Page 89 of The Friend Zone Experiment

Their cab was inching through traffic, bringing them back to Su Khoon’s office so they could do a debrief with the team.

“Nerves,” said Renee lightly. “I always get jumpy before a presentation. It’s fine once I get into it.”

“You should work on that. We had a guy come in to train the senior leadership team last year,” said Su Khoon. “Personal impact, all that. He was not bad. Ask Penny, she can give you the details.”

Renee bristled at his condescension. But it was her own fault for freezing. She swallowed down her irritation with an effort. “Yeah. Sorry, it won’t happen again.”

Su Khoon waved his hand in dismissal. “You did a good job overall.”

Renee already knew this. She felt patronised, but also, despite herself, pleased.

“You too,” she said, as a means of maintaining some semblance of dignity.

She looked out of the window, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. Any kind of public performance always left her buzzing. But this time, the elation of catching an audience’s attention and holding it was underlined by a queasy uncertainty, snaking through her gut.

The day wasn’t over yet. And she still had lunch with Freshview to get through in a week’s time. She had to stay focused, not let herself be dragged off course.

They had passed Waterloo Bridge and were heading along Embankment: a park screened by greenery on one side of the road, the river on the other. The grey obelisk of Cleopatra’s Needle flashed past, the polished black sphinxes on either side just visible behind yellow-crowned trees.

“What do you think of our chances?” she said, watching a police boat race along the river, throwing up plumes of water as it went.

“Should be strong.” Su Khoon sat back, adjusting his jacket. “Biggest risk is if we get undercut on costs.”

He’d wanted to quote more aggressively, but Renee had insisted on being realistic: “This needs to be profitable for us,” she’d argued. “Dad won’t thank us if we take a loss on one of the biggest redevelopment projects of the century. And it won’t do the Freshview relationship any good if we end up going over budget.”

“Every construction project goes over budget,” Su Khoon had grumbled, but he’d conceded.

Renee said nothing. They’d had the argument and she’d won. Only time would tell, now, if her strategy was sound.

Fortunately, Su Khoon didn’t seem inclined to relitigate thepoint, either. “We can try to pump Andrew and the rest for intel at the lunch next week.”

He took out his phone, so Renee followed suit, scrolling through her emails. Nothing was on fire at Virtu, literally or metaphorically. She needed to speak to the office building manager about the leak in the ceiling.

Maybe she’d be able to make progress on Virtu at Home during the lull while they waited for Freshview to make their decision. Might she even be able to twin the launch with the Chinese New Year womenswear collection? Two simultaneous launches might be too much even for their devoted customer base. But on the other hand, people would be thinking about entertaining around Chinese New Year, possibly in the mood to spend on a fancy bowl or five…

A thought struck her. “We should buy lunch for the team. Sushi?”

Su Khoon looked up from his phone, his forehead furrowed. “We haven’t won the deal yet and you want to reward them?”

“They’ve worked hard. We can do a proper meal out if we win the deal, but there’s no harm in treating them to a takeaway now,” said Renee. “This kind of attention makes a big difference. It makes people feel valued.” Su Khoon was looking skeptical, so she added, “Dad always says to invest in relationships.”

Su Khoon rolled his eyes. “With people who can get you somewhere. People like Andrew Yeoh. Notstaff.”

Renee would have liked to roll her eyes, too, but she squashed the instinct. “Look, I’ll pay for it.”

“No, no. If you want to buy their hearts, go ahead.” Su Khoon dug his wallet out of his pocket and offered her a credit card. “They’ll think they’ve got it made. They’re already having a free holiday on the company account, you know.”

Despite the near-inconceivable improvement in their relations, Renee didn’t think their rapport was quite strong enough to survive her pointing out that not many people would consider twoweeks of working twelve-hour days a holiday. She contented herself with taking the credit card from him. “Thanks, Er Ge.”

“I don’t know how your business can survive, if you’re so free with money,” said Su Khoon. “You know these people are all spying on us and reporting back to Dad, right?”

The thought had occurred to Renee, though she would have insisted on standing lunch for the staff anyway. “All the more reason to buy them sushi, isn’t it?”

Su Khoon blinked. Renee decided to enjoy her triumph discreetly, looking down at her phone.

She’d received a voice note from Nathalie, followed by a text:

How did the presentation go?

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