Champagne Brunch: The Stiletto Sisters Series by Ainsley Claire (easy readers .txt) 📗

“Mason and I talked about it,” Dillon says. “We think we can come in with five hundred million for a forty-percent share.”

I’m blown away. That’s way more money than I expected. “How did you come up with your value?”

Dillon runs through the numbers based on what the publicly traded dating sites are doing, and then the push to go national and possibly international. “The team you’ll eventually need is about two hundred employees. But the real value is in the algorithm you’ve written. People are going to be very interested in buying the app for that alone.”

“Wow, okay then. I’ll accept those terms. Remember, I was going to do this small.”

“Oh, but it will be so much more fun when we do it big,” Mason says with a wink.

Before I know it, we’ve ordered in lunch, and things just snowball from there. By the end of the day, Greer is taking care of the testing with a launch party at the Palace of Fine Arts. She’s prattling on about engraved invitations for over two thousand guests, and she’s busy with a party planner so this can happen in less than three weeks. I’ve gone back and forth with Cameron, and the app’s code has improved significantly. Meanwhile, Dillon, Mason, and I have worked out a business plan. Emerson has found us office space we can sublet from one of their clients who just moved into bigger space, and she’s set out to hire the first twelve employees.

It’s after five by the time we’re done. Mason walks me out to the curb to find Peter double-parked at the street.

“How do you feel about the board’s decision at Diamond?” he asks.

“I think it’ll be good to have a break. I don’t think they realize how much I do, though. Getting a finance person to step in won’t make the development people happy. However, I guess that’s not my problem right now. And with all that we’ve agreed to with my new app, I can deal with this mess with Viviana and have something else to distract me.”

“Well, I think you hit the jackpot with another idea that will do well for you,” he says. “If we can achieve a modicum of success, I would expect you’ll have several companies interested in your algorithm at the very least. But going public may be a great option, too.”

I stand on my tiptoes and throw my arms around Mason. “Thank you. It’s based on Diamond’s algorithm, so we’ll see. I only expected this to be a diversion, not the main event.”

He smiles. “Sometimes the most creative minds can’t help but be serial geniuses. Look at Nate. He has his original company, which has branched off from prosthetics to AI. Now he’s running his fiancée’s company. He’s putting Russian tech on the market as open-source software, which is allowing many companies to develop cool applications that work well together and make us all look good. And then to keep busy, the guy became the major owner of the Prospectors because he loves baseball and couldn’t get a seat.”

“Being compared to Nate Lancaster is a huge honor.” I’m not blowing smoke. Nate truly is a legend, and there’s a reason he’s done well.

“You look exhausted. I hope Diamond’s issues haven’t been keeping you up all night.”

I lean in. “Actually, working on Flirt kept me up. I haven’t been this excited about something in a long time.”

Mason gives me a questioning look. “What are you doing working at Diamond Analytics when you should be doing things you find fun?”

I shrug. Maybe he’s right. I wave goodbye as I open the car door. “Tell Caroline we need to get together for drinks at the Tiger Den soon.”

He nods, and we agree to meet in a few days to finalize the contract. But we’ve ironed out the deal. This will be fun.

After Peter returns me to my place, I take a quick shower and crawl into bed. Excited or not, I don’t want to think about Diamond, Viviana, or Flirt for the next ten hours.

Chapter 4

Mia

“Are you ready?” Claire calls from the other room.

“Just about.” Somehow the day of my app-launch event has arrived already, and Claire and I are getting ready in a hotel suite just around the corner from the Palace of Fine Arts. I had a blow-out this afternoon. My hair is usually long and straight. It doesn’t hold a curl for even a second when there’s a hint of humidity. My stylist is fantastic when it comes to giving me great-looking hair, but all I can manage on my own is to pull it back.

I take a deep breath. Here goes nothing. As I emerge from the bathroom, Claire looks up from her cell phone. “Wow! You look fantastic.”

“Thanks. I just hope tonight’s launch is well received.”

“Why wouldn’t it be? Are you nervous? You shouldn’t be. I talked to Greer, and she and the party planner have an incredible event set up—tons of things to get people to interact and get your app off the ground.”

“I know. You should see the agenda Greer gave me. I think she has the details down to the second. I was stunned.”

“How do you like the team you hired?”

“Emerson was amazing. She pulled a few solid candidates who’d worked on a different kind of app, and they’ve done an incredible job getting Flirt up to speed. They’ve also worked with Cameron before and are developer rock stars. They have a lot going on with this preliminary launch. Really, I’m more the figurehead, and they’re running everything. It’s rather nice.” I laugh.

“I can’t wait.” Claire stands and tucks her phone in her clutch. “I’ve got eight people from my office who’ve committed to joining us tonight.”

I look at her in a panic. I