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sort this
thing out.”
    I looked away
from Mr. Lowell and shook my head. I was ashamed of myself. I’d broken every
rule of living on the run in a matter of minutes: I wasn’t supposed to talk to
anyone. I wasn’t supposed to trust anyone. I was supposed to keep to myself
until I arrived in New York—until I stormed into IBM headquarters and forced
them to listen to my ideas. Yet, there was sincerity in this man’s eyes, and a
national project with access to the best technology in the world was too
tempting to pass up.
    For an entire
year, I used every free minute I had to work on Mr. Lowell’s project. In
between soaring through my classes and working three jobs to cover the
expensive dorm and food costs, I managed to help him earn a seven hundred
thousand dollar grant to build more of his impressive L-tech laptop.
    Right after he
was officially awarded the money, he handed me an envelope that contained a
twenty thousand dollar check, saying that it would help me pay the remaining part
of my sophomore year’s tuition.
    I was about to
run to the bank and cash it immediately, but he snatched it back.
    “You know what,
Jonathan? You’re better than this.” He shook his head. “Tell you what, instead
of this check, I’m going to give you something even better.”
    “A bigger check?”
    “Funny.” He
snorted. “I’m going to be the first investor in your company. I’ll even host a
dinner with my wife to get you other investors this weekend. I don’t think you
need to waste any more time taking classes with people who aren’t as smart as
you. You need to drop out and start working on your own company. I’ll help you
in any way that I can for the first year.”
    “What are you
talking about? I don’t have a company, Mr. Lowell...”
    And I want my
check back!
    “Statham Inc.?
Statham Enterprises? Statham Industries ! It has a nice ring to it, don’t
you think?” He slid my award check into his briefcase and picked it up. “Trust
me, in five years, you’ll have the amount of this check times a hundred. As of
now, it’ll just be my consulting fee.” He patted my shoulder and walked out of
the room.

Chapter 3
    C laire
    Today was one of
those days when I honestly felt like I’d wasted the best years of my life. I’d
spent all morning watching the Lifetime channel, going through old photo
albums, and listening to one of my other San Fran friends—Helen, talk about how
she’d been nominated for “Lawyer of the Year.”
    She went on and
on about how the ceremony was going to be in Vegas, how they’d booked a
celebrity for a guest speaker, and how she just couldn’t wait to lounge in a
rooftop pool; all the nominees were entitled to the five star treatment, which
included having their own penthouse suite. 
    Although I was
extremely happy for her, I was also slightly jealous. Helen was thirty nine
years old too, but unlike me, she seemed to have it all together: She had her
own law firm, traveled somewhere new and exciting every month, and the stories
she told me about her sex life made me wish I’d had more experience before tying
myself down to Ryan.
    As a matter of
fact, anytime Helen, Sandra, and I had a ‘girls’ night,’ she always overwhelmed
us with salacious stories about her newest lover. At first, I thought she was
just doing it to brag, but after a while I realized that she was doing me a
favor. She was making me see how pathetic my nonexistent sex life was, trying
to help me get in tune with something called an “inner goddess.”
    But, since I
refused to date, I relied on vibrating friends to get the job done: They were
effective, easy, and I didn’t have to worry about them cheating on me.
    Once I was off
the phone with Helen, I decided to do some work. I started looking over my
associates’ latest slogan submissions and proposed ad ideas. I read through
three of them and shut the folder, making an immediate break for my car.
    I’m going to
need some serious wine to get through