Page 23 of That Geeky Feeling

“Oh, I don’t know.” He throws up his hands in despair, or agony, or couldn’t-care-less-ness. “Looking like a fool, I guess.”

“Has that ever happened?”

“What?”

“You looking like a fool in front of a room full of people?”

He holds my gaze silently, as if trying to figure out whether he can trust me with the answer. I can almost hear the decision-making cogs turning.

“Yes,” he says, then looks away.

That he felt he could tell me fills me with pride. But it’s tinged with sadness that he might be scarred by whatever it was. The thought of him being hurt, or troubled, or in any way unhappy is surprisingly upsetting.

“Would you like to tell me what happened?” I ask.

“Nope.”

I guess his trust in me goes only so far. Okay, I can respect that. “It would be helpful to know, but let’s go on.”

I tap for the next slide, which reads, “Five Things.”

“I believe you need five attributes to pull off a good presentation. And I’m about to explain how you already have each and every one of them.”

Next slide: “1. Confidence.”

“You wouldn’t be where you are today if you didn’t have confidence in your own abilities. It takes a deep inner self-belief to build a company like you and Owen have. You don’t need to be showy like Max to be confident. I’ve seen you fiddling around with my computer. I’ve seen you take calls and solve problems—it’s obvious you’re certain you know what you’re doing. So you can get up in front of everyone at the launch with total confidence that you know what you’re talking about.”

Elliot shifts in his seat and checks out his healing finger injury. It’s impossible to tell if he’s awkward over this whole scenario or at having his attributes recognized.

Next slide: “2. Smarts.”

“You are the smartest person I know. And not just because you know how to do computery things I don’t understand. I’ve seen how fast your mind works. And I’ve seen Max silenced for a second when you’ve instantly come up with a solution to a problem he hadn’t thought of. And I think we all know, few things silence him.”

He smirks at me with that gleam in his eye.

My stomach flips. Is that a reaction to Elliot’s look or to the chicken dumplings?

Next slide: “3. Humor.”

“The key to every engaging presentation is winning people over by making them laugh. Open with a good joke, and everyone is instantly on your side.”

“Ah.” He holds up a finger. “Well, even if I am fantastically confident and smart, I’m definitely not funny.”

“Wrong.” I fold my arms. “There isn’t a time when I’ve seen you where you haven’t raised a chuckle. Even your emails and texts make me smile.” Hmm, was that too much of an admission?

He leans forward, elbows resting on his knees. “That’s only because I play off the funny things you say.” He looks up at me over his glasses in the way that turns up my body’s thermostat. “Maybe it’s you who makes me funny. So…” He raises his palms to the ceiling as he shrugs. “You should do the presentation.”

Regardless of what’s going on inside me, I have to get this man to believe he can stand up in front of people and address them like a relaxed old hand.

“Elliot, you are doing this presentation. And you’re going to rock it. You just need to believe in yourself. Why won’t you believe in yourself?”

“I do. I believed I could get into MIT with a full ride and I did. I believed Owen and I could start a company and turn it into something phenomenal and we have. I totally believe in myself.”

“Then there’s no reason not to have faith that you can make this one little speech about something you’re passionate about.”

“But—”

I hold up my palm to silence him and read the next slide aloud. “Four. Charm.”

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