Akira was shocked beyond any of the permissible limits.

As she heard him speak about the projections, she was more than shocked because those numbers were part of the pitch which had not even covered yet. So she wasn't sure how he even got to know about it.

The numbers were at the tip of his tongue and he was blurting them out without even looking at any screen or paper.

She couldn't help but admire his sound business acumen and sharp brain. Her man was a born genius for sure.

The more he spoke, the more she fell in love with him, head over heels again and again. She was surprised as to why he suddenly joined the meeting, why he came when he had promised to come and meet her for lunch.

And then suddenly snap.

He looked at her and asked,

"What are you in the mood for? Chinese or Thai?"

She looked at him and smiled and said,

"I want something Italian again, like mushroom risotto maybe".

A beautiful smile spread on his face after hearing to her reply.

While these two were deciding over the cuisine, the members from Group were literally in a mess.

Mr, Takai looked at his finance advisor all fiercely and asked,

"Why his projection numbers are different from the ones that you had given to me?"

"I don't know sir. I really don't know".

"You don't know? It's your job to know that. You are getting paid to know that".

"I think someone from my team would have done a mistake. Maybe I can give a call and get it recalculated".

"Recalculated? It's basic unitary maths Vernon. I wonder how you could ignore such a blunder".

"There must be some small factor which would have been multiplied incorrectly".

"Small factor? You think a deal worth 44.69 million USD revenue in a few months is a small factor?"

"I am really sorry sir. I would re-run them again".

"The numbers are huge Vernon, my company cannot bear to lose out on this opportunity", saying that Mr. Takai turned back and said,

"Mr. Raymond, there seems to be a misunderstanding from our side. I am not sure how it happened but...".

"Well right now I am not interested in clearing your misunderstanding per se. I am more interested in taking her out for lunch".

Saying that Raymond flashed a wicked smile at Mr. Takai.

"I understand that it was a mistake from my side to consider you guys as a rookie. I can clearly see that you have accumulated much more knowledge about the domain and market that I have over all these years. And you know it very well that we can provide you the best tech. You know how much loss can happen if there is even a delay in one week in the product right".

"Yes, I am aware and that's why I told you, any smaller company can give the results a bit delayed, but that will be compensated by the numbers in the deal that we make with them".

Lines of worries started to spread on Mr. Takai's face. Deep inside he was deliberating, thinking about ways to save the deal which had been sabotaged by the stupid mistake done by Vernon and his team.

He turned back and looked at Vernon for a moment and then said,

"Fine what about instead of 3% of the profit margin, I take only 2.90 % ?"

Raymond looked at Akira and the turned towards Mr. Takai and said,

"I am not here to negotiate. Last offer, a profit margin of 2.75%, take it or leave it".

Mr. Takai heard those numbers and before Vernon could say a thing, he said,

"Deal !!!".