There's lust and then there's Eve- book 1of the Batman series.

THE MEETING - II

Chapter Three

Eve

Judge and jury.

That's how I feel right now as they all stare at me with sombre looks on their faces. These faces with ugly personalities. They can turn mean spirited within the twinkling of an eye.

Might as well milk them for all they've got, but as I walk back to my laptop, the soft side of me begins to feel sorry for them, and I decide from here on out to overlook what they did to me, and act as professional as I can.

When I get to the laptop, I scroll through the list of files, click on the one I want, and the bright logo of Valen-J Concepts leaps to life on the screen. Satisfied, I turn round to the men who are still solemnly looking at me.

Deciding to focus on the reason I'm here, I launch into an introduction. "Project management is the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time.

"A project in itself is a temporary endeavor designed to produce a unique product, service or result with a defined beginning and end. This is usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or staffing and is undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value. Another thing you need to know is, each project is unique and just because it works for one, doesn't necessarily mean it will work the same way, for the other one. I'll teach you, the pros, the cons and most importantly, the secret to achieving a hitch free project."

A burst of claps ring out as I finish speaking, startling me. This makes me take a step back, momentarily nonplussed.

I smile embarrassingly and clear my throat as I become animated with the training. I didn't have time to get manuals for them because of the short notice, so I tell them to feel free to jot down points as I talk. I had some note pads printed with my company name on it so I hand it out to them and they intermittently jot on it.

After awhile, the secretary comes to tell me there will be a tea break in Mr. Faseun's office in the next ten minutes but the other's would have theirs here in the conference room. I check my wrist watch and notice an hour and a half has already passed by.

Time flies by so quickly, but it seems like I have barely begun teaching. I smile and nod my thanks to her.

As I round up, the door to the back bursts open and in comes a flustered looking man, clutching a huge file under his arm. The weight of it must be heavy, because he is almost bent over at the waist. Suddenly, the file slips from his grasp and clatters unto the floor. Sheaves of paper flutter to the ground and lay around him in a scattered mess.

"I'm so very sorry I'm late, I was held up in a meeting." He says this in a rush without even looking up from picking up the papers.

He grabs them from the floor and keeps trying to stuff them back into his file. Clearly the papers are having none of it because they keep slipping back out and dropping unto the floor.

No one comes to his rescue, they stand watching him and chuckling instead. I feel really bad for him, and instinctively I find myself walking over to him. As I bend down to start picking up the papers to arrange them, his head whips up and both our heads collide in a sickening crunch.

"OUCH!" We both exclaim at the same time.

I stand up hastily, cradling the sore spot on my forehead with my two hands.