As much as I’d like to tear him apart for luring me in again, only to leave me with my own inadequacies, it’s difficult to see him in pain. I know how much of his heart he put into this business. It’s more heart than he put into anything else.
I should have vetted each of the bands we put into the video, but we had been in a rush to release the ad. I’d love to blame Mark since he was the one who received the request to include Shadow Tradition and he consented to it, but this could have happened with any of the bands and we didn’t do research on any of them. He put me in charge of this ad, and I messed up. If I want to be a creative director, I need to be able to take responsibility for that.
He looks up. Our eyes meet. The concern in his face is caustic, so I look away.
******
The news must be remarkably slow today because even LRC World News is reporting on 2Resonance’s fall from grace in the eyes of the public. Shadow Tradition is also getting criticized, but it turns out that collaborating with 2Resonance was a last-ditch effort to save themselves, so people turning against them isn’t something new or unforeseen.
“Fucking Shadow Tradition, sharing their dumb fucking thoughts to the dumb fucking world,” Julietta mutters over her glass of Scotch whiskey and amaretto. “I hate everyone in this situation. Fuck that. I hate everyone. Every human on earth is diseased with stupidity.”
I sit beside her with Aaron on my other side. There’s a somber feeling over all the employees at 2Resonance. I’d looked over some employee’s shoulders as they searched online for new jobs. Social opinion had poisoned the company. An article was released an hour ago where a journalist had dug up information on Rick Thomas, one of the co-owners, who’d previously been accused of discriminatory practices. A couple of hours before that there had been an article written about Mark, portraying him as a trust fund kid who’d driven a company straight off a cliff because he hadn’t been dedicated enough to keep it from annihilating itself. It said his financial privilege throughout his life had blinded him from the real-life consequences of careless associations. I know how much that must have hurt him. I’d worked right beside him and we’d made an irresponsible mistake together—it had nothing to do with his family’s money, but that’s all he’ll be known for.
I run my hand over the smooth bar of Chemist’s Conclusion. Under the glass, there’s an engraving of the periodic table. The last time I was here, Mark had been here too. I’d kissed him. I should have taken the chance to sleep with him and just lived inside my ignorance while I still could—while I didn’t know about Alina and I had a job that wasn’t about to get axed. Maybe I would have gotten hurt worse later, but the good times and the sex would have been intuitive and fierce while remaining transcendental. It might be worth it to hurt this much.
“Zandra?”
I glance over at Aaron.
“Do you want to hear the bad news?” he asks, cradling his phone in his hands.
“Is there an article about Keegan now?” I ask. “Or have they started pointing fingers at the employees now? Did they find out I’d been arrested in Paris?”
His forehead crinkles. “You were arrested in Paris? For what? Jaywalking?”
I shake my head. “It was a dumb, teenage thing. What’s the article now?”
“Not an article,” he says. “I’ve been snooping in our bosses’ emails. Technically, I never stopped.”
I focus on my mojito. I need something stronger like a semi-truck to knock me out. “Sure. Tell me. I’m going to assume a lot of people are about to be fired. I guess it makes sense that I’m at the top of the list.”
“Not exactly,” he says. “Uh, but there is some potential that we could all keep our jobs, or we all lose our jobs. Rick and Keegan were exchanging emails about selling 2Resonance to Tunest.”
“Dicks,” Julietta mutters. “Big, disease-ridden dicks.”
“We still have plenty of users,” I say. “They just want to give up because of some publicity?”
“Their stock is rapidly falling, and social media is tearing the business apart. They see a business that will slowly but inevitably die, and they want to bail before it’s worthless.”
“So, they should come up with new ideas. They should reassess the way they release information. They could donate a portion of the profits to sexual assault prevention programs. The only problem 2Resonance has is an image problem,” I say, my arms moving with enough force that I nearly knock over Julietta’s glass. She snatches it up and drinks deeply. “So, we manage our image. We don’t throw the whole thing out.”
He shrugs. “They see it differently. They’ve already sent out an apology letter and it hasn’t had any effect on their stock or the public’s perception. So, they’re preparing to bail.”
A man walks up to the bar, almost out of my view, but I know it’s Mark without turning to look. He is a man that commands attention and everyone to the left of me is looking toward him.
I bow my head, trying to speak as quietly as possible. “What about Mark? He has to be fighting for his company.”
Aaron looks at me, his nose scrunched in confusion before he checks over his shoulder. He nearly falls off his stool when he sees Mark.
“Oh, shit,” he says, loud enough that everyone turns toward him, including Mark. Mark sees me. His expression softens. He drops his gaze, takes his whiskey from the bartender and turns to walk toward a table. He’s by himself and he gets out his laptop, preparing to work on something. I glance at the door. I tell myself that the fact that Alina isn’t here doesn’t mean anything. She could be busy. She could be coming by in two or twenty minutes.
“Well,” Aaron whispers. “Mark only sent one email that stated he wasn’t interested in selling the company, but they can veto his decision. He has to go along with what they say.”
“But he created 2Resonance.”
“And they funded it,” Aaron says. “And in Silicon Valley, the only thing more precious than ideas is cold, hard cash.”
I nurse my drink, trying to not look over at Mark. My emotions sway between irritated and concerned. Julietta leaves, still cursing every human on earth. Aaron offers to drive me home, but I tell him I just want to spend a little more time drinking before I lose my job.
