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“I know,” I said. “It’s systemic, not individual. Unless you’re Melvin. But hashtag not all men.” I immediately thought of Patrick. And my dad. And Shane. “Out of curiosity, since Indiana is no one’s prince, how would you describe your perfect guy, Heidi?”
“He’s still a little bitmyprince. But I guess I would say…tall, smart, confident. Has swagger but also a sensitive side. An artist but also suave. Knows how to talk to people. Extroverted. Cute. Takes the lead but respects me and my opinion. Did I say ‘tall’?”
“You did.” I blinked. “Do you know who you just described?”
“No, who?”
“Jason.”
She sat up and turned to look at me. “I did?”
“You did.”
She lay back down slowly, deep in thought. “I guess I did,” she murmured.
I discreetly pulled out my phone and air-dropped Jason’s contact info to Heidi’s phone. When it buzzed, she looked down and blushed. I couldn’t help but smile.
After Heidi went home, I stretched out on the couch and flipped through the channels. There was a hockey game on, so I tried to watch it, scanningthe crowd to see the types of fan apparel that were most popular. But after a few minutes, I had to change the channel. I knew so many people loved sports, but I couldn’t get past how boring they were. I reached over and grabbed my phone off the coffee table. Shane had texted me to let me know he’d landed, so it wasn’t weird to text back now that the game was on, right?
Do you see me on TV? I’m blocking all the projectiles, I texted to Shane.
I’m watching you right now. But it’s weird, I don’t see a phone in your hand, he wrote back.And your jersey doesn’t say Aaron on the back.
I wrote back immediately.I keep the phone in my big glove. And you know how it is in the locker room, we all throw our jerseys in the air before a game and then wear the one we catch first. It’s part of the pregame dance we do.
Choreographed? he texted back.
Of course. Freestyle is for postgame.
I have the weirdest picture in my head right now. Thanks for that.
I’m sure it’s accurate, I wrote, then put the phone back on the coffee table. Once again, I couldn’t help feeling a little bummed that he lived in New York and wasn’t here in person so I could narrate the game for him. I was sure he would have loved to hear all my insider knowledge on the team.
Tomorrow I was going to be putting the finishing touches on one of the most important things I’d ever done, but I’d make sure to leave the secret dancing rituals of the Avs out of it.
Chapter 11
The next morning, I grabbed my laptop and headed to a local coffee shop that I hadn’t been to in forever. They usually weren’t too busy and always had a few corner booths free. I grabbed one, and after I ordered a cold brew, I settled in to add some slides to the PowerPoint presentation I was polishing for SJ.
I was proud of what I’d done so far. If a fan pointed their phone at a shirt, jersey, hat, etc., the app would easily take them to the S.J. Sporting website, where they could order that product or the closest equivalent S.J. made. It would also tell them what aisle and bin number the item was in at the nearest S.J. store. Since the Avs had agreed to partner, I had added a special feature where the user could rewatch game highlights, keep a current score, and get little bios of all the players. If they took my idea, we could eventually expand it to include other teams and other sports entirely. I was sure it could give S.J. Sporting the edge they were looking for.
I practiced snapping a few pictures of products “in the wild,” so to speak, and running them through my code to see if it recognized theright part of the image and ignored the rest. I felt like I had an innovative approach to enhancing SJ’s app and web presence, and if I could just tweak a few of the glitches, I would be golden. The rest of the glitches, I’d turn into features. It was all about how you looked at it.
I was stoked to show my final project to Melvin. He’d checked in here and there but hadn’t offered any of his own ideas. That was good, though—we both knew he sucked at this stuff, and it was nice not having anyone around questioning the aesthetic of what I’d put together. He could give me feedback after it was finished, but for now, it was my vision that was coming to life.
I almost lost track of time and forgot to log in to the catch-up meeting Melvin had put on our calendar. The invitation flashed on the screen, so I quickly checked to make sure my camera was off before logging in. Melvin was already speaking.
“As you already know, the S.J. account is of the utmost importance. If and when we win the business, all our team resources will be allocated to executing the vision we’ve sold to the company. That means all other accounts will be transferred to other teams, and our main focus will be S.J. Sporting.”
I took a long drink of my cold brew and felt a caffeine buzz kick in.Thanks, Melvin. Just keep upping the pressure; awesome, you’re the best, I thought.
Then something unexpected happened. Evan Smith’s camera clicked on. His shiny forehead filled the screen, and I could see a mass of equipment and wires in the background. “Mr. Hammer, sir,” he said.
Melvin blinked and the computer lagged, leaving him frozen with his eyes closed for a second. “What is it, Evan? I was speaking.”
“Well, I’m currently the one who is sort of, unofficially, of course, the team lead when it comes to our client Cake Bakes. What’s going to happen to that account? How will the team lead thing work with S.J. Sporting?”
Melvin waved his hand dismissively, but the lag made it look like he was hitting himself. “Cake Bakes is a nothing account compared to SJ. That project can be passed to another group at Apollo IT. Once we win SJ, that will be our only focus. And I’ll choose the lead accordingly.”
