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Even if the app was toast, he already had a backup plan: they could present either the matchmaking algorithm or the background bot. Both were impressive enough in their own right and could have other applications.
The other thought that kept him floating above his worries was that if the app crashed for good, it would naturally resolve the issue of Sewzy/Colby. He could pursue Colby as Nate, in person, without having to dig himself out of the hole he’d made. Well. He still had one hole to dig out of, but one was better than two.
Of course, he cared about the app and its success. He hated the idea that they had wasted months of time and energy and money. He dragged his friends into this and needed it to work for them. But if they could make as much selling the software, that would be okay. He was proud of First Sight and the way it worked. But it wasn’t his end goal. He had realized through the building of it that what he really wanted was to work with his team building and developing software and apps. A startup with a real office and all the things. If this didn’t work out, though, they wouldn’t have the money. It would be much harder to convince Todd and Zane to stay and work with him.
“Yo, Nate—you frozen?” Zane’s voice startled him out of his thoughts.
“I’m thinking,” Nate said.
“How about more doing, less thinking,” Zane said. “How much time do you think we have before a clone app would be up and running? What did the lawyer say if that happens, Todd?”
“Not much they can do on the legal side,” Todd said. “Unless we can find the hackers, which is usually impossible. They wouldn’t use things we could trace and prove, I mean, unless they took our name or logo. But they’re too smart for that. The algorithm has a patent, which would help there, but that server wasn’t touched.”
Zane stood up and started cleaning off the dry-erase board.
“What are you doing?” Alisa said.
“I’ve seen this look on his face before,” Zane said, pointing a purple dry-erase marker at Nate. “I’m getting ready.”
Todd and Alisa both swung their faces to look at Nate. He grinned. “Sometimes a good problem gets my brain moving.”
“I thought you’d be…more worried,” Todd said, giving a quick glance to Alisa.
“Maybe I will be,” Nate said. “Later. Right now, I have a weird sense of calm, so I’m going with that.”
“Will it stress you out more to know that the hurricane looks like it’s coming right for us now?” Todd asked.
They all groaned. Nate hadn’t so much as listened to the radio or looked at anything not work-related in days.
“What’s this one named?” Zane asked.
“Manuel,” Todd said.
“Perfect. Well, let’s get things moving since we might end up without power or internet for a few days,” Zane said.
“I’m just hoping this doesn’t somehow mess up the conference,” Todd said. “We’d be in big trouble.”
“No, we’d just apply to another conference,” Nate said. “Now let’s stop the useless what-if game. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that it won’t help us move forward.”
“Good point. Okay, so what’s happening in that big, beautiful brain of yours? Let’s get those gorgeous ideas out.” Zane asked, marker poised over the white board.
“I’ve got some thoughts in case the app isn’t salvageable. But I’ll need Alisa’s genius to figure out what we could present.”
He smiled over at her and she grinned in return. “Let’s do this.”
No matter what happened with First Sight, Nate wanted to keep his team. Not just the guys. If he hadn’t been convinced before, this afternoon made him sure that Alisa belonged here. The four of them had something really good. Hopefully they felt it too. They had a little less than two weeks to come up with a killer presentation that would bring in buyers. He felt sure they could.
What he didn’t know was whether or not he could walk away with the girl in the end. One problem at a time. Today, the app. Tomorrow, Colby.
