My Boyfriend and Best Friend Whispered in Spanish, My First Language Chapter 05

My Boyfriend and Best Friend Whispered in Spanish, My First Language Chapter 05

The woman surrounded by Soraya Group executives, carrying herself with effortless confidence-was me.

The conference room fell silent.

I stood at the front of the Soraya delegation and calmly looked around the room until my eyes settled on

Derek.

His lips parted. No words came out.

Mira bent down to pick up the agenda. Her hands shook so badly it took her two tries.

My grandfather’s chief assistant stepped to my side and spoke quietly in Spanish.

“Miss Vance, shall we begin as planned?”

I nodded. “Let’s begin.”

The moment those fluent Spanish words left my mouth, every trace of color drained from Derek’s face.

He understood. In that instant, he realized I’d understood everything all along.

The Keller & Associates executives hurried over, smiles plastered on.

“You must be Soraya Group’s representative. An honor to finally meet you.’

I shook his hand.

“And your last name is?”

He blinked in surprise. “Vance.”

I glanced at Derek.

“The same ‘Vance’ as in Elara Vance.”

The Marketing Director shot Derek a confused look.

Everyone in the company knew Derek’s girlfriend’s name was Elara Vance.

Derek struggled to find his voice.

“Elara… Ms. Vance, how…?”

“Mr. Holloway.” I cut him off. “Let’s get started.”

I took the seat at the head of the table.

The Soraya team sat on either side of me.

Derek and Mira stood across from us. The shock on their faces was impossible to hide.

They’d never imagined that the quiet, bare-faced woman they knew would be the person leading Soraya’s

negotiations.

They simply couldn’t connect the woman sitting before them with the Elara they thought they knew.

The meeting began.

I led the entire discussion in Spanish.

Every question was precise. Every point went straight to the heart of the proposal.

As project lead, Derek was responsible for answering.

He stumbled through every response.

Without Mira there to quietly carry him through translations, every weakness was laid bare.

The looks on his executives’ faces grew darker by the minute.

I paid them no attention. Instead, I opened their proposal.

“Your pricing is inflated by fifteen percent. You can’t meet this delivery timeline.”

I turned another page.

“And this. You used a term for our Chairman that translates to ‘stubborn old man.””

“Whose idea was that? Did you assume the representative wouldn’t be fluent in Spanish, or wouldn’t bother reading the printed materials?”

Sweat beaded across Derek’s forehead.

Mira immediately shook her head.

“It wasn’t me. It was Derek!”

“This proposal was prepared by Mr. Holloway.”

I closed the folder.

“I heard those exact words myself last night.”

Every pair of eyes in the room snapped to Derek.

His face burned bright red.

“El-Ms. Vance, we were only joking.”

“Joking about our Chairman?”

I smiled. “You’re remarkably bold, Mr. Holloway.”

Right on cue, my grandfather’s chief assistant spoke in English.

“Our Chairman personally authorized Ms. Vance to make the final decision on this partnership.”

“If Ms. Vance says no, the dealis off.”

The faces of Keller & Associates’ leadership fell instantly. They all turned on Derek.

“Derek! What were you thinking?”

The shout hit him like a blow. His knees nearly buckled.

“Elara, please, let me explain.”

I rose from my seat.

“We’ll be conducting a new evaluation before making any decision.”

As I walked out, I could hear Mira crying behind me.

“Derek, what are we gonna do? What do we do now?”

He didn’t answer her.

Instead, he shoved past her and caught up with me in the hallway.

“Elara. Why didn’t you tell me?”

I stopped and looked at him.

“Tell you what, exactly?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you worked for Soraya? And that your Spanish was that good?”

I laughed quietly. “Derek, listen to yourself.”

“The only things you care about are whether I’m with Soraya and whether I speak Spanish.”

“You’ve never actually cared about me.”