The woman was of Caucasian descent, with fair skin and blue eyes common for her heritage. She had neatly tied auburn hair, a sharp face, thin lips, and narrow eyes.
She wore a white blouse, a black suit jacket, and a black office skirt, giving her the picture-perfect appearance of a stern young female CEO that was rising in the world of today.
On her left was a young man who wore a black suit with black pants, his round-rimmed glasses and baby-ish face betraying his youth. Then again, to be eligible to sit at this table was testimony to his ability and his value.
He was furiously typing away at the laptop before him, mostly to avoid the current heated atmosphere. On the woman's right, her other aide was also a young man who was quite handsome.
He had curly black hair and dark blue eyes, greatly resembling the woman seated beside him. If one were to guess, they would likely peg them as siblings. He currently held some documents up, which he read out loud, and had been doing so for quite a while.
The elderly man who sat on the left was also in formal wear, but he looked far more casual than anyone else if one were to exclude the youth sitting by himself. He had a clean-shaven scalp that shone when the lights struck it, along with a sharp hawkish nose and narrow eyes.
He was quite lanky even as he sat, boasting a height of almost 6 foot 4. He wore a white long-sleeved shirt, with black pants that were held by dark blue suspenders.
On the right, where the two young men sat, the one on the left was quite handsome with short-cropped brown hair and a light stubble in his chin. He also wore a white long-sleeved shirt with black trousers, with a designer belt wrapped around his waist.
His friend beside him also wore the same thing. He looked to be slightly older, with a short afro hairstyle and a thin mustache.
Currently, the room was silent except for the various parties sipping their drinks and the younger brother of the woman listing the contents of the document.
"… and so, the Feilsburg Corporation would like to invest 20,000,000 dollars into your company, Stone Enterprises. Unless you have any issues with the aforementioned conditions, we would like to close this deal before the Series A funding begins."
Once the young man was done, even the calm elderly paused with shock. He too was interested in Stone Enterprises and had come here hoping to acquire a sufficient amount of equity before it went public, but $20 million dollars was unheard of for seed investment.
Usually, such things ranged between $10,000 to $2 million at best, and the upper end was reserved for companies with extremely bright futures and a proven track record, yet this youth had been offered ten times the ceiling...
While the elderly and these other fellows would not have come here if they did not believe in the promising future of Stone Enterprises, it had no proven track record as it was a 6-month old startup from a young man fresh out of business school!
Ignoring the frowns from the other two parties, the young man who had read things out called to Darius with a smile. "So, Mr. Darius Stone, what do you think about our offer?"
Darius continued to sip on his drink without even looking up at the party across from him. The young men on the left smiled wider at this provocation while the elderly smiled thinly, shaking his head inwardly.
Despite this, the young man from the Feilsburg Corporation was not bothered, still wearing a smile, patiently waiting for an answer. However, the woman who sat beside him could not take it anymore.
"Mr. Stone, are you incapable of showing the barest minimum respect to your guests?" She asked coldly.
The face of the young man beside her changed, and so too did the others. It wasn't that they were fearful of what would happen next, rather that they had all done their due diligence and researched their target.
That was why they found the reaction from the Feilsburg Corporation's representative funny and quite arrogant for coming here knowing their target's predilections.
That was also why they had unanimously allowed this corp to take the lead to present their offer, as they wanted to verify the rumors using them.
Darius put down his glass and wiped his lips slowly. He sighed deeply and raised his head to finally look at the party opposite him.
His eyes crossed over the young lad on the left who he knew as Jason Bergham, a genius business analyst that had graduated with him.
Despite his apparent lack of respect, he was also familiar with the other young man on the right, the Assistant Director of Feilsburg Corporation, Kevin Lister.
Finally, his eyes fell on the woman seated in the middle, who was the Director herself, Anne Lister. Once Darius locked gazes with her, a hint of revulsion could be seen within.
"Why is there a woman present?" Darius asked calmly.
Once this question was released, the room became pin-drop silent, as the various parties sucked in a deep breath. His question was something no one unprepared would ever have thought to hear from the mouth of such a composed young man.
The elderly on the left met eyes with the two opposite him, the young man with the stubble and the other with the afro. They then simultaneously smiled bitterly, realizing that the rumors were true.
Luckily, they had factored this in when choosing who to send here to make their proposals, as they didn't want their acquisition of shares to fail for such a silly reason.
Jason closed his laptop and sighed while cleaning his glasses with a wipe, and Kevin simply sighed and placed his head in his hands with frustration, internally cursing himself for not having talked his sister out of coming here.
Anne saw this from the corner of her eye and got incensed by their behavior deep down, but controlled herself to continue staring down Darius.
Darius easily met her eyes and made his contempt visible with ease. He looked less like he was staring at a beautiful woman and more like he was looking at a vile criminal.
As for the others, they ticked the box surrounding the rumor they heard before coming here in their minds.
Darius Stone was truly a misogynist!
