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“It’s my dinner drink. Now, if you’re about done telling me how I eat and drink all wrong, would you care to hear more about NewNetwork?”
He smiled, but something was lodging in his chest. Worry. Concern. Doubt. “Tell me this, Carrie,” he said, only moments after she’d picked up where she’d left off earlier. “What do I get out of my investment?”
“I’m glad you asked. You get free PR. The best you can’t buy. This is an altruistic program, aimed at the betterment of womankind. And let’s face it, it’s far from a level playing field. In developing countries, school is considered a prerogative only of boys and the very, very wealthy. Even here, in the United Kingdom, we’re far from achieving wage parity. This app is, initially, a feel good foray into women’s networking. But beyond that, it’s going to become a platform. Jobs for women, nanny services, free legal advice. The possibilities are endless – once you have a devoted market of women.”
“Mmm,” he nodded slowly. “Why are you speaking so cynically about it, then?”
“Cynical?” She flushed, shaking her head. “I’m not.”
“You’re pretending it’s just about money, and I don’t believe that. Surely this matters to you.”
“Of course it does,” she said, lowering her eyes.
“Not as much as it should. Not as much as it would have mattered to seventeen year old you.”
“Now who’s talking about irrelevancies?” She asked, embarrassed to the core.
“You used to be someone with real passion in them. Where did that go?”
“I’ve changed,” she said honestly. “I’m not that girl anymore.”
“No kidding,” he agreed firmly, reclining while the waiter placed a martini and a bottle of wine on the table. He lifted his glass in a salute and then sipped it. “What happened? What changed?”
She ran a finger around the rim of her martini glass. “Like you don’t know?”
His frown deepened. “I haven’t seen you in a very long time, princesa. How would I?”
She thought about telling him. About throwing it in his face that his callous behaviour – his outright rejection – had ripped her teenage heart from her chest, and forever changed how she viewed the world. That seeing him with her mother cemented her understanding of how things worked. That brains and intentions were all well and good, but that looks mattered most. To everyone.
The waiter placed bread down between them, and Carrie watched as Gael spread a generous amount of salted butter over the top. He offered it to her but she shook her head in a silent refusal.
“I take it you studied economics in the end?”
Carrie, relieved to follow conversation onto safer ground, nodded. “Yes.”
“And this?” He asked, nodding towards NewNetwork.
“Initially I came on board in an advisory capacity. Once I realised the potential, I surrendered my other clients and gave this my full attention. The developer is brilliant – technically gifted. But he’s got no head for marketing, brand management or finances.”
“I see,” he said with a nod. “So you’re committed to the project?”
“Meaning?”
“That if I invest, I want to know you’ll continue in your current role for the foreseeable future.”
“Oh, right.” She nodded. “I have no plans to move on.”
“That, as you well know, is not the same thing.”
Carrie laughed. “Do you want it in blood?”
“I can think of more pleasurable ways to extract your agreement,” he said, and beneath the table, his legs brushed against hers. Carrie shifted a little, but her insides were clenching with the force of passionate memories.
“Gael,” she whispered, and lifted a hand to her throat. She had never been more relieved than when another waiter appeared with their gnocchi, and Carrie’s salad. She ignored the potato pasta and pressed a fork into her lettuce.
“The project’s success is largely on your shoulders, Carrie. If you leave, it will just be another App in a sea of many other clever ideas.”
“You’re wrong,” she said, surprising them both with her vehemence. “Pass me your phone.”
