My dad makes a face. “You need me to tell your dad to tell those people you work with to cut you some slack and let you rest on the weekends?”
Sophie is a computer genius and is the executive director of InspireSTEM, the women in STEM foundation her dad started years ago when he sold his company. She recently pivoted the foundation to focusing primarily on elementary school STEM education, and I may be smart, but Sophie is on another level entirely.
“Nah,” Sophie says quickly, slipping her phone into the bag slung over the back of her chair. “This is a problem entirely of my own making. We’ve got that elementary school robotics competition coming up, and my team had to find another venue when the one we booked had a burst pipe and tons of water damage it’s going to take weeks to fix. I procrastinated until last week because I was hoping they would fix the pipes in time, but of course they didn’t. That’s probably someone from my team telling me they found a new place.”
Huh. I’m almost positive she told me a few days ago they booked a new venue and everything was finalized. Also weird.
“I love what you’re doing with these competitions, Soph,” my mom says, taking a sip of her coffee. “Your mom, Hallie, Emma, and I are serious about the firm sponsoring the spring competition. I can’t believe you didn’t come to us for this one.”
“You’re on,” Sophie says with a grin. “The next one is a better fit for you guys anyway. It’s an all-girls competition, and the teams are seriously badass. I shouldn’t play favorites with my competitions, but as a woman in STEM, I love this one the most.”
“Can we eat?” Cam’s son, Ethan, asks. “I’m starving.”
Maddy laughs and runs a hand over his hair. “You ate two bagels like an hour ago.”
Ethan shrugs. “That was then. This is now, and now I need pancakes. And probably a bunch of other stuff too.”
“Hot damn, me too,” Sophie says with a grin. Then she nudges my foot under the table. “You’re buying. All the pancakes I want, right?”
I grin back at her, just happy to be here with her and with so many of my most important people. “Anything you want, Soph. It’s on me.”
“No way,” my dad says, bumping my shoulder with his. “It’s on me. We’re buying breakfast for everyone. Anything you want,” he says with a wink at Ethan.
“This is my favorite day,” Ethan says with a grin, and everyone laughs.
I’m wearing clothes I bought from a gift shop, and there may or may not still be two strange women in my room, but I got to hold the Lombardi Trophy last night and all my favorite people are here, and as I look around the table, my eyes landing on Sophie, I know for sure this is my favorite day too.
CHAPTER FOUR
SOPHIE
“Fuck. Yes. Sophie Sullivan, one. App from hell, zero,” I crow, reaching for my phone to text my dad’s sister, my aunt Amelia.
Me
BOW TO MY GENIUS.
Amelia
No fucking way. You did it?
I laugh because, fuck yeah, I did. Amelia owns an app development business and got stuck on some code for one of her clients. She asked me to take a look at it like she sometimes does for a second set of eyes, and I made that code my bitch.
Me
Did it? I annihilated it. Check the GitHub. The code is all there.
Amelia
Holy shit, Soph.
You are the most brilliant Sullivan of all the Sullivans.
Me
Smarter than my dad?
Amelia
