“It was kind of a shitty thing to hear, for sure, but it didn’t discourage me. I understood what he meant. I called up Odilie for advice, because you know, she knew people. We weren’t close but I thought she’d at least go to bat for me. She said, ‘Go ahead and tweak the business plan and then I can pass it on to Tom and his people.’ So I did exactly that. Spent the next few months making more connections, speaking to mentors, studying other start-ups, rewriting the business plan.

“Then Odilie comes to visit my parents in Novi and I think, this is the perfect opportunity to show her what I’ve been working on.” She fishes out the celery again, chomping on it with such force this time that there’s a spray of spittle in my direction, her eyes blazing.

“And do you know what happens? She doesn’t even look at it. After telling me she would send it to Tom, do you know what she says?” Her eyes narrow now, the muscles around her jaw taut. “‘Page, no one is going to listen to you. The investor you spoke to was right. You’re just not the right fit for that world. You don’t dress right, you don’t have the right life experience, you’re just not sophisticated enough. Your best bet is to sleep your way in.’” She spits out the last part, a grimace threading her lips. “That was it. All those months of hard work spat back in my face. I begged her, pleaded with her. I knew I couldn’t just email Tom a proposal. I barely knew the guy. But she dismissed me. ‘I don’t want to deal with Tom right now, anyway.’ Like it was such an inconvenience to reach out to her husband.

“I was pissed, so I found a way to get what I wanted without her help.” She shivers, an involuntary reaction from the story, the AC, the drink, who knows.

Page had watched Odilie unlock her phone again and again, stealthily. She watched her fingers dance over the keypad, and it wasn’t so hard to deduce her passcode, but Odilie didn’t go anywhere without that phone. Then one day Page found an opportunity.

Odilie was taking a nap on a Sunday afternoon, stretched out on the guest bed, her phone propped up next to her on her pillow. Silently as possible, she slipped it off the bed and typed in the password.