Page 5 of Kayla's List
Who’s That Girl
ANDERSON
“Come on, man. It’s Friday, for goodness sakes.” My best friend, Brady, sighs in frustration.
I try not to sigh because I know what’s coming next.“I know what day it is, Brady,” I respond in my usual no-nonsense manner.
We go through this same conversation every Friday. It’s been five years since we started our own social media app, and Brady thinks we are in a place where we can finally relax and enjoy all the money that we’ve made. I don’t see it that way.
We startedManiacal Sportsat the beginning of all the social media craze. It took us longer to get our product out there because the market became saturated with applications. However, we stuck with it and now we have a gold mine on our hands. We learned that people want consistency and easy accessibility, and that’s what our app provides. We established our company,TechX-us A&M, in support of our application.
We thought our company name was clever because we are Texas boys, and Brady’s last name is Adams and mine is McNair. That’s the only thought we put into naming our company because our main focus is on developing our applications.
We began withManiacal Sports.Our biggest and most successful application is a be all do all sports application. There are sports stats for every game imaginable. We even have stats for video games and E-sports. Our users can connect with other fans live during any sporting event. They can also connect and play virtual team sports as well as solo games. Once we were featured onESPN,our downloads picked up and now we have over fifty million users in North America with plans to expand into Europe.
I can’t slack off with all of our plans and go to a club on a Friday night like Brady wants me to. I have shit to do. Hell,hehas shit to do as well.
“Anderson, dude, we have finally made it. We are multi-millionaires, not that you act like it.” Brady pauses with a shake of his shaggy, blonde hair. “You need to live a little before you burn yourself out. You’ll be no good to anyone if you’re rocking back and forth in a corner somewhere.”
“Brady, stop being dramatic. When have you ever known me to go crazy?” I shake my head. My best friend has always been the one to try to get me to relax more. But I didn’t grow up in the same type of a home as he had.
Although I never wanted for anything materialistic, my parents were not the nurturing type. I had to learn from a very young age to do everything for myself, which is why I don’t leave the coding up to our employees. Although they’re capable, I would rather do the job myself so I’ll know it will be done correctly. I also get completely obsessive when it comes to doing thingsthe right way.
“Anderson, I’m not being dramatic. By the way, I hate when you say shit like that.” Brady frowned before he continued with his rant. “I’ve known you most of my life. I know when you’re on the verge of burn-out. We have too much shit going on for you to do that right now.”
I stop typing on my computer to look at my friend. Brady’s voice is laced with concern, and I see the seriousness reflecting in his worried green eyes. Ihave beenworking around the clock for months to get the new features ready, but I don’t feel like I’ve done anything more than what I usually do. I may not have ever gone “crazy,” but I’ve had my episodes in the past.
At the memory of my last “burn-out” episode, I pause to take in Brady’s words. I can’t remember the last time I’d had a decent night’s sleep or the last day I’d had off. I frown deeply. I know my compulsions are taking over again.Maybe I do need a break?
Sometimes, I get so caught up that it’s almost manic. But what Brady’s talking about doesn’t happen often and hasn’t for a long while. I know I won’t burn-out again. I sigh in regret because I know that Brady is right. I definitely need a break. However, I know that I will regret going to a club tonight. I hate going to clubs, but if it will get him off my back.
“Alright, I’ll go to the damn club tonight.” I almost snarled the words, but Brady nods with a smirk on his face.
“Great! You can relax this weekend, and I’ll let you work until your heart’s content atTechConnext weekend,” Brady smiles.
“Damn! I forgot all aboutTechCon.” I rub my hand down my bearded face. I must be working too hard if I forgot about the most exclusive technology conference of the year.
I look forward to going to that every year and I blanked.Damn.
“Yeah, I kinda figured you did. But no worries. I’m here to make sure your workaholic ass relaxes.”
“Uh-huh. I’m the one you’re worried about relaxing.” I shake my head as my face breaks into a grin.
Brady is genuinely concerned about my mental wellbeing, but I also know my oldest friend loves a good party. And he will absolutely, without a doubt, reap the benefits from his mission to get me to relax.
“Listen, why don’t I bring Jason and Tobin, and we can do a proper hangout,” Brady suggests, rubbing his hands together. I can tell by the twinkle in his eye and his supervillain gestures that I will be in for a long night of debauchery.
“Alright, call the guys,” I say with a roll of my eyes. “But you need to remember, Brady, we’re thirty-year-old men, not children. Going out and getting shit faced and acting like assholes isn’t good for our company.” I couldn’t help the lecture that spilled from my lips.
Brady might be one of the smartest guys I know, but he still behaved like a child at times. And although I agree that I need to relax, the last thing we needed was to have any incidents that would cause us trouble.
“Dude, I don’t need your speeches. Like you said, I’m a grown ass man. You out of all people don’t need to remind me what’s at stake if we fuck around right now. We just need to go let off some steam before the conference. All work and no play makes for a dull Anderson. Besides, once we finish updating the new features, then we can have an actual vacation and party,” Brady responded with a slight frown on his face.
I know that I gave him a lot of shit, but I needed his reassurance that his old ways wouldn’t come back to haunt us because I am certainly not in a place where I can babysit him and get our investors to believe in our work.
“Okay,” I sigh, resigned. “I won’t bring it up again. You can vacation and act as wild as you wantafterthe launch of our new features.” I look pointedly at Brady. He nods his acceptance of my words, and I hope to hell that I won’t regret this.
* * *