JASON

CHAPTER 1 JASON My hands are sweating as I click the button for the next slide. “So you see,” I say, trying not to let my voice shake. “This is why⁠—” One of the board members holds up his hand to stop me. My presentation grinds to a halt, and I stare at the sea of uninterested faces before me. The guy — Kevin — looks left and right at his colleagues, and one of the women nods in agreement with what he’s about to do. I know what he’s about to do too, and my heart sinks. His chair scrapes against the floor awkwardly as he gets to his feet. “You seem like an intelligent guy,” says Kevin, and I autofill the next words before he can say them. But your product’s just not what we’re looking for at this time. “But I just don’t think your product is a good fit for our company,” he says. I grimace, shuffling my weight between my feet, feeling like a deer in the headlights. Taking a sharp breath, I push my glasses up my nose until the frames hit my forehead, and swallow hard. “Wait, sir, please,” I stammer. “Just let me finish my presentation.” Kevin shakes his head. “The thing is, here at Lemon, we’re kind of trying to appeal to the younger user base, you know, the influencer teens and the cool kids who are great for ad revenue.” “Well, I didn’t get to the ad revenue slide,” I say, desperately trying to keep their attention, even though I know it’s a lost cause. “Our SEO is actually boosting us right to the top of internet listings, and advertisers are starting to flock to us as they realize our potential.” “I get that,” says Kevin, perhaps a little too sharply. “But the thing is, Lemon isn’t just about the product. It’s about the people behind the computer too. We’re trying to entice a specific type of user, and to do that, we need someone with a certain…” he hesitates, and I clench my fists, waiting for whatever veiled insult is about to come next. “Charisma,” he finishes. I let out a shaky breath. At least that was nicer than some of the other companies have been to me. One guy all but called me a loser in front of all his colleagues and mine. That was not one of my better days. “Well, once we’ve had a bit more growth, perhaps you’ll consider having this conversation again?” I ask, doing my best to smile. It’s a desperate effort and we all know it, but I can’t be defeated this easily. I don’t have anywhere else to turn after this. Kevin looks at the other board members and brand managers and shakes his head slowly. “I’m sorry, Jason. You do seem like a good guy, but, well… we were looking for someone with a celebrity factor, you know. Someone whose life people want to get the lowdown on. Someone who sparkles when they walk into the room.” “I see,” I choke, trying and failing to keep my composure when every word feels like another stab in my chest. I almost wish he had just come out and called me uncool to my face. It would hurt less than him pretending to be nice about it. There’s a long silence where everyone stares at me, waiting for me to be gone. But nobody has dismissed me yet or turned off the projector, so I’m not quite sure that they’re done with me. We’re just trapped in this awful limbo where no one wants to say Come on, man. What are you still doing here? “Uh, right,” I say, not sure where to go from here. The other board members have started whispering between themselves, and I know for a fact that I’m going to be the office gossip for the rest of the week. Once, I would have hoped that it would at least push engagement, but now I know that these aren’t the kind of people who will try your product out of some sort of morbid curiosity. These are people who just want to laugh at you. I’ve faced enough of them.