Hostile Makeover (Fashionista and the Geek, Book 3) [Ebook]

Victoria Edward moved through the large open-plan office with the sharp strikes of high heels on a mission.

Every heel strike broadcasted her bad mood and three heads popped up from colorful laptops to stare at her.

She glared back.

One—she’d had to leave New York when she hated leaving New York. Especially when the leaving meant she’d be in San Francisco.

Victoria and San Francisco had decided long ago that they did not get along. It was too relaxed, too alternate reality, too nice and smiley-smiley.

When Victoria smiled, it was not nice, and no one had ever dared describe Victoria as relaxed.

Two—she’d had to move her father across the country when any change to his routine caused weeks of irritability and mental anguish. His Alzheimer’s was getting worse even in familiar surroundings and while Victoria had done the best she could—full-time care with nurses who’d agreed to play assistant and reams of paper in the office she’d set up—she knew this change would be hard on the both of them.

Three—the morons currently running this company into the ground were software engineers with no business sense, and they were trying to monetize medical software they had no business trying to monetize. Even if they were the ones who’d created it in the first place.

And four—the morons currently running this company into the ground were doing it while sitting around on beanbags in their hoodies.

This was a place of business, probably. It might be more accurate to say it could be a place of business because right now, this was an amateur operation. And Victoria Edward was no amateur.

She’d learned at her father’s feet—sitting in on board meetings, international deals, takeovers and mergers since before she could spell CEO.

Her pint-sized pink desk had sat right next to her father’s and been littered with gifts from Fortune 500 companies and world leaders.

She’d fired her first employee from it when she was a kindergartner.

She was supposed to still be sitting right next to her father—taking over his company and growing his empire—and instead she’d left to start her own angel investing company.

She’d unknowingly left him to fend for himself when his mental health had been declining, leaving the board no choice but to oust him, and she wasn’t going to start questioning if she’d made the right decision because of these morons.

She would make sure it had been the right decision.

Victoria kicked a light blue beanbag out of the way, cocking one hip and crossing her arms. Three sets of eyes ran down her tight black pencil skirt and long, long legs to her Giuseppe Zanotti black and gold scorpion high heels, and she said, “At least it’s not your garage.”

No one made a sound, or met her eyes again, and the silence grew until one of them sat up a little and cleared his throat.

He said to her shoes, “Can we help you?”

She watched him fiddle with the zipper on his green hoodie and said, “I’m fairly certain no, but we’ll see. Where’s Jace Adams?”

“Oh,” Green Hoodie said, still talking to her shoes. “He went out to get some gumdrops. It’s National Gumdrop Day.”

Victoria stared at him.

Green Hoodie looked at Blue Hoodie to his right and Black Hoodie to his left, then back in Victoria’s direction.

“We celebrate one fun national holiday every week. It was Jace’s turn…to get the…” He glanced up into her unsmiling eyes and whispered, “Gumdrops.”

Gumdrops. Hoodies. Beanbags.

Oh, she was going to dismantle this company from beneath them. Rip it apart and save the treasure they were sitting on.

Blue Hoodie silently pointed behind her and Victoria turned to see a grinning Jace loping towards her.

His tall, lanky frame was sporting a tie-dyed hoodie and his dress slacks were wrinkled.

His light brown hair was unruly and unkempt, and he was wearing Birkenstock sandals with thick woolly socks.

Basically a fashion nightmare by any standards but San Francisco.

Victoria might have forgiven him if he’d had any business sense at all.

But he didn’t, and he’d proved it when he’d sold her half his company.

“Victoria!” He held up his shopping bag, shaking it at her. “Gumdrops. It’s National Gumdrop Day.”

“I’ve heard.”

“Yeah, we pick one fun holiday and celebrate it all week long. Just something we started doing and it stuck. Last week was National Latte Day, that was a good one. We got a lot done.”

Green Hoodie piped up with, “Kiss A Ginger Day was my favorite,” and then hid behind his laptop when Victoria turned her attention back to him.

Jace said, “Did anybody kiss you besides the three of us?”

Black Hoodie folded her arms and glared at the scorpions on Victoria’s shoes.

“The three of us used to be enough. For everybody.”

Jace said softly, “Amberlee,” and the woman closed her laptop with a snap, climbing to her feet—gracelessly, because it was a beanbag.

Victoria said, “I haven’t heard of any of these holidays. Is there a National Get To Work On Time Day? A Save This Company Before It’s Too Late Day?”

Jace dug through his shopping bag, finally pulling out the gumdrops triumphantly.

“That’s every day, isn’t it? We’ve got to have a little fun while we do it.”

Victoria eyed him a long moment, then held out her hand.

Jace grinned, dropping the bag of candy into it, and she said, “No. We do not.”

She threw the candy into the nearest trash can and Jace blinked, his grin disappearing.

“Okay, I thought you were going to eat those.”

“Candy is for children, not failing entrepreneurs.”

Jace reached down, pulling them back out and dusting them off, and Victoria grimaced.

He said, “What about successful entrepreneurs?”

“No.”

“Well, luckily, we are software engineers. And candy is an occupational necessity.” He ripped open the bag and when Victoria fake-gagged, he shrugged.

“There were just papers in there. It’s fine.”

“It’s gross.”

“You had issues with them before they went in, I’m not taking your word for it,” he said and looked at Black Hoodie.

She held out her hand.

“It’s gross but I’m not going to agree with her.”

“That’s the spirit. Craig?”

Green Hoodie scratched his head, flicking his eyes between Jace and Black Hoodie and Victoria’s shoes, and then held out his hand too.

Jace looked over his shoulder at Victoria and grinned.

“How can you tell an extroverted engineer from an introverted one?”

She lifted her eyebrows. “He makes inappropriate jokes during work hours?”

“He’s staring at your shoes instead of his.”

Victoria looked at the three engineers.

“They’re all staring at my shoes. Except for Black Hoodie, she’s glaring at them.”

“Yeahhhh.” Jace looked down too, at the scorpions climbing up the bridge of her foot. “Your shoes kind of ruin that joke. Why scorpions?”

She pointed her toe at him.

“Gold scorpions. What’s not to like?”

“They’re scary.”

“I know.”

“Aggressive.”

“Yep.”

“Your feet look beautiful and dangerous,” he said, then looked back up into her eyes. “You love these shoes, don’t you?”

She smiled, hoping it looked beautiful and dangerous too and judging by the look in his eyes, she’d got it right.

She said, “They’re a few years out of fashion. That’s how much I love them.”

“Okay…” he said and then noticed Green Hoodie still holding out his hand. “Sorry, Craig. Didn’t mean to leave you hanging. Dev? You want in on this holiday celebration?”

Blue Hoodie held out his empty #desi coffee mug to be filled and Jace said, “I think you’re outnumbered on this one, Vicky.”

“Call me that again and you will. Not. Enjoy. It.”

All Jace did was laugh and pop a handful of gumdrops. Just one of the maaanny reasons she wondered about his mental faculties.

She said, “Can we be done with this holiday and actually get to work now? Where’s your office?”

Jace indicated the wide, open room. “No offices.”

“Lovely. Anywhere we can speak in private?”

“Nope. Don’t believe in privacy.”

“You don’t believe in privacy…”

She pointed to a door on the far side of the room and he said, “The stairwell to the fire exit?”

She started walking towards it.

“It will have to do.”

“We really can talk out here.”

“Nope.”

Jace cleared his throat. “Um…”

Victoria pulled the fire door open, then pointedly looked at him to follow.

“Victoria—”

“It’s going to be different now, Jace. We’ve got a lot of work to do and there’s no time for gumdrops.”

He cleared his throat again. “Here’s the thing—”

“There is no thing,” she said, walking into the stairwell and slamming the heavy door behind her as best she could.

She waited, folding her arms and tapping her shoe.

He followed her in seconds later saying, “There is a thing. I split up my shares. That’s the thing.”

Her foot stopped tapping.

“What do you mean you split up your shares? With who?”

“Craig, Amberlee, and Dev.”

She raised her eyebrows. “They weren’t owners when I bought half your company.”

“I know. But there’s nothing in our contract that says we can’t sell our shares to whoever we want. You made sure that was in there.”

She had. She wouldn’t be trapped in to owning any business, no matter how much she believed in the product.

She didn’t know why he would willingly become a minority owner in his own company, though.

Victoria stayed silent, trying to work out his angle, and Jace cleared his throat.

“I thought it would be safer. Just in case you were more hostile than you appeared.” He looked at her expression. “Or as hostile as you appeared.”

“You thought it would be safer to dilute your shares, to make it so I only had to talk one of them into whatever I wanted to have majority share?”

“That was true anyway. You only ever had to talk me into something to get majority share. And I thought it would be safer for them.”

Her mouth fell open. “Talking you into something is not the same thing as talking one of them into it.”

“Yes, it is. I trust them. They trust me.”

She snorted. “Like I haven’t heard that a million times before.”

He cocked his head and said, “That’s just sad.”

“It’s just truth.”

He said softly, “They needed protection. And now you can’t just come in here and fire them. They’re part owners.”

She snapped her mouth shut.

“I wouldn’t necessarily have fired them.”

“You wouldn’t necessarily hadn’t have not fired them… You know what I mean.”

She probably would have fired them, eventually. Get workers in who would be loyal to her.

And who weren’t morons.

He said, “Plus, I owed them. They’ve all been here, with me, from the start.”

“You owed them…” She sucked in a breath. “Wait. Are you telling me you gave them the shares?”

“That’s right.”

“You gave away more than a third of your company?”

“Yes.” He looked at the expression on her face. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay! What is wrong with you?!”

“It was always the plan to make them partners but it was just easier for the company to be mine. And then it was going to be a failed company so it didn’t matter if they owned part of it or not. And then you came along.”

He smiled, like her coming along was a good thing.

The door behind them opened slightly and Green Hoodie stuck his head through the crack.

“You guys okay in here? Seems like there’s a lot of shouting going on.”

Blue Hoodie’s head appeared underneath and he said, “You must have told her about the thing.”

Black Hoodie said from behind them, “I’m not crawling under you two.”

Victoria ignored them as they shuffled around to hover in the open doorway, and she said to Jace, “You could have just given them a bonus from what I paid you.”

“There wasn’t really any money left over after I paid off the debts from trying to stay in business. But they said they wanted the shares.” Jace smiled at her. “They believe in this. They believe in you.”

Black Hoodie snorted. “She’s not the one we believe in. She’s probably going to try and sell the company out from under us.”

When Victoria glanced at her, the woman was glaring at Victoria’s shoes again.

Jace said, “You going to try and sell it out from under us, Victoria? Gonna work toward an IPO and get your payout?”

“No,” she said harshly. “I’m not doing this for a payout. We’re going to take this software to market so it can get better, not so we can get paid.”

He smiled like he’d known she would say that. He smiled like he knew.

He said, “And why is that?”

She narrowed her eyes, ignoring his question.

“It has to be profitable, though. I can’t support it without it being able to stay afloat on its own.”

“But,” Jace said, turning to the other three. “Money is not her priority. And that’s why we’re going to believe in her. She wants this to succeed. We want this to succeed. We all want the same thing.”

Victoria looked at her new co-owners. They looked back at her, meeting her eyes for the first time since she walked through the door.

And they all knew except Jace.

They weren’t ever going to work well together.

Jace Adams watched his friends file back into the office reluctantly, wishing he’d brought out the gumdrops. They could all use a little sugar pick-me-up right about now.

He’d known that bringing Victoria in would change everything.

And he’d known that their little company wouldn’t survive without change.

He only felt a little bad that he’d crumbled when money had come knocking. But they’d needed it. He wasn’t sure, even now, if she and her money could save them.

But he’d had to try. He believed in what they’d accomplished so far.

Believed in their software—that it could change how quickly doctors and patients recognized signs of Alzheimer’s and that it could help slow the progression of the disease.

That maybe they would change the world.

Or maybe he’d just change his.

Either way, he was proud of the work he’d done so far. Was proud of the work they’d done so far. Dev, Amberlee, and Craig all deserved their fair shares and it was completely worth the lecture he was currently getting from Victoria.

“The first lesson in business is don’t undercharge… Actually, it might be don’t make a bad deal. You did that, too. But the second lesson, if you actually want to stay in business, is don’t undercharge. And you gave your shares away for free!”

Jace tried to stem the flow.

“You could say they earned them.”

“I couldn’t.”

“And what if you can’t be sure you made a bad deal or not?”

Victoria smiled coolly. “You did.”

He flopped onto the stairs leading up to the roof and put his chin in his hands.

“Maybe. You sure seem to think so.”

“I own half of your company. It was a bad deal.”

“You wouldn’t have made the deal otherwise.”

Victoria paused.

“That is true.”

“See, I know things too.”

He had done his research about her. And he knew she was a take-no-prisoners kind of negotiator who never took a minority share when she could have a majority.

And that wasn’t really surprising considering who her father was.

Or who her father had once been.

That she’d left them with anything at all was the surprise because she probably could have waited until they’d sunk into oblivion (read: debt) and then swooped in to take their work for a lot less than she’d paid for half his company.

He really, truly believed that owning half of a still-viable company was worth more than owning all of a bankrupt one.

He’d known they were going to fail and he just couldn’t stomach it. Because he was their unofficial leader even if he’d only taken up the mantle because someone had to.

But they had something. Something worth saving, something worth sharing with the world.

He’d done the best he could. He really, truly believed that.

And it had not been enough.

When Victoria had contacted him, all he’d felt was relief.

Here was someone who wanted to lead them right where they wanted to go. Someone with the experience and the need.

Someone who could make the hard decisions, who wasn’t scared of the sacrifices, and who would be enough.

Someone with really great legs, he couldn’t help thinking as she stepped right in front of him. And who likes to show them off.

He definitely remembered that from their previous negotiations.

Jace thought it was probably more for distracting her enemies than anything else but he could enjoy the view. And he didn’t mind getting distracted every once a few minutes by great legs.

He felt a tug on his hoodie and had time to bring his eyes up a few inches before she flipped the hood up and cinched his face shut tight.

“You look like you know nothing,” she said. “Second lesson: you’re an adult. Act like one. Dress like one.”

“Meh,” he said. “Being an adult seems vastly overrated.”

She tugged harder. “We’re getting rid of the beanbags.”

He couldn’t help his grin as he said, “Okay but the floor is harder than it looks.”

“And we’re putting in some walls. A couple of doors.”

“This stairwell seems to work just fine.”

She shifted, dropping the drawstrings enough for the hood to loosen a bit, and as the light hit his eyes he realized again how beautiful she was. Even with that frustrated look on her face.

Long brown hair, sparkling brown eyes, and a smile that was both beautiful and dangerous.

She was the kind of beautiful that made men stupid.

He didn’t think he was being stupid for hoping she could save them. Or rather, he didn’t think he was being stupid because she was beautiful.

He was being stupid because he was desperate.

Probably it had been a bad deal. But he had to believe that luck had brought them this far, why stop trusting in it now.

She stood over him, his savior (hopefully) and his destruction (more likely), and he said softly, “I know we may disagree on almost everything but I do want this business to succeed. It needs to, Victoria.”

She looked at him a long minute, the frustration easing until all that was left was beauty.

And she said, “I know.”

Jace nodded, getting to his feet and walking over to open the fire door for her.

And then he laughed.

“Oh yeah, it automatically locks from the outside.”

Victoria took a very loud breath and he said, “It’s okay. We can always go downstairs and back in the front if they don’t let us in.”

He knocked loudly, not quite holding his breath but not quite breathing either.

Victoria came over to fold her arms and glare at him and Jace smiled wide, showing all his teeth and chuckling nervously.

The door popped open and Victoria pushed Craig out of the way to go inside.

Jace sucked in a relieved breath and Craig mouthed, “You okay?”

Jace nodded, patting his friend on the back gratefully and thinking that a gold scorpion might not be so bad if she was on your side.

As long as you could handle getting stung every once a few minutes.

Hours later, Victoria had ordered desks and chairs and probably would have had individual offices installed already if it had been humanly possible.

Jace and Dev and Craig were willing to at least try it out but Amberlee only glared from her beanbag, and when Victoria stepped into the stairwell to take a call—with a long flat look at Jace—Amberlee jumped up to say heatedly, “She can take her desk and shove it where—”

“I know this is going to be hard,” Jace interrupted. “I told you she was intense.”

Craig muttered, “I think you undersold her.”

Amberlee kicked her beanbag into the wall.

“I think the word you’re looking for is ballbuster.”

Jace nodded and Dev cleared his throat.

“But you brought her in to bust our balls?”

Jace grinned.

“You can’t tell me we don’t need it. We suck at this. This being everything she is great at.”

Amberlee gave him a look. “You mean terrorizing geeks and eating the souls of small children?”

“I mean saving this company from bankruptcy,” he said, giving each of them a long look in return. “I mean bringing the software we’ve spent our twenties working on to the world. I mean making this thing that we’ve created in to our life’s work, our life’s purpose, instead of something that could have been great.”

Dev cocked his head. “And you really think Victoria Edward is the way to do that?”

“I hope she is. I’m going to trust. And leap. Just like we’ve always done before.”

Amberlee said, “You’re being a fool if you think she’s going to catch you.”

Jace went over to sling his arm around her shoulder.

“I know I’m asking a lot of you and there’s going to be a lot of changes in the next few weeks. But can we at least try?”

“I’m not going to placate her. Who cares where we sit. Who cares what we’re wearing,” Amberlee said. “Neither of those have anything to do with writing code. I could code naked in a sex sling for all I care.”

Craig choked and whispered, “Yes, please,” and Jace said, “I wonder if there’s a naked holiday. Come To Work Naked Day?”

Dev raised an eyebrow.

“Besides the fact that no, we’re not doing that, it’s interesting that you think we’re having any more holidays at all.”

Jace dragged Amberlee over to sling his other arm around Dev and said, “What’s she going to do? Fire us?”

Craig came over too, sandwiching himself between Dev and Amberlee to complete the circle.

He said, “I vote for making our lives a living hell.”

Dev nodded.

“Yes, that.”

Jace smiled.

“We haven’t done a hobbit huddle in so long. See, she’s bringing us together already.”

Amberlee said, “Nothing like having a common enemy.”

Jace squeezed her lightly.

“Not an enemy. Just an outsider. And you guys know we’re still in this together, right? Just four little hobbits out together in the big, bad world and not going to make it on our own. We need help.”

Craig said, “But the question is: is she Strider or Boromir?”

Dev shook his head.

“Let’s not get distracted now…”

Jace said, “Maybe she’s Frodo. Going to take this ring and throw it in the fire for all of us.”

Amberlee huffed.

“She’s Boromir. Going to try and steal our precious and die in the first movie. Painfully. Slowly.”

They all looked at her for long moment and Craig said, “Okay then.”

She dropped her arm from around Jace’s waist and he said quickly, “We thought this would be a grand adventure, didn’t we? We didn’t know what it would cost when we started.”

Craig sighed.

“We shouldn’t have named it the hobbit huddle. It’s our own fault really.”

Jace said, “Maybe. But it fit, and it still fits. Alzheimer’s is our Sauron and he has to be stopped. No matter the cost. No matter if we lose everything we’ve built here. No matter if we lose ourselves because that’s what is lost when you fight Alzheimer’s.”

Format: EPUB
Length: 41,000 words, ~149 pages
Publication date: April 10, 2022