Elliott could no longer maintain his smile.
Laurence actually knew all that.
How many times he and Manny had met, how many of those meetings were actually for business, how many times for pleasure, and even the fact that Ms. Tindall beat him in their drinking contests.
Manny had not told Laurence anything about their collaboration, but Laurence really did know all about it, and was even rather impatient with his habit of dragging his feet.
"Our collaboration, uh, I have considered it carefully and decided to work with your company, and we've brought the contract too. Yes, uh, we did come today to sign the agreement."
Elliott had originally planned to play hardball with Laurence and get some payback for Manny, so he deliberately did not pull out the contract or express his intentions for coming today.
However, Laurence responded with impatience, unbothered whether Elliott signed or not.
This made Elliott lose his nerve and stop acting all high and mighty, fearing he might lose the deal entirely.
Internally, though, he grumbled that Laurence was too blunt and direct, not even giving him a chance to ease into the situation.
Maybe this had to do with Manny, since the person who had liaised with him all this while was Manny.
If the deal went through, it would not be to Laurence's credit, so that was why Laurence was acting like this.
However, if Laurence had always acted like this, there was no way Longtail Group would have grown so quickly, nor would he have been able to poach major clients from Longbottom Corporation.
After thinking this through, Elliott dared even less to put on airs.
Both parties very quickly signed the agreement. Elliott at first wanted to ask Manny to add some more profitable terms, but he no longer dared mention it, afraid that Laurence would lose his patience.
After they were done signing the agreement, Elliott took a few sips of his tea. The cup was small, and a few sips emptied it.
Laurence poured Elliott a fresh cup of tea. A polite, measured smile replaced his earlier sternness. "Here's to a successful partnership. Let me buy you lunch at Longtail Hotel."
Elliott replied with a smile, "Gladly."
When Laurence was not smiling, his overwhelming presence put Elliott on edge. This was absurd. He was more than twenty years older than Laurence, but before Laurence, he actually felt pressured.
"Please, make yourself at home,” Laurence said, gesturing to the refreshments. Elliott thanked him politely and helped himself to the tea and fruits, even praising its deliciousness.
After chatting for a while, Laurence said, "Mr. Durham, I still have a few particularly urgent documents I have to go through, so I'm heading back to my office to settle them, and then we'll have lunch.
"Are you waiting here? Or are you going to walk around?"
After a moment of thought, Elliott said, "Please go ahead, Mr. Longbottom. I'll take a walk around."
He was thinking of going to Manny's new office to take a look and have a chat.
Laurence called for Misty in his deep voice and instructed, “Ms. Tindall, please guide Mr. Durham and his secretary to take a look around our office."
Misty replied respectfully in the affirmative.
Laurence stood up and said to Elliott, “Well, I'll take my leave now, Mr. Durham.”
Elliott and Janet stood up too and they both replied with some pleasantries before watching him walk out of the VIP lounge with Noelle.
The moment Laurence left, Elliott sat back down on the sofa and muttered to himself, "Why was I afraid of him?"
Nobody replied.
Possibly, neither of the two secretaries heard what he muttered.