Callie stills, giving me a troubled look. “Whoa. How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Twenty-eight.”
“Holy crap! You’ve been breathing and eating this stuff, haven’t you? Talk about dedication!” She laughs, albeit nervously. It’s not the first time I’ve intimidated others my age. “Anyway, we’ll need your slides for the presentation.”
The sudden shift in tone coincides with me seeing irritable coffee guy taking a seat in the front row alongside the aforementioned tech giants. What the hell is he doing here? And why are my knees getting weak?
“Olivia?” Callie asks.
“I’m sorry, you were asking me for something?” And there goes my brain as my eyes meet those troubling blues again, sparkling with recognition and unmistakable irritation. Oh, he hasn’t forgotten about me just yet.
“The slides.”
“Crap. Hold on…” I freeze, wondering if I even brought the USB dongle for this. I go through my pockets in a systematic fashion, terrified that I may have forgotten the whole thing. Finally, a familiar jingle emerges from my purse. “Ah, there it is…” I hand the slides over to Callie, who passes them on to the tech guy and gives me a wink and a nod of encouragement.
“You’re gonna be great!” she says, then walks off stage.
I lose myself altogether for a brief moment, trying to register everything that is happening. I’m alone onstage. There are at least two hundred people attending my talk right now. Most of the front row are natives of the tech shark tank. Except the guy with blue eyes and curly black hair and ridiculously delicious lips, who’s clearly annoyed to see me again.
Oh, dear.
He’s one of them. He’s one of the sharks, and I pissed him off.
“Oh, crap…”
CHAPTER2
OLIVIA
There’s a lump in my throat the size of a tennis ball.
My slides are on, big and bright on the giant screen behind me. I’m standing at the very center of everyone’s attention, precisely where I need to be. Yet my voice fails to make itself heard. My words are hiding under my tongue. And my pulse is galloping into a waking nightmare as I understand that I can either choke or speak, but only the latter will keep failure away. I cannot fail. All my work. My parents’ investment in my education. Their expectations. The student loans I took out to supplement this whole endeavor…
Oh, and Blue Eyes keeps glaring at me, probably thinking of ways to ruin me after I called him a prick mere minutes ago. The universe does have a funny way of throwing the crap back in my face. Then again, it’s my fault that I threw the crap against the wind to begin with.
“Olivia, are you okay?” Callie whispers from offstage. She’s got this hopeful smile on her face, but I can see the tension in her eyes. The stiffness of her smile. I’m delaying everything and everyone with my inability to speak up.
My gaze wanders across the front row again—that’s my brain further sabotaging the entire situation by reminding me of what’s at stake and who’s witnessing my humiliation live and in full-color HD. There’s a petite redhead lady I’ve not noticed until now—she must’ve snuck in. Judging by that teal power pantsuit she’s wearing, she’s not anybody’s assistant. The confidence she carries herself with is… inspiring.
“Hi,” I manage, my voice a faint echo against the small microphone on my lapel. “Hi, everyone. I’m… I’m Olivia MacArthur, fresh out of a CalTech doctorate program with a focus on technology as it relates to emergency and disaster management… and um… welcome to my SanFranLabs talk… I guess…”
I take a deep breath, somewhat proud of myself. It’s more than I’ve said in the past five minutes, so I dare call that progress and feed on Blue Eyes’ anger instead, keeping the redhead’s spunk for later.
“So, um… the reason I’m here today… it’s to… it’s to…”
And there it goes again. My coherence. I had it for a second.
Blue Eyes gives me a bored look, followed by a lazy eye roll. That pisses me off. It’s bad enough I humiliated myself in front of him earlier, I sure as hell can’t allow myself to completely ruin myself now. No. Screw this. No.
“I’m here to get hired,” I quip, putting on a bright smile and channeling my inner beast. Every MacArthur in my family has one, and my father and I worked extensively throughout my childhood to find mine and kick ass for my school’s debate team. “Plain and simple. I’ve spent enough time studying this stuff; I am now ready to apply it all in a way that will help our society evolve… Here, let me introduce you to my PhD project. One of two, actually. ’Cause I was crazy enough to get myself two doctorates. Talk about an overachiever, right?”
That gets a light laugh out of the audience. The redhead’s interest is piqued. Blue Eyes watches me intently. He’s making it harder to focus, but I’m on a roll now, I can feel my confidence returning. I may be an introvert, but I can certainly command an entire room if it gets me closer to achieving my lifelong dream.
“My first PhD was rooted in sociology and the betterment of our society as a whole. I think I wanted to help foster kids at some point, if I’m to explain what drove me over to that particular academic field,” I continue. “I felt like we could do more for those who slip through the cracks in the system. But then I realized I needed to think bigger. I’d barely gotten my first PhD, and I was already looking into broadening my horizons. Blame my highly competitive brothers, I guess; I just had to up my game… So I ended up at CalTech. And since then, every step in my journey has led me closer to this…”
I click the slide button again and introduce them to the project that got me a standing ovation during my doctorate presentation. “I give you… Asclepius.”
Another click of the remote brings me to an overview page of my software design. “It’s a program that integrates state-of-the-art AI with pre-existing networks in order to predict and better manage both emergency and disaster scenarios, leading to better outcomes for patients and care providers.”