Champagne Brunch: The Stiletto Sisters Series, Ainsley Claire [best motivational books for students TXT] 📗

Why is being successful such a bad thing if you’re a woman? It’s not as if any of my friends don’t or wouldn’t shower their man with love and affection. Why does having a big bank account mean you can’t have a good relationship and be taken care of in other ways?

I sigh.

A little while later, I’ve showered and changed, but I don’t have to be at my board meeting for another two hours. If I hadn’t already told Peter I’d meet him at eight thirty, I’d have him drive me to my office before the board meeting.

I need a distraction. I want a date for this weekend. There must be a few nice guys left here in San Francisco. I open Tumble. It’s the app many of my staff are always talking about.

Yikes. This guy’s profile is a picture of his dick. Eww. I’m tempted to comment that it isn’t anything to be proud of, but I refrain. Tumble is what I thought it was—an app for sex. What happened to meeting someone in a bar and seeing where things take you?

I open eTogether. There must be an hour of questions to answer. Wow. This is some serious stuff. And then you can’t talk to each other until you communicate via email and messaging for a few days. And the cost. Ick. No thanks.

I look at Distinguished, and the photographs all seem like stock images. Hmmm... The cost is a thousand dollars a week, and if you look closely—which I do—they make zero promises.

Dating apps suck.

I start to think about the math it would take to find someone. Everything is math. Look at nature—it’s everywhere. There needs to be a happy medium between Tumble and eTogether, and if people are willing to pay for Distinguished, I can create something better. Maybe with my friends’ help, we can make something fun, something flirty.

That’s it. Flirt.

I start writing some basic code, and before I know it, my doorbell rings. It’s already eight thirty. I grab my bag and walk out the door.

“Here you go.” Peter hands me a cup of coffee from my favorite local coffee shop close to the Clear Security office.

“Thank you. I hope you didn’t detour for me.”

He shakes his head. “No, I needed to pick up Jim and Gage this morning. They’re in the car for the board meeting.”

“You look nervous,” I say with the best smile I can muster.

“I won’t be nervous unless you’re nervous.” He steps in front of me to open the car door.

“Well, they can’t really fire me since I’m the largest individual stockholder, but they can make my life miserable.”

“You have lots of people rooting for you today.”

I get in the car, and Jim and Gage look like they might have been in deep conversation, but whatever they were saying has come to an abrupt stop. “What’s up, guys?”

Jim looks at Gage in a silent signal.

“We found a data breach on your system,” Gage says.

My stomach tightens, and a massive sigh escapes me. “That’s not surprising. I trusted Viv and never questioned anything she did, so my computer was on when she was around. She knew me well enough that she might have guessed my password. It’s Chinese, but she knows it’s the nickname my mother calls me. She was good. She blended in, and this was truly a long con.”

Jim looks at me, seeming surprised. “You’re taking this well.”

I shrug. “I’ll follow what the board thinks is best—except I won’t be giving up my stock and my position as the largest stockholder.”

“Mason wanted me to tell you, he will be there and will follow your lead,” Jim says. “Together you make up almost seventy percent of the company.” He stares at me intently.

I know he and Mason really want me to fight this, but I’m not sure what I want to do. I could easily buy a place in another city and meet new people who know nothing about me.

It won’t be Austin.

I smile. “He’s pretty wonderful about that. But I’ll listen to what the board has to say. I do expect you to be honest with them if they ask if we’ve had a breach.”

Jim nods.

Peter pulls up at the Ritz Carlton valet. Jim and Gage walk in with me to the conference room where my board meeting is taking place. We don’t ever meet in my offices since the information is sensitive—particularly today.

Despite being more than fifteen minutes early, everyone else is here. I can see the used coffee cups and empty plates. They met early without me.

I paint a smile on my face, take a deep breath, and sit at the head of the long table. “Hello,” I begin. “So good to see everyone.”

Several of my board members won’t make eye contact with me. This is going to be a shit-fest. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Mason takes the seat to my right, and I look out at the group.

“Where would you like to start?” I ask.

“We’re concerned about your relationship with Viviana Prentis,” Alex Tuberville says.

Alex has always been challenging to work with. He’s done well with his shares of my company—certainly better than he did with the company he founded. He’s well known on Wall Street, which is why he was added to our board. His connections make him an asset. But he’s a pain in the ass and always has an agenda, which typically comes with lots of mansplaining.

I nod. “Me too. I was completely blindsided by this news. I trusted her, just like I used to trust all of you.” A few people’s eyes grow big. What, did they think meeting early wouldn’t erode my trust?

There’s some grumbling, and while I may not like what today will bring, I have to believe I can still trust them to help me navigate