“If you really want a partnership, I would love to partner with you,” she said, pausing. “But it’d be wrong of me not to push you to launch this yourself. Sure, we can work together to offer this at Radiant and on my site, but you need to get this out to VR gaming companies. You need to find a price point that can be affordable for everyone without breaking the bank. You want to get this in every house in the world. Not just people looking for porn.”
“You think so?”
“One hundred percent. Steven has more contacts than me in this space,” she said. “You should talk to him.”
My lips curled into a smile. “Thank you.”
“But”—she grabbed my shoulder—“I still want you to add this product and the software that you created onto my website. If it’s fair to you, we can do a fifty-fifty split in royalties for every unit sold. Sound like a deal?”
She held out her hand, and I shook it.
“Deal.”
CHAPTER
FORTY-ONE
ATHENA
I walked out of the bathroom in the dress that I planned to wear to Charlie’s family’s party tonight.
“Dayum!” Heather shouted in the middle of her and Hector’s living room.
They had been doing me up all day, pampering me, along with everything else that best friends did because I … was nervous as heck.
“You think it looks okay?” I asked, smoothing it out.
“If I were Charlie, I would fuck you so hard,” Heather said.
My cheeks flamed, and I shuffled awkwardly into the center of the room. Charlie fucking me really wasn’t the goal of this dress, and besides, I didn’t want Derek or his father—God forbid—to feel the same way.
Yuck!
I would rather die than let Charlie’s father watch us fuck again.
Sierra giggled and playfully shoved Heather. “Seriously, you look so hot!”
Evelyn drew her fingers through my hair to loosen my curls. “They’re all going to be so jealous.”
“Girl, I’m jealous of you!” Heather exclaimed, fanning herself. “The things I would do to?—”
“Heather!” I exclaimed. “Save your flirting for when Sun gets here. She loves it.”
Sun totally did not like the flirting that Heather did with her, but it was funny and cute to see her all flustered. Besides, it only made me more nervous because I did not want to look fuckable tonight!
I wanted to be pretty and respectable.
While I was happy that they had confidence that tonight would go well, I did not. My stomach had been twisting into tight knots since I had woken up. Nothing could ever go smoothly, and this wasn’t an exception.
“All right, all right,” I said, grabbing my coat and shrugging it on. “I need to get back to our place. Charlie is waiting for me, and I still need to pick up some wine to bring to the party. I don’t want to go empty-handed.”
I wasn’t into that rich kinda alcohol, but I definitely needed something.
Once I grabbed all my stuff and endured a couple more flirtatious remarks from Heather, I headed out the door and made a sprint for the elevator before Heather could smack my ass on the way out.
Her giggles echoed down the hall, and I slipped into the elevator and hit the bottom button. When I hit the ground floor, I found my way to my car and began my short drive down to the liquor store.
After parallel parking in these six-inch heels, I hopped onto the sidewalk and headed right for the liquor store. The bell rang when I stepped in, and the man up front smiled at me. I politely smiled back and wandered through the store, phone in hand to text Charlie.
