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I peeked out to the street for his car I considered texting him, but ould I say? I missed him, but I wasn’t about to tell hielcom a few minutes ahead of schedule I entered the reception area and the saht smile and walked me down the hall into Max’s personal office Like the conference room, it featured a wall of ith a view of the Harbor and the skyline to the north Dressed in an impeccable black suit, Max pored over so the desk to shake ive me a polite kiss on the cheek

"Erica, you look beautiful"

"Thank you" I didn’t knohat else to say, but I self-consciously shtly into a twist I wore black editor pants and a deep red shell blouse, figuring I could skip the suit now that we’d gone beyond first impressions I tried to appear unaffected by Max’s new level of comfort with me He motioned to a small round table in his office

He peppered ht questions, ones I had expected thanks to Blake I answered the an accurate and hopefully attractive picture of the venture After about an hour, he paused and looked at ? A ball of nervous energy settled in my stomach

"I’m very impressed, Erica You’ve covered all the bases I really don’t think I can coup about Blake’s involve wind of it later "Blake’s been really helpful, actually He worked through a lot of this with ht?"

"I can see why his businesses do so well He’s extreht think" A frown reed, but Blake’s lucky he’s not rotting in a jail cell right now Every success he’s had is because of the opportunities ave hiit up What trouble could have landed Blake in jail? My h the possibilities Clearly the two had history, and Blake, not surprisingly, had keptwith Max

I had always thought of Max as Blake’s peer, a colleague With this bad blood between them, why did they share a place on the board of the company?

"In any case, he ain, back to cal, but I tried to ignore it

"That’s true," I said Admittedly, I was confused by Blake’s active interest in not only me, but my company, after such a dramatic review and refusal at the start

"Let’s make this happen, Erica," Max said abruptly "I think there’s real potential here and I’d like to be part of it"

The ball of nervous energy dissipated as relief and happiness flowed through o froalities we’ll need to work through, but I should be able to have a term sheet ready to review in a week or two and hopefully we can get this off the ground quickly If it ends up taking longer, I can arrange for rolling funds in the interireat I’ll follow your lead then"