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For the first time, she looks slightly concerned by my possessiveness. She leans away slightly, as if signaling me to ease up.
"We could simply enjoy this beautiful view… and cross that bridge when we come to it," she murmurs.
I squeeze her hand, looking down at her. "You're right. I should enjoy the view."
She smiles, facing the canyon but glancing at me from the corner of her eye. "You know I wasn't talking about me, right?"
Later, I'm sitting in the conference room with Steve, Andy, and the rest of my team. Sera's boss wanted her to circulate the show with him, talk to some tech heads, which means she's not here. Is that for the best?
Steve leans forward. "We're going to have to pull the plug."
He looks even more serious than usual, which is saying a lot.
"We can't launch a faulty product," I agree. "This is painful, because we all know that we dominate the competition. We don't just have market capture. We've got market domination. But you're right; we can't do this, can't deceive people. But I'm not canceling the speech."
Steve narrows his eyes. "What, then?"
"I'll tell the public the truth. If we want to stand apart from the crowd, which we've always done, we need to be honest. We need to…"
I pause, looking out the window at the man peering in. He's short, with shaggy black hair almost covering his eyes. When he sees me looking, he turns and takes off.
"Luke," Steve and Andy yell as I leap to my feet.
Chapter Eleven
Sera
"NeuroDrive has moved their announcement up to this evening, giving the keynote spot to another company," Graham muses, adjusting his glasses as he studies his phone.
"I wonder if it has anything to do with…" I stop when I notice Graham narrowing his eyes at me. Most of the time, he appears to be what he is: a kind, generous older man, his grey hair combed over his bald spot, wearing stylish sweaters more often than not, even in the office.
Now, he frowns. "What would you know about their work?"
I shrug, staring down at my feet. "I actually met Luke recently."
"Luke," he says, as if my using his first name is offensive.
"I helped with some work on an issue they were having. Well, tried to help. Is there a problem with that?"
Graham turns away, looking across the street at the Strip. He sighs. "We don't want NeuroDrive to think we'll work for free. They pay TechGuard a sizeable fee to use our AI department…With TechGuard considering removing the AI department before it thrives, we have to proceed cautiously."
"I wasn't there for TechGuard. I was there for me."
More accurately, I was there for Luke, but I don't think Graham needs to hear about our escapades. Reflecting on the short time we've known each other feels surreal. It seems like much longer.
"How did you even meet the CEO of NeuroDrive? I've never met him, and we work with them."
"He's actually the one who tried to fix the laptop," I reply.
"Oh."
"He's a good guy, Graham."
"I'm sure he is, but that doesn't mean we should work for free." He fiddles with his phone. "Eleanor is going to want a video soon." He extends his arm, putting the camera on selfie mode and starting a video. "Hey, honey, we wanted to say hello from sunny Vegas."
I wave, smiling. Even if Graham was just stern with me, I force a smile for Ellie. I still remember the first time she asked if everything was okay at home, reading my silence for what it was, then encouraged me to stay behind with her.
"Hey, Ellie," I say.