Anthony boiled with excitement, the words still ringing in his mind as he slowly replaced the receiver.
For a moment he sat motionless, staring blindly before he grabbed the desk phone. About to dial the number he slammed down the instrument. This was too good, he will go home and share the news with Jane personally. Jumping up, he cursed in anguish as he bumped his knee against his desk in the rush out the office to his Toyota HiLux pickup in the parking lot. He felt on top of the world. If he pulled this one off he would be a made man, he thought driving away from the office.
"Shit!" He cursed aloud when he stopped in the driveway of his old familiar home.
Only once he stopped in the driveway did he realize he'd done it again and scowled at himself as he reversed and headed back in the direction he came from.
Anthony Jenkins, thirty-six years old and owner of Jenkins Developments recently moved to a new home in a lifestyle estate outside of the Pretoria, near the Hartebeespoort Dam. After living in the same house in the North Eastern suburbs of the City for most his life, it took him some time to break this habit. He still sometimes, especially when preoccupied, made the mistake of ending up back there. It always upset him, but this time it only lasted momentarily. A smile extended over his face.
This time was different.
Within moments his enthusiasm returned. The detour did mean he would now most certainly catch the peak hour city traffic but tonight he was going to celebrate, he would not allow this to spoil the evening.
He couldn't wait to reach home to share the news with Jane.
He met Jane on one of his earlier projects where she worked as an interior decorating consultant and fell in love immediately. It did not take long to go to the next step and they have been married now for almost two years.
This by far exceeded anything he previously attempted to take on, in fact, this would even exceed his wildest career expectations for a few years to come.
The project, a different concept to the norm, in that it was for a private, combined family residential and business estate. The development would consist of two adjoining sections of which the one would be a housing and lifestyle complex for the Hilton family including residential and guest facilities, while the second complex would be a business complex, consisting of office buildings, laboratories and factory.
Anthony received a call earlier, notifying him that from the original list of five bidders, he had been shortlisted with only one other. His only competitor, B&C Projects, of about similar size to himself, he felt comfortable he would be fairly matched against them. They were required to each submit a final proposal and presentation upon which the client, Hilton Cosmetics, would make their decision on the preferred contractor.
If awarded this contact would provide him with the security for him and Jane to start the family they wished for. Anthony’s father was killed in a car accident when Anthony was only eleven and his mother re married into an unstable marriage which Anthony believes was a result of her looking for security in order to provide for him. For much of his young life he felt responsible for the unhappiness she had suffered as a result of this and he vowed to only start a family once he was comfortable should this happen to him, they would be provided for.
The excitement, and with his mind pre occupied, even battling through the traffic did not dampen his spirit. He was anxious to see Jane's face when he broke the news.
The Hilton family, renowned throughout the world for their cosmetic range and Mervyn Hilton, the family head counted among the "who is who" of the South African business world and one of the wealthiest men in the country.
What an honor would it not be working with them, imagine the doors that will open for future business if he made a success of this.
He will make this one a success, through this one he could make his mark in life.
In these early stages of a new dispensation in South Africa. The recent change from a minority white population controlled government to a democratically elected government led to a flock of previously disadvantaged masses, who had previously been accommodated in under developed homelands and black settlements to the more prosperous urban areas. Together with this it brought an influx of crime to previously, relatively crime free areas. As a result of this, there had been a move of the affluent to very wealthy citizens to move to secure, access controlled housing estates. This had created a high demand for these estates and Anthony was ideally positioned to take advantage of this.
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