Suddenly, I Am Rich

In Gray's own proposal, they talked about a phased onboarding system that allows their smaller suppliers to adapt gradually. A cap on service fees for the first two quarters, instead of 3 months. And most importantly, full transparency on how their inventory would be handled inside Jet2's system.

"In exchange," Gray said, "you get our full catalog. Exclusive rights to fulfillment and delivery and priority access."

There was a silence after he finished.

Not the kind of silence that felt heavy. Just a moment of quiet where both sides were taking in the weight of the deal on the table.

Edan finally leaned forward, smiling again.

"Well," he said, "I'll admit, we didn't expect you to come up with your own proposal too."

Edan gestured toward the screen again, then turned slightly to exchange a glance with the other Jet2 representatives seated beside him. One of them, a woman in a navy blazer who had been silent until now, spoke up.

"The rest of the terms look reasonable," she said, her tone measured and formal. "But this part—" she tapped the line on the shared document, "a cap on service fees for two full quarters. That's six months. That's longer than we usually offer."

"I agree," Edan added, folding his hands together. "Three months is already considered generous by industry standards. Six… might put pressure on our own onboarding budget."

Gray nodded. He expected this pushback, but he didn't prepare this presentation just to get rejected.

"I get where you're coming from," he said calmly, resting his hands on the table. "But the longer six-month period is important. We're not asking you to lose money, but just to give them enough time to keep things running."

He paused for a second before continuing.

"This isn't about being nice. It's about making sure the whole system works. If too many suppliers drop out because of the sudden fees from your team, then that would put the products at risk. That would also affect customer trust. But if they make it through, we will get better service and a good reputation for supporting small businesses."

"And if you're really worried, we can set a rule. if sales go up fast, we can end the cap early. We're open to adjusting."

There was another second of silence, but this time, it was more thoughtful.

Edan leaned back in his chair, expression contemplative.

"I'll be honest, Gray. That's a pretty sound argument." He glanced at the others. "But we'll need a moment."

"Of course." Gray nodded.

The four representatives of Jeth company talked. Their voices were low as they began their internal discussion. Gray stayed seated, eyes flicking briefly to the proposal on-screen.

Gray wasn't bluffing. He genuinely believed the six-month cap was the right call. A large-scale rollout with high supplier dropout was a mess for everyone.

Ten minutes passed.

The Jet2 team sat straight on their chairs, their expressions a little lighter.

Edan smiled this time.

"You're persuasive, I'll give you that," he said. "Fine. We'll go with the six-month cap of forfeiting the fees, with a conditional clause to revisit it if certain targets are exceeded early."

The contract negotiation was done. And more importantly, it was Gray's version that won.

A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he leaned back.

They stood up slowly, one by one, chairs shifting against the floor as the atmosphere in the room shifted from negotiation to agreement.

Each person on the Jet2 side moved to shake hands again, this time more warmly. There were no longer just formal introductions, but something that felt like mutual respect. Edan was the last to reach Gray again.

"We'll send you the draft contract by tomorrow," Edan said, giving his hand a firm shake. "Our legal team just needs to wrap it up and clean a few things."

"Sure," Gray replied, steady and calm. "I'm looking forward to this one."

"Us too," Valerie added, adjusting her blazer with a light smile. "If things keep going this smoothly, I'd say we can start integration by next week."

Gray gave a soft, approving laugh. "That's good to hear."

Edan gave a slight nod, then gestured toward one of his colleagues—a younger man with a tablet still in hand.

"We've already prepared a preliminary rollout timeline," Edan said. "If we finalize the contract by tomorrow, we'll send one of our onboarding specialists to your main store the day after. They'll work directly with your team to collect the full inventory list and double-check your catalog metadata."

"That's fast," Gray said, impressed. "But good. I like fast."

"We'll handle the system migration from our end. Once we input your inventory into Jet2's backend, we can start syncing with your sales channels. As long as there are no major data issues, we can make it live in under a week." Valerie stepped in.

Mara, who had remained quietly observant for most of the conversation, finally spoke again.

"We'll prepare everything on our side too. I'll have the latest inventory list ready and coordinate with our team leads so they're not blindsided."

"Perfect." Gray glanced at her, giving a small and appreciative nod.

Edan smiled, clearly satisfied with how smoothly things were aligning.

"Honestly, Gray, it's rare we meet a team this prepared. If all businesses handled partnerships like this, we'd sleep and work easier."

"Don't get too comfortable yet," Gray said, smirking lightly. "We're just getting started."

Everyone chuckled; the tension was fully gone now.

Mara closed her laptop with a quiet click.

"So, to confirm, contract by tomorrow, inventory collection this week, system integration over the weekend. And by next Monday, you will open the online order channels?"

"That's the plan," Edan said, nodding. "And once those orders start flowing in, we'll monitor the data together. Daily syncs if needed, just until the numbers stabilize."

"Let's make it happen." Gray extended a hand toward Edan again.

Edan took it once more. "We will."

And just like that, the partnership was done.