“No it’s fine.” He laughs. “I didn’t pay half a mil to buy in for them to rush me. Now is good.”

Braden looks over the phone at Sara and me.

I raise my eyebrows and shrug. I have no idea how to do this. Don’t ask me.

“We were, uh, really happy to hear you guys are interested in, uh, angel investing,” Braden settles on saying.

“Well, that’s actually what I needed to speak with you about,” he says.

My stomach plummets.

“We’re definitely interested in the product,” he says.

My spirits rise again.

“And my partners love the idea and what you’ve done so far, but they aren’t...totally comfortable with the idea of putting so much money into a company run by teenagers.”

We all look at each other. There’s a bit of static on the line.

I lean toward the phone. “So what does that mean?” I ask cautiously.

“It means that we’re willing to make an offer, but not a seed investment. We’re willing to offer five million for ninety percent of the shares. You will retain the rest, but operations will be put in the hands of Instafriend, another company in our portfolio. We’ve been invested in them for years, and they have the experience to run this sort of thing.”

Oh my god. Five million dollars. Holy shit.

Sara’s eyes meet mine and she lets out a squeal.

Braden shoots a look at us and takes the phone off speaker before pressing it to his ear.

“I see,” he says a few times, in response to words I cannot hear. I don’t really mind though. I’m deciding which tropical island to take my parents to first.

“Well, we’ll consider this and get back to you,” Braden says.

My attention snaps back to him. Part of me wants to say, Are you kidding me? Take the money now. But I know we need to at least have a lawyer check out the deal first. Which is probably why it’s good that I’m not the one on the phone.

He hangs up and Sara lets out a louder version of her earlier squeal, this time with the accompanying dance. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes!”

And hey, I’m not usually a happy dance kind of guy, but I almost feel like joining her. Or at least, I would, if I wasn’t looking at Braden and trying to figure out why he is frowning.

Sara is jumping up and down when Braden clears his throat. Her feet land on the floor hard, her mood sinking. “Wait, what’s wrong?”

“Didn’t you hear what they said?”

“Yeah, five million dollars, Braden.” She looks at me. I shrug. I feel the same way she does.

“They want us to give up the company.”

“So? We still get to keep some, and we also get five million dollars.”