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“Apparently, Google has been working on their own internal crypto platform, but couldn’t bring it to market in time. After they acquire ACS, they want to bring in their own team and take over the top positions.”
Working at ACS without Owen and Jude was a terrible prospect. One I didn’t want to entertain at all. But finding out I didn’t even have an option, that they would be shoving me out at the same time… A hollow sensation filled my stomach. I felt nauseous.
Less than a year working there, and I’m already being cast aside.
“You don’t understand,” Owen said. “This is great news! You’ll get ahugeseverance package. More than just the stock options.”
“What kind of severance?” Michelle asked on the other side of the door. “What are the specifics?”
Owen opened the door and shouted at her until she put up her hands and practically ran down the hall to her own room. This time he left the door open so he could keep an eye on the hallway.
“I did some research,” I said, carefully omitting the fact that Michelle had done most of it for me. “I don’t know what the Google offer is, but ACS will probably be worth more if we wait to go public in the future rather than selling out now.”
“Potentially, yes,” Jude agreed, taking a stool and bringing it over so he could sit next to me. He put his hands on my knees, trying to comfort me. “But it probably won’t be much more than our current offer. Another ten percent, I’ve estimated. But that’s hypothetical money, whereas the Google offer is guaranteed.”
“Isn’t that what being a billionaire is all about?” I said bitterly. “Squeezing every dime you can out of an investment? Prioritizing your ever-increasing net worth above everything else in your life, including your personal relationships?”
Jude flinched. Owen stiffened by the door. I could tell that I had hurt them, but I was happy for it in that moment. They deserved to share some of the hurt I felt right now.
“I understand wanting to keep things the same,” Jude said gently. “Change is scary. When we sold PayScale, I wondered for a long time if it was the right thing to do. But then we started ACS, and I realized that selling PayScale was the right move. That will happen again, Amber. This was always part of the long-term plan.”
“Your plan, maybe,” I whispered. My voice hardly held any strength to it. “I thought we would get to be together longer.”
“Maybe not professionally, but nowwecan be together without fear of the public finding out,” Owen said. “If we go to a Warriors game together, we can be affectionate without fear that someone will write a story in the Chronicle about inappropriate relationships. I can put my arm around you, and kiss you, and act like you’reminerather than pretending that you’re just another person. Don’t you want that?”
I did want that. But I was still thinking about what I told Michelle earlier. How our relationship might not be strong enough to survive without the shared work experience to hold it up.
“Just consider it,” I said. “Consider saying no to the sale of the company. Then we can keep working together, and doing what we’re doing, and everything will be perfect until we go public. Can you do that? At least, consider it for me?”
“We can consider it all we want, but it doesn’t matter,” Owen muttered.
“What do you mean?”
“Even if both of us vote against the sale,” Jude explained, “it still might go through if Furio votes for it.”
“I don’t understand. Don’t you two still have a majority stake? Furio only purchased forty-five percent of the company.”
“Correct, but you are forgetting the other shares of the company we have issued,” Jude said. “You receive stock options every month. So does Melinda, and Nancy, and Dave, and everyone else that we have hired. Every time we hire someone new and give them stock, we devalue our own percentage of the company.”
“When Furio bought in, we still had over fifty percent control,” Owen said. “Now it’s more like forty-five.”
“Forty-five,combined,” Jude clarified. “Roughly. We each have twenty-two point six percent.”
“We can’t stop it,” Owen reiterated. “So we might as well embrace it. Especially since, you know, it’s mostly a good thing.”
“Is that what you’re going to do?” I demanded. “Just roll over and give up? That’s not the Owen March I met that night on the rooftop bar.”
Owen laughed bitterly. “We’ve been treating you with kiddie gloves, but you’re acting really immature about all of this. Rather than accept the reality of the situation like an adult, you’re being a child. Just like when you hacked my condo. Well, this isn’t child’s play, Amber. This is billions of dollars we’re talking about, here! If you want to sit with Jude and code for fun all day, giggling and flirting, then you can do that at home. You don’t need to try to block the entire goddamn acquisition over it. And youdefinitelydon’t get to ridicule us like we’re the ones doing something wrong.”
Owen had a stare like a green-eyed hawk when he was angry. He stood in the doorway, almost trembling with anger, before turning and stalking away.
Jude waited until his footsteps were downstairs before pulling me up out of my chair and into a comforting hug. All of my anger, all of my protests, melted away in his embrace.
“It will be okay,” he said, not letting go. “It may not seem like it now, but the future is bright, Amber. And whatever it has in store for us, we’ll figure it out. Together.”
He kissed me goodbye, but when he was gone I didn’t feel like the future was bright. I didn’t feel much of anything at all.
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