“It’s not about luck.” He stops cutting his food and looks up, piercing blue eyes on me, knife and fork still in his hands. “What’s your strategy? Angel investors don’t actually come down from heaven, Braden.” His voice is stern.

My mom drains her wine. “Why don’t we talk about something else? Are you making friends?”

“No,” my father interrupts. “It’s important that he understands that this is not an opportunity to waste. An A-plus in a class is nothing if you don’t play this right from here on out. He’s made a mockery of what I’ve paid for his education before—I am not going to let him do it again.”

I push my food away from me. I’ve lost my appetite.

I was stupid to think that a man who’s made the Forbes list would be impressed by a leading grade in one class. Stupid to think he would see me as anything but the kid who was almost expelled from boarding school.

“Excuse me for a moment,” I say, setting my napkin on the table as I stand up. I pull out my cell phone as soon as the restroom door swings closed behind me.

“Hello?” the voice on the other side of the line says.

“This is Braden Hart. I’m calling about your article. I’d like to give you an exclusive interview.”

Chapter Twelve

Sara

GROUND BREAKING APP
COMES OUT OF WARREN CLASS

PALO ALTO—The first ever A-plus was awarded this week in Professor Dustin Thomas’s famously brutal class, Econ 214: “Becoming an Entrepreneur”. But that is just the beginning of the enormous success expected from Perfect10, CFO Braden Hart said.

“This is going to change the face of dating throughout the United States, if not the world,” he told the Daily.

The app, which allows users to rank other singles resulting in a cumulative score that decides a user’s status as platinum, gold, silver or unranked and lets other users block certain groups, will go live next Friday.

“The vote of support from Thomas is huge,” Hart said. “Especially since he’s a venture capitalist by trade himself. We expect great interest in the project.”

Hart went on to say that he would be shocked if there weren’t one million users on the app in three months’ time.

“Braden!” I pound on the door in front of me, the half-crumpled newspaper in my other hand.

Finally, it swings open. Braden rubs his eyes and looks down at me. He’s wearing only boxers and his hair is a mess. He looks really good. Like he definitely works out—he has a six-pack and even those little triangle things by his hips that seem designed to draw the eyes downward.

My face gets warm and I avert my eyes. I will not be distracted from my rage.

“What’s up?” he asks, half yawning.