Suddenly, I Am Rich

Not five minutes had passed before the door clicked open again.

A group of four executives stepped inside—two men and two women. They were all dressed sharply and smartly in varying shades of blue and black. They carried tablets and slim laptops under their arms.

At the front of the group was a man, probably in his early forties. He was tall with short hair slicked neatly to the side. His ID tag read: Edan Palms – Chief Operations Officer.

"You must be Mr. Adams," Edan said with a wide and professional smile on his face. After he said those words, he offered a hand across the table.

"Good afternoon." Gray stood up and took it. "Thanks for having us. And please, just Gray's fine."

"I'm Edan. I oversee most of our expansion partnerships," he gestured lightly to the team behind him, "and these are some of our core team leads for integration, logistics, and strategic marketing."

Each of them stepped forward to introduce themselves. Mara stood too, shaking hands one by one and offering a polite slim while she kept her posture poised but warm. She had switched almost seamlessly into her work mode, speaking just enough to show presence but not so much to pull the spotlight away from Gray.

One of the women, Valerie, who introduced herself as the Strategic Operations Lead, seemed particularly curious about Gray.

"Honestly," Valerie said as she took her seat, "we were a little surprised when we saw your name on the calendar invite."

"Surprised?" Gray raised a brow.

"We just heard that you haven't replied to all the offers sent to you yet. So we didn't expect to hear back, let alone have you show up in person," she said, tilting her head.

Edan gave a short laugh, setting his tablet down in front of him.

"It's not just that. You probably don't remember me, but I was one of the people who said hi to you at the Everett Gala. We had a brief chat at the bar."

Gray blinked, then gave a small nod.

"Oh. Yeah, I think I remember. You were the one who told me that you were working at a startup too, but then the company suddenly succeeded."

"That's me," Edan grinned.

Mara snorted under her breath, but quickly covered it with a fake cough.

"Well," Edan continued, folding his hands neatly, "I remember thinking back then that you seemed... different from the rest of the business crowd. And I meant that in a good way. So we sent you a proposal. I'll admit it, I was hopeful."

Gray glanced at Mara briefly, who raised her brows at him like she was saying, 'See? Told you this was worth it.'

He turned back toward the table and smiled at the people in front of him.

"The proposal was good," he said honestly. "We've had offers, but nothing that made this much sense. You covered integration, logistics, and even adjusted for our local supplier policies. It's clear that you really researched."

"Of course. We really did spent time on it," one of the other executives chimed in. "Jet2 wants strong regional partners."

Gray nodded, thoughtful.

"Well, that's what we're about too."

The air in the room eased slightly as the two parties exchanged a few more words to each other.

After awhile, everyone settled into their seats. They opened their tablets or flipped through the printed decks that Mara had passed around.

For the next few minutes, the room filled with quiet flipping of pages and tapping on screens. Then Gray reached for the remote and powered on the digital display behind him.

He glanced once at Mara, who gave him a subtle nod.

Then he turned toward the screen and began.

"Alright," he said, voice calm but steady. "Let's talk about what this partnership could look like."

Edan smiled, then gave a small nod to Valerie, who was already adjusting her laptop to connect to the screen.

"We prepared a short presentation," Edan said. "Just to walk you through the proposal again in person."

The screen flickered to life, now showing Jet2's sleek blue logo before transitioning into their first slide. Valerie stood from her seat and began speaking, her voice was steady and practiced.

Their presentation was concise but thorough. Jet2 offered full integration of Gray's grocery system into their logistics platform, giving them access to same-day delivery and regional shipping through Jet2's already established network.

They also promised full visibility on stock flow, a co-branded marketing campaign for the first three months, and a tiered commission system that adjusted based on volume sold.

"We're also willing to cover onboarding costs and void system fees for the first three months," Valerie added as she clicked to the next slide. "That includes tech integration, product training, and support for any of your internal teams that need upskilling."

Gray listened quietly, nodding every so often. Mara, beside him, was taking quick notes on her copy of the proposal while occasionally underlining certain terms.

They wrapped up after about fifteen minutes. The last slide was a clean summary of the key benefits: expansion, logistics support, exposure, and long-term scalability.

When the screen dimmed again, Edan looked back at them. "So," he said, "we'd love to hear your thoughts."

Gray leaned back in his seat, thoughtful.

"You've clearly done the work," he said. "And it's solid. But I wanted to come in person because if we're doing this, I need to be sure we're aligned, not just in numbers, but in values."

He stood up with the remote in hand and clicked open his own slides. The presentation was simpler with fewer words, UT more visuals.

Mara remained seated but passed out printed folders to the Jet2 execs. Each was clipped with clean summaries of their current business performance, projected growth, and internal numbers.

"We're not the biggest grocery out there," Gray said plainly. "But we've spent the last few years building systems that actually work. Fast restocking, supplier transparency, and customer service that really cares about the consumers."

The screen shifted to graphs showing customer retention, regional sales growth, and fulfillment rates.

"What we're looking for isn't just a courier or a platform. We're looking for a partner who knows how to scale without cutting corners."

Mara added softly from her seat, "We also value our local suppliers. If we're going national, we want to bring them with us, not leave them behind."

Gray nodded once. "So here's what we're proposing, on top of what you're proposing—"

He clicked through to a few of the final slides, now outlining their counterterms.