I grin and shut up. I’m a lot of things but stupid isn’t one of them.
I finally walk her next door in the wee hours with swollen lips and beard burn. When I stagger upstairs to my room and make sure my alarm is set to go off in three hours, I still don’t regret it.
She’s unexpected. Definitely not part of the plan.
And exactly what I want.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Josh
It’sanall-eyes-on-mesituation.
Maybe this is how it feels for Sami. Every person in the room, staring at you, waiting for the next thing that comes out of your mouth.
She likes it. Wants it. Thrives on it.
I . . . do not.
NewTekk is looking at me. As in their entire executive board. Their expressions range from confused to concerned.
One person looks flat-out thunderous, the senior partner from Brower sitting next to me, Roger Jardin, who looks like he wants to reach over and press on my windpipe until I’m no longer breathing.
“Josh,” Roger says with the careful enunciation of a man who is trying to sound like nothing is wrong, “what are we looking at here?”
The NewTekk board president looks from the screen—where the CFO has just shared the single greatest professional mistake of my life—to me.
“Mr. Brower gave BitGenesis the evidence they need for their lawsuit,” the CFO says.
I don’t know what my face looks like. It feels like all the blood has left it. And I didn’t start out great this morning, circles under my eyes and my face puffy from only grabbing a couple hours of sleep after seeing Sami home, post-DTR talk.
“Is that what this is?” Roger asks.
It’s obviously what it is. It’s all right there in the conveniently magnified email header.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected], [email protected],
CC: [email protected], [email protected]
That screenshot says I have screwed up very badly. I’ve sent the plaintiff suing NewTekk for intellectual property rights a copy of an employment contract that strengthens their claim.
This is the meeting I’d been prepping for since last week. Dotting everyi. Crossing everyt. Preparing to demonstrate that we are excellent counsel.
This is nothing short of disastrous.
I’d gone into the office an hour early as usual, ordering my coffee with a triple shot of espresso along the way. It was enough to give my hands a tremor all morning, but not enough to keep me alert. Not if I made a mistake like this as soon as I got to my desk.
Notif.Ididmake this mistake. I’d meant to copy that email to Tony Workman at NewTekk, and the email autofill had supplied the wrong address. Theworstwrong address.
All those hours of prep. Of billable hours equaling thousands in income for the firm, and a single mistake might cost the firm any future NewTekk revenue. Darvesh, their board president, has doubt written all over his face. Roger’s lips have flattened to a straight line as they all wait for an explanation.
I open my mouth to give them one. Darvesh leans forward slightly, waiting. I don’t know how I can feel like my face has drained of bloodandlike it’s pounding through my ears at the same time, but I do. I do. It’s so loud, I can’t think over it. Nothing comes out of my mouth.
Roger jumps in, showing the smoothness that got him to partner. “Ladies and gentlemen, Josh and I are going to have a quick debrief and come to you with a solution. If you’ll excuse us a moment.”
Darvesh nods, but the look he gives me is loaded with disapproval.
