His Naughty Lessons
Chapter 66: Ride the Hype Train

Chapter 66: Ride the Hype Train

** Harper **

It wasn’t until days later that Harper got the reference of "more good news to come".

"Have you heard the rumors yet?" Lindsey said mysteriously while they waited for their takeout order during lunch break. "The investors meeting last week supposedly went super well. They’ve proceeded to talking with the legal and finance teams now."

"Really?" Harper looked up from her phone, where she was busy replying to the new comments she received on her web novel. Her latest Chapters inspired by last weekend had apparently turned out to be an explosive success, and she wished she could more easily split her limited hours of the day between working, writing, and chatting with her readers.

"Yeah, I’m sure the official announcement won’t be out until something is signed on paper, but people have been whispering. It’ll be a huge deal once this goes through. For a company our size, Sterling Trust is as big as it gets for an investor, which means this will bring lots of money and potential projects. Everyone is getting giddy about the good news."

So that was what Eli’s text was referring to — Harper had simply taken the "good news to come" as a generic wish of good luck, not an insider’s scoop of intel. Why didn’t he just say it directly?

"Wow. That’s a huge deal indeed." Harper tucked her phone away and took in the information. "Time to start pitching all those dream proposals you saved at the bottom of your drawer?"

Lindsey chuckled. "Nah, not this time. I’ve got better plans. I think I’ll just ride the hype train and join your project instead. Remember how swept away the investors were during the presentation? I bet it’s going to get prioritized a ton, and I want to be the first one to get my hands on it — the first one after you, that is."

"... You want to help?" Harper’s eyes probably just lit up like a glowing lightbulb. Lindsey’s technical skills were solid, and the two of them had always worked well together. She’d never expected to have Lindsey on her team though, since they both had enough projects of their own, but seeing it happen would be amazing.

"Of course! Don’t you think it’ll be fun? And ... Maaaybe a tiny part of it has to do with the fact that I heard the word ’VR’ mentioned by the finance team." Lindsey grinned. "You know I always love to play with cool technology."

Harper was caught off guard by that. "VR?"

"Yep. I presume it’s the integration thing they discussed during the meeting. We’ll hear the full details soon enough, I’m sure — this is going to be awesome! Oh, and here’s our food."

Lindsey pushed through the crowd for their togo boxes, and the conversation topic changed to which sauce packets they should grab with their lunch.

~ ~

Harper stared at her phone after the lunch break, wondering if she should text Eli and what she should say if she did.

It wasn’t clear how reliable the rumors were, and she somehow found them hard to believe. Signing the contract alone would already be an astounding success for Miracles, based on the level of agitation from every manager the week before. To add the visual simulation for her project on top of that seemed too good to be true. She remembered how one of the investor team members had raised concerns about its budget demands during the meeting, and frankly, she agreed with the assessment. The sheer size of the upgraded project could easily consume all the money and manpower of her company.

Unless, of course, the investors agreed on more than doubling the budget size. But that sounded like too much of a stretch, even to her.

Harper considered it some more. In the end, curiosity won over caution, and she clicked on her texts with Eli.

[ I think I’ve just heard rumors about the "good news". Is there really a contract coming? ]

It was past lunch hour already, but the three dots of Eli typing back still bounced up immediately. A few seconds later, it said, [ Yep. With specific demands for your project and VR integration. Congrats again! ]

... So the integration plan was real. Harper frowned a little, confused. [ I thought the extra features would go over the project budget. ]

[ Well, good thing that the budget can be changed :) ]

No way ... They were really increasing the budget to accommodate her project’s upgrade? Harper almost gasped out loud. That discussion among Sterling Trust’s leadership team must’ve been heated, given how much risk the change implied.

She knew immediately that Eli had to have played a significant role in this. There was simply no way that such a miracle would descend upon her without his help.

[ Oh my God. Did that give you trouble? Not all your colleagues seemed to be on board with it last time you were here. ]

This time, the reply took a little longer to come back. The typing dots bounced up, blinked, disappeared, and came up again. It took over a minute before it said, [ Nah, I like lecturing idiots. Every opportunity comes with a risk, and some of them are just too shortsighted to see its worth. ]

Harper wondered if it was really as simple as that. She could tell that the person who brought up the budget conversation last time was an important member of their board. Probably the CFO? To butt heads with people like that wouldn’t be an easy task ... especially for someone like Eli who already had a long list of people that he didn’t get along with in the company.

Her train of thought was cut short by another text following close on the heels. [ You know what else this contract means? We’ll be working together in both our full-time and part-time jobs now. Hope you won’t get tired of seeing me so often. ]

Ohh. He was right. Harper hadn’t even realized that — once a sponsored project kicked into full gear, there would be lots of investors meetings, presentations, demos ... Sterling Trust was going to become a constant presence at Miracles, and Eli would surely be part of it.

That piece of new revelation suddenly seemed more important than everything else, and it made Harper grin into her phone. [ Oh yes! ] She typed enthusiastically. [ I can’t wait. When will there be a date for your next site visit? ]

The reply arrived quickly. [ Already in the works. Will tell you more on Saturday :) ]