Page 13 of My CEO Neighbor
Ted's expression answered before he did."Twenty percent.Maybe less."
"Mine's dead.I forgot to charge it last night."
They stared at each other in the weak light, both calculating the same math.Twenty percent battery wouldn't last long, and once that died, they'd be sitting in complete darkness for however many hours it took to get rescued.
Hours.Alone.In the dark.
"We should conserve it," Monica said."Turn it off for now."
"What if there's an emergency?"
"What kind of emergency are you anticipating?A sudden need to check email?"
Ted's jaw tightened, but he switched off the flashlight.Darkness swallowed them again, thick and absolute.Monica could hear Ted's breathing—faster now, less controlled than it had been during their impromptu lesson.
Without sight, her other senses heightened.She could smell his cologne more strongly now, could hear the subtle sounds he made when he shifted position.The space between them felt charged, electric with possibility.
"You okay?"
"Fine."
"That was convincing."
"I don't love small spaces."
Monica felt around until she found her water bottle, took a sip, and offered it toward where she thought Ted was sitting."Here."
"I can't see your hand."
"Just reach toward my voice."
Ted's fingers brushed hers as he took the bottle, and the contact sent an unexpected jolt up Monica's arm.His hands were warm, slightly calloused in a way that suggested he did more than just type on keyboards, and Monica found herself wondering what those hands would feel like skimming her skin, mapping her body with the same intensity he brought to everything else.
The thought made her breath catch.
"Thanks," Ted said, and she heard him drink.Even that simple sound seemed intimate in the darkness.
"So," Monica said, settling back against the wall and trying to ignore the way her body was humming with awareness, "tell me about this meeting that's ruining your entire day."
"It's not ruining my day.It's ruining my life."
"That seems dramatic."
"You don't understand.This funding round is everything.Three years of eighteen-hour days, of living on protein bars and coffee, of missing birthdays and holidays and every normal human experience, and it all comes down to one presentation to one investor who can make or break everything."
Monica heard the strain in Ted's voice, the weight of pressure that went beyond normal business stress.In the darkness, his vulnerability seemed more pronounced, more real.
"What happens if you don't get the funding?"
"We run out of money in four months.I have to lay off thirty people who believed in this company, who took pay cuts to work here because they trusted me to make it work."Ted's voice cracked slightly."I have to call my parents and explain that their son, the one who was supposed to be the successful entrepreneur, failed spectacularly and publicly."
The pain in his voice made Monica's chest ache."Your parents put pressure on you about the business?"
"My parents put pressure on me about everything.My father built a construction company from nothing, turned it into a multimillion-dollar operation before he was forty.My older brother's a surgeon.My sister's a federal judge."Ted laughed, but there was no humor in it."And then there's me, the family screwup who couldn't even finish his MBA."
"You didn't finish your MBA?"
"Dropped out junior year to start CloudSync.Seemed like a good idea at the time."
