Chapter Ten: The Bid Proposal
1444 Words
*Nina's POV*
It's been three weeks since I started working here.
I did everything in my power to make sure I stayed away from trouble, especially from my boss.
Sometimes he would purposely drop dirt on the areas I cleaned and would ask me to clean it again.
On some occasions, he would complain that some parts I cleaned were not clean enough and that I should clean them again.
I didn't argue. I did as instructed.
This morning, I started my daily routine as usual. All of a sudden, I heard it. Straight from his office.
I heard it from down the hall, a sharp crash followed by Mr. Alex's voice, low and furious.
“Get someone in here. Now.”
Two minutes later, I was pushing my cart into his office. Shards everywhere. Ink on the rug. The big mahogany desk was covered in papers, all of them crossed out in red.
The proposal. The one they’d been working on for 3 weeks. The $500M government bid.
Alexander didn’t look at me. “Just clean it, and be quick.”
“Yes, sir.”
I started with the glass.
That’s when I saw it. The top page of the proposal on his desk. Projected Savings: $5.5M Over 3 Years.
Under it, in red: WRONG. REJECTED.
I’d been emptying the finance department bins for the past weeks. I knew their drafts. I’d read them.
Not on purpose, though. The pages were always face-up, and my eyes just… caught things.
I swept carefully around the desk. Another page on the floor. The budget table. I froze for half a second.
Column 3 didn’t add to Column 4. It was off by $2.3 million. A carry-over error from last quarter’s template.
No one would catch it unless they built the sheet from scratch.
And the language. “We will save you money.”
That wasn’t how you won government bids.
The scoring rubric gave points for “cost avoidance,” “efficiency metrics,” and “long-term fiscal value.” I’d memorized it from the draft they tossed last week.
My hands were shaking.
“Are you done?” Alex snapped.
I straightened up, rag in hand. My heart was pounding so hard I thought he could hear it.
“Sir… can I say something?”
He finally looked at me. Tired. Angry.
“What?”
“The proposal. It won’t win like this.”
The room went quiet.
From the doorway, Marcus from Finance snorted. “Nina, just stick to the floors, okay?”
Lena from HR covered her mouth. Someone else chuckled.
I felt the coldness in my bones. But I kept going.
“I’ve read the drafts. In the bins. There’s a math error on page 7. It’s $2.3 million off. And the wording is wrong. They don’t want to hear ‘we’ll save you money.’ They want ‘cost avoidance of 18% over 36 months with measurable KPIs.’”
More laughter. “She reads the trash now?” Marcus said.
Alexander stared at me for a long time. Then he picked up the broken proposal and dropped it in the bin.
“Fine,” he said. “You think you can do better?”
“Yes, sir.”
“If you rewrite it and we lose the bid, you’re fired. No second chances. Understood?”
My throat was dry. “Understood, sir.” I was really scared because I didn't know how this would turn out in the end.
He tossed me a USB drive. “You have 72 hours.
Don’t make me regret this.”
I caught it.
As I wheeled my cart out, I heard Marcus behind me: “This is insane. We’re trusting a cleaner with 500 million dollars.”
I didn’t answer.
I just gripped the USB tighter.
Because I’d already seen exactly how to fix it.
After all, I'm a First Class graduate in Finance.
*Alexander's POV*
Three weeks.
For three weeks, my team had been bringing me the same proposal with different covers and slightly changed numbers, as if I wouldn’t notice the same weakness buried inside every version.
I threw the glass vase across the room.
The crash echoed through my office, but nobody moved.
They knew better than to interrupt me when I was angry.
The government contract was worth five hundred million dollars. Losing it because my team couldn’t produce a convincing proposal wasn’t an option.
“Get someone in here to clean this up,” I ordered.
I expected one of the usual cleaners.
I didn’t expect Nina. but I pretended not to care.
I really like seeing her around even though she annoys me all the time
The moment she walked into my office with her cart and that calm expression on her face, I almost felt relaxed
She had been working here for three weeks, and somehow, she had managed to irritate me without saying much at all.
She never complained or ever argued like before.
Whenever I gave her another task, she simply nodded and did it.
Maybe that was what annoyed me the most.
Most people tried to impress me but Nina acted like I was just another person giving her instructions.
I watched her quietly as she cleaned the broken glass.
She was careful and was really focused, then she stopped.
For a moment, I thought she had found another piece of glass.
Instead, she was looking at the proposal.
I almost dismissed it, then she spoke.
“Sir… can I say something?”
I looked up from my desk.
She sounded nervous, but her eyes were serious.
“What?”
“The proposal. It won’t win like this.”
Silence filled the room.
For a second, I wondered if I had heard her correctly.
The employees standing nearby exchanged confused looks.
Marcus from Finance laughed. “Nina, just stick to cleaning, okay?”
Normally, I would have agreed with him. A cleaner questioning a proposal worth five hundred million dollars sounded ridiculous.
But something about her confidence made me pause.
Before I could respond, she continued.
“I’ve read the drafts. In the bins. There’s a math error on page seven. It’s $2.3 million off. And the wording is wrong.”
The room became quieter.
Then she dropped the bombshell that threw me off guard.
“They don’t want to hear ‘we’ll save you money.’ They want ‘cost avoidance of 18% over 36 months with measurable KPIs.’”
My eyes narrowed.
Those weren’t random business terms. Those were exactly the type of details required in government proposals.
I stood up and walked toward the desk.
“Page seven.”
Everyone looked confused. I ignored them and picked up the proposal.
I turned to the page.
Then I checked the numbers two times.
She was right.
A mistake that even my finance team had missed. I looked back at her.
A cleaner shouldn’t have been able to find an error in a proposal my executives had spent weeks creating.
So who exactly was Nina?
“You think you can do better?” I asked.
She didn’t hesitate. “Yes, sir.”
What confidence, it was either impressive or foolish.
“Fine.”
I picked up the USB drive containing the documents and tossed it toward her.
“You have seventy-two hours.” She caught it.
“If you rewrite this proposal and we lose the bid, you’re fired.”
Her expression changed slightly, but she didn’t back down. I was expecting to.
“Understood, sir.”
As she pushed her cart out of the office, I heard Marcus speak behind her.
“This is insane. We’re trusting a cleaner with a five-hundred-million-dollar project?”
I didn't say a word because I understood their doubts. I had the same doubts.
But unlike them, I had also seen the look in Nina’s eyes when she corrected the proposal.
She wasn’t guessing, she was sure and that interested me.
*Nina's POV*
I didn't listen to the gossip from my fellow cleaners.
They probably thought I was overdoing it, trying to impress the boss.
I only focused on how to get the deal done in a short period of time.
Honestly, I didn't know why I decided to help him either.
He hasn't been nice to me, but since I've taken it, I will give it my best.
I have only 3 days, which is too short because I would have to go through the financial records from two years ago and build it from scratch.
Rewriting the bid and correcting the bid isn't a big deal, but what if they lose the bid? I will be fired.
- Writer
