I Was Their Clown, Now I Wear the Crown

Chapter seven

This guy, Sathit, must have dealt with Victoria before. No wonder he struck up a conversation with me.

I once again offered a polite, respectful gesture. "My name is Kian. I was Victoria's assistant, but not anymore. We had a... disagreement. I was fired."

Sathit looked a little embarrassed. "My apologies. That explains why you threw away the ID card. I saw the job title and was simply curious. I hope I didn't intrude."

"Don't worry about it."

Sathit was very polite. "Mr. Kian, may I be so bold as to ask another question?"

"Go ahead."

"What kind of disagreement did you and Ms. Victoria have?"

I couldn't help but frown at that, studying this average-looking Thai man more closely.

Does he have a thing for her or something?

He must have seen the suspicion in my eyes, because he quickly bowed with his hands together.

"I'm very sorry, that was too forward of me. I'm only trying to learn more about Ms. Victoria and her company, as we are currently in negotiations with her. Please forgive me."

"It's fine, I understand." I mimicked his bow, already getting tired of the formal Thai etiquette.

"Your grace is admirable," he said.

Sathit wasn't just polite; he was a smooth talker who didn't look down on anyone. The kind of guy who gets ahead. He probably held a decent position at BTT.

I just smiled, took a sip of my beer, and then said slowly, "Mr. Sathit, you've met Ms. Victoria. What do you think of her? Inside and out?"

Sathit paused, then laughed heartily.

"To use one of your American idioms, she's a knockout. As for her character... I haven't known her for long, but my impression is that she's a calm, intelligent, and principled woman. She never accepts our company's invitations for evening gatherings, and she even refused a welcome party we wanted to throw for her."

"Hmm... that's very different from the women here in Thailand. You can see many scantily clad women on the streets, and foreign tourists can easily find company in the bars. We're becoming more open here, probably due to the tourism industry."

He leaned in a little. "By the way, Mr. Kian, if you're looking for some company yourself, those girls over there," he gestured with his chin, "they've been watching you since you walked in. They're the real deal, not professionals. Decent girls, you could say."

I found it a little funny. I followed his gaze to a table with four girls. One of them happened to look my way, and when our eyes met, she shyly looked away.

She was pretty, in a very Thai way, but...

For the life of me, I couldn't tell if they were actually girls or not. Thailand was famous for producing men who were more beautiful than women. How could Sathit be so sure?

"So, Mr. Kian? What do you think?" Sathit seemed to have noticed my interest.

"Well, the women here are very beautiful," I said honestly, then changed the subject. "Let's get back to Ms. Victoria. On the surface, she's exactly as you described. But to me, she's an ungrateful backstabber."

"Oh?" Sathit's interest was piqued.

"I've been to jail. Twice. And both times, it was her fault."

"Why?" Sathit's eyes widened.

I gave him the short version of why I ended up in prison both times. What did I care? I was already fired. It didn't matter to me if Victoria landed this project or not. In fact, it would be better if she didn't.

For the software industry, a project worth over $1.5 million was a huge deal. If she got it, she'd be thrilled. But even if I didn't sabotage her, there was no guarantee she'd win.

The competition was fierce. Four other companies from Europe were in the running, plus a team from India, and even a well-known firm from Silicon Valley.

Based on technical specs and software reliability alone, Victoria couldn't compete with the guys from Silicon Valley. She might not even beat the team from India. And she probably couldn't undercut the European companies on price.

Unless she was willing to sleep for it. If Victoria spent a few nights with one of BTT's top executives, she'd have it in the bag. None of the other companies had a woman as beautiful as her leading their team.

But that was clearly off the table now. They had tried to arrange parties for her, and she had refused.

Guess she learned her lesson after the first time. Once bitten, twice shy.

As for why I was telling Sathit all this? I was just venting. He seemed like a decent guy, and I had a lot of pent-up anger. It was good to have someone to talk to.

At least, I felt a lot better after getting it all off my chest.

Sathit listened quietly, a look of disbelief on his face, which then turned to thoughtful contemplation.

After a moment, he said, "Mr. Kian, I think these two incidents between you and Ms. Victoria might truly be misunderstandings."

"I know there were misunderstandings. But the fact is, I went to prison. And the first time, she never came forward to testify for me. That's a fact, no matter what her reasons were," I replied coolly.

When I saw her in the holding cell, she had claimed she didn't know about what happened three years ago. On the surface, I acted like I didn't believe her, but deep down, I already did. Her reaction when she first saw me at the company didn't seem like an act.

Hearing my words, Sathit nodded thoughtfully. "Indeed. In that matter, she was certainly in the wrong."

Then, he suddenly raised his glass with a smile.

"Mr. Kian, your frankness is admirable. I've never met anyone quite like you. It's an honor to know you. Let's have a toast."

"Thanks for the compliment. It's a pleasure to meet you, too," I said, accepting his praise and clinking my glass against his.

"Mr. Sathit, I'm curious. Who is your company planning to give the project to?" I asked after we finished our drinks. I quickly added, "If it's not decided yet and it's a trade secret, just pretend I was joking."

"Haha, you really are a straightforward person," Sathit laughed. "It's true, it hasn't been decided. But there's no harm in discussing it with you, Mr. Kian. To be honest, our upper management is leaning towards the Silicon Valley company. You know, their technology is more trustworthy."

I nodded in agreement, then said without thinking, "But I don't think you should only consider technical reliability. There are other things to look at, factors that are even more important than the tech itself."

"Oh? What are your thoughts on this, Mr. Kian?" Sathit was curious again.

I took a sip of beer. Helping Victoria would piss me off, but letting the Europeans or the Indians win would piss me off just as much.