Chapter Thirty-Three
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The buzzing phone drilled through her sleep. Kya blindly reached out and brought it to her ear without checking the caller ID. She trusted that whoever was calling this early had a legit reason. ‘Hello?’
‘Hey!’ It was Adrian. ‘H saw you last night, and now I’m a little jealous.’
That was not a legit reason.
‘Bro …’ she moaned.
‘How you doing?’ he asked. ‘I miss you.’
Okay, that was sweet.
Kya slipped off her sleep mask, climbed out of bed and tiptoed out of the room so as to not disturb Quinn. She imagined Adrian at the clinic, seated at his desk, ready to receive the first patient of the day.
‘What time is it?’ she asked.
‘It’s seven. I never get to call you in the morning when you’re out west.’
Kya flopped onto the couch, resigned. If this was a privilege for him, she wouldn’t take it away. ‘I miss you, too.’
‘Are you having fun?’
‘I’m having a blast.’
‘Good. That’s all that matters.’
‘I met with Corinne Miller for lunch the other day,’ Kya added quickly. She wouldn’t want her overachieving brother to think she was a slacker.
‘Do you mean Carl’s wife?’
‘She’s more than that!’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘I’m just trying to put her in context.’
‘Put her in the context as CEO of her own company.’
‘I forgot how cranky you are when you don’t get enough sleep.’
‘I’ll get off my soapbox now.’
‘What did you two discuss at lunch? World domination?’
‘Naturally,’ Kya said. ‘We also talked about how she launched her company. She thinks I should start my own business.’
‘What do you think?’ he asked.
‘It’s a crazy idea. Can you imagine?’
‘Easily. That’s what I did.’
‘It’s not the same.’
‘How so?’
Adrian studied medicine, got the requisite training and passed the board exams, and opened his own clinic. Essentially, he’d started his own company. Kya had never thought of it that way before. Adrian was a small-business owner. He owned his practice.
‘I’m sure with your skills and background you could do something similar. You’re not bound to Silicon Valley, you know.’
‘Hmm …’
‘And if you need seed money—’
‘I don’t want your money.’
‘Good, because I’m not offering it,’ he said. ‘I could help you raise it. We know people who do that sort of thing. Roman, for one. He finances tech projects all over the world. You could ask him about it this weekend. Are you joining us for brunch on Sunday?’
‘I’ll be there.’
She would definitely join them now that she had this added incentive, no matter how exhausted she was from the night before.
‘The first rule of business is never to put in your own money, or your relatives’ money, if you can help it.’
‘Got it.’
‘Are you comfortable over there at Quinn’s? You can always come home.’
‘I’m fine.’
She could not tell him that Quinn’s place was starting to feel like a second home. That might signal, if only to herself, that she was moving way too fast.
‘Time to meet with my office manager. Before I go, I’ve started following you on TikTok.’
‘You and ten others.’
‘More like ten thousand.’
‘Are you kidding?’
‘Okay. Talk soon.’
The line went dead. Kya had forgotten her brother’s infuriatingly abrupt way of ending calls. Just out of curiosity, she checked her follower count on TikTok and it was almost as many as she had on LinkedIn, which was outrageous considering she’d been blogging for years. Kya reviewed her TikTok profile. She’d deleted that first teary-eyed hostage-style video. Her posts of Quinn and last night’s sound engineer were doing extremely well. She liked this new direction, and was eager to apply it to blogging. There was no time like the present. Since she was up, she might as well be productive, too.
GIRL DECODED
– LUNCH WITH THE CEO –
Hi guys! It’s Kya.
A clever woman told me over Korean barbecue: “Your career hasn’t started until you get axed.” I believe it. As you might have heard, I lost my job at Ex-Cell recently. Until you get caught in the grinding wheels of the machine, and left to take stock of your scattered pieces, you can’t begin to know your true worth.
I had the pleasure of sitting with Corinne Miller, CEO and founder of BioFlow Enterprises, a tech firm with a focus on laboratory automation. With her founding partner and CFO Joanne Owen, Corinne hatched the plan for her innovative company over cocktails. Here, at Girl Decoded, we love an enterprising boss babe…
Kya hit POST just when Quinn stepped out of the bedroom, looking sleepy and disoriented. She set aside her phone on which she’d typed, edited, and posted the blog.
Yawning, Quinn asked, ‘Did someone call, like, at four a.m., or was that a dream?’
‘Sorry, that was no dream,’ Kya replied. ‘That was my brother. He’s one of those five a.m. types. He actually called at seven. It only felt like four because last night was one for the books.’
‘It was,’ she said with a private little grin.
‘We have ten hours until we do it all again. What should we do with our time?’
‘Waste it,’ Quinn said. ‘Lounge by the pool. Get Ivy and Amanda to join us. Order lunch.’
‘Aren’t we two productive bright young women!’ Kya exclaimed.
‘We are who we are. It can’t be helped.’ She came around and dropped a kiss on Kya’s forehead. ‘Tea?’
‘Never.’
It was coffee or nothing. You could take the girl out of Silicon Valley, but you could never take the Valley out of the girl.