Love My Foe (Completed)

26 - First Meeting

Celestine literary froze when she sees an elegant woman at the table they reserved. She now regrets declining the offer of Nica to come with her on this meeting. She took a deep sigh before she confidently walks to the table reserved for her and the owner of Graciana's Hardware Store.

"Good evening Mrs. Garcia. I am Celestine Faulkerson, I am very sorry for being late." She said and extended her hand for a hand shake.

Gara stood up and accepted the hand shake before she gave Celestine a cheek to cheek, a gesture that suprises the latter. "Hello Celestine." Gara said. "You are just in time, I just came early malapit lang kasi ang head office namin dito eh. Kamusta ang byahe mo papunta dito?" she asked.

"Ok lang naman po." Celestine briefly replied as she could not choose her words to say. She did not know that she will be this uncomfortable talking with the mother of the man she choose to be with for the rest of her life.
In front of her is a heartwarming lady who elegantly carries herself just like her mother. Now she knows from whom AJ get his contagious smile.

"Let's order na po." She said.

"Forgive for arriving early on this meeting. To tell you honestly, I got very thrilled when your EA called my office to ask for a meeting." Gara said after she and Celestine places their orders.

So many things come into Celestine's mind. She admits being paranoid in everything this lady in front of her is saying.

"Thank you for accommodating us, Mrs. Garcia." Celestine said.

"As I said, I am very excited for this meeting because I know how big FCC is. Siguradong sa inyo pa lang, we will be close on meeting our target." Gara said.

"Are you sure it is fine for you to do business with us?" Celestine asked.

"The question is, are you sure FCC would like to do business with us?" Gara said. "Tell me honestly, hija, why are you reaching out to us now? I mean, knowing the rivalry between FCc and EGCC." She straightly asked.

"I have a directive from the president to have at least 10% of savings in projects I am handling. And I know that huge portion of that saving may come from the purchases of the construction materials. I research for hardware stores where we could possibly get materials with good quality but on a lower cost. And your store tops those stores we gathered." Celestine explained.

"I'm impressed. You are doing your research." Gara said.

"I have to gather the facts first before I make my decisions, Ma'am." Celestine said.

"And that is a good trait for the future leader of FCC." Gara commented.

"I hope you could give us good discount once we decided to purchase most of our construction materials from your store." Celestine said.

"I will be honest with you, Celestine. I cannot give you the same discount I am giving to EGCC." Gara sincerely said.

"I understand, Ma'am." Celestine replied.

"Normally, our discount if based on the volume. The bigger the volume of the purchase, the higher the discount that we give." Gara said.

"Compare to the prices of our current supplier, your prices are still lower than them, much more if we could get a discount." Celestine said.

"I know that." Gara said. "I will send you our proposal for the terms, the volume and its corresponding discount for the different construction materials we offer. It's up to you to decide if you still want to purchase the materials from us." She further said.