarah smiled, clicked the with confidence, and prepared to start the most professional presentation of her entire career. She maintained eye contact with the audience and expected to see a serious atmosphere as she scanned the room, but noticed the opposite. The people present had constipated faces trying to hold in their laughter. Some looked like they were about to pass out from holding it in.
Puzzled, she followed their amused gazes and her eyes landed on the giant screen behind her. The image caught her unaware and she burst out laughing before closing her mouth abruptly.

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 with his tongue stuck out. His hand seemed like he was about to spank his butt. The picture could not match the grumpy manager in the slightest.

She snapped her laptop shut and unplugged the cord. She finally understood how difficult it was for everyone not to laugh and her shoulders trembled from holding her laughter. She stood there not knowing what to do. With great difficulty, she contained her emotions and regained her composure. Whoever was messing with her must have had a deep grudge with Manager Chen. Then again his grumpy nature always got him in trouble.

"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 wouldn't miss any opportunity to tear each other up. She raised her head and accidentally made eye contact with Manager Chen. He looked like he 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." Director 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 would go well this time, and true to her prayers, nothing wrong happened. But the nagging feeling she tried hard to shake off persisted somewhere in her heart. One bitten, twice shy.

In the far corner of the room, a guy in a green shirt seemed uncomfortable when her presentation appeared on screen. He took out his phone and texted under the table. Barely a minute into her presentation, the screen flickered and those embarrassing images popped up. Again. She clicked her mouse in quick succession this time, but none could get out. Her laptop malfunctioned and nothing could work. All she could do was to snap it shut.

Strange. 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 green-shirt 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, "none of this would have happened had you agreed to work for us."

In a country that championed free and fair competition in business, such tricks were rare and illegal, but it didn't mean it couldn't happen. While it might be morally wrong, the ability to snatch a deal from under your competitor's nose was also a skill. Sometimes, being too honest in business was not a good thing. Losing to an opponent who used questionable tactics was frustrating because it was hard to prove in court due to lack of evidence. But the truth was, if you snooze, you lose.

This time, Sarah's calmness disappeared. Even a 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 and the cold gazes of the audience worsened her situation. For a moment, she almost had a panic 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, restarted her laptop again, and 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 disappeared in the morning.

With all these happening more than once, she would really be dumb if she still couldn't figure out a thing or two.

"Umm... ladies and gentlemen, there is a small problem," she said softly, 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. She figured must be using the little rationality left to control his temper, 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: Sarah's hair when not straightened. And her complexion too. Photo courtesy of Pinterest.

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