I Love You, Miss Genius novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: On Stage

The hall hadn't changed in six years.

It had the same steep rows of red seats, the same banner across the back wall and the same podium with a little light on it.

Six hundred people filled it, and two cameras stood on tripods in the aisle with red lights on.

Gus sat in the third row with his thermos between his boots, in the one jacket he owned.

The lead investor sat beside him, holding nothing.

Ten rows back, Bettina Crowe sat in her cream coat next to the young man in the puffy vest.

She had brought a paper bag of popcorn, and she ate it one kernel at a time.

At the very back, in the last seat on the aisle, in the dark, sat a thin woman with a cane.

I couldn't see her face, as I had asked.

The chair of the symposium introduced me with a dry little cough.

"Our keynote is Juno Shin," she said. "Dr. Vollmer has asked to give her time to Ms. Shin."

I walked out in my thrift-store cardigan and white sneakers, with a clicker in my hand.

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