Chapter 3
By then, Ryder’s startup was really taking off.
He’d brought on several talented friends from college to join the team.
Including Vivian Torres-his computer science mentor from school.
Vivian had crushed every hackathon back in the day and had serious Silicon Valley experience under her belt.
Ryder couldn’t stop thanking her for leaving her six-figure tech job to join their little operation.
stood outside his office holding a container of homemade soup, listening to them debate algorithms and frameworks that sounded like a foreign language to
Their heated discussion suddenly went quiet.
ike they’d finally cracked whatever problem they were working on.
tyder’s face lit up with respect: “Brilliant. Let’s run with your approach.”
Something twisted in my chest.
‘d never seen him look at anyone like that-not even me.
While I was spacing out, Vivian glanced my way: “Hey Ryder, your girl’s here.”
le turned around and corrected her: “My wife, actually.”
Oh right, my bad. It’s just weird seeing someone our age already married, you know?”
awkwardly handed over the soup, feeling totally out of place in their world.
As I headed out, I caught Vivian asking:
So what does your wife do? She doesn’t look like she’s in the industry.”
She teaches.”
tyder’s answer was short, like he didn’t want to get into it at work.
But Vivian kept going: “Cool! I know tons of teachers. High school or elementary?”
She’s working on getting her certification.”
Ah, makes sense why she can do lunch runs then. Those teaching tests are pretty straightforward…”
Except what seemed straightforward to someone like Vivian felt impossible to me.
After months of unemployment, my college career counselor called about a teaching position upstate.
But when I mentioned the job was in another state, Ryder completely shut it down.
Later, he was looking through my practice tests spread across our coffee table, trying to sound encouraging:
Jess, this really isn’t rocket science. Just buckle down a bit more and you’ll nail it next time.”
I couldn’t find the words to respond.
Ryder seemed to forget that we weren’t cut from the same cloth. What took other people one try took me ten.
I wasn’t naturally gifted at anything-except maybe being stubborn. Especially when it came to him.
Ryder had been class president and honor roll every semester. I was the art kid who barely graduated with a 2.8 GPA.
In high school, just to end up at a college near his, I’d spent every afternoon in the art room until my hands cramped, building a portfolio good enough to get
