The Start-Up Read online

  Blaine said, “Is that what this is about? Dude, not every woman that walks in her is Jessie.”

  Crawford snarled, “Shut up. This has nothing to do with Jessie.”

  “We’ve done the no dating rule for six months now. I’m over it. I can’t handle it anymore. We can’t have a hot girl around us every day, all day without me losing my mind.”

  “For fucks sake, mate! Is it that hard for you to not think with your dick?”

  Blaine snapped, “When are you going to start thinking with yours again?” His voice softened. “It’s time for you to move on. We all loved Jessie, but she’s gone!”

  Although that was true, Jessie had left more than a few items behind when they broke up. Enough clothes, knick knacks, books, and other personal items to make it hard for Crawford to let her go.

  Crawford stared at the floor with this arms crossed. “Haven’t you noticed though how focused you are, we are, without throwing dating and women and fucking in the mix?” He looked up at his friends.

  Blaine agreed, “I have, but look. It has been an eye opening experience, but it’s time to move on.”

  Crawford turned to Adam. “Your thoughts?”

  “It’s time to move on, dude,” Adam said. He pointed at her clothes in the closet. “If she left this stuff behind, toss it or give it away.”

  Crawford nodded slowly. “I keep thinking if I became the man she wants me to be, she’ll come back. We just got to get Luv Maite up off the ground.”

  Adam said, “If Jessie didn’t want you during this part, the hard part, the shitty part, the long hours, little pay part, then…”

  Blaine interjected, “Then, fuck her.”

  Crawford smiled sadly. “Ya. Okay. Can we drop the no dating rule, but just agree, no one can date Fi?”

  Blaine’s stomach lurched. “What?”

  Adam agreed glumly, “That’s a reasonable request. Let’s just agree, for now, that Fi is off limits for everyone.”

  Blaine said, “Fine with me.” He stormed out.

  Chapter 5

  Adam agreed to Crawford’s new rule of Fi being off limits. Partly because if she was fair game, there was no way she would pick him. That was his usual fate being best friends with Blaine and Crawford. Adam was always the runt of the litter.

  After being the skinny nerdy black kid in high school, Adam was determined to reinvent himself in college. He was methodical in his evolution with research and constructed a careful reinvention strategy. He lifted weights and changed his diet. By the time his first Fall semester rolled around, he was barely recognizable.

  He marveled at how he’d been able to change his physical body with hard work and dedication. Inside, he really still was the nerdy black kid. Although now muscular, he still was not a great athlete. Ultimate Frisbee even seemed a sport too difficult for him to master.

  His physical appearance attracted loads of women, but he never knew how to charm them like Blaine or intrigue them like Crawford. Most of the time, it seemed, he bored them to death. He couldn’t pretend he was someone he wasn’t. He liked video games, Star Wars, hard science fiction novels, and the fun scavenger sport of geocaching. These were all uncool hobbies that he refused to let go of. He could never shake his identity as that awkward skinny nerd, even after nerd culture became somewhat ironically cool.

  Blaine was the kind of guy that could blow through a group of women in a week, but Adam was more of a girlfriend kind of guy. The only caveat being it had to be a girl that sparked something inside of him. His girlfriend couldn’t just be anyone. Looks weren’t everything to him. A woman he would call his girlfriend had to be brilliantly smart.

  So when they all agreed to not go for Fi, he was secretly overjoyed. He’d wanted to hire her for her talent, but that was also the very reason why he liked her. She was a knock-out, any guy could see that. Adam would have fallen for her even if she wasn’t drop dead gorgeous. Moreover, she wasn’t an asshole about her accomplishments either. She was humble, talented, and gorgeous. She was trifecta of what the perfect girlfriend would be.

  Every day he spent with her working on Luv Maite only made him more and more enchanted with her. He was living the dream, but not really. She wasn’t actually his girlfriend. She was a girl who was paid to work with him, which was a good enough compromise. She was an incredibly hard worker. She put in long hours with him. If he couldn’t be her boyfriend, he could spend loads of time with her anyway.

  On Friday, the work day had zipped by. At eight o’clock Adam looked up from his laptop across the table to Fi. She had her long auburn locks twirled around her finger, which Adam noticed is something she did when deep in thought. She let out a groan as her eyes narrowed.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  Fi looked up with surprise on her face. “Me? Yes!” She laughed. “I make weird noises sometimes when I’m working through something. I’m tweaking the algorithm. I just know there is a way to make it even better.” Her face suddenly shocked. “I didn’t’ mean that. I didn’t mean that what you created wasn’t good. It’s amazing. I meant that…”

  Adam raised his hand to assure her. “I know what you meant! That’s why we hired you. To make things better. We need your talent. Don’t ever apologize for making Luv Maite better.”

  Fi’s face fell into relief. “Thank you,” she said softly, returning her eyes back to her screen.

  “It’s getting late. You know you don’t have to put in long hours every day. It’s Friday night!” Adam said.

  Fi laughed. “Is it? I have no plans. “

  “I’m sure you could rile up something fun to do,” Adam said. He imagined she had a carousel of men just dying to take her out, just like he wanted to.

  She shrugged, typing. “This is fun.”

  Her eyes left her screen and met Adam’s gaze. Their eyes locked. She thought coding on a Friday night was fun.

  Adam became even more enchanted. Fuck. I’m in love.

  She pulled her eyes away and back to her screen. “Can you take a look at what I’ve done?”

  Adam, coming back down to Earth said, “Sure!”

  He got up and walked around to her side of the table. He examined the changes she’d made to one of the algorithms. It was the first he’d ever written. He hadn’t looked at the code in a while, but he knew right away she had improved it.

  “Wow! This is incredible!” he remarked.

  “Do you think so?” she asked.

  “Yes! I like what you did with the hyper-features.” He was truly impressed.

  Fi smiled, “It’s coming out to a prediction rate of 98 percent.” She paused. “I think I can still make it better.”

  She scrolled through her text editor. “I’m just going to fiddle around with it more and see what I come up with.” She looked up at him. “Is that okay if I stick around? If you have plans tonight, you don’t have to keep working on my account.”

  Adam said, “Me? No plans. This is exactly what I want to be doing tonight.”

  The two shared a smiled before both getting back to work.

  Chapter 6

  Fi woke up in a plush bed. She and Adam had worked late into the night. When she finally took a break, it was already three in the morning. Adam was still awake working steadily. Not wanting to bother him, she plopped down on the couch to close her eyes. She only planned on resting for few minutes.

  She sat up and looked around the bedroom. How did she get here?

  She slipped on her shoes. Adam must have carried her upstairs. What a sweetheart.

  It was eight in the morning. She had an early breakfast date with Tessa. When she opened the door to the bedroom, the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted up to her. She could use a cup before making the drive back to Berkeley and meeting Tessa.

  Crawford was in the kitchen at the countertop drinking a cup of coffee and working on his computer. “Good morning,” Fi said, feeling sheepish.

  She’d spent the night there. After overhearing the guys bicker the ot
her day over not dating women and specifically not dating her, she wondered if sleeping there had overstepped the rules. She cringed waiting for an outburst from Crawford as she took hold of the coffee pot.

  “Morning,” Crawford said, not looking up from his screen.

  She felt the need to explain. “I was working on an algorithm last night. I got too carried away. I should have probably gone home to work on it more instead of staying so late. Too late.”

  Crawford’s face remained impassive as he continued to look at his screen.

  The awkwardness of the conversation weighed in on Fi. Why was he such an impossible person to talk to? She definitely violated the rules, even though nothing happened. She’d really just fallen asleep.

  “But, I made some really good progress. It’s just that I didn’t want to stop working. You know how when you’re in the groove and don’t want stop?”

  Crawford murmured, “Uh huh.” He took a sip of coffee, still not looking up at her.

  The walls were caving in on her, but she couldn’t stop talking. “So I kept going. Then it got later and later. Then, I was suddenly so tired. I really had no intention of sleeping here. I understand there are boundaries. I laid down on the couch just to close my eyes.”

  Crawford continued to show no emotion. He was going to fire her over falling asleep there.

  In a panic she blurted out, “I’m sorry, okay! It will never happen again!”

  Crawford finally looked up from his computer. “Huh?”

  “Good morning, friends!” Adam chirped as she strolled in the kitchen.

  “Thanks so much for putting me to bed last night,” Fi said. She quickly realized how terrible that sounded. “I mean: thank you for taking me to the bed. I mean… For bringing me to the bedroom. Upstairs, I mean. To sleep by myself.”

  Any way she said it, it sounded bad.

  Adam shook his head. “What? I didn’t take you upstairs. I fell asleep on the other couch with you. When I woke up, you were gone. I figured you went home.” He smiled as he opened the fridge. “Good to see you this morning though! What a great morning surprise!”

  How did she end upstairs? Now, she looked like a liar to Crawford.

  Crawford returned his eyes back to his laptop. “I took you upstairs. You looked uncomfortable on the couch.”

  Fi nearly coughed on the sip of coffee she’d just taken.

  Adam said, “You didn’t take me upstairs and tuck me into bed.”

  Crawford rolled his eyes. “I’m not lugging a six foot five baby upstairs.”

  Adam chortled, “Are you saying I’m tall, dark, and handsome?”

  Crawford said, “I’m definitely not saying that.”

  Fi thought of being in Crawford’s arms. She must have been exhausted to not have awoken from that. “Thank you for doing that, Crawford. That was sweet of you.”

  Crawford finally looked at her. Ever since she’d walked into the kitchen, he’d avoided looking directly at her. His deep blue eyes bore through her. She felt her heart racing.

  “Not a problem.” He broke eye contact and began typing on his keyboard. “Thanks for working so hard.”

  He’d actually complimented her. She stammered, “You’re welcome.”

  “Good morning!” Blaine walked in, shirtless.

  When was she ever going to get used to how hot these guys were?

  “Fi! You’re just the person I’m looking for.” He gave her a look, squinting his eyes. “What are you doing here though? It’s Saturday.”

  “I feel asleep here last night,” Fi answered.

  “Alone!” Crawford added.

  Blaine leaned on the counter. “Okay.” He looked to Adam, who was munching on cereal.

  “We had a late night working,” Adam explained.

  “Gotcha,” Blaine said. “Anyway, I’ve got a dinner meeting with a VC tonight. He’s wife is going to be in attendance. I’m going to need a date.”

  The three guys all looked at Fi.

  She shrugged, “Oh. Me?”

  She was confused now. Wasn’t she off limits?

  Blaine explained, “I’ve been courting him for a while now. He invited me out to talk. I can’t show up alone without someone to talk to his wife. That’s where you come in.”

  Fi said, “I’m not following.”

  Crawford said, “If the wife is entertained, it will give Blaine a chance to talk to the VC and close the deal.”

  Blaine took a bite of an apple. “Yup. Travis’s wife is a doctor.”

  Adam clapped his hands together. “That’s perfect! You have a biology background, Fi. You can talk about medical, health, biology stuff.”

  Crawford remarked “Medical, health, biology stuff? For a guy who is brilliant with computers, you know absolutely nothing about everything else.”

  Adam shrugged, “Whatever. She knows what I mean, college dropout.”

  “Okay. I can talk to her about that kind of stuff. What should I wear?” she asked.

  Blaine said, “Wear one of those sexy dresses you have.”

  Fi’s cheeks flared hot. Did he think she was sexy?

  With a mouth full of cereal Adam agreed, “You’ll look great in anything. You have a wonderful sense of style.”

  Crawford added, “This VC is a big deal. Travis Wharton has a lot of money he’d love to burn.” He pulled out his wallet and handed a credit card to Fi. “Use the corporate account to get something special if you’d like.”

  Fi shook her head, attempting to give the card back to him. “I couldn’t do that.”

  Blaine countered, “He invited us to a super posh place. Absolutely! Please get something special.”

  Adam nodded, “That’s a great idea. You deserve it! You’ve been working so hard.”

  They were all looking at her with smiles on their faces, even Crawford. Fi’s legs felt weak. They were beaming at her. A lot must be riding on this dinner and this VC, Travis Wharton. “Okay. Thank you. When’s the dinner?”

  Blaine answered, “Tonight.”

  Fi shrieked, “Tonight?”

  She had some shopping to get to.

  Chapter 7

  Fi hurried to meet Tessa. She drove on the freeway with the windows down and singing Lizo. The guys really liked her. They even trusted her enough to come along on such an important VC meeting. Even Crawford was coming around!

  She tried to stem her excitement. She knew the dinner date with Blaine was for business, but she couldn’t help feeling thrilled of the idea of going out to dinner with him. He was suave and sophisticated. The kind of guy she would normally never had dreamed of spending time with. To be completely honest, a guy like Blaine had never appealed to her. Good looking, rich, and confident. She usually labeled those guys as assholes, but Blaine was the furthest from that.

  She wanted to look her very best. Appearances were everything unfortunately. She needed to wow Travis Wharton and his doctor wife. She parked the car and sprinted to the breakfast café. Tessa sat at their table sipping a cup of coffee.

  Fi was too excited to sit down. “We have to hurry!”

  Tessa flipped her blonde locks off her shoulder. “Hurry! You just got here!” She lifted her coffee cup up. “And this is only my first cup of coffee. Sit down. Chill out for a sec!”

  “I can’t!” Fi sat down at the small table and leaned in. “You have to go shopping with me.”

  Tessa shrugged her shoulders. “Okay. That can wait for after coffee and breakfast.”

  “No! You don’t understand! You have to go shopping with me!”

  “I totally understand. It’s early, but not that early. I’ll go shopping with you, Calm down!” Tessa replied.

  Fi could barely get the words out. “I’m going to dinner with Blaine.”

  Tessa put her coffee cup down. “You are!” She paused with a puzzled look on her face. “Which one is he again?”

  “He’s the CEO. Blonde. Incredible body.” Fi had a faraway look in her eyes. “Well, they all have incredible bodies. A
nd they are so hot, smart, intellectual, hot… Did I say hot?

  “But, wait! I thought they all decided you’re off limits.”

  Fi’s excitement sobered. “Okay. It’s not a real date. Blaine is meeting with a VC. He needs a date. I’m the date, the only girl he could find.”