Chapter 3

Clea Mair’s Pov

“Wait… what?” My eyes widened when I heard what the person I was talking to on the phone said. “Mr. Henan will personally facilitate our meeting for our application to rent a warehouse and dock in his port?”

“Yes, Clea,” Iona, one of the Henan Shipping Company, said. I met her at one of the JFCC restaurants when I visited it one time, and we became friends. “Since he was in town, he decided to see your proposal personally in two days.”

“In two days?”

Oh my god! I didn’t expect that I am going to face the owner of that port for this application. I thought that I was just directed to one of their representatives.

Shit! I can’t help but feel a lot of pressure on this issue.

“Well, JFCC is a big and famous company, so when Mr. Henan learned that you are trying to apply for one of our warehouses, he suddenly decided to be the one who would see your proposal instead of his representative,” she added. “So, better be ready, okay? Mr. Henan is strict with this kind of business. You don’t need a long presentation. Just a brief one but detailed.”

“O-okay,” I answered. “I will prepare my proposal.”

I heard her chuckle, which made me frown. Is she making fun of me?

“Can you please calm down?” she said. “Mister Henan won’t eat you. Though if you want him to eat you, it is up to you. I am sure that you will go crazy.”

My eyes widened because of that. “Iona!” I held my cheeks from embarrassment.

This woman doesn’t really know how to filter her mouth.

She chuckled again. “Oh, you still don’t have any experience, huh?”

I shook my head and sighed. “And why are we talking about my experience when we were just talking about your boss?”

“Because I am sure that when you see him, you will get attracted to him because of how handsome he is,” she said. “Just some advice, wear something sexy and kind of revealing to show your cleavage, okay? Use your beauty to seduce him for you to get his approval for your application.”

“I am not going to do that,” I said. “And please stop giving me weird ideas. I am not interested in any kind of relationship right now.”

I am still busy building my own life away from my family, and I don’t have time to spare for anyone else.

“If that is what you want,” she said. “I am just giving you a shortcut, but if you give your very best, you can get his approval without serving your body to him, unlike the other representatives that faced him.”

“Eh?” I said. “Is it normal for Mr. Henan to give his warehouse space to the representatives who slept with him?”

“Well, it is not normal and required,” she said. “But you will have a good chance to get that space if you have an intimate encounter with him. It will give you an advantage over the other renter since you will give him special service.”

I am not aware that there is something like this going on in the industry that I entered. I thought everything would be based on a good proposal and the ability to pay the rent.

I didn’t expect that extra service like this would also be used.

“Use your body if you have to, Clea,” she said. “If you are really desperate to get that warehouse. But you don’t have to force yourself if you can pull it off using your proposal. It will be your strategy.”

I sighed. “Okay. I will handle this,” I said. “Thank you for your help, Iona. If I haven’t met you, I am sure that it will take time for me to even get an appointment to present my proposal to your company.”

“It is okay, Clea. Don’t mention it, okay,” she said. “You can just treat me when we have time. So, I gotta go. Bye.” And she ended our call.

I put my phone down and turned my attention to the screen of my laptop to start typing the proposal that I was going to present to Mr. Henan.

And to be honest, I am not sure if I have enough knowledge and skills to have a chance to get into that warehouse.

I turned my eyes to the mirror beside my table.

Well, not that I am boasting, but I am confident that I am pretty. Though I don’t have fair white skin, I have smooth skin.

I am also not the type of woman who uses makeup. Simple face powder, blush, and lipstick are enough to enhance my beauty.

I am also good at dressing myself up.

We don’t have uniforms here, so I am allowed to wear anything I want as long as it is not too revealing. I can wear a dress and match it with black wedges.

I immediately shook my head to take out the ideas that Iona had given me earlier.

It is not good to use that kind of way just to secure our advantage in renting the warehouse that we want.

And if I am going to do that, then I just admit to myself that I don’t have the skills to close a deal with a big company like Henan Port.

It is a huge insult to all the hard work that I did just to be in this position.

I also don’t want to give the impression to my co-workers that I managed to climb to my position because I used that kind of way.

I took a deep breath and stretched my arms. Then, I took my phone and called my assistant.

“Len, please gather all the records of our transaction with Andrius Port,” I said when he answered my call. “I will need it for the proposal that I am going to prepare.”

“From the beginning of our partnership with Andrius Port?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. “It is better for us to show that we have a good relationship with them to make them see that we are a good-paying tenant.”

“Okay, I will get it to the record room.”

“And since you are also going there, please also get the records of other partnered ports that JFCC had in the past before the Andrius,” I added. “As far as I know, Andrius was their second partner when it came to stocking the imported ingredients for the company.”

But I don’t know about that, so I had to study everything to make sure that no information would slip to the Henan Port if ever they investigate us.

“That will take at least one hour.”

I scratched my head. It will waste both of our time if I have to wait for him, so I closed my laptop and stood up. “You know what? It will be best if I will be the one to go there and get all the records that we need. So, take care of everything here, okay?” I didn’t wait for his response and dropped the call, then got out of my office.

I saw him sitting at his table while giving me a thumbs-up as a sign that he would take care of all the scheduled appointments I had for the whole day.

Those are all important, but I can set all of that aside to prioritize this one.

I only have one chance to prove to him that we are worth it to be one of their tenants.