Reborn in 1994: Internet Empire

33 Making ripples

       It was not long before Max and his associates in the XMC Tech company finalized everything for the production of their new product that would be released to the masses of New York. Charlie had incorporated every single recommendation that Max had made, while Lina worked with them to make usability as efficient as possible. Jules arranged for several meetings with high up companies due to her connections with her father, as well as friends that she had made in several VIP gatherings. As for Trae, he worked to check every single bug that could potentially cause problems for their presentations. Before long, the company had created something that could potentially make huge waves in terms of technological advancement in the area of information security.

       Everyone had been working the past month just to be able to release this product before Christmas break. Charlie had been spending exceeding amounts of time with Lina, working to fix user-friendliness and designs for the interface. Max had been overseeing them for the longest time. Finally, now that the finish line was in sight, they worked tirelessly as they brought themselves into the final sprint. Charlie couldn’t be distracted by his feelings for Lina, which have only been getting stronger as they got closer the past month. Suddenly, his own thoughts were interrupted by Jules, who strolled in to see how they were all doing.

       “So how’s it looking boys?” Jules asked, just ending a call with a potential client.

       “Well, we’ve made the final adjustments already, and Lina’s recommendations on usability were all out of the park. So we made changes to those as well. Plus considering we conducted that survey in the IT Department, we got a lot of good suggestions to fix this up even further!” Charlie said with pride.

       “That’s right, so all we gotta do is apply those answers and fix it up! But otherwise, it’s pretty much done!” Max added.

       “So we are going to burn it after this, right?” Lina asked, popping in to check usability one last time before they burned their more finalized prototype to their blank CDs.

       “Yeah! It’s really exciting isn’t it Lina?!” Jules exclaimed as she grabbed Lina’s hands.

       Lina looked at her awkwardly but tried to force a smile. Charlie caught this and immediately tried to interject. After all, it’d be hard to look at your love rival while they were getting closer to the object of your affections, he thought.

       “Hold on Lina, we need you to take a closer look at the settings dropdown, just to see if there are any more things we need to fix,” Charlie said as he casually beckoned her over.

       “O-oh, ok!” she said, as she wriggled out of Jules’ grip and walked over to him. “Thanks,” she said under her breath, as she sat down next to him.

“Don’t worry about it… I told you I’m rooting for you, right?” he said back to her, under his breath.

Suddenly, Max shot up from his chair with a shocked expression on his face.

“Trae! Jules! We’re supposed to be meeting your father in a while for the pitch right?!” he asked his equally shocked colleagues.

For a moment, a quiet set in. Then chaos broke out.

“Max get the cd! We need to go now!!” Jules yelled.

“A-ah! Wait it’s still burning!” Lina yelped in response.

“How much longer?!” Max couldn’t help but scream in panic.

“s**t uhh… 5 minutes!” Charlie said as the adrenaline in his system started to kick in.

“We can’t wait that long!” Max said, checking his watch. “The escort is gonna get here in- s**t! He’s here!!”

“Max! I have the program prior to the update burned in a cd just in case!” Trae screamed after rummaging through his backpack.

Max hugged Trae out of sheer joy.

“I could kiss you right now, Trae!!!!”

“Don’t! Asshole, we gotta go! Lina and Charlie, hold down the fort for us, right?” Trae said looking in their direction.

       Before the other two could reply, Max, Jules and Trae rushed out the door and slammed it shut behind them. Charlie and Lina were left behind, still trying to process what had just happened. They looked at each other dumbfounded, before breaking into loud laughter that made them feel that they went through some sort of gauntlet ab workout. After laughing for a good while, they collapsed onto the floor and lay next to each other just looking at the ceiling. It was quiet between the two of them, and yet for some reason, they were not unsettled. Comfortable silence is sometimes one of the nicest things that a friend can experience with another friend. And that was what was happening right now. For moments, they just enjoyed being quiet and alone, together.

       “Hey,” Lina said, finally breaking the long quiet between them. “I-I’m really thankful for you getting me out of that weird situation with Jules earlier.”

       “It’s no big deal. I just thought that I wouldn’t be comfortable in that scenario myself,” Charlie replied.

       “So I guess, those two are really together aren’t they?” Lina asked, her voice breaking slightly.

       “Knowing them, they’ve probably said that they liked each other already. But as for a label, it’s the kind of thing that Max would shoehorn everywhere he went. You know him.”

       “Ahaha, yeah that’s right. It would still be weird if I tried to hope for a shot with him… wouldn’t it?”

       “Nope, not at all.”

       Lina sat up and looked at Charlie almost in surprise. He remained to lie down with his eyes to the ceiling.

       “Why?” she asked, clearly confused.

       He sighed and wondered if he was saying the right thing. After all, he could not help but feel burdened with the guilt of his hypocrisy, knowing that he was doing the exact same thing she was doing. He looked at her briefly, only to catch a glimpse of how pretty she was. Her confused expression was laced with a seriousness that made her look even cuter. Though, he couldn’t say this to her outright. Not with how she looked at Max the same way.

       “Well, for one, if it isn’t explicitly stated between either of the two parties that they are dating, and are exclusive, then it isn’t valid. Besides… Second, because he probably doesn’t know how great you’d be as a romantic partner.”

       She blushed and looked away.

       “I-I mean! Not that I’ve ever known what that was like! I just feel like if he could get a feeling similar to the feeling I have right now, except on a stronger level from you, then I think he’d pick you.”

       “Feeling?” she asked, turning back to him.

       “Well… The feeling of being able to be yourself. The feeling of being comfortable, even when you say absolutely nothing. The feeling that you don’t need to worry in times of trouble because you know this other person would just drop in and help you out. The feeling that you could just be completely maskless in their presence. That feeling,” he said as he sat up. “Is the feeling that I have right now, with you.”

       She blushed again, completely meeting his gaze. Oh, how he wanted to cut the sentence there. But sadly, that would only make her feel regret. He finished his sentence after looking at her for a moment.

       “...as friends of course.”

       Her shocked expression was replaced with a smile of deep satisfaction and love. Though it wasn’t the kind of love that he was looking for. But it was love nonetheless. And he tried to convince himself that he was ok with that.

       “You know, I really appreciate this, Charlie,” she said, as she reached in to give him a hug.

       She wrapped her arms around him and pressed herself into him, as she gave him a hard squeeze and several pats on his back. He obliged and gently wrapped his arms around her as well, trying to be conscious of where he put his hands. For a moment, he just sank into her embrace, wishing internally that it wouldn’t end. Being the logical person that he was, however, he was the one who pulled away first, just so that he wouldn’t feel like any of it was cut short from him.

       “I’m just glad I could help,” he said, wishing he could be more for her.

“You know Charlie...”

“Oh god, here it comes...” he said internally.

“I really think...”

“Please, don’t say it.”

“That you...”

“Don’t say it!”

“...are a really good friend.”

Behind his seemingly genuine smile was a heart that stung. He must have mumbled something cheesy or the like, because he didn’t remember much after that. All he knew was that she punched his shoulder the way that “bros” would do. This made it sting even more. But he told himself to bear it, at least until she left. Finally, it was time for her to go back to her dorm. It was a short goodbye, followed by a brief hug.

“Charlie… you’re rooting for me, right?”

“Of course,” he said. “I don’t ever lie, do I?”

She giggled and smiled at him.

“Of course you don’t”

With that, she turned around and walked away. He kept her eyes on her as her figure started to obscure the further she got. With a final turn, she walked down the stairs, and was out of sight. He smiled solemnly as he went back inside to fix his own things. Pressing his hands on the table to catch his breath a little, he bent over and mumbled to himself.

“Max, Trae and Jules should be done by now… I guess I gotta get ready just in case they decide to celebrate-”

He stopped himself as he noticed a little tear drip onto his hand. Suddenly more drops of tears fell. His breath became heavy, and his nose started to clog up.

“Honestly, Charlie… What’d you get yourself into this time?”

Within seconds, he was sobbing his heart out into his arms, in the solace of his newfound sanctuary. For a man who was making waves in the technological community, in regards to her, he was making ripples.