I Love You, Miss Genius novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Live

Friday morning, the board room smelled like burned coffee and new money.

Nine people sat around the long glass table.

The lead investor in her running shoes was at the head, with a pad of paper and no phone.

Four board members sat beside her in suits, and Ingrid Vollmer sat at the far end with her cane across her knees.

Dash sat in the middle, calm as a pond.

I stood against the wall with the water pitcher, because Bettina had not fired me yet.

She had also not sent the clip.

I had checked the board's shared inbox at eight, on Dash's laptop, with my stomach in a fist.

Nothing came.

She was saving it.

Bettina rose at nine sharp in a cream suit, with a clicker in her hand and her lipstick perfect.

"Thank you all for coming," she said. "I'm going to show you how Loop thinks."

On the big wall screen, a file opened.

It was my queue, my lock order, the fix from that Tuesday night, pasted whole.

I knew it by its shape.

She walked through it, hitting every beat and not one meaning.

"Here the system arbitrates," she said. "It evaluates both jobs and applies a priority."

"Based on what?" said the investor.

"On the criteria."

"Which criteria?"

"Our proprietary criteria."

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