Jane's favorite Italian restaurant was conveniently located in the city center, overlooking the dark, flowing river and its giant arched walking bridge, which was glowing with hundreds of tiny lights, adding to the already quite serene atmosphere of that fine spring evening.
The dimmed yellow light went well with the dark-brown walls and chairs bringing out the crispiness of the snow-white tablecloth which was enveloping the wooden surfaces of the round black tables like ghosts, pairing up with the thick, long drapes of the same degree of whiteness, shutting out those lucky ones who were able to make a reservation there, from the rest of the hectic city.
Charles helped Jane to sit down and gestured for the tall, young waiter to bring the menus and some drinks while Mr. Devold was still finishing his clearly important call with his executive assistant.
"Your father seems busier these days, is something the matter?"
Upon hearing her boyfriend's words, Jane threw a quick glance filled with genuine child-like curiosity at her busy father, then shrugged her shoulders, and replied with a somewhat innocently awkward smile.
"No idea."
When Mr. Devold finally put his phone away, the food had already been served and both Jane and Charles were staring at him, as if waiting for his permission to dig in.
"Oh my, you were waiting for me all this time? Come on, start eating, I can't believe I made you kids starve like this."
Hearing her father say the word "starve" in a nonchalantly joking manner made his daughter frown for a second––she hated that word, especially when it escaped the mouths of those who had no idea what it felt like. She was a hypocrite, just like everybody else.
Charles, after taking a few bites of his roasted salmon, looked at Mr. Devold from underneath his rye-colored eyebrows, then put away his cutlery, and raised his head, showing a perfectly friendly smile.
"Mr. Devold, you seem a lot busier these days. I hope everything is good with your company?"
Ian, clearly taken aback by that rather innocent inquiry, paused for a brief moment, contemplating his response, but quickly got a hold of himself, and offered an equally friendly smile back to the guy.
"Well, now that you've mentioned it, and I guess you would find out from your parents sooner or later anyway... Some of our investors are considering taking their money somewhere else."
"What do you m-mean?!"
Jane almost choked on her water upon hearing that news; she might not be so knowledgeable in the business area, but she knew damn well that having investors pulling their money out meant a humongous deal to the company's financial stability. It was bad.
Letting out a rather heavy sigh, Mr. Devold shook his head and continued.
"There is this new start-up that had just popped out of nowhere, some college graduates... Seemingly not a big deal, however, they presented the software product which is very similar to what our company does, and from the looks of it, it promises to be more convenient and cost-effective, which is always an advantage."
Ian finished with another tired exhale and downed his glass of wine, making Jane even more concerned than before. Perhaps in an attempt to lighten up the mood or reassure both Jane and her father, Charles smiled again and said in a very confident voice,
"Don't worry, Mr. Devold, I'm sure it's not as serious as you think. Start-ups these days pop up like mushrooms after the rain, but how many of them stay afloat after the first year's hype? Moreover, cyber security software is not something that some students can just develop overnight and expect some great results. Overcoming the industry giants will be nearly impossible now."
Ian Devold's company was developing a leading product in the cybersecurity field. Back in the day, when cell phones only started to become popular, he came up with software that protected the user's sensitive information which, with the Internet becoming a necessity on every device, quickly became in demand, especially after a few rather infamous cases of the users' data leaking due to the lack of the phone security means.
There were several attempts to create a similar software but none of them managed to surpass the one created by Mr. Devold which allowed him to become the leader in the phone security field. And he had been keeping that title up until now.
As if actually convinced by those reassuring words, Mr. Devold let out a soft chuckle and patted Charles on the shoulder.
"Thanks, kid. I guess the Chastains are the only ones I can always rely on."
Charles nodded and raised his glass of wine.
"Sure, my family has been friends with yours forever, you can survive anything with our money alone."
Another wave of hearty laughter. Jane was feeling abandoned again.
She hated that whenever she found herself in the middle of a business-themed conversation, she was always left out and never given a chance to speak up her mind, however insignificant her thoughts might seem, and her father was the first one to notice her distress.
He wrapped the pasta around his silver fork and decided to change the subject to something that the three of them could discuss with an equal level of participation.
"Say, Charles, what are your plans for this summer? I'm sure your parents have already prepared a rather tight schedule for you, right?"
Charles threw a guilty glance at his girlfriend, then cleared his throat, and replied, somewhat enthusiastically,
"Well, as a matter of fact, my grandfather offered me to join him on his business trip to East Asia, and I obviously had no choice but to agree."
Neither Jane nor her father were rushing to reply.
The young woman was quietly staring at her salad, fidgeting with the silver fork in her right hand, creating an overwhelmingly awkward atmosphere for her other companions. She did not know what to say. No matter what kind of sentences would escape her pretty lips, she would end up sounding annoyingly selfish and spoiled, and she wanted to avoid that.
On the other hand, Jane had no idea how to force herself to squeeze a supportive smile or an understanding nod because she did not want to be fake either.
In the end, mostly pressured by the enormous weight of the suffocating silence, Jane finally raised her head and chose to be fake.