Johnson was not a nervous man: he had stood in front of a board and defended his doctoral thesis will all the easiest exercise of willpower, and had stared down men much bigger than him in business meetings and drinking competitions alike. Johnson had many, many years under his belt, he had worked at Spencer & associates for almost 17 years now, securing many large deals for his company, and expanding the company's stock portfolio until he and his coworkers could easily buy several private islands and still have the money leftover to retire comfortably for the rest of their lives. With all the bragging in mind, Johnson's meeting with Starch co. had probably made him more nervous than a freshman boy just getting frisky with his first date.
Starch co. had a reputation for stoicism; the company had sailed through the '08 recession practically unharmed, and the boss and head negotiator Starch had a real penchant for being a hardass. As a matter of fact, the company had dealt with many similiar recessions over the past several decades, each harkening a new wave of investors ready to sell all their stock, and each with only a spattering of young investors left scared about the future of their investments, the rest being reassured by Starch co's unflinching demeanor. For Starch co, this meeting with Spencer & associates was just another company to be consumed, more stock to be bought on their way to the top.
'However,' Johnson reminded himself, 'I'm probably just overreacting. I mean, there's no way this Starch guy could be that unflappable, right?'
As if to answer his own question, Johnson's arrival to the meeting room gave him a scare: the entirety of the Starch co. negotiation team, already seated at their places as if they had never left them. Johnson's two coworkers attempted to make small talk while Johnson set up, but they failed. It was no matter; the two coworkers were merely a formality, as Johnson would be handling all of the legwork in the negotiations.
Johnson had clawed tooth and nail for this spot as top dog, and it was time for him to keep this position.
"'Morning, gentlemen." Johnson began, his words punctuated by the creaking of the older projector's activation cycle, "I understand you all at Starch co. have done us a great service by considering this merger, and I want to show you why it would be worth your while to back the fuck off."
Silence. Johnson ignored Starch and his retinue and continued with his speech: "As you can see, Spencer & associates owns majority stock in..."
Johnson continued, speaking like a well-dressed bat orator out of a very fancy hell. He gained more and more confidence as he continued, his own reassurances causing his earlier doubts to appear insignificant in hindsight. "I gave them too much credit," he mused, "They must be knocked on their fuckin' asses by now."
Thus, Johnson was completely surprised when, after turning to gauge the reaction of Starch to Johnson's biggest reveal, Starch and his retinue were completely unfazed. This threw Johnson for a loop, and as he tried to continue talking he became more aware of the unseen eyes boring several dozen times into his back. Eventually, he lost all of his fine-built confidence, and he began to ramble like a high-schooler's first ever speech. He turned to his associates for support, only to see them mimicking the boring stares of Starch's retinue. It then became painfully obvious to Johnson that he needed to make a desparate escape to avoid a similiar fate, but it was too late. Johnson, too, had fallen trap to the common mistake every ameteur detective makes on their first day:
Don't fuck with potatoes.
shitty, but hopefully a good start, as i'm really tired.
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Topic: ggamer does creative writing prompts! (Read 1364 times)