by Adele Huxley
“Fucking brawl. These girls must be MMA fighters or something. They just dove in there fists swinging. No hair pulling, no scratching. It was a full-on bar fight. A couple of guys there jumped in to help. I hate pulling girls apart. I always end up grabbing bits I shouldn’t...I’m gonna get sued one of these days. Anyway, as I was dragging one away, someone dumped a pitcher of beer over my head.”
“At least your hair will be nice and shiny,” Lauren laughed. She started drawing on the large mirror as he finished up.
“Always the optimist. What’s that?” he asked as he opened the shower curtain and toweled off.
“Just a data structure, work stuff,” she replied. She tilted her head and considered the sketch for a moment before wiping it away with her hand.
“How was your day?”
“Oh fine,” Lauren said. “Just glad tomorrow is Friday. Remember not to take any shifts this weekend.”
“Oh yeah, our booze cruise!”
“I’m so looking forward it. I just wanna stuff my face with buffet food, dance, and be tipsy on mimosas before noon.”
They crawled into bed and turned off the lights, the room still faintly lit by the streetlights outside. Lauren leaned on her elbow looking down at Nick, walking her fingers down his chest and around his belly button. He put his hands behind his head and stretched.
“You sure you had an alright day? Nothing new and exciting?”
“Nope. Same old same old.” Lauren nearly told Nick about the new responsibilities Parker had thrust on her but held back. He had to get up early for his other job and she knew he’d stay up listening to everything she had to say. He was just that kind of guy.
“Mmmmk babe, sleep tight,” he said. He kissed her softly on the cheek, rolled over and within minutes he was fast asleep. Yet again, Lauren lay beside him wide awake, mind restless.
June 6th
Had a really good night last night, got a chance to work things out and I’m feeling a lot more confident.
So, StyleSpur’s main selling point is that we deliver fashion to women based on their body type. Now, there’s really nothing that special about the software that does it. Users just choose what their body type is so clearly there’s a certain amount of error. Then the clothing companies feature certain items based on body type and fashion preference but that still leaves a problem with sizing. Obviously sizes differ greatly between companies and even then not every size 14 body is shaped the same way. That’s always been a big problem.
When I first joined StyleSpur it was, in part, because I thought the concept was really good. Shopping can be so frustrating so the idea of having clothes delivered to my door that are guaranteed to fit is awesome. Over the past year Parker has moved further and further away from that idea and we’re quickly becoming the same as every other online retailer. Probably explains why I’m so bored with everything and why the investors aren’t jumping at the opportunity.
Anyway, this is where my idea comes in. If you position three normal web cameras towards a point in the center, it’s possible to get a fairly accurate 3D image. If a person were to scan themselves and then combine it with accurate measurements, like waist, hip, etc...this could be huge. Boutique retailers are already doing custom fit clothes so it’s really taking a couple ideas and combining them. Honestly, I’m surprised no one has done this before.
I have a lot of issues I need to resolve before I’m positive it can work. I’m gonna bust my ass to get it done as soon as I can. Hopefully it’ll be enough to grab someone’s attention.
Everything else is good, we’ve got our cruise tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to just relaxing. Nick keeps talking about moving back home and I just can’t cope with that conversation now. I really wish he’d reconsider going back to school. I’m happy to be the main bread-winner in our relationship, I don’t care about anything like that but I’m afraid he does. Who knows? Maybe this idea will be just the thing we all need. If we get enough money I’ll have the chance to do some really creative, innovative things. Maybe, just maybe, with my ideas and Parker’s business sense, StyleSpur could make it. I could pay for David’s college, Dad can get his knee replacement, Mom can retire finally...can you imagine?
7.
“Wait! Let me get one of us in front of the ship,” Ali begged.
“They are literally boarding. Like, right now,” said Lauren.
“They wouldn’t dare leave without us. Just one,” she said holding her phone out at arm’s length for a selfie.
“If I don’t have a glass of champagne in my hand in five minutes I’m gonna throw you overboard,” said Lauren through a forced smile. The phone clicked, their smiling faces frozen for a moment on the screen.
“Done, done. See? That wasn’t so painful. Let’s go,” she said, looping her arm around Lauren, guiding her up the gangplank. Nick and Pete, who Nick dubbed “what’s-his-name” at the bar days earlier, stood just inside the entrance. Both men looked quite handsome with their designer jeans, casual suit jackets, and sunglasses. Pete was an inch shorter than Nick, dark skinned, and had a runner’s build.
“Ladies first,” Ali said as she strode past with a flick of her hair. Lauren had to laugh. Ali was always the drama queen, always the center of attention.
The yacht was gorgeous. Well-dressed couples filled the two floors, seated at linen covered tables or milling about in conversation. Light jazz music tinkled from a pianist at the end of the dance floor and echoed beautifully throughout the open space. A hostess led them to their table, a chilled bottle of champagne and carafe of orange juice waiting. Nick poured the mimosas and Lauren proposed the toast.
“To good friends and good memories!”
“Absolutely,” Ali said with an enthusiastic clink. “This is more the life I should be accustomed to. I think I’ll buy myself a yacht. No, wait! You can buy me a yacht,” she said patting Pete on the arm.
“Of course, darling, anything you want.”
“Oh wow, you’ve got him so well trained already,” Lauren joked.
The two couples spent the next hour wining and dining as the yacht floated past the sparkling skyscrapers of Manhattan. Lauren had to admit Pete seemed to be a good fit for Ali. He took her dramatic side in stride and was witty enough to keep her interested. Ali had fickle taste in men but if they could keep up, they stuck around. He was an investment analyst at J.P. Morgan and Lauren couldn’t help but wonder if theirs was a relationship of opposites attract.
“So how did you two meet?” Pete asked Lauren as he took a bite of a decadent slice of chocolate cake.
“Well, it was in my senior year at MIT,” Lauren said, meeting Nick’s eye. “We were both at a mutual friend’s party and just started talking. Been together pretty much ever since.”
“So you went to MIT, too,” Pete said to Nick.
“No, I didn’t go to college. We actually went to the same high school but were a year apart. We knew of each other but never really talked until Lauren came home for winter break.”
“Yeah, Nick’s an uneducated plebeian like me. Seriously, it’s disgustingly cute. These two would drive and meet halfway almost every weekend,” Ali said rolling her eyes.
“Actually, that’s where we were last weekend. We took a quick trip back to Lenox for old times’ sake,” she said, finding Nick’s hand under the table.
“And then when you graduated you moved here?”
“Pretty much,” Lauren nodded. Her phone buzzed against the table.
“Work?” Nick asked tentatively.
Lauren nodded but ignored the call from Parker. “What can I do from here? I’m on a freaking boat, right? What do you guys think about grabbing our drinks and heading outside? And you,” she said pointing to Ali. “No more Instagramming!”
Ali leaned forward with a sneer. “I’d like to see you make me, pipsqueak. If I’m not going to play in the WNBA, my size should count for something.”
They gathered their glasses and followed the men out on deck
. Lauren grabbed Ali’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Didn’t get the part?” she asked sympathetically.
“My agent keeps telling me not to worry, but how can’t I? It’s not like there are a ton of shows casting Amazonians and it doesn’t help most lead men are short as hell. It’s just frustrating.”
“I know, sweetie. Something will definitely come along soon, you’ll see. At least Pete’s big, right?”
“Oh, he’s plenty big.” Ali elbowed her jokingly, doing her best Groucho Marx impression.
Lauren leaned on the railing, the breeze whipping through her hair. For the brief moment she was alone, she closed her eyes and savored the peace. The sun hot on her shoulders, the sound of the water splashing against the hull of the ship. For a flash she felt completely and totally in the moment, not thinking about the future, not worrying about her family or friends. It was as though she was connected to the world around her, not merely existing within in. She took a deep lungful of air and held it. A familiar voice broke her concentration and not one she was expecting.
“Fucking hell. What the fuck are you doing here?” Her eyes snapped open to see Parker standing at the railing next to her. He wore a tight-fitting pink collared shirt and khaki trousers. The top button of his shirt was undone exposing a bit of dark chest hair.
“Parker, what does it look like I’m doing?” she said with barely restrained irritation.
“Whatever. I tried calling you. The site is completely jacked, I’m getting some really nasty phone calls from clients and can’t get hold of any one person who can tell me why.” She ignored his accusation.
Lauren whipped out her phone and checked the website. Parker wasn’t kidding, it wasn’t responding at all. Scooping her dress underneath her legs, she sat on a padded lounge chair. Limited by what she could do remotely, she attempted a few things but quickly exhausted her options. Parker sat on the chair opposite grumbling at his phone. Lauren peripherally watched a leggy blonde approach from behind him, holding a finger up to her lips to indicate a secret. She slid her hands over his shoulders and squeezed his chest muscles with a giggle, bright red nails digging into his skin. Her tight dress would’ve been perfect for a Friday night out clubbing but was glaringly out of place at a posh brunch. Plus, she looks possibly underage.
“Baby, whattya up to?” she asked leaning over his shoulder to see his phone. Parker ignored her presence completely.
“Alright, Sam just texted me. He says it’s something about a 500 error?”
Lauren sighed as the young girl straightened with a pout. Lauren gave her a brief smile and wave, sensing the girl was miffed another woman was stealing Parker’s attention. “Hi, I’m Lauren. I work with Parker.”
The girl smiled. “I’m Mandi.”
“Excuse me,” Parker snapped. “What the fuck is a 500 error?”
“Where are you seeing that?”
“Look,” he said as he angrily thrust his phone under her nose.
“Okay...well it’s something to do with the server. I can’t tell much more than that from here.”
Parker’s green eyes flashed with anger. He scratched at his short beard and looked like he was ready to pitch his phone into the water.
“Alright, this is what’s gonna happen. When this boat lands, you’re on a cab straight to the office and you’re gonna sort this out. Sam and Raj heading there now. Even if they get everything running again, I want your ass in there to see that what happened never happens again, you got it?”
Lauren’s stomach sank as she saw Nick approaching with a glass of champagne and moved to intercept. His expression clouded immediately when he saw her company. She opened her mouth to say something first but he handed her the glass without a word and turned.
“Parker,” he said with his hand outstretched.
“Oh, hi Nate,” Parker replied, briefly grasping his hand without making eye contact. Nick towered over him, somehow inflating his size even further yet Parker pretended not to notice.
“It’s Nick. We’ve met. Several times, actually.”
“Of course, right.” Parker turned his back to Nick and spoke to Lauren. “I trust you have this under control and you’ll tell me when it’s fixed.”
“Yeah, I’ll take care of it.” He stepped over the corner of the lounge chair and took a few steps before turning around.
“Maybe you aren’t ready for everything we talked about the other day. I have to say, I’m not very pleased. Oh, and when I call, don’t ignore me. I pay you to pick up. Answer your fucking phone next time.” He strode away leaving Mandi to give chase in her stilettos.
Lauren grabbed Nick’s arm as he lunged towards him.
“Not worth it,” she whispered harshly. “Just leave it.”
“That guy needs to be put in his place. Where the hell does he get off talking to you like that?” Nick spun back to face Lauren, his jaw muscles clenching. “Why do you let him treat you like that? No job is worth dealing with an asshole like that.”
“I know, it’s alright. Listen, I have bad news. I need to go into the office when we get back to the dock. It’s basically a meltdown but I think I can get it fixed pretty quickly. You go with Ali and Pete and I can meet up with you, okay?” She tried to soften the news by caressing his arm. He still looked like he wanted to go find Parker and throttle him.
“What was he talking about? What aren’t you ready for?” Nick lashed out.
“It’s nothing. It’s just stuff to do with the funding. He’s just being an ass, really, leave it.”
“Whoa, you two need a minute?” Ali asked as she and Pete returned with a plate of cookies.
“No, we’re good. I just ran into Parker and—” Lauren began.
“Wait, Parker the Pecker is here? On this ship?” Ali said looking around the deck.
“Yeah, and I have half a mind to go reintroduce myself properly,” said Nick. Ali’s eyes lit up.
“Let’s do it! Point ‘em out. I’ve heard enough about this guy. I need to meet him.”
“Please, guys, he’s already ruined the rest of the day. Can’t we just enjoy the next,” she consulted her phone, “twenty minutes before we dock? Please? I’ll get the site back online and meet up with you as soon as I can. You can even gossip about me behind my back.”
Whether it was overindulgence, motion sickness, or Parker, Lauren walked off the yacht feeling far from relaxed. She said goodbye to the group feeling nauseated and upset.
June 9th
Real quick, I’m actually at work right now... it just occurred to me that no matter how good my concept is, the biggest hurdle I face is actually getting it in front of people who could help me make it happen. For example, investors. If Parker is good at anything it’s selling and he certainly knows everyone there is to know in those circles... maybe helping him out with the funding is a blessing in disguise. I can learn how it all works and even meet some of these people for myself. Seriously, if there’s anything I’ve learned in my time here it’s that networking matters so much more than the actual idea. So this is how I see it: I help Parker go after this funding as if it were my own company. If I make him look good in front of these investors, if I help take StyleSpur to the next level, that can only be good, right? On top of that, maybe I can get the experience I need to do it myself later on.
9.
Nick was on his stomach spread across their bed watching videos on YouTube. Every so often he burst into loud laughter or would exclaim, “Holy shit,” or “That’s freaking hilarious,” to no one in particular. Lauren did her best to ignore him, not wanting to ruin his day off. She quietly slipped on her headphones and tried to ignore the distractions. It’s not like she wanted to ignore Nick but with Parker gone, she didn’t have much time at work to get any actual coding done. Lauren shifted in her computer chair, drawing her left knee into her chest and resting her chin. A couple minutes later she heard Nick speaking to her but couldn’t make out the words.
“What babe?” she
said lifting the headphones off one ear and turning to him.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you were under your headphones. It’s nothing.” She could hear the mild annoyance in his voice.
“No, it’s fine, what’s up?”
“Really, it’s nothing. Just a funny video I saw.”
“Just show me later, okay?” she replied as sweetly as she could.
Concentration completely broken, she reread the last few lines of code to remember where she’d left off. Nick never seemed to understand that programming wasn’t something you could just start and stop. When she was in front of a computer, it took a little while to build to the right momentum. After twenty or thirty minutes was when the magic started to happen. It was incredibly distracting and inefficient to be interrupted and frankly, she had enough of that at work.
Twenty minutes later she was staring at the screen trying to think through a particularly difficult issue when her instant messenger flashed up. It was a message from Nick. With a sigh, she pulled her headphones off and clicked on it. An ad for a rental apartment loaded. The photos looked nice, a little too nice, and the price was ridiculously cheap.
“What’s this?”
“Oh, you didn’t have to look at it right away.”
“Well, I’m already looking at it. You know this is probably a scam, right?”
Nick sighed. “No, it’s real.”
“No one bedroom apartment in Manhattan looks this good and is only $800 a month. Come on...”
“It’s not in Manhattan. It’s in Lake George.” Nick sat up on the bed and crossed his legs. “I just thought I’d show you what we could be living in for less than what we’re paying now.”
“Okay...can we talk about this later? I’m in the middle of something and—”
“You’re always in the middle of something. It’s my only day off this week—”