A brave employee stepped forward to greet Tessa. “Miss Tessa, you look better than in pictures.” “You’re so graceful too.”
“I like you, Miss Tessa.” Tessa nodded with a smile as an acknowledgment of their praises. Then, Nicholas gracefully walked up the stage. Once he was right before the mic, everyone unconsciously fell silent.
“The new year is fast approaching. So, I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year and thank everyone here for all the hard work you’ve done.” Then, he paused for a moment as he scanned the whole room.
Tessa stood beneath the stage, looking up at the extraordinary man with pure, unabashed love in her eyes. Nicholas spoke up once more.
“We intentionally asked for all the employee’s wish lists. So, the prizes this year are quite something. The biggest prize is a car.”
That got all the employees amped up. Then, Kieran walked over from the other end of the stage as he was the host for the night and in charge of managing the scene.
He continued where Nicholas ended and said with a charming smile playing across his lips, “I’m going to let all of you in on a little secret. That car right there is worth a hundred thousand.”
“Oh, my God! It’s a luxury car.” The employees once again got into a heated discussion. Kieran continued to chime in when he felt the atmosphere was reaching its peak, “I believe everyone is eager to get started. So, why don’t we ask our handsome president to do the honors for the first draw?”
“Yes!” Everyone cheered as they went along with his suggestion. Alas, Nicholas rejected it. “It’s okay. I don’t want to take what’s theirs.”
“Come on, Mr. Sawyer. You should get the ball rolling!” someone in the crowd shouted, and the others echoed their sentiment. Unfortunately, he still insisted on not participating.
Then, someone else suggested, “Why don’t we ask Miss Tessa, then?”
The majority of the crowd agreed with that. So, Tessa nodded and walked up the stage, not wanting to disappoint everyone. Kieran immediately walked over to her with the lucky draw box in hand and quipped, “Tessa, let’s see how lucky you are, shall we?”
“Yes, we shall.” She chuckled before reaching out her hand. She didn’t hesitate as she swiftly pulled out a ticket and passed it to Kieran. “And now it’s your turn to do the honors. I think that it’s best that I don’t look.”
He nodded and opened it with a snap. “Let’s see how lucky-”
However, he was stunned when he saw the name in the slip that he trailed off mid- sentence. Tessa saw his reaction and asked in confusion, “What’s wrong? Did I not get anything?”
Then, she leaned over and was perplexed to see that she actually drew the first prize. Kieran came back to his senses and exclaimed loudly, “Tessa, you’re truly blessed by the heavens! We were just talking about the biggest
prize, and you got it! Lady Luck is truly shining on you tonight!” All the employees had their mouths agape when they heard his words.
“Wow. Did she get the first prize? Miss Tessa is so lucky. God, imagine if she tried her luck with a lottery slip!” “Aw, man! I was just thinking of trying my luck to see if I could draw the first prize. I didn’t expect Miss Tessa to beat me to the punch.”
Kieran laughed awkwardly. “I promise. We didn’t cheat.” Tessa also smiled. But, when she saw the disappointed faces of the crowd, she announced, “That doesn’t count. I’ll draw again.”
Then, she picked another ticket. But, this time, she wasn’t that lucky anymore and only got a gift card worth 10. So, Kieran handed the gift card to her while he joked with the employees beneath the stage. “See. We didn’t rig the draw.”
Everyone laughed at his joke as they proceeded to look at the box with eager eyes. So, the draw officially started amid the crowd’s laughter as the employees lined up to try their fortune.
Tessa was also involved in handing out the prizes to the lucky winners. She smiled broadly as she watched the huge reactions from the staff when they received a good prize.
Besides that, the employees also loved collecting the prize from her as they used this opportunity as a meet-up with a famous musician. “Miss Tessa, I got a gift card.”
“Third prize for me!”
“I got a crystal cup.”
