Precious And The Prince

The night was long overdue but the longer night and shorter day syndrome were really playing games on Precious, she forgot that she had turned off her alarm the previous morning due to the constant blaring on her eardrums, so she rather relied more on the sunlight to determine whether to wake up or not at certain intervals.

Her laziness to turn towards the east side of her room in other to check the time hanging on her wall in a traditional home was awakened when she heard the noise from downstairs, same sound she hears whenever the school bus arrives in order to pick the neighbor's children by 7:30 in the morning daily.

'' Why is the bus out there this early '' she thought for a second and then she grudgingly turned towards the east side of the room and jumped almost immediately out of her bed because it was indeed 7:30 in the morning.

'' But the sun was not out and everywhere was seemingly still dark, '' Oh my gosh, I have to be in the meeting by 8 and I have not left the house by 7:30 in the morning? '' She rushed to the bathroom and turned on her shower, then rushed in and out of the shower almost immediately because the weather and the water was too cold for comfort, but who really was looking for comfort? She just wanted to bath but the water was too cold!

Precious turned on the water heater and decided to use the few minutes to brush and bring out her clothes, then when everything was ready, she rushed in and rushed out again but this time, with the assumption that she had taken her bath.

You know that gushing feeling that sprouts through your body when you know that two things are important but you have to fast track one in order to meet the other one? That was where Precious was that morning. She wore her cloth and ran downstairs within 20 minutes but had to run back up again because she left her keys, office phone and important documents. The more the pace, the more the time ticks '' tik tok tik tok ''.

Let's describe precious a bit, have you ever watched those astonishing ebony white ladies in 3D movies? The pale face and smirked smile? The long foot, gorgeous hands and all traditional but with many lookalike celebrities? Precious was beyond that beauty, the transparency and texture of her skin tune was beyond description, the constant professional move and the '' I don't care '' face she keeps, knowing fully that she attracts attention Every time she passes a crowded environment, but was to blame after all? Nature that made her beautiful or the people that can't stop starring at nature's perfect production?

But this morning, she was not interested in the attention she draws to herself; she just wanted to be in the office for the multi-million contract meeting she was supposed to anchor. She had stayed up all night drafting the perfect proposal and working on her speech mannerism in order to make a perfect presentation, hence why she slept off quite late the other night.

Precious ran up without using the elevator because it was taking much of her time to get to the ground floor, she quickly picked up her stuff and ran down stairs to the cab she had booked, the cab car in his mid-30s was already impatient because he felt that Precious was taking much time to get back, he believed that morning rush requires money rush too, so the more Precious was wasting his time, the more he was losing the morning rush money.

The cab guy had wanted to complain when Precious came back but was lost for words as he beheld her beauty, in his mind he said ''Nature in human flesh ''. He was cut short of his imaginations and wild thoughts when Precious said '' please run, I am late ''. Although the tune of Precious's voice was supposed to be desperate and harsh but it all sounded like a melody to the hearing of the cab driver who responded by saying '' anything for you babe! ''.

At first, it didn't occur to Precious what the cab guy had said and it didn't occur to the cab guy the unprofessional remark he had made not until reality settled in almost immediately and Precious turned with a bold resolute face and asked '' who is your baby? ''

Even the cab driver was shocked for a second because he could not comprehend what Precious was talking about, so he just muttered and asked '' what baby? ''. Precious could care less at this point because she felt like engaging him would make her more agitated, she tried adjusting herself using the mirror in the car but she was just too way natural to be in the office, as she taught about it, the car came to a sudden halt and she was just in front of her office within 12 minutes, luckily, she had not gotten a phone call announcing that they were waiting for her at the conference room.

She assumed that they were yet to converge and praised her stars that the day which started off as a disaster wasn't all choking after all. The cab driver asked for his money and was paid in full but his eye never left the slim thick white Ebony lady with the most insane natural beauty he ever met.

Precious raced up but this time she opted to use the elevator, the moment she got to the office, Amanda ran towards her and took her things from her, then she told her to walk right into the conference room because the investors were already there.

Precious's heart skipped for a bit but that was the list of her trouble at that moment. Amanda who had been Precious's best friend in the office had lied some minutes ago that precious had flu and she had just gone to the restroom to take a deep dump and cleanse herself, she gave precious a heads up before dragging her in to the conference room. '' Make us proud baby girl '', Amanda's voice echoed as she walked away to her office to listen to Precious's presentation via Zoom, the manager had made the physical meeting with investors to be exclusive and attendance must be by invitation.

Precious took a pitiful approach as she walked down the walk-way to her eat, she was nervous and scared at the same time but the moment she lifted up her face and got caught up with one of the investors face who was seemingly chatting with the other investor, she comported herself and walked more majestically with a bold resolute face to her seat. She sat down close to her manager who gave her a sign and she understood almost immediately what the blinking of the eye meant, then she shifted her gaze towards her first victim.

Precious knew that she was naturally pretty, and she knows how to use that to her own advantage in situations that seemed hostile or difficult. Because of her paranoia state, she implored the public speaking principle of '' find a victim, the right victim and focus on the person ''. So the young man seated directly opposite Precious was her intended victim.

She focused her gaze on him to avoid the notion that '' she was scared or not convincing '', then she stood up and smiled as a sign of confidence but the radiation from her body and the heat that dropped from her head was a clear sign of fear. '' Precious you can do this, today is that big moment, you can't fumble just yet '' she muttered to herself as she picked up her files to circulate around the table before she started speaking.

'' I'm very sorry to have arrived at the meeting venue late, My name is Precious and as the name implies, I have some precious things to share with you ''. She noticed that the investors didn't catch the joke so she opted to go all out by saying '' I had to take a very big dump this early morning because I had some stomach upset and needed to clear the air before it cleared the investors, emphasis on the dump!'' almost everyone in the room erupted in laughter.

She continued almost immediately since she had just found her ground, her eye still fixed on the late 30s man who had thought that Precious was interested in him, she continued and said '' well, talking about dump in our platform, we have mechanically enhanced our technology and products to not just suit the higher echelon, we have modified the technology to meet the needs of the middle or average traditional in Africa. For the sake of exclusivity, we have developed a different app interface for different classes of individual like the bourgeois, the assumed poor and the average ''

The young man that Precious had focused on earlier, decided to cut into precious's presentation by asking a question. '' What app are you talking about because I am already convinced about the app even without knowing what the app is all about in the first place''. Precious smiled because her speech mannerism and presentation was intentional so as to get engagement and clear her nerves.

'' I will get into that shortly, and I promise to make it as precise as possible '' Precious's word reverberated through the calm but serene hall. This app called '' OneTap'', as we are speaking with you, our developers are done with everything needed to be in the app, the software, security and interfaces. This app is used for global transfers of funds in all currencies!. One would want to ask questions like '' why should we go for this app when there are other apps that enables you to do the same thing? '' Our response is simple '' We are the first ever app that incorporated all world currencies, our charges are at its barest minimum ( usually 0.1) percent after five transactions in a month, it's user friendly.

The security of this application is top-notch, it was designed by the best firewall developers and is almost impossible to hack, and that means that customers can sleep well knowing fully that their money is safe. We are currently working on having trillions of pounds as safe deposit in case of liquidation and we are open to financial diversification. Before now, we had plans of restricting this app to just the bourgeois but we learned about it and we observed that the global market needs to be global in terms of transactions. That's why we convert to every currency with the lowest rate possible.

Finally, we intend to make our money from traffic, interest accrued, investments, and risk assets. There are other means but these are the necessary ones we have on board for now.

Precious explained further that every investment by the investors would be a welcome bid for the app and a worthy investment for the future. By the time she was done with her presentation, she smiled and sat down, this time around she took her gaze off the young investor that she had been staring at, but focused the attention on others who were trying to get the application on Apple stores and Play Store.

Precious was still in awe of her presentation when one of the investors asked a question '' what's the useful life span of this app and how much to buy it out? I can offer 1 Billion in dollars if you agree to see it off to me at this formative stage''. Precious wanted to respond but another investor increased the bid and in seconds the room turned from an investment room to a bidding room.

The manager stood up and asked for the meeting to be scheduled for the upper week, that way they could make adequate provision for biddings ( if necessary ), or just strictly investment. The meeting ended almost immediately but the investors were still arguing inside, then Precious and her boss stepped out of the hall to their working spaces.

Amanda was all smiles as Precious walked out of the conference door, she handed her a carefully homemade milkshake for her outstanding presentation. In fact, Amanda was Precious's number one fan and best friend in everything.

Precious was glad the presentation was good although she believed that the best way to determine whether the presentation was good or not would be by engaging her boss because Amanda would always say things that would encourage her or make her happy as her best friend, she was not sure if Amanda would ever want to critique her for anything.

Well the boss was happy because he called for emergency meeting with the top guys in the office, although Precious was not among the top staff in the office because she joined about a year ago, she was still invited for the emergency meeting. The crop of the conversation was about selling the app they developed or insisting on just investments. Many of the staff wanted the app to be sold with its prototype for trillions in dollars because they would make so much money and could develop a new different app that could solve human needs.

In fact one of the heads mentioned that '' if this idea could come from one of us, then there are more ideas stored in there! ''. This offended Precious but she never fickle nor expressed her dissatisfaction, rather she remained calm until she was asked to talk about her own opinion.

Precious was the one that thought about the app idea and even developed it, now they want to sell her ideas to some money-mongers who do not have community interest at heart, rather those who are craving for benefits. '' In my opinion, I would suggest we insist on investment, many of them already like the idea of the app so that would make them to invest and become shareholders, we can increase the price of the shares and still make more money but we will still be in possession of the app as founders. Although the money we would be making could be slow but over the years, we all would be billionaires or millionaires!. The implication of not selling the app now is that we wont make trillions immediately but in 5 years, we would definitely make more with right investments ''. She said her piece but one of the heads mentioned that the real implication would be duplication of app and loss of monogamy within a year. He explained further that if they keep the app and the app launches, many micro and major organizations are going to steal the idea and create similar app, competition would exist and those organizations could run them down or out of business with adequate funding and efficiency.

Precious felt torn out because she knew right there that her opinion would be tramped, the fact that many of the other stakeholders were already fixing their eye on the money they would make immediately instead of the impact, future investments and money that would still b made, got her so worried and emotional.

She walked out of the door after the meeting which ended ''inconclusive'' feeling sad about herself. She had thought about quitting the job and going with her design but that cannot work because she signed some documents when she joined the organization stating that any work or idea that proceeds from her during the period she works with them must remain for the organization and never for personal use. She called her lawyer and she was told that pursuing the case would be a lost cause, so Precious had to settle for whatever decision they decide to come up with.

The worst thing that had feared Precious the most was the fact that leaving the job would make her vulnerable and broken because she was unsure if she had fully healed from her past, in fact, the job was serving as a decoy to heal completely from her last experience.

So amidst the elegant, boldface and resilient woman you see every day in Precious, there was a quiet, sad, lonely soul locked up and trapped inside that body, it seemed like a hard nut to crack but in reality, all one needed to do was to just puncture the right words, then Precious would most likely burst out in tears.

The secret to her hard work and consistency in development and project management was solely spurred by the fact that she had a very terrible experience which she nearly died from, In fact after the incident, she was kicked out of her paternal home and she had to move to a new city to start a new life with a clean slate and equal opportunity.

Although the emotional surge was converted into positive use in her work space where she works like a workaholic, she was deep down drained with emotions and shame because no one really believed or wanted to hear whatever thing she wanted to say or share concerning the series of events that led to her been thrown out by her family, whom she believed were her only hope of survival and comforters.

While Precious was still in deep thought, Amanda walked up to her again but this time with French fries and a bottle of carbonated drink, she tickled Precious from the back and dropped the fries beside her, Precious looked at her and smiled but Amanda could see beyond the fake smiles from Precious's face, so she asked '' Baby girl what's the problem, have you been crying? ''.

Precious told her not to worry much about it because she would be fine, but with Amanda's persistence, Precious just told her that the board in the office was considering selling her ideas, the app and the project to the highest bidder, she explained that they were all money mongers and are short-sighted to see the future ahead.

Amanda was pissed but as a junior staff, she knew that her opinion would not even go beyond Precious's ear, so she resorted to comforting her instead.