PLAY by Piper Lawson

Author:Piper Lawson [Lawson, Piper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-09-14T03:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

You’re a virgin

We worked late into the night on the pitch in Max’s hotel room. Since Max had invited me to help him present, we’d split the work into two parts: he’d do the storytelling and I’d do the business side.

I was so flattered he’d wanted to do this together that I tried to ignore the fact that actually standing at the front of a room terrified me.

The carefree Max Donovan from the exhibition a few hours ago was gone, replaced with an intensely focused one. By midnight we’d abandoned sitting on the couch. I was cross-legged on the floor while he reclined against the couch. Over room service—cheesesteak sandwich for him, chicken for me—we pored over printed versions of our presentation for any holes.

“Good luck. Both of you,” Riley said over Skype when we finished going over a few last details with him. “Payton, I put something in your laptop case. A gift.”

I fished in it and found the clear baggie. “Aww, thanks Riley.”

“Least I can do. I made the developers eat the other flavors the last forty-eight hours.”

“Why don’t I get a present?” Max griped. He’d changed out of his clothes from the plane and was wearing a fresh navy t-shirt that said “Go Fly a Kite” with a picture of a kite on it.

“Me going into business with you was a present,” Riley replied easily. “Now don’t make me regret it.”

I shifted forward to click “end” on my notebook and Riley vanished from view, leaving Max and I alone again in the big room.

“Watermelon Starbursts?” he asked.

“Yeah. I have a slight obsession with watermelon. I can’t believe Riley noticed.”

“I’m surprised I didn’t.”

I shot him an amused look. “I don’t know why you would.”

Max didn’t answer but his gaze fell to the floor. “Payton, what if Harmon says no?”

“They won’t. Phoenix will be next big thing and Titan has the team to make it happen. Come on, it’ll be fine. When was the last time you delivered a pitch like this?” He didn’t move and alarm bells went off in my head. “You’re a virgin.”

He frowned. “I’m not a—”

“You’ve never given a pitch before.”

“Does my lunch with you count?” Max asked, raising the eyebrow with the piercing.

“The one where you told me to go to hell for asking questions, then demanded I buy you lunch?”

“Yeah, that one.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. Of all the things I’d worried about, it had never occurred to me I was taking this meeting with someone who had zero experience.

But Max seeing me freak out wouldn’t help. I pushed down the sudden panic, opening my eyes and rising from my seat. He followed suit.

“It’s going to be fine,” I said as confidently as I could given horror reels of tomorrow with me falling on my face were already streaming in my mind. “I think we just need a pep talk.”

“Good idea.” We stood facing one another.

And waited.

Eventually his eyebrows drew together. “I thought you were giving me a pep talk.”

“I thought you were giving me one,” I replied.

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