CHAPTER 3 The Nine O'Clock Meeting
It was 8:45 when Sera left the meeting room to grab the printouts of the deck that had just finished being revised. The Mariposa office wasn't fully bustling yet that morning, but their floor was already filled with the sound of keyboards, ringing phones, and people jogging to grab coffee before the first meeting began. Sera herself had arrived almost an hour early, something that usually only happened when there was a problem or a client felt that deadlines were a concept open to negotiation.
Gilang had already been in the meeting room for a while. His laptop was open on the table, several sheets of notes lay beside it, and two cups of coffee stood side by side. One of them was Sera's.
Sera came in carrying the printouts.
"You bought two?"
Gilang slid one of the cups toward her. "One's for me. The other's for someone whose face gets scarier than a client's if she doesn't have coffee before a morning meeting."
Sera pulled out a chair. "I'm not that scary."
Gilang looked at her for a moment. "I think I need to buy you a mirror."
Sera picked up her coffee. "Okay. Thanks."
She sat beside Gilang and started flipping through the pages. The deck had been fixed the night before, but Sera still checked everything from the beginning. The pricing slide used the latest numbers, the copy Adit had considered too long had been trimmed down, and the campaign section Dina was responsible for had been adjusted as well.
"Did Dina send the final revision?"
"A little after seven." Gilang showed her the email on his laptop. "I checked it earlier. It's good."
Sera nodded. "Is she here yet?"
"Haven't seen her."
"She's probably panicking."
"I'd be suspicious if she wasn't."
Sera chuckled and went back to reading the deck.
"She said last night that she wanted to quit."
"She'll have changed her mind by this morning."
"Why?"
"Because she still needs a paycheck. What else?"
Sera turned to him, then gave a small laugh. "Priorities."
"Realistic."
There was a knock on the meeting-room door.
Dina appeared with her laptop. "I heard my name."
Gilang glanced at his watch. "Good. You're not late."
"I stopped to get breakfast."
Dina sat across from them. Her face still looked tense, but at least she didn't look like someone ready to submit a resignation letter.
"Is the deck good?" she asked.
Sera nodded. "I checked it."
"The pricing?"
"It's been replaced."
Dina let out a relieved breath.
Gilang closed his laptop for a moment.
"If they ask about the old version later, don't get defensive."
Dina looked straight at him.
"What am I supposed to say?"
"Just be honest. An earlier version was sent before finalization, but it's been updated now."
"What if they get mad?"
"Just listen. What else can you do?"
Dina bit her lower lip.
"Easy for you to say."
"Because panicking first won't solve the problem either."
Sera slipped a sheet into the middle of the deck.
"And if they ask about the old numbers, don't try to explain on your own if you're not sure. Just toss it to Gilang."
Dina nodded.
"Noted."
The door was knocked on again.
This time, two people from the client came in with one of their supervisors. Gilang immediately stood to greet them. Sera rose as well, while Dina quickly fixed her hair with one swift motion before standing too.
The meeting began a few minutes later.
At first, everything went pretty normally. Gilang opened the presentation, explaining the campaign revisions and the strategic changes made since their last discussion. Sera took over when the conversation moved to the timeline and production process. Dina mostly took notes while waiting for the section under her responsibility.
Until one of the clients opened a laptop.
"Before we continue, there's one thing I want to clarify."
Gilang capped the pen he'd been rolling between his fingers.
"Sure."
The client turned the laptop screen toward them.
"Yesterday, we received another version of this deck."
Dina, who had been writing, stopped immediately.
Sera glanced at her, then turned back to the client.
"Yes," Gilang answered. His voice remained calm. "There was an earlier version that was sent before the final internal review."
"And the pricing on that version was different."
The room suddenly grew quieter.
Dina swallowed.
Gilang didn't answer in a hurry. He opened his laptop and pulled up the file he'd prepared that morning.
"That was an earlier pricing draft. It hadn't been approved yet, which is why the number changed in the final deck."
The client gave a small nod.
"So which one should we consider?"
"The one in the deck you're looking at today."
Gilang shifted the laptop slightly so the numbers on the screen were easier to see.
"This is the updated figure after the last discussion with finance. We've also adjusted the scope accordingly."
One of the clients looked at the screen again.
"And how did the previous version get sent?"
Dina lowered her head for a moment.
Sera caught sight of her hands starting to crumple the edge of the paper.
Gilang was still opening his mouth when Dina raised her head first.
"It was my mistake."
Her voice wasn't very loud, but it was clear enough to make everyone at the table turn toward her.
Dina set down her pen.
"I was sending the deck internally for review, and I selected the wrong recipient. It was an earlier version, so I understand why that caused confusion. We've corrected it and checked the current version again before this meeting."
The client looked at Dina for several seconds.
"Okay."
Dina nodded.
"I'm sorry about that."
"Thank you for clarifying."
Gilang glanced at Dina before returning to the presentation.
They simply continued the meeting.
Sera took over when the discussion moved to the timeline. She explained the changes that had been made and why some parts of the campaign had to be done in sequence. The client made two additional requests, then asked for adjustments to the visual materials.
Sera wrote everything down.
So did Gilang.
Dina occasionally answered when questions turned to the marketing section.
After nearly an hour, the meeting finally reached the part that made Sera start suspecting something was wrong.
The client opened their notes on a tablet.
"One more thing."
Sera looked at Gilang.
Gilang looked back.
Dina immediately whispered, "Why is it that when people say one more thing, it's usually not just one?"
Sera held back a smile.
"Shh."
The client continued.
"We'd like to move the campaign launch forward."
Gilang frowned.
"How far forward?"
"Three days."
Sera stopped writing.
Three days.
Not three hours.
"That would be quite tight."
"We know."
The client gave a small smile, as if they'd just said something simple.
"That's why we're asking if your team can make it happen."
Sera stared at the timeline on her laptop.
In her head, she had already started calculating which tasks needed to be moved, who would have to be asked to work overtime, which parts could be sped up, and which couldn't be touched without throwing the campaign's quality into disarray.
Gilang still looked calm.
"We'll need to review the production timeline first."
"Can you get back to us by this afternoon?"
Sera finally raised her head.
"Today?"
The client nodded.
"Yes."
Dina lowered her head and held her breath.
Sera looked at Gilang again.
Gilang raised his eyebrows slightly, then smiled at the client again.
"We'll send you the revised timeline before the end of the day."
The meeting ended not long afterward.
As soon as the meeting-room door closed and the clients' footsteps faded down the hallway, Dina collapsed into her chair.
"I was just about to breathe."
Sera gathered the printouts in front of her.
"Then breathe again."
Dina stared at her.
"What?"
"The breath."
Dina gave a small laugh.
"I thought you were serious."
"I am serious. We have three days to find."
Gilang stood, carrying his laptop.
"Not three days to find."
Sera put the papers into a folder.
"Then what?"
"We find which parts can be cut."
Sera looked at him.
"The project, or us?"
Gilang chuckled.
"If I say us, Dina will really quit."
Dina pointed to herself.
"I'm still thinking about it."
They left the meeting room together.
At the desks, Miko was trying to fix the printer, which had jammed again. Adit stood beside him holding two cups of coffee.
"How'd it go?" Adit asked as soon as he saw them.
"The client wants to move it up by three days," Dina answered.
Adit immediately handed one coffee to Miko.
"I'm going home."
Miko accepted the coffee.
"Great. I'm coming with you."
Dina glared at them.
"I'm serious, guys."
"I'm serious."
Adit laughed as he pulled out a chair.
"If you guys want to run away, wait until the next payday."
Sera set the folder on her desk.
"Why is everyone thinking about paychecks today?"
Miko turned from the printer.
"Because it's still early in the month."
Sera looked at the little calendar on the desk.
She shook her head.
"We should've worked at a bank."
Gilang, who had just sat down at the desk across from her, immediately chimed in.
"Why?"
"So when we get stressed, at least we'd be close to money."
Dina laughed.
"I agree."
Adit raised his hand.
"Me too."
Miko went back to fiddling with the printer.
"Not me."
They all turned to him.
Miko raised his eyebrows.
"I prefer being close to Wi-Fi."
Dina snickered.
"Oh my God, you have to be different."
A few minutes later, they began dividing up the work.
Sera opened the project timeline and started moving the deadlines one by one. Gilang contacted several parties involved with the client to check whether the schedule could be changed. Dina went back to the marketing materials, while Adit helped find parts of the campaign that could be sped up from the sales side. Miko, after the printer finally agreed to work again, returned to the IT room.
They hadn't been working for ten minutes when Gilang appeared at Sera's desk.
"Ser."
Sera was still staring at the spreadsheet.
"Hmm?"
"If production gets moved up by three days, the visual materials have to come in by tomorrow afternoon at the latest."
Sera stopped typing.
"Tomorrow?"
"Otherwise, we'll lose time for final approval."
Sera looked at the timeline.
"Then I have to move the internal review to tonight."
"Can you?"
Sera leaned back in her chair.
"I can."
Gilang waited.
Sera looked at him.
"But I didn't say I liked it."
Gilang smiled.
"Neither do I."
Sera turned back to the screen.
"Gilang."
"Yeah?"
"Don't make me work overtime alone."
Gilang pulled over an empty chair and sat beside her.
"I have no intention of doing that."
Sera glanced at him.
"Good."
Gilang opened his laptop.
"Besides, I'm the one who promised the client."
Sera went back to work.
"Then we're both screwed."
"Welcome to agency life."
Sera gave a small laugh.
At the desk next to them, Dina watched them for a moment before turning back to her laptop. Adit, sitting not far from her, glanced over too.
"What?" Adit whispered.
Dina shook her head.
"Nothing."
"You were smiling."
"I wasn't smiling."
Adit held back a laugh.
"Sure."
Dina went back to typing, but the corners of her lips were still slightly raised.
By a little after eleven, the new timeline was beginning to take shape.
The three days that had sounded like a punishment turned out to still be manageable, though the consequences were obvious: several hours of overtime, lunches that would probably be late again, and coffee most likely replacing water for the next few days.
Sera saved the file and let out a breath.
"Done."
Gilang looked at the screen.
"This is still humane."
"Which part?"
"The part where we don't have to sleep at the office."
Sera looked at him.
"Don't give anyone ideas."
Gilang chuckled.
His phone chimed.
A new email from the client.
He opened it.
Sera was still sitting beside him when Gilang's expression slowly changed.
"What now?"
Gilang turned the laptop screen toward her.
The client's message consisted of only two lines.
One more request. Can we also add one more deliverable to the campaign?
Sera read it twice.
Then she looked at Gilang.
"I take back what I said earlier."
"Which part?"
"This is no longer humane."
Gilang let out a short laugh.
"Welcome to Mariposa."
Sera closed her eyes for a moment, then reopened her laptop.
The 25th had only been underway for one day.
And they already had a new reason to spend most of their next paycheck before it arrived.