Personal Account BALANCE: -£1,915.30
Recent transactions:
London to Vienna flights: £298.00
Vienna hotel: £549.46
Staff salaries: £4,619.00
The hotel in Vienna is practically bursting at the seams. Competitors, reporters, businessmen, investors, anyone wanting a sniff of the Odericco Investments prize money. My mind is full of the past week; the best, then worst days in a long time swirl around in my stomach like oil and honey. The joys of our beta launch going off without a hitch and spending time with Oliver outside of the competition are marred by Malcolm’s threats, my ravaged bank account, and my family’s disappointments.
I’ve been in a frozen state, avoiding all of the above. My head needs to be in this. Once the final round of the competition is over, I can deal with everything else in my life. For now, placing in the top three is the only thing that matters. This final round will make or break everything.
I caught the later flight with Spencer, wanting the time to prep him on the plane and to avoid being in the same building as Malcolm for as long as possible. We check in with the blond curly-haired receptionist before heading through the main lobby. Spencer and I throw our bags onto our matching single beds. I smooth down the static baby hairs in my middle parting as Spencer steps into the bathroom to get changed into his navy suit.
“You ready?” I say as he emerges.
“Are you?” he says, looking me up and down.
“What?” I ask.
“You’re still in your flight clothes.”
“Oh.” I pick out the clothes at the top of my suitcase and click the bathroom door shut.
Spencer lifts one of the complimentary biscuits on the minibar to his mouth. “I feel like out of the two of us, I should be the one who looks like they’re about to vomit.”
“Right, sorry,” I say, before rubbing my eyes. “Just overwhelmed.”
We make our way back down to the lobby and catch a shuttle bus across town to the Sofitel Hotel. Ideally, we would have been staying in the main hotel, but at this point I’m so low on cash, I’d need to sell my kidney to even get a pullout sofa bed at that five-star establishment.
We sit in silence as men bellow around us, trying to play off their obvious nerves as excitement and confidence. We’re all about to change our lives, our businesses, our futures. At least I’m honest about it by looking sick to my stomach.
Pulling up to the hotel, we file into the main entrance and follow signs into a suite of conference rooms. Spencer and I stilldon’t talk as we shuffle forward in the line until we get to the front of the Odericco-branded sign-in desk.
“Oh, hey,” a disembodied voice says. The spark of familiarity shoots up my spine, lifting my chin from my long list of emails to meet soft hazel eyes. They twinkle at me with a mixture of embarrassment, confusion, and excitement. My mind instantly jumps back to me running out of his apartment still flustered from his hands on me.
“Hey,” I manage to get out before completely collapsing inward.
“Spencer Cole, Wyst,” Oliver says, straightening his posture while he taps at a tablet to sign us in. “And Violet Leigh.” He smiles at me, and with his blue Odericco-branded pen, he points to a beige door to our right. “Additional personnel can wait in there.”
“Is that where you also keep the emotional support animals?” I joke, but my tone comes out... off.
“It’s just refreshments and free wi-fi.” He shrugs nonchalantly, his light blue shirt hugging his chest. The navy fleur-de-lis-printed tie slices through his torso, framing his lean body.
“Right, thanks,” I mumble, taking my name tag and complimentary lanyard. Briefly looking back to see Oliver’s focus already honed in on signing in the next contestant.
The clock ticks away as I bite down every one of my nails into scratchy stubs; our slot was meant to be thirty minutes, but it’s been nearly forty-five. I guess that could only be a good thing, right? No, they’ve figured Spencer is not the CEO and he’s currently being tied to a chair and interrogated. Eventually, I give in and burst out of the waiting room for some air.
“Hey, is everything okay?” Oliver’s chair scrapes as he stands up from his position behind the desk.
My eyes scrunch shut. “Shit, sorry. I didn’t know you were still here.” With Spencer being the last appointment of the day, I assumed Oliver would have been dismissed by now.
He shifts his weight. “There was a start-up whose one-to-one didn’t go so well; they were trying to get in for a do-over. I’m hanging around just in case.”
“Right,” I say, running a hand through my hair. “I hope you get paid extra for that.”
“What areyoustill doing here?” he asks, an eyebrow raised as he slides a hand into his pocket, using the other to lean against the desk.
