Sam had prepared all night, so much that he could hardly get a good night's sleep before his big day. He had gone through every single slide, and every single information in the proposal, all he needed to do was crush it when he spoke with the investors at noon. But like every entrepreneur about to hit their first million, Sam was so nervous that time looked slow while he waited for noon to come. After sleeping at 5:00 am in the morning, he was already up by 7:00 am after dreaming that he went late for his presentation. Now he was awake, unable to sleep, and the only thing to do was to cross check every single thing he had spent his entire night checking.
Sara: Calm down my love, I believe you got this, you have gone through everything for the 10th time since yesterday and so far everything looks perfect. Sam’s wife said while preparing breakfast in the kitchen. This time Sam sat in the dining room, mind closed from everything going on around him. He didn’t even reply because he did not hear her until she brought some pancakes to the dining table, looked at her husband with a smile and gently rested her hands on his shoulders.
Sara: My love, you got this already and everything is perfect, what you need to do now is eat and maybe take a nap, you hardly got any sleep yesterday, in as much as I want you to seal this deal for us, I also want my husband to be in the best mental and physical state, I don’t want you to exact all your energy and health in this presentation and then fall sick out of exhaustion and are unable to deliver afterwards.
Sam had been a struggling software engineer who had worked with a couple of big firms but was paid peanuts. He finally left his last company to focus on his start up when he made a revolutionary software that caught the interest of a lot of investors. Now he finally has the opportunity to showcase his work and get investors to invest in him and he was not ready to let this lifetime opportunity slip away from his hands. Sam had always been a hard worker, one who paid attention to details, but he had always been so unfortunate to meet people who wanted his hard work but were not ready to pay enough for it. This time things were going to change and Sam would be getting the kind of recognition he deserved.
After being forced to eat and stay away from his laptop, the only thing Sam could think about is just how he was going to start his presentation. He had run the numbers in his head, went through everything and felt there was something still missing. For a person like Sam, when he feels something is not missing, it means something is actually missing because of how much he pays attention to details. But this time, Sam could not find what was missing. Something was feeling wrong, but even though he had gone through everything, he could not place his hands on it.
Thinking about this, Sam did not even know how exhausted he was until he finally dozed off only to feel a light tap on his shoulders while he slept on the couch. With anxiety he jumped up startled and confused. Calm down husband, it’s just a few minutes past 10:00 am, I knew you would want to go very early so I decided to wake you up on time (Sara said to him smiling). Okay, okay, thank you my love, I will quickly freshen up and we can start going. 10 minutes later, Sam was all dressed up and ready, with his wife already with the car keys, they both stepped out of the house into the car driving to the company that was going to change Sam’s life.
On reaching the company, Sam and his wife walked into the reception only to discover that there was no one at the reception but seeing cars parked outside there were definitely people inside the company, while he wanted to sit and wait, Sara had another opinion. Why don’t we go around and see things for ourselves (she said) After all, this might be one of your future partners very soon. I'm sure they will be happy to know we came early, and besides they had already said in the mail that the meeting would be held in the conference room, so we just need to look for it.
Still nervous, Sam reluctantly followed his wife to the elevator at the reception and there there was a floor labeled "conference room”. Seems like we don’t need to look for it after all (sara said as she pressed the elevator button.) On reaching the conference room floor, Sam saw a crowd of people gathered at the reception listening to the CEO give instructions and the instructions the CEO was giving made Sam remember what he felt was missing from the entire presentation.
CEO: I need you all to be at your very best today. Today we will be getting our hands on revolutionary software that would take us to the next level as a business, but we must be smart about it. We are offering a Partnership deal on the surface, but let’s get one thing straight, I do not feel the software engineer has the capability to handle a project of this caliber so we are going to take it from his hands and take it as our own, but we need to make sure he presents everything first and if he refuses the offer of a complete buy out, our engineers will start designing something better with the ideas he has giving us.
Sam stood at the door of the conference room with his wife both looking shocked after walking in on the plan of the CEO and then it occurred to him, this people only offered a partnership in words when they called him, the email only stated there would be a meeting and there was no partnership offer in the email sent to him, this was the same way he had been used in the past, people stealing his ideas and making it their own, and because he did not have the power and money to fight back, plus the fact that he always worked with an open mind, it was always too late before he recognized the trap and if he hadn’t met this, he was about to fall into another trap.
One of the executives saw Sam and his wife standing by the door with a shocked expression and asked, is there anything we can do for you sir? I’m not sure you should be on this floor. All head turned to him, but no one really knew what he looked like except the CEO who saw him the day he pitched a little about the idea to him in a restaurant where they fixed this meeting and now seeing Sam and his wife there, he immediately started sweating profusely and began to stammer. Mr Sam, I wasn’t expecting you until 12 (he said with guilt written all over his face.)
Is what I just heard true? Sam asked with anger plainly clear in his voice. Mr Sam, Mr Sam, you weren’t supposed to hear that (The CEO said while fumbling words and faking a smile that only showed in his mouth). There is no need to hear any other thing, and I think we can both agree that this deal is off, Sam said as he turned and walked out of the building leaving the CEO and his executives to bury their heads in shame.
THIS IS MY ENTRY INTO THE INKWELL COMBINED WRITING PROMPT #56
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