Page 50 of The Hard Launch

“What experiment?” I ask.

“The one to determine if you like talking about work and sleeping with me, or if you actually like me?”

I feel my face getting hot. “Lacey, that’s not—”

“I’m not mad!” she insists. “I’ve wondered the same thing myself, to be honest.”

“That’s not what this is. I promise.”

“But if it was?”

I grab her hand. “Everything I learn about you makes me like you more,” I say.

She smiles. “That was a very good answer,” she tells me.

“What’s yours?” I ask.

She looks at her watch and asks for twenty-three minutes.

The five hours ended and the wind brought the fog in, but we’re still together, sitting on the wall at Ocean Beach while I try to understand if what she’s telling me is good or bad. It sounds good, but it feels bad.

“If you look at the Pros column, there’s so much there,” she’s saying. “Professionally, just the opportunity to work directly with the founders.”

I clear my throat.

“Come on, Jude. It could be a chance for me to build a team and a product culture. I love being part of ours, but I can’t say I’m not interested in building my own.”

I stand up and put my hands in my shorts pockets. I’m freezing.

“Should we just have this conversation at my apartment?” she asks.

“I don’t know that it needs to be a conversation,” I tell her. “Edmund’s right, you’re right. And I don’t have a say.”

“But what do you think?” she asks me. Like I’m going to tell her to limit herself and stay at Lettercat, or throw back at her something she said to me pretty damn recently: this is the only place I want to be.

“I think you need to do the thing that’s best for you,” I say. “And it sounds like that might be moving on.”

“I’m not doing anything yet. All I did was tell Edmund that I’m open to a conversation.”

“Exactly,” I tell her, not revealing the part of Glenn’s hiring process where Edmund called me and said, “I’ve found your Head of Product, here’s his contact information.”

If Edmund wants Lacey somewhere else, it’s hers to turn down. I request an Uber: William will arrive in 4 minutes.

“I feel like I ruined a nice day and I’m sorry. I wanted to wait until after Monday but I also didn’t want to keep it from you. I don’t want this to be a distraction.”

I grab her hand and pull her up from the wall. “It’s not a distraction. You didn’t ruin anything.”

We walk to the pickup spot, we get into the car. Lacey leans her head on my shoulder.

“If I leave, I’d do it for professional reasons. But you have to admit it would make things easier. No matter what happens between you and me.”

“I guess,” I say, reluctantly.

“Where does Ella think you are right now?” she asks me.

“Brunch with friends,” I tell her.

“And how was it, lying to your sister?”