57 Gaining Traction
1538 Words
Jules and Max made it down to the lobby of the tall building that they just had their business meeting in. They waited for a few minutes for their van as it drove into the valet area. Trae opened the door from the inside and eagerly gestured for them to enter.
“Y’all better get your asses inside! We got news!” he said with a big grin on his face.
Max and Jules stepped in and took their usual seats in the middle row.
“What news could you have that could be better than the cloud nine that we are all currently on,” Max asked as he leaned back on the seat.
Jules leaned on his shoulder and closed her eyes. She had not had much sleep in a while so she needed all the van naps that she could. At the same time, Trae leaned over from the seat in front of Max.
“Well, get this, it’s really really big!” he said, gesturing wildly with his hands.
Charlie called from the back seat to add in on the conversation.
“Yeah, Max. Even with your normal calm demeanor, you’re gonna hop out this van in pure ecstasy,” he said with a smug smile.
Lina, who was sitting next to Charlie, spoke up as well.
“Well, I think you might be hyping this up a little too much for him,” she said, still clinging to Charlie’s arm.
Max chuckled lightly and leaned his cheek onto the top of Jules’ head, who at this point was practically passed out.
“Alright, so tell me. What could be better than our recent success?” he said confidently.
Trae looked over at Max with a knowing expression.
“We just got contacted by three… count ‘em! One, two, three! Three companies!”
Max raised an eyebrow and laughed lightly.
“Well, damn. What’s so special about that? We have at least seven current contracts, and a few more on the way.”
“Well, they aren’t on the Forbes top hunnit. Are they?” he said with an even more happy grin.
Max immediately jerked from the shock. His eyes widened and he gasped audible. Jules sort of nodded awake but was lulled back to sleep when Max decided to lean back again for her to rest. With that settled, he looked back at Trae for confirmation.
“For real?”
“Yeah!”
“Top one hundred?!”
“Yeah! Yeah!”
“Wait, wait, wait! So which ones are they?” Max asked, eager to do research on the top one hundred companies and which ones were interested in them.
Trae gently reached for Jules’ phone which was just sticking out of her handbag. He opened it and scrolled through her appointment schedules.
“Wait, why you looking through her phone?”
“‘Cos it’s in here!” Trae replied. “Who’d you think told us to keep it a secret from you?”
Max looked at her and smiled. As she soundly slept, Max silently thanked her for all of her hard work in gathering connections and such.
“Well it was a damn good surprise, you guys!” Max said with glee.
“I know right!” Trae replied. “Anyway, here!”
Trae showed Max her phone and showed him the companies with the asterisks next to them. Immediately, Max’s eyes expressed a childlike excitement just at the sight of the names of those companies.
“Well, you look happy!” Charlie said from the back seat again.
Max turned his head to slightly look at Charlie, limited by Jules sleeping on his shoulder.
“Who wouldn’t be, man?! Aren’t you?” he said, the smile still scrawled across his face.
Charlie chuckled.
“Of course I am. But I feel like it’d be different for you. Since you started this whole thing,” he said, looking at Max as if saying “I’m proud of you.”
Max smiled back and turned back to the phone.
“Ok, ok so the companies are,” Max said as he took a deep breath.
He prepared himself to read the text as if he was preparing to do a graduation speech as the class valedictorian.
“Kappa Corp. Number 96. It specializes in smartphones. Oh a new market I see. Blade Inc. Number 89. It’s an all around company. From computers, and phones, to washing machines. And Sharpen Co. No. 44?!” Max said in shock.
He gathered his composure, took a breath, and continued to read.
“So, Sharpen Co. Focuses mostly on art and digital softwares. These include Photo manipulation, Painting softwares and Perspective Softwares.”
He looked back up at Trae, who was still wearing that smug smile.
“Dude, I’m so excited! This could be it! We could make an even bigger name for ourselves!” Max nearly yelled.
“I know! And get this! Those Sharpen Co. guys already hit us up! They want a meeting next week!” Trae added.
“I can’t wait!”
Charlie spoked up again.
“Good for you man! You busted your ass for this company with all the finances and big decisions. Especially since our potential guy… ended up… uh yeah,” he said as he backpedaled for the sake of not triggering Lina.
She shook her head and smiled at Charlie.
“No, no. He’s right. You really worked hard this one Max. Even without Ivan. We didn’t land those five big deals with those high up local companies because you were sitting around. You were the one who won them over, and you were the one who landed our net worth in our first million. If anything, we are all really happy for you,” she said, completely ecstatic at the joy of her friend.
Max shook his head and looked back at all of his friends.
“No, no. I might have started this, but I’d be nothing without all of your hard work. Designs, Research, Development, Public Relations. All of you guys had a part in our success. I can’t take all of the credit… So I won’t. This is our win,” he said with the utmost pride for his workmates and friends. “Besides, this isn’t a win yet! We need to win over these guys from the Forbes top one hundred! Then we can rest relatively easier after that, before our next big move up as a company,” he said as he told his friends.
Everyone looked at each other with a sense of pride, joy and a bit of nostalgia.
“We worked this thing from the ground up, didn’t we?” Trae said, feeding off the euphoria emanating from Max.
“Yeah, we really did. I remember when you all tried to win me over at that damned Frat party,” Charlie said with a chuckle.
“Yeah… And you all dealt with the hectic nature of the Fine Arts building,” Lina added. “All for me as well.”
Jules rustled a little and spoke, while keeping her eyes closed.
“And I crashed into Max in the hall. I think I have cussed him out,” she said, with a light giggle.
Trae smiled at the sleeping girl, before looking on at Max as well.
“And we did some sketchy things to get our first shot at an education. Prior to that, me and my boys were kicking your ass,” he said as he punched Max gently in the shoulder.
“That was before I went and kicked your ass that one time, asshole,” Max replied as he punched Trae back. “But now we’re here.”
“Yeah… Now we’re here,” Trae replied with nostalgia.
“Yeah… And we got a great driver out of our success, didn’t we, Travis?” he said to the driver in the front of the vehicle.
“Yes, sir!” Travis said with a smile. “Glad you guys picked me up when you did. Freakin’ millionaires sometimes are real smug. But you guys. I don’t know. There’s something good about you guys. So if you need a quick ride, Travis Langston is gonna get you there an hour before you need!” he said with excitement which he picked up from the rest of them.
Max smiled and nodded at the driver, who directed his attention back to the road.
“Anyway, we are going to make it big you guys. Even bigger than what we got going on right now. I hope you guys are excited,” Max said.
“Don’t you worry. We are,” Trae said.
“Ditto,” added Charlie.
“Same!” Lina said with glee.
And Jules, shuffled a little bit before mumbling a sleepy, “Mhmm.”
Whatever the case, the group was ready to move onto bigger things. All that stood in their way now, was a few interviews and meetings.
----------
Back in the Locke estate, Mr. Locke sat at the end of his table, surrounded by his usual henchmen. He was on the phone seemingly scheming about something. When he picked up the phone, which was handed to him by one of his loyal butlers, he immediately spoke into the speaker with an intimidating tone.
“So, Magnus. Have you heard the news?” he asked with a serious tone.
“I heard.”
“And your boy?”
“A brat ‘til the end.”
“And what are you going to do about it?”
“Rest assured… I have already contacted my associates.”
“They are smart kids. They won’t just bite at any old bait.”
“They’ll bite. They’ll bite if the baits’ names are written on the Forbes top one hundred.”
Mr. Lockes face twisted into a wicked smile.
“Keep me posted… Old friend.”
- Writer
