Beautiful Code (11 page)

Then she added, “I believe there were a few questions you’d prepared. I hope I’ve addressed them adequately.” With that, Amelia walked off the stage, the crowd still applauding.

Tom Fenway opened his arms and Amelia fell into them. “You were absolutely brilliant,” he whispered, planting a grandfatherly kiss on the top of her head. Cameras snapped all around them, the journalists delighting in the perfectly captured moment of mentor-mentee affection.

She stood back and smiled at Tom, her eyes bright. “Thank you so much,” she said quietly.

T. J. ran up to her. “Jesus, Amelia! Where did that come from? You were unbelievable!” He pulled her into a hug, his face radiant with astonishment and adrenaline. “You just catapulted this thing onto a whole new level. Do you have any idea how much you owned that crowd?”

She laughed modestly. “Thank Tom,” she said. “He gives a hell of a pep talk.”

Amelia and Tom exchanged a knowing glance. Right after Adam had left this morning, Tom had called her cell phone to check in. After she’d babbled into the phone, he’d calmly told her she needed to wait exactly three hours to have a breakdown. For now, she had to bolster herself. “Act like it’s not you. Pretend like you’re playing the part of someone else, a fierce and intimidating woman who doesn’t take shit from anyone.” Together, they’d written what she would say and he’d instructed her to stand in front of the mirror as she practiced the speech into her phone.

Amelia finally turned to Adam. Adam didn’t know what to say. He’d failed her, and he knew that she knew it. He’d gotten distracted worrying over Lisa, and somewhere while he was gone, his sister had become…awesome.

“You were amazing,” he finally offered.

“Thanks,” she nodded.

Adam turned to Tom. “Answering their questions before they asked them was a pretty bold strategy.”

Tom smiled. “Well I ain’t often right, but I’ve never been wrong.

Amelia laughed. “Can we please go get lunch now? I’m starving.”

As they walked toward the dining room, Adam dug his hands into his pockets. His fingers landed on something: the flower from Lisa’s hair. He held it up and contemplated it for a moment before tossing it into the garbage can in disgust.

CHAPTER 18:

Here She Comes

P
atty was standing in the upstairs sitting room of the Villa next to the Hibiscus Grove, looking out at the wedding guests below. Shandi was taking pictures somewhere and the other bridesmaids were happily drinking champagne and putting the finishing touches on their makeup.

From here, she could see all the guests milling around on the terrace outside. She admired Lisa Bristol’s silky, gold, one-shoulder dress and the little Judith Leiber clutch she carried effortlessly. She looked like a little goddess. What was she doing with that boring Indian guy? Nevertheless, Patty was jealous of Lisa. Not in a malicious way (how could you not like someone so sweet?), but in a wish-I-was-her kind of way.

She took a sip of champagne and scanned the crowd for T. J., but she couldn’t find him. He was probably off with some newly found hot girl, she thought. She heard her phone signal a text message.

From: CHAD

I need to see you immediately. Can you come to my suite downstairs? And come alone!

Patty almost coughed up her drink. Was he serious? In less than an hour he would be married to her sister. What kind of horrible person was he? She felt any lingering attraction melt. This guy was bad news.

She was in the middle of typing an angry response when another text came through.

From: CHAD

URGENT!! PLEASE!!

She sighed. Fine. One more meeting, but if he thought she was going to sleep with him he had another thing coming. She erased what she had started to type and tapped,
On my way
.

She crept out the side door and back through the lobby to the east wing groom’s quarters, prepping what she was going to say. She wouldn’t even enter the room, just stand outside and tell Chad, defiantly, that it was over and he needed to leave her alone.

Before she could knock on the door, however, it swung open and Chad pulled her by the wrist into the room.

“Chad, I cannot do this anymore,” she said, just as she’d rehearsed on the walk. “You are marrying my sister and—”

“No, I’m not!” Chad shouted, panicking. She’d never seen him so flustered. He was freaking out.

“What are you talking about?”

“She’s gone, Patty! She’s gone!”

Patty looked at him like he was an idiot. “What is wrong with you? She’s taking photos. I was with her an hour ago.”

“No, she’s not!” Chad was pacing back and forth in the room, pressing his hand to his temple, trying to think. “The photographer came in here forty minutes ago looking for her. She said Shandi had asked if she could leave her alone for a few minutes, and when she came back ten minutes later, Shandi was gone. The photographer thought we were having some romantic pre-wedding tryst. I’ve called Shandi a dozen times. I ran around the entire grounds. She’s nowhere.”

Patty looked at the clock. It was 11:42 a.m. The processional started at noon.

“Nothing’s wrong, Chad,” she said calmly. “She’s upstairs in the bridal suite. I just walked past her to come up here,” she lied, wondering whether Shandi actually had been in the bridal suite. “You need to go to the altar and get in place, okay? You’ll see her in, like, twenty minutes, and then you’ll be married and you’ll laugh about this.”

Chad grabbed a bottle of water off the minibar and took a long swig. “You’re right. She probably just got distracted with all the getting ready.”

“Exactly.”

Chad put down the water bottle and gave Patty a hug. “You’re the best,” he said, and ran out the door.

Patty waited thirty seconds, and then ran as fast as she could upstairs to figure out what was going on.

CHAPTER 19:

Competitive Advantage

“I
wanted to thank you for today.” Amelia was washing her hands in the bathroom when she heard a thick British accent perfectly articulate each word.

The bathroom was otherwise empty. The blond woman looked Amelia in the eyes and smirked tightly. A moment passed before she took a lipstick tube out of her purse and leaned toward the gold-rimmed mirror to apply it.

Amelia looked at the woman’s reflection in the mirror, her hands still under the running water. “What for?” she asked cautiously.

“For putting us on the map,” the woman said, her eyes focused on her mouth in the mirror, carefully drawing the deep red to the edge of her top lip. She puckered a few times to settle the lipstick, and then she turned to face Amelia and stuck out her hand. “I’m Violet.”

Amelia studied the woman. She couldn’t tell how old she was. She could have been twenty or thirty-five. Her wardrobe was too sophisticated for college, but her skin had the flawless glow of a teenager. Amelia shook her hand but didn’t introduce herself. Violet obviously knew who she was.

“What do you mean?” she asked instead.

“I mean, before this, no one knew a thing about RemoteX. We weren’t even invited to the conference. We snuck inside the day before, pretending to be hotel staff, and added our booth to the expo floor. Now, though, when people leave, all they’re going to be talking about is RemoteX. Doreye and RemoteX. Money can’t buy the kind of publicity you just got us.”

“But they think you’re dishonest. My brother figured out how you cheated. We exposed you.”

Violet smiled. “They think RemoteX is dishonest for
now
. But give me a week, maybe two, and the story will change. Besides, any press is good press.”

Amelia was looking at her suspiciously.

“I knew you’d never figure it out in time,” Violet said. “Your
brother
, however, I underestimated. He’s not as naïve as you. There’s real potential in Adam Dory.” She smiled at Amelia, but Amelia didn’t seem to register.

“You see, your problem is that you assume people are good. Despite all that you’ve been through, in your happy world people are incapable of acting selfishly or maliciously. You never even thought to consider that I might have done something to mess up your presentation. Instead, you worried that
you’d
messed up something.”

Amelia stared at Violet in silence, studying her warily. Violet shrugged it off with a laugh.

“Look at me like that all you want.” She turned back to the mirror and touched her hair to pull it into place, dropped her lipstick into her purse and snapped it shut. “Not all of us are cute little orphans with Tom Fenway in our back pocket. Some of us have to make things happen.”

“See you around, Amelia.” She waved as she walked out the door. Amelia watched her leave through the reflection in the mirror.

CHAPTER 20:

Speech!

C
had’s hands were clammy and his cheeks were a deep crimson. He’d been standing at the altar for fifteen minutes. The string quartet had repeated Bach’s “Air on the G String” three times, waiting for the cue to switch to the processional music so the wedding could begin.

Chad felt everyone staring at him, looking for his expression. People were discreetly checking their watches and iPhones. The wedding was supposed to have started already. Why wasn’t anyone making an announcement?

Chad tried to push away his worry and focus on how beautiful everything was. The guests were assembled on the lawn at the Hibiscus Grove, under a white canopy tent. The grass had been trimmed to the length of a putting green so as not to catch on women’s heels. The curved, dark redwood altar was covered in white lilies—Shandi’s favorite—and looked out onto the ocean where the high sun was gleaming over the water. Quiet bamboo fans whirred over the three hundred guests, all seated in cushioned white folding chairs. The aisle between his family’s side and hers was sprinkled with white rose petals. His eyes followed the aisle down to the French doors of the hotel’s side terrace, through which, he was sure, the ushers would soon be guiding his mother to the front row so that the ceremony could start and he could marry Shandi.

His eyes strained to see past the doors. Where was Patty? Where was
anyone
? Craig, his best man, leaned over to him. “Don’t worry, man,” he said, “The longer you have to wait, the better the sex will be tonight.” Chad forced a smile, appreciating Craig’s clumsy effort to cheer him up.

The crowd turned at the sound of the doors pushing open. Finally! Chad jumped, looking anxious.

But it wasn’t Patty, or Shandi, or the ushers. It was…T. J. Bristol.

Chad hadn’t known T. J. that long, but in all their encounters he’d never seen him at all un-composed. Yet here was T. J., his clothes a mess, his hair disheveled, with a distraught look on his face. From his spot at the altar, he saw T. J.’s chest rising and falling in deep breaths, like he’d just finished a sprint.

T. J. ran midway down the aisle and stopped, looking up at Chad with eyes full of concern and opened his mouth to speak.

 EPILOGUE

From: Ted Bristol,
[email protected]

To: Adam Dory,
[email protected]

Subject: Great Meeting You

Hi Adam,

I hope you enjoyed crashing the wedding! Did you stick around long enough for all the drama? Poor Ron Hawkins had about five heart attacks.

Am leaving Maui tomorrow, but would love to grab another scotch with you when we’re back in the Bay Area. Don’t worry—it’s on me. I’m impressed with what you’re doing with Doreye and can tell you’re very driven. I’m an excellent judge of character.

Shoot me an email. I’m looking forward to it.

Ted

“S
ir, I don’t want to tell you again. Turn off all electronic devices.” The stewardess’ aggravated tone startled Adam, who was glued to his iPhone. He glanced up, gave a slight smile and apologized.

“Adam, it’s a real threat,” Amelia sighed, “The signals that the 3G network gives off can interfere with communication and flight control devices in the cockpit. Your phone could endanger everyone on this flight!”