To Color Your Life

Getting out of a battle as a winner does not always mean that it was you who won the victory. Just like losing does not mean becoming a loser.

When Justin announced the victory for Christian Denver's project, Emily was delighted.

It was a strange sensation. In theory, she should have experienced the opposite.

This meeting and preparation for it were accompanied by tension, expectations, hope, faith, fear. The girl experienced such a range of emotions that she will have enough of them for a long time.

Denver was probably right. She was a naive little fish in a sea that was teeming with big business sharks. Emily suddenly remembered Dory the fish from the children's cartoon Finding Nemo. To some extent, they were similar.

After all, Hayes, there is definitely something wrong with your head.

She had every right to vote for her team's project, and victory would be on their side. But this victory would have had a rotten smell.

It was she who proposed the dare and the bets in this dispute. It was her team that made a mistake, did not take into account possible technical overlaps, as a result of which the system froze. It was her little experience in such cases that caused them to lose. It was her responsibility.

But Emily was glad anyway. A few minutes ago, she wanted to cry with resentment, but not now. If she had made such a mistake as a project manager, the consequences would have been much more serious.

God always knows better which way a person should go, her grandmother told her many times. If something did not work out, then there is no need to be upset. Maybe this is how God saved you from an even greater mistake or trouble?

The battle is over. The dragon folded its wings.

But after each battle comes the time of negotiations.

And this means another chance to fight for your dream. Even under other conditions.

Emily rose from her seat and clapped her hands loudly, greeting the winner. She didn't feel like a loser.

The same cannot be said about Christian Denver. The man looked thoughtful and a little distant.

He silently went up to the stage, ignoring the applause behind him, shook hands with Justin and stood next to him.

"Mr. Pitcher, by tradition, I give you the right to transfer the powers of the head of the new department to Mr. Denver," Evans turned to his grandfather and he also took the stage. Justin himself went down to the hall and sat down next to Emily.

"Sorry," the girl whispered as the man squeezed her hand in his.

"You have nothing to apologize for, everything will be fine," Justin smiled and squeezed her hand even harder as a sign of support, "Moreover, this is not your mistake. I had to think about all the options, but as you can see, I'm not the best boss," he winked.

The man didn't look upset at all. On the contrary, he acted as if nothing had happened. Not a hint of reproach or annoyance for her unplanned experiment that led them to defeat.

Emily felt the tears come back to her eyes. Tears of gratitude. "Justin Evans, you are the best boss ever."

"On the first day of work, you had a different opinion, Miss Hayes," his signature 100-megawatt smile seemed to the girl even more dazzling than before.

What a shameless man! Seducing her at a moment like this!

"Ahem, ahem," the boss's grandfather defiantly cleared his throat right in front of the microphone, drawing attention to himself, and threw a reproachful glance at his grandson. "Mr. Evans, you look too happy for someone who has just lost his job."

Justin was not embarrassed in the least and moved even closer to Emily, "Mr. Pitcher, how can I be upset when my team comes under the caring wing of such a competent and successful leader like Mr. Denver? I am sure he will appreciate their strengths and will make the Pharaoh Family project even more successful."

The man said this with such confidence, as if Christian did not even offer to dissolve the department and send all its employees to freelance.

Arthur Pitcher shook his head, the corners of his lips twitched into a faint smile. What to take from this shameless grandson? Let him fool around all his life. If only he was happy.

"Well, on that I totally agree with Justin," Arthur addressed the guests, "Mr. Denver has shown himself to be a responsible and sensible leader over the years at Pharaoh. All of his projects have had great success in our campaign. This will be the third department, which he will head. Therefore, I will wait with great enthusiasm for how he will show himself in this direction."

Mr. Pitcher took out a small plate, the size of a cell phone, from his jacket pocket. It resembled a clay tablet, but it was made of metal and covered with gilding. The emblem of the Pharaoh publishing house was embossed on the surface.

It was a kind of symbol of the transfer of power over a department from one leader to another, like a scepter or a crown.

"Mr. Denver," he turned to Christian, who was standing to his right, but he didn't react to the appeal. "Mister Denver?"

"Y-yes?" the man seemed to emerge from a deep sleep.

"Congratulations," Arthur handed him a metal plaque.

Christian glanced at it, but did not rush to pick it up. "Thank you, Mr. Pitcher. A couple of minutes, please." Denver leaned towards the microphone, "Mr. Evans, is the technical issue you mentioned earlier solved?"

Justin raised his eyebrows in surprise, not expecting such a question. Especially from the opponent. Evans nodded, confirming that everything was fine now. "Want an update, Mr. Denver?" The boss's smug smile was proof that the data was impressive.

"I need to know what I have to work with in the future," Christian replied and looked at Emily. "If I decide to continue this work." The girl's eyes widened, hope flashed in them.

Denver immediately averted his gaze and turned to the screen.

The slide contained data on the number of new users. In the measured half-hour period, Emily's team did not have time to dial the smallest amount.

But then the data on the slide was updated, and a shocked sigh echoed through the hall.

"There is definitely no mistake here?!" one of the shareholders shouted, almost with a squeal, "It's impossible!"

Justin put his hand over the back of Emily's chair in a possessive gesture. His shrewed eyes were expressing slyness. "You are right, it turned out to be impossible within the limits of the publishing house's capabilities. Therefore, the team of the Pharaoh magazine, while the voting was going on, urgently had to use two third-party services. And as you can see, it was worth it."

Evans waved his hand toward the screen, like a shah displaying the wealth of his treasury to foreign ambassadors. The effect was appropriate.

"This... this... this is amazing!" whispered Emily, her voice filled with excitement and threw herself on the man's neck, literally choking him from the feeling of immense happiness.

"I told you it's going to be okay," Justin chuckled and hugged her back, kissing her temple. The chief programmer gave him the final data as he stepped off the stage.

Even if they did not succeed in the agreed time, the result was so impressive that even a madman cannot ignore these results. What can we say about reasonable shareholders and Denver.

2 135 748 new users.

That's how many people responded to Emily's request.

In one hour, the small and fragile dragon was able to do what no one else could do in the sixty-year history of the publishing house.

Over the past years, many directions have been opened in the company. They adjusted to the general course of the Pharaoh, like boats following the fairway of a huge ocean liner.

But not right now.

The launch of the Pharaoh Family project was the point after which the publishing house could no longer be the same.

And all this thanks to one small, fragile, but brave dragon.