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“What about a gym instructor?” Owen suggested. “We have enough employees using it now that it might be worth the money.”
Melinda groaned. “I love my Jimmy, but the last thing I need is to see him at the office, too. I just need him to get back to work. Thatshouldbe happening in August and September. Then he won’t be so clingy. Okay, we’re all here now. Let’s get started. Jude?”
“Furio’s crypto company in Italy is growing rapidly,” Jude told everyone. “Their userbase is growing by five thousandper day.”
“Why are you acting like that’s bad news?” Owen asked. “This kicks a lot of ass. Especially if we end up integrating ACS with them.”
“Because they’re running into scaling issues,” Jude said. “Furio’s team can’t figure out a solution, so they want one of us to fly out to Italy to solve it for them. To show them how we handled it.”
“Why do we need to do it in person?” I asked. “It’s 2022. This sort of thing can be a Zoom meeting.”
“That’s the kind of guy Furio is,” Melinda said. “Remember, he flew all the way out here to sign documents in person, even though we could have donethatonline.”
“True.” I crossed my arms. “We could send Nancy, or Dave. They know the side-chain solutions we’ve implemented better than anyone.”
Owen shook his head. “I don’t think Furio would be happy if we only sent a team lead. Nancy will be explaining things to this company’s president, and all their senior engineers. We need to send Jude.”
Jude removed his glasses and began cleaning them on his tie. “I do notwantto fly to Italy. My sleep schedule gets thrown off for weeks when I visit the east coast. Europe would be ten times worse.”
“When we were selling PayScale, I went on at least a dozen unpleasant trips,” Owen said with a wry laugh. “It’s about time you dealt with some of that experience.”
Jude replaced his glasses and looked at me. “What about Amber?”
“What about me?”
“You can go in my place,” he said. “You are a senior engineer, unlike Nancy or Dave. Your opinion would be respected and well-received.”
At the same time, Owen and I both blurted out, “Really?”
“Sure,” Jude said, answering me instead of Owen. “That frees me up to focus on the big-picture stuff. I’m working eighteen hour days right now dealing with how rapidly we’re growing.”
“Would you be willing to do that?” Owen asked. “Put your own work on hold for a four-day trip to Italy?”
“Umm…” I said.
Reasons to go:
1. I had never visited Italy.
2. It might be a good networking opportunity.
3. Free trip!
4. I would see Furio.
Reasons not to go:
1. I was swamped with work here, and taking four days off would put mewaybehind.
2. I didn’t like long flights.
3. I would see Furio.
The last item could have been a proora con. I still smiled whenever I thought of the smiling, charming Italian billionaire. And the emails we had been exchanging, completely work-related and yet…
“Sure,” I said, throwing my mental lists in the trash. “I’ll do it.”
That night, I left work and pretended like I was walking to the CalTrain station. But instead of heading back to San Mateo, I called an Uber and took it to Jude’s apartment. The doorman let me in, and Jude was waiting inside with bags of Chinese takeout.
