Chapter 6: First Round
It was no surprise that Tammy asked Mei to be her maid of honor. “Bridesmaids” was one of Mei’s favorite movies. She cried every time watching the movie and felt strangely connected with the Annie character. Mei obviously had no cake shop nor strange roomies nor a charming cop to save the day, but she understood every emotion Annie had to go through like they were her own. Hopefully like Annie, her best friend’s wedding would bring everyone to a happy ending.
On Sunday, Mei called Dan to apologize and explained the “emergency”. Dan laughed it off and told Mei he would like to say his congratulations to Tammy when they meet in person. That made Mei wonder whether she should arrange a double date but decided it was still too early. They’ve talked about another date sometime in the near future with no details in mind. It was a pleasant conversation as always, Mei could see herself getting use to this very easily.
After she finished the call with Dan, Mei realized that she had not talked to her parents for almost two weeks. Both of her parents were in their 70’s and lived in Beijing, the capital of China. Mei was the youngest in a family of three girls and the only child who had the opportunity to study abroad.
Like every family out there hers had its own issues, but generally speaking her two older sisters have been taken care of their aging parents pretty well.
The topic of finding Mr. Right came up again this time like a persistent pimple. Mei didn’t tell them about Dan; her Dad did not like the idea of his daughter dating a foreigner. To be honest Mei tried very hard to find a Chinese guy, but as she got older her selection went from small to almost non-existent. Most successful single Chinese guys her age wanted younger wives; not someone over 35 whose ability of having kids was borderline endangered. As harsh as it might sound, this was the reality Mei faced. She has learned throughout the years of living alone that feeling sorry for herself never helped other than gave her the excuse to eat a whole container of Haagen-Das all at once. She had to be strong, practical, and bury any vulnerability deep inside.
Putting down the phone, Mei was glad her family was all doing well. She’s very thankful for the loving parents who stood as her safe fortress for all these years. She tried not to think about it much, but from time to time, the fear of saying the final goodbye to her parents would rise up and overtaken her like the evening shadow. She did not know and did not want to know what it would be like to be truly alone in this world.
Mei got in to work at 8:00 am Monday morning. She always enjoyed being the first one in office. Usually it was quiet and gave her a chance to get settled in and prepare for the day; not to mention the lighter traffic was always a nice bonus.
The first thing she noticed was a post note on her keyboard that read: “Please come see me when you get in. J.B.” Really? I mean come on! How early did he get in? Mei stumped her purse on the chair and headed over to the office at the end of the hallway.
The door was open. The morning sunlight was peeking through the east facing, floor to ceiling blinds; almost giving the room a surreal appearance. Golden boy was sitting behind the desk; concentrating on a pile of papers with a cup of Joe in one hand. His hair was neatly tucked behind his ears today, probably with the help of a little gel, which gave it a sheer shine under the lighting and made it look like pure gold.
Mei knocked lightly: “Mr. Broderick? You wanted to see me?”
“Oh Ms. Li,” golden boy seemed be caught by a surprise; “I didn’t expect to see you so early, come on in. Please, have a seat.” He politely stood up and walked around the desk to pull out a chair for Mei.
Sitting at this side of the desk made Mei felt a little un-ease. She had always pictured herself being the queen of this office ever since Greg retired and left it vacant three month ago.
“Well, Good Morning! You always come in this early?”
“I try to whenever I can,” Mei knew that was a lie since she’s never missed the clock by a second for the past 8 years, “did you have something you wanted to discuss?” She wanted to cut to the chase.
“Actually yes.” Golden boy didn’t seem to notice the cold response, or maybe just didn’t care. He pulled out a document and tapped it lightly: “I’ve read your proposal on the manning and budget plan. It was quiet impressive how it intended to use the third-party software to reduce a quarter of the total budget…”
If that was meant to be a compliment, he totally missed the mark. Mei decided to hold her tongue till finding out what was it that he real wanted to say.
Moving his greenish blue eyes from the document to Mei, golden boy sat back to a more comfortable position and crossed his fingers just enough to form a tall triangle under his chin; which brought emphasis to his sharp Roman nose and thin lips, and made him suddenly appear unpredictable.
“Mei, if you don’t mind, may I ask if you know who our customer is on this project?”
Mei wasn’t happy to be called by her first name, not from him, but at the time she’s more offended by the mockingly elementary question: “You are asking if I knew the US Government, the biggest client of this company, will be the bill payer for this project.”
“Then I assume you also understood how the government contracts are awarded?” Golden boy’s tone was serious, not with a trace of disrespect.
Mei didn’t know how to answer that question. In her mind, different companies put in proposals and the best proposal wins the contracts. That’s why she directed the team to make sure their proposal would be the most competitive with the lowest cost and shortest timeline for completion. However, at this point, the dumbest person on the planet would have figured out that’s not the answer her boss was looking for.
She decided to remain silence.
“We have about a month left until the end of the Fiscal Year. When government has left over budget the goal for them is to make sure the money is spent, so more money could come in for the next year…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, and there was no need to. Mei knew she messed up. How could she overlook that aspect? The end of year contracts were never about how low the price tags are, it’s all about proposing the exact amount of cost that the government wanted to spend in the exact time frame they wanted to spend it.
“Got it.” Mei quickly stood up and took a step forward; now all she wanted was the chance to fix her mistakes. “Mr. Broderick, I apologize for the oversight. If possible I would like to revise the proposal and you will have the new version on your desk by COB Wednesday.”
Golden boy stood up, nodded slightly and handed the document back to Mei, “The proposal needs to be turned in for VP review by the end of this week. Let’s regroup on Wednesday, please feel free to let me know if you need anything.”
For the first time Mei looked at Jesse Broderick with sincere respect, she knew he could have turned the proposal in as-is and waited till the senior brief to bash her mistakes. “Thank you.” She truly appreciated how he handled the situation, and rushed off to the busy day. Behind her, with an almost undetectable smile, Jesse Broderick went back to work.
