[pussluver]

It had been some time since I post and I have a new story.

Hopefully you'll like this.


Ep 1

This story happened many years ago when I was working as a product sales specialist (SS) in an IT company at Raffles Place. My role was to assist and support the direct sales team to sell the Product I was taking care of.

This was my 2nd job since graduation and I had been here for about 2 years. I liked the job and at 29 years old, I found that the compensation from the company was good.

There were 2 other product SS, Junhao and Zak, in the company but they were taking care of other range of products and I did not work with them very much.

As for the direct sales team, there were 5 salesperson.

Marbel was 2 years younger than me. She was pretty and had a good figure. However, to me, her character was totally obnoxious. She was overly "loud" spoken. Yes, I did not type erroneously. She almost spoke as if she was shouting at every word that came out of her mouth and seemed to have anger management issues to me.

Whenever I saw her, she was always raising her voice in the office and cursing someone or something. From the bosses, to the customers, to her friends, the aunty that was selling drinks at the cafe downstairs and even the cat that was sleeping by the stairs at her block. As such, I tried my best to avoid her as much as possible. Of course, if I had to visit a customer with her, I had no choice but I would try not to talk too much just in case I offend her.

Nur was the complete opposite of Marbel. She was pleasant and friendly and had been working in the company for more than a decade. Looking at the old photos on her desk when she just joined the company, I could see that she was much prettier back then. Now that she was a mother of 3 children, when she was not working, almost all of her time would be spent on the kids and she no longer spent much time taking care of her own physical appearances any more.

Joe was a year older than me but was snobbish and demanding. I found it difficult to work with him but he was the top performer in the sales team and was one who helped to close the most revenue for my product. As such, I had no choice but to continue to support him with his needs.

Ady was a very hardworking guy. He had made sure that he knew all the products in our company at his fingertips and knew what to sell to the customer. 90% of the time, he did not need my help and the only time when he came to me was when customers deviated from the standard offerings or for support matters which I needed to contact the principal supplier. Since Ady was very independent, I did not get to communicate with him a lot for work and even less outside of work. Thus I did not know him well.

Ivan was 26 and the youngest in the team. He was quite a friendly and easy going guy. During our smoke breaks, we spoke to each other and came to realize that we had many common topics. As such, he was the closest colleague I had in the office.

The sales team was reporting to an APAC Director, Robb. He was in his early forties and married with 2 kids. I heard that he was a very demanding yet fair supervisor. He rewarded the over-performers well but was extremely stern with the under-performers.

Since my reporting line was directly to my boss who was located in our overseas HQ, Robb was neutral to me and treated me like other colleagues.

There were other teams in the company and overall, there were about 70 staff locally. I only knew half of them who were on the IT side of business. The other half of the employees were involved in the other line of businesses and since they were located on another floor and we did not need to interact at all, I did not know any of them.

One day in February, I heard from Ivan that Robb had announced to the sales team that Ady had tendered his resignation. Robb had wanted to retain him but the company was unable to offer Ady what he wanted. That was how the company lost a good staff.

Ivan mentioned to me that he would be introducing his ex-University friend to the role and I did not pay too much attention to it.

I left for my reservist training and 3 weeks later, when I returned to the office in the morning, I met Robb at the lift lobby downstairs.

Robb: hey morning Sam.....

Me: Hi Robb.... good morning.....

He asked me about my reservist briefly and once the lift arrived, we entered it.

When we arrived on our floor and as we stepped out from the lift, Robb told me about it.

Robb: Oh, by the way.... the replacement for Ady is starting work today.... She's Ivan's friend.... Joyce messaged me 5 minutes ago and told me she's already in the office..... I'll introduce you to her later....

Joyce was our HR lady.

Me: sure.... if you don't mind, I'll drop my bag at my desk first.....

He nodded and we entered the office.

The receptionist, Jamie, greeted us.

We tapped our cards on the card reader and opened the door to our right as we walked into the area housing the sales department.

At the end of this section, next to the windows, there were 2 cubicles with higher partitions compared to the rest of the segment and Robb was sitting in one of them while the other one was occupied by the Finance Manager.

My desk, together with the rest of the specialists, was on the left of this section, next to another array of windows.

Our specialist's portion was separated from the sales team's location with a row of waist-height cabinet and their desks were all right in front of Robb's cubicle.

Ivan was standing by Ady's previous place and I could see an unfamiliar face sitting on the seat.

Ivan noticed Robb and nudged her.

She brushed a few stray strands of hairs from her eyes before looking up towards our direction. It was an innocent gesture but somehow I was attracted to it and took a closer look at her.

She had very pronounced oriental features and her long straight hair had a faint tinge of brown in them. She was pretty but not spectacularly so and exuded a girl-next-door vibe.

When she stood up, I noticed that she was rather tall for a local girl and although she was slim, she was not thin. Her midi-dress was slightly on the baggy side but it still looked good on her.

However, when she smiled at Robb, her eyes sparkled and I could tell that it was a genuine smile. Her entire face lighted up and I was mesmerized by her.

Robb interrupted my thoughts.

Robb: Sam, that's the new girl, Nancy.....

I was introduced to Nancy and I told her that similarly to any new salesperson joining the company, over the next few weeks, I would be training her about the products I was in charge of.