Page 22 of One Midnight Kiss

9

FOX

Rain drummed against the windows, the sound echoing through the conference room. I tapped my fingers on the smooth table, mentally running through a list of all the things I needed to do.

The weather matched the mood in the room. It felt gray and heavy. I could see how stressed Jerrod was. He was pacing, running his hands through his hair, muttering to himself about failure rates and competition. I had seen him like this a few times before, but not often. This was a man usually so calm he could give a corpse a run for its money. Today, he looked like he was ready to throw himself in front of a bus.

“Jerrod,” I said, snapping my fingers to get his attention. “Please sit down. You’re going to wear through the carpet.”

He stopped pacing but only to lean against the wall. I swore he was aging in years instead of minutes right before my eyes.

“You know, Fox, I never wanted this level of risk,” he said. “We’ve got less than a month before Hanna goes live, and if the launch bombs⁠—”

“It won’t bomb,” I said, keeping my voice calm. Someone in the room needed to act like an adult. “Hanna’s going to blow every other smart home system out of the water.”

Jerrod let out a shaky breath. “And if she doesn’t?”

“Then we’ll keep working on her until she does. Failure isn’t an option.”

He gave me a look like I’d just told him to bet his life savings on a horse with a broken leg. I didn’t blame him. The vultures were circling. Big tech companies like Nest and Amazon were watching us closely, waiting for us to trip up so they could swoop in, buy us for peanuts, and dismantle everything we had built. The pressure was real, and it was mounting by the day.

If Hanna failed, we were fucked. I would never be able to show my face in the tech world again. All of my ideas and coding would be bought. I would have to start from nothing. I would have to come up with new code to avoid being sued into oblivion.

I wasn’t about to sell HomeTech. Not now, not ever. I would take it down with me. If I couldn’t launch it, no one was going to launch it.

The tension in the room was suffocating, Jerrod’s fears almost tangible. I found his pessimism useful. I was able to think through all of his fears and rationalize mine.

I put everything into this company—my time, my reputation, every ounce of my creativity. We were building something bigger than just another gadget. This wasn’t a failed gaming system or a buggy app. This was a huge step into the future. We were building a new way of living. I had no intention of letting it fail.

We were the pioneers. We were taking society into the new world. If we didn’t do it, someone else would, but when? And would the tech be as good as mine? I didn’t think so. I knew my tech was the best. It was worthy of being the first. If someone else did it, it would just set the industry back years. If I thought it was difficult getting the public to trust us now, it would be a million times worse if someone launched and failed.

Jerrod started pacing again. He was stressing me out. I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling a headache building. We were waiting on Natalia. She was supposed to come in today with a game plan for our marketing push leading up to the launch.

I had never had a startup fail before, and I wasn’t going to start now. But even I knew we needed her help to make this work. Christa was right when she said we had to do something and do it quickly.

I was actually looking forward to seeing Natalia. Not that anything would happen, but I liked looking at her. I liked sparring with her. It was fun. And it would add a little excitement to the day.

When the conference room door opened, I looked up, expecting to see her. Instead, in walked some guy in an expensive suit, slicked-back hair that looked like it hadn’t seen a natural breeze in years, and a smarmy grin I wanted to slap off his face.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked bluntly, already annoyed.

He extended a hand, but I didn’t take it. “Aaron Abscot,” he said, pulling his hand back without missing a beat. “One of the senior marketing executives. Natalia sent me to go over the campaign details with you.”

“Where’s Natalia?” I demanded, my irritation spiking. I had expected her to be here, ready to roll out her plan herself. I had had it in my mind that we would be working closely together, hammering out the details face to face. After all, she was the one Christa had insisted on.

I didn’t want to work with anyone else.

Aaron gave me a condescending smile that made me want to choke him with his tie. Maybe I was just being prickly. I was in a shitty mood and wanted to see Natalia.

“Natalia is my boss. She doesn’t usually handle the day-to-day account stuff personally. That’s what I do.”

I clenched my jaw. “I was under the impression that she would be leading this project. We’re kind of in a time crunch and this project is extremely important. We met with her and she said she would be back with us in a week. Her. Not you.”

“Natalia is overseeing the project. I’m just here to handle the initial presentation. We don’t want to waste her time, do we?”

Waste her time? That was rich. As if sitting in this conference room listening to a man who looked like a used-car salesman was the best use of my time. And I was paying Natalia. It wasn’t like she was doing this out of the kindness of her heart. We expected the best. At least I did.

I looked at Jerrod, who was already leaning forward, like he was hanging on Aaron’s every word. He didn’t seem nearly as pissed as I was about the bait and switch.