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I give a small smile. “Yeah.”
Alice studies me for a moment. “Do you regret it now?”
I tip my head from side to side. “It would have been good to feed that money back into the company. It would have benefited all of our employees. Just because Saxon, Damon, and I have money, it doesn’t mean that everyone has. I wonder whether I was being selfish in making that decision.”
“Selfish in selling a revolutionary piece of software for a decent price? Only you could think that.”
“It sounds altruistic, but deep down, if I’m honest, can I say I’m not looking for admiration and approval? I don’t know.”
“Admiration and approval from whom?”
I shrug.
“From society? From your parents? Or from Saxon?”
I frown.
“There’s a wholeFriendsepisode where Joey tells Phoebe there’s no such thing as a selfless act,” she says. “She spends the whole time trying to prove to him he’s wrong, but she can’t do it. You’re refusing to be guided by money because you know it’s going to make a huge impact and advance lots of different areas of technology, and you want to work with the best company you can because it’s going to be amazing. You’d be inhuman if you didn’t get a kick out of that.”
I study my glass, thinking about it.
“What happened after you turned them down?” she asks.
“Renée screamed at me, told me I was being an idiot, and she was offering me a fortune. I could see she hadn’t expected me to turn her down. I… lost my temper a bit.”
“You yelled at her?”
“No. I didn’t raise my voice. Sunrise has been having trouble with working conditions and pay cuts in its factories. Plus I was with her at a meeting at the hospital once and she made fun of someone with a speech impediment. That didn’t sit right with me. So I told her I’d never sell my software to a company run by Attila the Hun.”
She laughs. “What did she say to that?”
“She called me a fucking cunt. It was almost funny watching Helen type that up. Renée said, ‘Don’t type that,’ and Helen said, ‘Everything’s going in the minutes.’ I thought Renée was going to tear her laptop out of her hands.”
“What did Craig say while all this was going on?”
“He just put his head in his hands.” I look through the window at the view. It’s a few hours until sunset. The sun’s rays have bathed the grass in a warm gold, and they’re reflecting off the windows of the high-rise buildings, almost blinding me. I think about Craig—one of my oldest friends—and how he seemed almost broken, a completely different man from the witty, smart guy I thought I knew so well.
“How did it end?” Alice asks softly.
Wiremu arrives at the table with a plate of sourdough bread and house-churned cultured butter. Alice doesn’t touch it, though, still looking at me. I take off my glasses, fold them up, and leave them on the table. “I told him I wasn’t going to sell MOTHER to Sunrise, and if he were to continue working at Kingpinz, he would need to accept that. He said I was making him look foolish by going back on his promise. I told him he didn’t need my help for that. Then I fired him.”
“Ah.”
“Renée said they were going to sue me for wrongful dismissal. Then they both walked out.”
“What did Helen say?”
“I thought she was going to bollock me. I apologized, and she said, ‘I’m glad you fired him. He’s a knob.’ She did add that it was going to be an unpleasant court case, but I think after he started seeing Renée, it was always going to end like that.”
“How sad. I can’t see that relationship having a happy ending.”
“No, me neither.”
“I’m so sorry,” she says, holding out her hand.
I slide mine into hers. “Ah, it’s okay.” I lift her hand and kiss her fingers. “Let’s not talk about it anymore. I don’t want him to spoil our time together.” I release her hand. “Come on, this bread looks amazing. Tell me about your day. What have you been up to?”
Chapter Seventeen
