The Desire Variable | Rewrite

⸻ TWELVE ⸻

"Well, he never shared that with me," I retort.

"Ah, you'll have to excuse my old friend. While he might be the smartest man I know, he is most certainly not the sharpest one when it comes to people. He's a good guy deep down, though, I promise."

He gives me an impish smirk, and then guides me to a couple of empty chairs.

The room rapidly falls silent as we sit, and it's because of Alexander's commanding authority. He doesn't even have to speak as he stands by the turned off screen to make the room shut up, and it's honestly impressive.

"We are about to acquire a new project, which will now become our number one priority," he says to the gathered crowd with a clear voice. "Starting today, a few of you will be assigned to it. I want the beta version of this app up and running before Thanksgiving, so I expect all the involved parties to do their best to respect that deadline. Andrea, if you would," he adds, moving to the side.

What? I'm supposed to become the center of attention, just like that, out of the blue? Everyone's eyes are on me, so I force myself to stand up and join him. It feels like drama club all over again.

"This is Andrea Walker, who joined the dev team about a month ago. It's her app that we're looking to purchase. I'll let her introduce it," Lex explains, stepping to the side once he's done.

"Hi," I say with a weird hand wave, my voice imperceptibly shaky. "So, I've created the equivalent of a voice recognition software but for sign language. It's been over two years of work now, and still in development, but I've reached the limits of what I can do by myself. The app is meant to be both convenient and educational, as people will pick up a few tricks when interacting with hearing-impaired interlocutors." I could speak about this project for three hours straight, but I doubt everyone wants to listen to technicalities. I keep it as short and as concise as I can, focusing on the few people I know to keep my social anxiety at bay.

As soon as I'm done, Alexander takes the lead again. "I want this developed and expanded to its maximum potential. By next year, I want this app in every administrative building, museum, school, highschool, college... This will set the norm, we'll make it become mandatory, a basic requirement for state-run facilities, and a necessary tool for the private sector as well."

The more he talks, the stupider I feel. I worked on this so my brother could get laid--not that he needs any help with that. And Alexander fucking Coleman is already fifty steps ahead of me, seeing the big picture I was too dumb to fathom.

The government is always trying to include handicapped minorities, or at least they pretend to. It isn't so far-fetched that they would invest in such a device to help, either kids with hearing impairment blend in more easily into their schools, or patients from hospitals, or visitors in administrative buildings... And the same applies for the private sector.

Even if the app doesn't go very well with civilians, which I doubt, all those facilities would still make Kelex's investment very lucrative.

I watch the man as he shares his objectives and prognostics. As always when his brain is in action, I feel myself slowly slip into arousal. As soon as I realize it, I turn my attention back to the crowd. There's no way I'll be caught drooling on him by all those people.

With mild amusement, I note that most women are drinking his words with way too much enthusiasm. The man is a snack and a half, and I'm definitely not the only one to know it. In the corner of my eye, I see him pass a hand through his hair, and two women bite their lips.

As someone who gets wet every time he uses a polysyllabic word or puts on his glasses, I can't even blame them.

When the meeting ends ten minutes later, Lex dismisses everyone but a few, so he can explain what's expected from us with this change of plans. Consumer trials and marketing, early design, and programming are distributed among us. Kevin is also present, supervising everything and weighing in on the decisions being made. Everyone has until the end of the week to finish what they're working on or pass it to someone else. Lex and I, on the other hand, will start working on it straight away.