Page 135 of The Billionaire's Wake-up-call Girl

I don’t know what to say to that. I left him. But now I want to be with him. “It’s a long story, but I need to be in the audience. He needs to know I’m there.”

“Cosign,” Willow says, with a hand on my back. “It would mean everything to him.”

“Come on, we’ll get you in.” Vicky thanks the guards and leads the way. Willow and I follow. The little dog peers back at us, riding happily, wee little tongue poking out his mouth.

“Thank you,” I say to her.

“Thank Smuckers for having to pee.” Vicky leads us down a side hall and pushes open a door. “Shhh! Go on,” she whispers.

Willow and I sneak in and the door closes behind us. The vast ballroom is a dark sea of tables covered with white tablecloths. Bright dresses glow softly in the candlelight. There’s somebody on the stage talking about construction. Green buildings or something.

Willow takes my arm. “At the next break, I’m gonna lead you to our table up front. You can take his seat.”

“Are you sure?”

“More than sure!” She squints at the stage. “He’s up soon, I think.”

“How’s he been?” I whisper.

“Miserable. He’s just been holed up in his lab. I don’t think he wrote any kind of speech. Certainly not the dog-and-pony show that the older members of the Locke board want to see.”

“I feel so bad.”

“Don’t. Trust me, I know how he can be. He’ll be so happy to see you.” Willow squeezes my hand. “I know he messed up.”

“So did I. But I feel sure we can work it out.”

People start clapping.

“Now,” Willow says, dragging me around the edges of the ballroom to a table in the front. There are two empty seats together.

An announcer comes on and starts talking about Theo, about inspiration being found in tragedy. It’s bright up onstage.

I whisper to Willow, “Can they even see us from up there?”

She shrugs and shakes her head.

He finally calls Theo’s name.

There’s applause as Theo walks out in a tuxedo. Theo in a tux is even hotter than Theo in a lab coat. He accepts the shiny award, and shakes the man’s hand.

The room hushes.

He thanks the Locke Foundation, talks about how honored he is.

I wave at him, but his eyes glide right over me—over all the audience. He can’t see with the lights burning onto him—just as I feared.

He goes on to speak about how much he wanted to partner with Locke. He then starts in on his struggles with dehydrated Vossameer.

“Wow,” Willow says. “I didn’t know he was going to talk about all that.”

“Inspiration comes in many forms,” Theo is saying. “I’ve been trying to nail this formula with all my might. Power it out. And then one day…” He steps aside. There’s something in his hand. He raises it to the screen and a goat video flashes up. Little goats playing. Everybody laughs.

“Oh my god, he’s gone insane,” Willow whispers.

I’m just grinning. Theo is showing baby goat videos at a giant banquet. He’s talking about randomness, about chemical structures. How he was looking at things in a too-rigid way. How the goats at play showed him something. A way to solve the problem.

My smile stretches ear to ear, like it might break my face.

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