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My sister graduated from Stanford the next day. Ironically the guest speaker was none other than alumnus Larry Page. I winced and ducked my head a little lower in the crowd, even though he probably wouldn’t recognize me, and couldn’t see me even if he did.
We hosted an after-party on the rooftop deck ofMarcello’s,with many of the same friends that had come to her birthday party a year before.
“Are you sure we’re okay to be back here?” Phil, my sister’s boyfriend, asked. “As entertaining as it was, I do not want a repeat of last year’s theatrics.”
“It’s fine,” Michelle told him. “Amber isfriendswith the owner now.”
I shot her a look. Even though my relationship with Owen was public, Phil had never found out about it because he didn’t read the gossip blogs. And the last thing I wanted was for him to start hitting me up for connections to the men I was dating.
“So,” I said, changing the subject. “Now that you’ve graduated, you can get a job and move out. That’s what a good parent would do, right? Kick you out of the house?”
My sister laughed nervously at the joke.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Shelly has indeed found a job,” Phil said. “She begins in two weeks.”
“That’s great! Where?”
She grimaced and said, “…Google?”
“What! But they’re our competitor! Their crypto platform is gaining more market share every day!”
“What was I supposed to say? They need accountants too!”
The two of us laughed and spent the night arguing about all the other places she could work instead.
*
Finally, the time came for Advanced Crypto Systems to go public. An Initial Public Offering was a way for the company to raise funding by issuing shares to the general public. It was also a way for the original investors—in this case Owen, Jude, and Furio—to realize their investment gains, depending on how many shares they wanted to make public.
Furio and I walked into the ACS office at six in the morning. Despite the early hour, every one of our three hundred employees was already in the office, gathered in the big open room where a projector screen was playing a livestream of MSNBC. Tables were filled with every manner of food: donuts, bagels, spreads, and a build-your-own breakfast burrito bar.
“It’s weird being here without them,” I said while grabbing an energy drink from the kitchen.
“Indeed,” Furio said. “But we will see them before the day is over. To celebrate together.”
Or to commiserate together, if it goes badly,I thought.
Melinda was pacing in the main room, twirling a pen between her fingers. She looked like she hadn’t slept all night.
“The opening price is twelve dollars,” she said. “What if that’s too low? Or worse, what if it’s too high?”
“Do you think the price will hold?” Dave asked.
Nancy had a grim look on her face. “I read an article in the newspaper that claimed ACS is overvalued. The price might drop to ten. Or even single-digits.”
Dave looked at his mug of coffee like he wished there was whiskey in it.
The mood in the room seemed to match theirs. Everyone was buzzing with nervous energy. There were lots of arms crossed and worried expressions.
“It will go fine,” I told them. “There’s nothing we can do about it, now.”
“That’s the part I don’t like,” Melinda muttered. “Not being in control.”
Despite my words of reassurance, I shared their concern. When Google tried to acquire ACS, they offered the equivalent of thirteen dollars per share. Starting the IPO a dollar below that wasn’t a big deal by itself, but if the share price dropped after the opening bell…
“There they are!” Will Won shouted.
