Echoes of Unrequited Love

Chapter 87

The room was packed with big shots, and there I was, a no–name coder, smart enough to blend into the background.

Before long, my long–awaited Tack and the boss showed up, taking their seats right next to Frank, super close to Hogan and Cecilia.

Cecilia seemed to recognize Tack and seized the moment to slip him her business card.

Pretty standard move, considering that Tack, a world–class software engineer, wasn’t someone we bumped into every day. But Cecilia came on so strong that she ended up looking a little too

eager.

Luckily, Tack had enough EQ to handle it. He took the card, gave it a polite glance, and handed it off to his assistant.

He didn’t leave Cecilia hanging.

Cecilia, all smiles, struck up a convo with Tack in her less–than–perfect tone about the game we were developing.

Tack showed a flicker of interest, but then he switched gears and asked, “I’ve heard about this game from Mr. Bishop. Isn’t the engineer named Xaviera?”

Cecilia’s face froze for a second.

I didn’t expect Tack to bring me up.

introduced me, “The Xaviera you want to meet is right

gave me a probing

wasn’t about to let this chance slip by, so I stepped up and greeted him, “Tack, I’m Xaviera.

me up and then mused, “So it is you, Xaviera. I didn’t expect to

a bit surprised, “Tack,

emails about

when you turned down Elysium University. Xaviera, you’ve got a real knack for

words drew everyone’s attention to me.

many knew about my Elysium

Tack’s mention changed the way everyone looked at

to go

Chapter 87

played it cool and steered the conversation toward

get a word in edgewise several times but got brushed off by Tack, ending up

Tack handed me

gave out two cards that night; the other went

feeling like I hit the jackpot.

Hostel, Darren, bleary–eyed, said, “Xaviera, you know, I’m really

play a