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

Axel: I got back late last night. My sister and kids are taken care of, and I want to spend the weekend together. I do have to attend a baseball game tomorrow. What would you like to do this weekend?

Me: Tonight - Netflix and chill.

Me: Tomorrow - Sleep in and go to the baseball game where I’m meeting my team from Flirt.

Me: After the game, a gathering at my marketing director’s home for dinner.

Me: Sunday - possibly a group of friends are gathering in Stinson Beach.

Me: I’m hoping you can come to any and all of these.

Axel: I’m packing now. Can SoBe hang at your place?

Me: Shh. Don’t tell anyone, but he’s my favorite and I like him best.

Axel: Wait a minute! I’ve heard you moan my name more than once.

Me: And?

Axel: You’re going to get a good spanking for that.

Me: Promise?

Axel: See you about seven? What sounds good for dinner? Greek? Mexican? Italian? Me?

Me: Greek for dinner; you for dessert.

I blush at the thought. I glance over at Sean, and he has a goofy look on his face. “All set for tomorrow?”

He nods. “Yes. She doesn’t live very far from me. I’m going to pick her up and we can get a ride over together.”

“Fantastic.” I look out the window, and we’re inching along. The traffic on Friday afternoon is dense and slow. I’m so grateful Peter’s driving, and I might as well take advantage of my captive audience. “Since I have you, I’ll tell you my idea for my next software. I can already see the main algorithm in my head.”

Sean turns toward me eagerly. “Lay it on me.”

“You’re familiar with Moneyball?” I ask.

“Yeah, it was that Brad Pitt movie?”

I nod. “It’s based on a true story, and now many professional teams use the philosophy. It’s about how to get the best talent for a team within your cost restrictions.”

He nods.

“It takes into account all the statistics and the data from a player over at least three years. It can also be dependent upon availability. If you get player A to play first base, then you can set up player B. But, if player A goes to the Rockies, there is no value in player B.”

“Okay.”

“Now, you could get Player A, B, and C who all work well on paper, but if they’re alpha jerks and can’t work with anyone, you’re screwed. When I was putting together the Flirt algo, I worked with a psychology program that looked at personality types. If you have a bench of fifteen players and all of them are strong leaders, you may not have a team that plays well together. You need a mix of leaders and followers and maybe a few who can float between.”

“How do you determine that without a personality test?”

“Good question. And I have an answer to that. But to start with, let’s just say we have that information. I want to integrate that into software that will help the recruiters for the Prospectors create the best team around Jeremy Hamilton.”

Sean’s eyes widen. “Are you kidding?”

I shake my head. “Nope. Baseball is math. Flirt matches personalities. I want to meld the two. And I don’t want to sell this to any of the other clubs. I want to design it purely for the Prospectors.”

“I’m totally in,” Sean declares as we arrive at his apartment building.

I smile. “I was hoping you’d say that. I know it will be hard with Carrie being there, but tomorrow, try to think about what we would need to do to make it work. I’ll talk to Nate about it. I think we can create a solution and convince the owners’ consortium to purchase it.”

“Ah, man. See? I knew you had a few ideas going.”

“A few, but this one may be the most challenging, and it would be just the two of us. And honestly, it isn’t going to make us much money.”

“I’m okay. I worked with Peter Sutterland when he launched PeopleMover, so I’m okay to go without a salary from time to time.”

“I would pay you for your work,” I assure him. “But there are no stock options. We’d be doing this for my friend.”

“I’m good with that.” He opens his door and climbs out. “See you tomorrow.”

I wave, and with a smile on my face, Peter takes me home.

When I walk in the door, I have thirty minutes before Axel will arrive. I need to relax and take a bath.

“And that, folks, was a one-hundred-and-ten-mile-an-hour fastball,” the announcer booms over the speakers at the stadium the next afternoon. “No one has yet to really hit that ball, but when they do, it’s going to sail all the way to Las Vegas.”

The crowd goes crazy.

“This is fantastic. These seats are incredible. I can’t believe how close we are,” Christina gushes.

“We were fortunate to get so many seats behind home base,” I tell her. Nate has exceeded my expectations once again.

I look over at Sean, and he’s struggling to watch the game because he’s so involved with talking to Carrie. They arrived together and seem to have really hit it off. I’m happy for him.

My cell phone vibrates in my lap.

Axel: You look delicious in that dress.

Me: Thanks. Were you able to pull together the surprise?

Axel: Yes. I think it’s going to be fun.

Me: See you an hour or so after the game?

Axel: I hope you don’t have to stay too late at the party. Last night was a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to a repeat.

I blush.

Me: I don’t know if I can do that again. I’m