Short Stories

Rivals Part 1

Tae and Tee are the young leaders from rival companies. Coincidentally, their offices are in the same building too. Many times they are pitching their proposals against each other in front of prospective clients.

The rivalry between the two has come to such a point that they keep sabotaging each other's client meetings or ruining the proposals.

This started when both Tee and Tae once visited a prospective client's office to give their presentations one after the other. Tee accidentally spilled his coffee on Tae's white shirt sleeve just before his presentation to the client. Tae luckily always carried a formal blazer with him in his car. So he was saved that day.

Tae wanted his revenge on Tee as he thought that Tee had done it on purpose. So the next time, before Tee's meeting with the client, Tae gets Tee's car tire punctured. Again, Tee just hails a taxi and leaves for the meeting with a few minutes delay.

Before Tee gets on the taxi, he watches Tae smirking on the side while watching Tee leave in the taxi.

So this carries on, both play pranks on the other while thinking they are sabotaging the other's work plans.

This time too they're vying for a contract from a prominent client. Whichever company wins the contract would ensure that their company leads the market in terms of market share and better future prospects.

Gina (that's the name of the client) is beautiful but she's known to be cunning and cut - throat when it comes to negotiating best terms for her company.

A few times, she mixes business and pleasure and at that time, she stoops to any trick under the sun to get what she wants. That earned her the notorious name 'man-eater'. Thankfully this does not happen very often.

But... Gina already has exciting plans for the two handsome guys before she decides to whom she wants to give the contract.

The two young, handsome guys have no clue what is about to hit them!

Gina first wants to enjoy a one-on-one time with each of the guys. So she arranges for a meeting with Tee on Friday and Tae on Saturday. Her plan remains the same for both of them - talk about the project, hear the details of the proposal from both the guys, flirt in between and figure out if the guy is willing to give her a good time, if he seems the type to have 'principles' then do whatever is needed to get her wish.

Generally she does not need to do anything outrageous as guys too are more than willing to mix business and pleasure with her. But Gina never goes unprepared for any of her meetings where she has her sight on the guy and here there are two gorgeous guys that she wants to sleep with.

Both Tae and Tee sometimes listen to the ongoing rumours or through grapevine communication which tells them the inside stories and other personal affairs of various prominent personalities in the industry. So they know of the notoriety of Gina. Both Tae and Tee have somehow found out all the meeting details of the other guy's and both wish to ruin the plan of the other.

Tee is happy that he gets to meet with Gina first so there are higher chances of earning the contract by creating great first impression and try and influence her to not meet with Tae.

Tae has decided to ruin that meeting for Tee by showing up there and putting a sleeping pill in Tee's drink so that Tee cannot give his proposal and Tae comes to snatch the project.

On Friday, Tee reaches the venue of the meeting and finds Gina already sitting at a corner table of the cafe. They greet each other and Tee sits on the opposite side of Gina.

Tae is sitting on a diagonally opposite table with a cap and a mask covering half his face. He is trying to figure out when he could put his plan in motion. Neither Tee nor Gina have noticed Tae as he is sitting at a darker side of the cafe.

After initial exchange of niceties, Tee and Gina order coffee for themselves. Then Tee immediately starts to discuss about the company proposal for the project. Briefly he talks about what makes their proposal unique and beneficial to Gina's company.

Gina is also listening attentively to Tee's monologue as she firstly is interested in the business aspect of the meeting, the rest can come later.

Tae is sitting too far off to have any idea what Tee and Gina are talking about.

Just then the waiter is on his way to serve Tee's table. Tae gets up and bumps in to the waiter who momentarily loses his balance but Tae grabs on to his tray. Tae distracts the waiter and he manages to slip in the sleeping pill in what he thinks is Tee's coffee. But he makes a mistake and the pill falls in Gina's coffee!

Finally, major points of the business discussion are discussed between Tee and Gina. Before Tee can get into finer details, Gina makes her first move as she cannot wait any longer, she slides her hand and grabs Tee's hand on the table and gives him a suggestive look which Tee chooses to ignore.

The waiter serves them their beverages and leaves.

Gina says,

"Why don't you come with me to my hotel... the bartender there serves amazing drinks! We can have some fun afterwards..."

As long as possible, Tee does not want to sleep with Gina as that could easily complicate business matters later on. So Tee removes his hand from Gina's hand with a small smile (he still does not want to piss off Gina).

"I have some important matter to attend to after this meeting.." Tee says.

Gina smiles at Tee and puts on her seductive persona,

"Am I not more important as a client to your company? The other matters can wait."

Now Gina wants to make her position completely clear so she gets up from her seat and comes to sit beside Tee while Tee wonders what he should do next!

Gina puts her hand on Tee's thigh and Tee suddenly gets up as he tries to remove himself from the awkward situation. He quickly takes out the presentation he had saved in a USB pen drive and he hands it to Gina.