“I believe it would be wise for me to attend these upcoming events with a respectable girlfriend,” he continues, “to convey myself and my industry as more ‘woman friendly,’ shall we say. It’s something my PR consultant and chief of staff have been encouraging me to do for what feels like a century. I’ll be very busy, as always, so I want to bring someone who requires a minimal amount of attention. Someone I don’t have to make an effort to get to know or impress. So I thought of you.”
“Whoa, easy. A girl can only take so much sweet talk, mister.”
He bends down to wipe an imperceptible scuff mark from his thousand-dollar shoe. “About two weeks after returning from Cleveland, I’ll be attending a wedding in Santa Barbara, and I’ll definitely need a date for that so I don’t have to deal with…what I usually deal with when I attend weddings solo.”
“Being laughed at because you’re such a dork?”
He smirks. He is so very, very smug.
“Oh, just say it—women throw themselves at you.”
“I would never put it like that. But yes, I get a lot of attention from single women who want to date me. And men and women with single daughters and granddaughters. I’ve also had people pitch me their daughters who are happily married. It’s…awkward, and quite frankly, it’s exhausting and boring. If you aren’t interested, there’s a matchmaking service for high-net-worth men based in Sausalito. They’ve been hounding me to sign up with them as a client.I could call them. But I came to you first.”
I lean forward. “Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’d like to hear you say it out loud. Why you came to me first.”
He blinks his long, dark lashes and gives me a look that I cannot interpret.
Explaining, I say, “I need to hear you say it plainly. Out loud. With words that won’t make my ears bleed.”
“Ah. Well, Olivia, I came to you first because I know you. And I’ve always been fond of you. Because you’re beautiful and intelligent and good-humored, and I always enjoyed spending time with you. I travel in style, and I’d like to be able to share some of the many things in life I’m able to afford with the people who made my life more bearable when I was growing up.” He flashes a crooked smile. “Monty is unavailable, and your parents don’t like to travel. So I’d likeyouto join me, as my date, for the next month.”
I guffaw. I really didn’t mean to. It just came out—force of habit. That was mostly sweet, and I’m sure I’ll be able to absorb the kind words later, when my heart isn’t racing and my lizard brain doesn’t think I’m being chased by a wild animal. “So let me get this straight… You built an app that matches people?”
“It matches technical talent with opportunities and funding, yes.”
“Like a work-related dating app for nerds?”
“It’s significantly more sophisticated than that, but—yes, essentially,” he says.
“And you’re a billionaire because you figured out how to match people?”
“I optimized the process, yes.”
“But you need to fake a girlfriend to accompany you to work-related events?”
“I don’t need to,” he says. “I’m choosing to.”
“For the sake of convenience? Really?”
John sighs, dragging his fingers through his dark hair. He stands up and begins pacing around. Slowly. Gracefully, even. It all seems a tad rehearsed, but whatever. “All right,” he says. “You want to hear me say it plainly, out loud, with words you can understand?”
I cross my arms in front of my chest. I’m going to enjoy this. “I really do.”
“The truth is, Olivia, I need your help.” He continues to pace back and forth with more and more energy. “The reason I’m traveling to England is there’s a semiretired Oxford professor named George Merrick. I’ve been trying to recruit him as CTO for the most important start-up I’ve ever invested in. It’s in the food-tech space. The founders are based in London. Professor Merrick is a genius. I mean,I’ma genius, but this man is a super-genius. He spent over thirty years studying sustainable agriculture and pioneering sustainable-agriculture technology.”
I still don’t see what this has to do with me, but I haven’t seen Johnny speak with this much passion since he tried to explain the Schrödinger’s Cat costume he made for Halloween one year.
“A decade ago, he published groundbreaking research and built a demo of his vertical-farm system. He had the proofof concept and showed that it can work, but he never commercialized it. He didn’t want to deal with the business side of it, and he has some very valid fears that the technology will be misused. He made patents available for licensing, and I have so far invested seventy-five million—forty million of which is my personal money—in an agritech start-up founded by a couple of guys who’ve licensed Merrick’s research and patents.”
He starts to use his hands more, and I can’t help but notice how nice they are.
“They’ve built vertical farms in London and Amsterdam—urban areas—and had initial success, but we’ve hit scaling problems. The goal is for this technology to become available anywhere—the desert, the Arctic. High-density, low-income neighborhoods. But there are problems the founders, Alfie and Baxter, can’t solve. Merrick is the only person on the planet who can solve our specific problems. Without him, the company fails in twelve to eighteen months. And it has so much potential, Olivia.” He finally stops pacing and stands in front of me. “We’re talking about climate-resilient food production and fresh produce that can be grown locally—anywhere in the world.”
I clear my throat. “I mean…that sounds incredible, but I’m really not clear on why you needmyhelp with this.”
