Prologue
The night before two kids stole a car and drove out of their foster home in Pennsylvania, Alyssa Simpson leaned on the ledge of a balcony in SoHo, watching the summer smog eat the remnants of stars around the World Trade Center. Her wine glass dribbled the dregs of proseco before it mixed with the salty, smoky air. When she tried to drink the remaining drops, seeking some way to make this party a little more exciting, the drop hung in place at the bottom of the glass. Her shoulders dropped in disappointment.
The building was a short box of glass and blackened metal next to a super-expensive shoe store and one too many Starbucks shops. This was the part of New York she’d always avoided. Even the thrift stores in the area were taken over by the people who had a “spiritual experience” in the VIP section of Coachella.
The cream blouse she wore felt stifling outside, like it had become the thick coat she wore in the winter. She had been used to the heat when she lived in the city, handling the weather, the shady bodegas, late-night pasta runs, and awkward concerts in the East Village. But, after all of that craziness, of course it had to be the rent that did her in. Less than a year ago, she had picked up everything she had ever built from a tiny apartment in Hell’s Kitchen and dragged everything kicking and screaming back home to Grovewood, to her parents’ happy arms.
There’s a different feeling you get when you live in the city as opposed to visiting it. Suddenly, she felt like a tourist again, like she was supposed to buy a cheap Statue of Liberty snowglobe to have on her desk, right next to all the other knickknacks.
The tourism feeling didn’t just stop there. She looked into the SoHo penthouse from the balcony and watched the celebration around VALYUE, which does something with Finances and Artificial Intelligence. When she had first started at the company a couple of months ago, her CEO brother, Thomas, told stories about each member and the massive impact they had on his company; Jonathan “Joaay” Nesbit built the homepage, Winston “Neo” Jameson wrote the AI-based code, Danial “The Man” Stein came up with the slogan (“VALYUE: U got this”), Rebecca “Tetris” Aberforth wrote the pitch deck (she liked the video game, apparently), and Terry “Terminator” Johnson made the first 1000 sales. There were 28 people in the room, including investors, reporters, some thought gurus, and microcelebrities she had invited via LinkedIn. Everyone had a story to tell about how they got there and saw the company grow. Except her. And she was watching them all enjoying themselves.
Out of the corner of her eye, Alyssa saw a group of three people standing by the same ledge, a little way away. Maybe it was the buzz, or the desire to connect with strangers that prodded her towards them, to start a conversation with the people she passed by every day of her recent job. She mustered up every bit of energy she could, plus trying to remember some conversational tricks she learned from a social psychology course she took at Adelphi. She waited for the lull in conversation, but then someone noticed her standing a little too close to them all. They all looked at her like she was a stranger, someone who could be another source of entertainment. The group was three men, two women, and immediately half of the group looked disinterested.
“So, crazy night it’s been, huh?”
She felt two feet shorter. Just like everyone else at the party, they wore the company colors of yellow, purple, and white. She had completely forgotten about it and didn’t have enough time to go back to Grovewood and change.
“Hard to believe where this company was six months ago,” Alyssa said, trying to find something they can all talk about.
“Tell me about it,” one of them said with a smile. “We were still working in rented space at Thomas’ old company. I still remember building that code from line one. Biggest thing I did after graduation.”
“Oh, like the dangling pig you had?” One of the other people in the group blurted out.
“Oh,” One of the men smiled widely, almost like he saw an old friend. “I completely forgot about that!” He laughed at the line, which confused no one but Alyssa.
“I thought you were going to mention coffee tower?”
Through the laughs, Alyssa nudged the person closest to her. “What does that mean?”
The lady dressed in purple next to her immediately stopped laughing and straightened her face. “That’s just something we called the coffee machine that they fixed.”
“Oh,” Alyssa said, trying to lean into the joke with one of her own. “Was it only pouring decaf or something?”
“No,” the purple lady said without any semblance of levity, “it was just broken when they got it. One of the guys just fixed it because he did it for his internship once.”
“Or,” one of the other coders interjected, “what about the leftover bingo?”
Alyssa watched them laugh again, including the purple-shirted lady. She tried laughing along with them, but she felt more out of place. The poor outcast nudged the lady again, but as her face contorted back to seriousness, Alyssa changed her mind.
As she slipped away from the laughter, she noticed a table near the exit covered by a sheet. Like her brother had mentioned the night before, it was a stack of books next to an easel with another curtain covering the front part. Across the room on the other side of the dance floor was a table of finger foods, a punch bowl, cheeseburger sliders, tons of sushi, and gourmet mini pizzas with tiny pepperonis on top. Alyssa declined the coffee shots while her tiny plate remained clean.
“Hey there.”
When she turned around, she noticed that he was one of the guys from the other conversation, with a yellow shirt and purple flower popping out of the pocket.
“Hey,” she replied. “Nice flower.”
“Yeah,” he proudly fixed it a little. “I thought it was a little overkill, but it seems to do the trick.”
She did a quick scan of him. He seemed put together, with short hair and a maintained beard. His smile was short and sweet, with dimples on his cheeks. The years of bending his back over computers made his head stretch away from his body like a wilting sunflower in a dry season. He stood a little too close to her, but he looked relaxed and harmless. She smelled a strong cologne that made the hairs in her nose curl up like ferns. Meanwhile, his half-covered smile was a little endearing.
“So, how does it feel to be the sister of the CEO?”
She noticed his big eyes admiring her. Was she like the closest thing to a celebrity he’s ever seen? Or was it because she was a woman standing alone at a party with no one to talk to? Well, he could join in on the argument she was having already with the voice in her head. Maybe he’ll have something to say against the voice’s accusation of every possible shortcoming that kept her away from this possible outcome of her life.
“It’s okay, I guess.”
Her CEO brother had seemingly skated through life on easy mode. From what she overheard from the best men at his wedding, he completely goofed off while in Columbia Business School. Yet, he graduated Summa Cum Laude, then on the same day proposed to the girl he had been dating since they took the same Ethics class two years before. His first job was at a fortune 100 company before starting VALYUE.
“Well, I know you came in late, but now you get to be a part of the family now. After the new logo reveal and finding out where we’ll be working next month, I think this is going to be really easy for all of us.”
Oh my God, she thought as he nodded at her reassuringly. Is he really that obsessed with this company?
“Sounds like you’re really invested here.”
“Yep. This was my first job after graduating, and I have no intentions on changing or moving. I get paid well, and Thomas has been such a great boss.”
When Tom was introducing everyone to her, he never mentioned his name.
“He’s always there if I need to ask him about anything.”
Alyssa had no idea who this guy was.
“He’s just such a good person. After all, he hired his own sister.”
She was given a job because their mother wouldn’t stop asking him about it.
“What do you do for VALYUE?”
She felt the chill crawling up her shoulders, her body’s telltale sign of a depressing mood coming on. “Social Media, basically.”
“What does that mean?”
Her nails tapped on the glass. “I make social media posts for them. I also basically repost anything I can find with a little blurb from my brother. He says it’s for ‘thought leadership’ and to gain engagement on our socials.”
“Well, I’m sure it’s important.” His smile couldn’t hide the twinge of doubt in his voice. “Anyway, I was wondering about something, if you can help me.”
Alyssa’s eyes narrowed at such an open-ended question. She feared the worst- that he was about to ask her out. His head lowered a bit and his left hand rubbed on the styrofoam plate, and she could see that there were holes where his thumb was.
“See, I noticed that you were all alone, and it would be a shame to be here, all dressed up and beautiful, and not dance at least once tonight. You should live a little, relax. How about I help by inviting you to a dance?”
Oh god, no. She looked around her, hoping that her brother was somewhere nearby, but it was only her and this guy in the yellow shirt near the porch door. And his smile, now wider than before, seemed to stop halfway up, like he had never tried before. With the hot night, low alcohol reserves, and now this kiss-up trying to ask her out, she wished she had gone back inside. Maybe even danced by herself and let herself be a little loose. Maybe she should call her ex. She looked inside and saw her brother heading to a microphone.
“Hey, Tom is about to make a speech!” She exclaimed with a relief, but in hindsight it sounded way too enthusiastic. He immediately went inside when he recognized that his fearless leader was about to say something. She stayed near the door while everyone cheered for him.
Her brother, somehow wearing his tie on his head like a headband, presented the team’s biggest numbers; operating in three continents, seed investment of $5 million (which probably paid for this whole celebration), and a record-breaking couple of quarters. Plus their new office in a reclaimed factory warehouse in Dumbo and pay raises for everyone.
In the same amount of time that he secured funding, hired people, built a business, and bought a house close to their parents, she had done next to nothing. She had gotten her MSW, bounced around different jobs and dates, moved twice, lost friends during election seasons, got a job handling foster children in a basement office across the city, dealt with a million headaches, had a relationship, lost it, got laid off, then moved back home.
As he spoke, Alyssa saw the boy who had peed in his pants rather than go to the bathroom because he thought the demonic toilet bowl from Captain Underpants lived in the house; who couldn’t spell “neighbor” or “receive” until high school and was afraid of dogs because a poodle growled at him once when he tried to pet it.
His wife, Clarissa, a confident redhead from Tennessee, stood next to him. With a dramatic wave and instruction from Thomas, she pulled off the curtain on top of the easel, exposing the redesigned “valyue” logo with a simplified font and an emblem. Their mom was babysitting their newborn at home, probably with a bigger smile on her face than ever.
In her mind Alyssa fought with herself on a mat with boxing gloves, but both sides were punching the referee. She should be up front, cheering him on, hugging him any chance she could. But something held her back, a misery pulling at her neck and stiffening her shoulders. She had learned to pinpoint her emotions and acknowledge them, and she knew for a fact that this was jealousy. Just this once she wished that she could ignore these feelings.
People cheered, and from her position at the back she clapped along to support her brother.
As he finished up, the rest of the team looked so happy, dancing under the obnoxious yellow, purple, and white colors. Even the tech guy had decided to just dance by himself, doing his own version of the twist.
Despite having a ride home with the happy CEO and his perfect wife, she had to get out of there, catch a train and hop off to her parents’ home in Grovewood. She tapped on her brother’s shoulder as he danced and he dramatically turned around. His smile morphed into a serious look, as it always did with his older sister.
“HEY, I’M GOING NOW.” She screamed over the music.
“WHY? IS EVERYTHING OKAY?”
“YEAH. I JUST GOT TO GO.”
“OKAY. AT LEAST TAKE A BOOK WITH YOU! THEY’RE ALL SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, BECAUSE OF YOUR CONNECTION!”
“THANKS, BIG BRO! CONGRATULATIONS ON EVERYTHING!”
“SEE YOU AT HOME, AL!”
Even Clarissa joined in with a hug. “THANKS FOR COMING, ALYSSA. IT MEANS A LOT TO US.”
She nodded and turned to the exit while waving at them. She shoved one of those books into her bag and shuffled out the door. As she waited for the elevator, she wished she had at least taken a pizza for the road, but she didn’t feel like going back in again just for food. Besides, she was on a diet of sorts, which meant leaving all kinds of parties with an empty stomach.
