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“We’ve got to go with Zane,” Nate said. Zane and Todd nodded, obviously relieved that he was taking an active role in solving this.
You’re not nervous—you’re excited.
“Alisa, you guys go wait over by the stage area so you’re there and ready. Talk Zane through how he can best convey things and use story. Whatever you can do in the next ten minutes,” Nate said.
Zane put an arm around Alisa and tugged her toward the stage. Todd met Nate’s eyes. “You look like you’ve got this.”
“I’m fine. Honestly. I don’t want to get up there, but I’m okay. More worried that we aren’t going to have what we need now. But what can we do about it?”
“Zane’s pretty. He’ll dazzle everyone with his good looks and smooth talking,” Todd said, smiling and pulling on his beard.
“True. Let’s hope dazzle is enough. We better get over there,” Nate said.
As they made their way to where Zane stood with Alisa, Nate caught sight of long brown hair in the crowd. It reminded him of Colby. He sighed. She was on his mind so much that he saw her everywhere. Now was not the time to start thinking about that. He had enough to manage. Not right now…
But the girl turned, still not seeing him, and it was Colby. Colby was here.
Nate stopped, and Todd ran right into the back of him. Colby turned back toward the front of the room as Todd gave him a nudge. Nate kept moving forward, trying not to look at her. Colby was here.
You’re not nervous. You’re excited.
When he and Todd got to Zane and Alisa, she looked mad and Zane was grinning widely. “This is going to be great,” he said.
Alisa gave a slight shake of her head to Nate. He felt relieved to have an actual problem to focus on, rather than the woman standing in the room behind him somewhere.
“What is it?” Nate asked. Alisa shifted her eyes. “It’s fine. We’re a team. You can talk about it front of Zane. You don’t agree with him about—what?”
Alisa looked apologetically at Zane before speaking. “He’s got too much polish. He’s pretty—”
“Thank you,” Zane said, flashing another grin.
Alisa rolled her eyes and kept going. “But we don’t want pretty and polished. We want heart and story. Especially for this. We need the investors to feel the connection that our users do and know how—”
A voice at the front interrupted them. “We’ll be starting in just a moment, so everyone find a seat as I explain how this pitch session is going to work.”
“Look,” Nate whispered as the guy up front with the mic kept talking, explaining how things would work. “We don’t have a choice. Zane, try to tone down the playboy grins and just be real. Less polish. Share what we know of our users.”
“Personal,” Alisa said. “Keep it personal. Think story. Our story as a brand. You can talk about how you guys met at college. Your back story. Though it’s not super relevant to the app’s functionality…ugh. Do what you can.”
Zane nodded, but Nate could see even in his nod what Alisa was worried about. They were missing what made them and their proposal unique. Too late now.
Nate turned, finding Colby in the crowd almost immediately. She sat five rows back near the middle and was looking right at him. Their eyes locked for a second. He couldn’t read her gaze from afar, but she looked tense. Before she looked away, her mouth formed a tight line.
Zane nudged him in the back to move up the stairs. “That’s us,” he hissed. The announcer must have called for them, because he was looking over, waiting. They moved up the steps, Nate spinning the ring on his finger and trying to force his face into a mask of neutral happiness.
But as soon as he looked out into the crowd, he locked eyes again with Colby. She was looking at him and didn’t shift her expression this time. It was torture seeing here there. He had no idea what Zane was saying.
Was Colby…crying? Her face was awash with disappointment and a hurt so fresh that it hurt him to look at it.
A thought struck him so powerfully that he froze under its weight. He knew what he needed to do.
Before he could think through the idea he had and back out, Nate stepped over to Zane. He was just finishing the basic explanation of how the app worked. Nate reached for the mic.
Zane paused, staring at him with wide blue eyes, smile frozen on his face. He covered the mic with his hand and leaned into Nate. “What are you doing?” he whispered.
“Trust me,” Nate said. “I think.”
“You think?” Zane hissed.
